Best summer hangouts across Edinburgh and Glasgow

EDINBURGH

Summer is finally here and Edinburgh is basking in it. New venues are popping up, old ones are opening their doors and ice-cream shops and beer gardens are suddenly not looking so out of place. Hooray! For an arty outdoor adventure, contemporary sculpture garden Jupiter Artland is well worth a visit; it’s basically an outdoor art gallery ripe for exploring on a warm day. The gardens only open their doors from May to September, so get down while you can. For a similarly arty outdoor adventure a bit closer to home, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has its own sculpture trail around the grounds of Modern One. It’s smaller in scale than Jupiter Artland, but it is free and if it starts raining you can always head indoors. Continuing the outdoor exploring, The Secret Herb Garden on the outskirts of Edinburgh is a lovely new venue with a 7.5 acre herb nursery and additonal on-site activities. Within the grounds there’s orchards, greenhouses and raised herb beds, and a wee cafe for sampling the garden’s produce. Elsewhere, for a quiet city centre retreat why not see if you can find the secret gardens of the Royal Mile? There’s also a lovely spot for chilling at Dunbar’s Close and another behind the Scottish Book Trust (Sandeman House Gardens). These gardens are just metres away from the hustle and bustle of the High Street, so well worth seeking out – and most of the time you’re almost guaranteed to have the place to yourself.

Jupiter Artland

For an outdoor pursuit with added booze (ah, how well we know you!), Assembly’s George Square Gardens is the place to be. Assembly’s pop-up venue returns for 2014 to host the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival and, later on, the Fringe. Open from lunch until late, it’s one of Edinburgh’s most popular spots for al fresco drinking and dining. A wee heads up, though – during the Fringe you will get flyered and performed at. For more beer garden vibes, Edinburgh’s best spots are the Beehive Inn on Grassmarket, The Cumberland Bar in the New Town, the ever-popular Pear Tree on West Nicolson Street, and The Outhouse tucked along Broughton Street Lane. Plus, one of Edinburgh’s best features in the summertime is surely the BBQ-hazed Meadows, conveniently located pretty much 15 minutes from, erm, anywhere. For sunbathing, drinking and frolicking it’s a wonderful free space and is the perfect place to hang out when the sun is shining.

Mary's Milk Bar

Edinburgh also has a fine few establishments to keep the ice-cream pangs at bay. Mary’s Milk Bar on the Grassmarket specialises in creating chocolate truffles and artisan gelato (aka proper Italian ice-cream), with new flavours appearing daily. Flavours are diverse, inventive and always delicious. How about Peaches and Cream? Lemon and Rosemary? Or Wheat Beer and Peanut? We could go on. Over in Bruntsfield, The Chocolate Tree does a yummy selection of gelato too; it’s all organic and its ingredients are ethically sourced, with a sorbet or two always on offer as well. Then just down the road, Nardini’s is a veritable ice-cream emporium with myriad flavours to choose from. It also does the classic knickerbocker glory – a challenge of multiple scoops and toppings perhaps best to take on with a buddy. [ER]

GLASGOW

They don’t call Glasgow the 'Dear Green Place' for nothing – the city has over 90 parks, after all! The south side probably has dibs on the best green spots. Head to Queen’s Park for amazing views, Bellahouston Park for the beautiful House for an Art Lover, or the enormous Pollok Country Park, home to the Burrell Collection and highland coos. The west end is pretty good at parks, too. On sunny days, Kelvingrove Park is rammed with revellers (and cycling policemen, trying to keep them in check). A quieter option is Victoria Park – there you’ll find a pond full of ducks and Fossil Grove: a collection of very old fossilised tree stumps. If you fancy venturing further afield, head to Mugdock Country Park in Milngavie. Covering 260 hectares, it’s a great day out for kids, dogs, and folk who like to do a bit more on sunny days than just catching some rays. It even has a castle! Elsewhere, The Hidden Gardens at the Tramway are well worth a visit in the summer months. Explore the exotic varieties of plants and trees, learn about the cultural diversity of Pollokshields, or just chill in the greenery. Out west, there’s the Hidden Lane – which surely isn’t so hidden by now. It’s chock-full of studios, shops and cafes for dipping into. And, newly rehoused in Bridgeton, Glasgow Women’s Library is the perfect hideaway for those not-so-sunny lazy summer days. Curl up with a good book, or – rain or shine – head out on one of their Women’s Heritage Walks. There are several walks planned for this summer, exploring different areas of the city and the ways in which women have influenced them.

Hidden Lane

From year-round gardens, to tables and chairs appearing on the pavement when the sun comes out, Glasgow's spoiled for beer garden choice. Siempre in Partick has a huge beer garden strewn with dismantled bits of bikes – a pleasant place to while away an afternoon, with a nice selection of bottled beers from Brewdog, Williams Bros and WEST, as well as wines from independent suppliers. And the biergarten at WEST may only technically be a few picnic benches, but you can sip your pint on the surrounding grass too – and the views of Glasgow Green are unbeatable, as are the drinks, with the full range of WEST beers to choose from. Elsewehre, Chinaski’s has a lovely little beer garden, just make sure you head along at the first sighting of sun to bag a table first. The Finnieston also has a secret little suntrap, the perfect place for enjoying an al fresco refreshment when wandering round the west end.

WEST

For your ice-cream fix, the sister cafe of the famous ice-cream parlour in Largs, Nardini’s offers an ever-changing selection of proper Italian gelato, while almost next door, Crolla’s have a slightly wider selection at slightly cheaper prices – but it’s always Nardini’s that’s queued out the door. Cheer Me Up in Shawlands is the place to go for frozen yoghurt: an (almost) healthy treat on a hot day, while Queen’s Cafe on Victoria Road and University Cafe on Byres Road are the top picks for old-school Italian ice-cream parlours – with the art deco inspired decor in both almost as enticing as the ice-cream. And both cafes are close enough to parks for you to take your ice-cream for a stroll. Bliss. [LM]