Perth

Perth is small enough that almost anywhere within the old town core puts you within ten minutes of the museum, the theatre and the river, so the choice of base comes down more to style and budget than to distance. The city centre streets around the High Street and South Street hold the historic coaching inns and townhouse hotels, several of them centuries old and adapted over time, with the advantage of putting you beside the shops, restaurants and Perth Concert Hall without needing a car once you arrive.

Just across the river, the streets below Kinnoull Hill and around Bridgend offer a quieter alternative with the same short walk into the centre over the Perth Bridge, and several of the city's best-regarded guest houses have set up here to make the most of the view back across the water to the old town. This side suits couples and anyone who prefers to end the day somewhere calmer than the main streets.

A short drive north, New Scone and the villages nearest Scone Palace put you closer to the golf courses and the palace grounds, and suit visitors touring by car who want easy parking and quick access out to the wider countryside rather than a strictly walkable city stay. Further out again, the country house hotels set in their own grounds along the Tay valley towards Dunkeld and Kinclaven give a different kind of stay altogether - grand rooms, extensive gardens and often a serious kitchen, built for a slower few days centred on walking, fishing or simply the surroundings rather than city sightseeing.

Whichever area you choose, book ahead for the Highland games season in July and August and for the autumn colour weekends in October, when Highland Perthshire's woodland draws visitors from across Scotland and rooms in and around Perth fill up quickly as a result.

Perth rewards a day or two of unhurried exploring before you head into the surrounding glens.

• Perth Museum - reopened in 2024 in the former City Hall, its centrepiece is the Stone of Scone, also known as the Stone of Destiny, the ancient coronation stone returned to Perthshire after centuries in Westminster Abbey. The rest of the collection covers the city's history, natural history and a strong programme of touring exhibitions.
• Scone Palace - two miles north of the city, this is the crowning place of Scottish kings from Kenneth MacAlpin to Charles II, set in extensive grounds with peacocks, a pinetum and a maze. The current palace is a Georgian Gothic remodelling of the earlier abbey and palace buildings, with fine collections of furniture, porcelain and ivories.
• Balhousie Castle and the Black Watch Museum - home of the Black Watch regiment's collection, telling the story of one of Scotland's most storied infantry regiments through uniforms, medals and battlefield relics, in a turreted castle overlooking the North Inch.
• Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park - a steep climb through mixed woodland to cliffs and a Victorian folly tower, with views down the Tay valley that stretch to the Ochil Hills and beyond on a clear day. The circular walk takes two to three hours at an easy pace.
• Branklyn Garden - a small but internationally regarded garden on the slopes below Kinnoull Hill, planted from the 1920s onwards with rhododendrons, meconopsis and alpine plants gathered from Himalayan and Chinese expeditions.
• St John's Kirk - the medieval parish church that gave Perth its old name of St John's Toun, and the pulpit from which John Knox preached the sermon in 1559 that is credited with triggering the Scottish Reformation.
• Perth Concert Hall and Perth Theatre - the city punches well above its weight for a place this size, with a purpose-built concert hall on the river and a handsome Edwardian theatre that reopened after major restoration, both hosting touring companies and orchestras through the year.
• Huntingtower Castle - a well-preserved pair of fifteenth-century tower houses on the western edge of the city, with a painted ceiling and the story of the Ruthven Raid, in which the young James VI was briefly held captive.

The Tay has historically been one of Scotland's most productive salmon rivers, and wild and farmed salmon from the area still feature heavily on local menus, alongside game from the surrounding estates in autumn and winter. Perthshire's soft fruit farms supply raspberries and strawberries to the whole of Scotland through the summer, and the city's greengrocers and farm shops make the most of the short season.

63 Tay Street, overlooking the river, is Perth's best-known restaurant for modern Scottish cooking built around local produce. North Port Restaurant, in a converted townhouse near the theatre, offers a similarly produce-led menu in a more intimate setting. Deans@Let's Eat has long been a mainstay for classic Scottish dining in the city centre.

Perth's twice-monthly farmers' market on King Edward Street brings together producers from across Perthshire, and the surrounding countryside is well stocked with whisky: the Famous Grouse Experience at Glenturret Distillery, a short drive west near Crieff, is one of Scotland's oldest working distilleries and offers tours and tastings, while Highland Perthshire further north is dense with smaller distilleries worth building a day trip around.

Perth itself has little spare ground for campsites - the old town is tightly built and the two Inches are protected public parkland - so camping near the city means choosing one of a small number of established sites within about fifteen miles and driving or cycling in. That is not much of a hardship: the roads out of Perth are quick, and several of the nearest sites sit close enough to the ring road that you can be at the museum or the concert hall within twenty minutes of striking camp.

The terrain around Perth changes quickly from the flat haugh land beside the Tay to rolling farmland and, within a few miles, the first rise of the Highland foothills. Most of the established sites sit on the gentler ground close to the river or just north towards Scone and Bankfoot, on well-drained grass or gravel that copes reasonably well with wet weather. Further out towards Blairgowrie and Highland Perthshire proper, the ground begins to feel more like the edge of the Highlands, with hills rising close behind the pitches.

Perthshire's weather is milder than its Highland reputation might suggest, sheltered as it is from the worst of the west coast rain by the mountains further north and west, but it is still Scotland: expect changeable conditions in any season and pack for rain even in July. Average summer highs sit in the high teens, dropping quickly once the sun goes down, and midges can be troublesome on still evenings from June to August, particularly near water and woodland.

Wild camping has a different legal status here than in England: under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, camping in small numbers on unenclosed land is generally permitted with responsible behaviour, though a byelaw restricting camping without a permit applies to parts of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, which lies to the west of Perth. Around Perth itself, most accessible land is farmed or estate ground close to roads and villages, so a proper site remains the practical choice for most visitors, with wild camping better suited to the hills and lochs further into Highland Perthshire.

The camping season here runs roughly from April to October, with the sites generally closing over winter. May and June offer long daylight and drier ground before the summer holiday crowds arrive, while September brings quieter sites and the first hint of the autumn colour that Highland Perthshire is known for.