Things to Do in Aberdeen
Prices, opening hours, best times to visit and the stuff nobody tells you, everything you need for a first trip to Aberdeen, Scotland, plus one pigeon's opinions on all of it.
Aberdeen doesn't try very hard to charm you, and that's rather the point. It's granite, not gold, grey stone that turns silver when it's wet and the sun catches it, which, this being the North Sea, is more often than you'd think. This is the proper, no-nonsense guide to things to do in Aberdeen, what things actually cost, when to go, what to skip, and which bits are worth the walk. Eight main stops below, roughly in the order that makes sense for a couple of days, plus a quiz at the bottom to see if you were paying attention.
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Reopened in 2019 after a four-year, £34.6 million rebuild, and it shows. The collection runs 700 years deep, Monet, Bacon, Tracey Emin, the Scottish Colourists, and it's all free to walk round, donations welcome but not expected. The rooftop terrace and the new top-floor gallery are worth the climb on their own.
I mentioned it in the quiz already, but it bears repeating: this whole city sparkles after rain, and the Art Gallery's own granite front is one of the better places to see it happen. Go on a day when it's just stopped drizzling. You'll understand.
Hours Roughly 10am-5pm most days, 11am-4pm Sundays, check the current schedule before you go
Address Schoolhill, Aberdeen AB10 1FQ
Official site aagm.co.uk
Aberdeen Maritime Museum
Free, seven days a week, and genuinely one of the better maritime museums in the country. Set partly in Provost Ross's House, the oldest building left in the city, it works its way through four floors covering shipbuilding, fishing, whaling, and the North Sea oil industry that built the Aberdeen you see today, complete with a three-storey replica oil platform in the middle of it.
This is basically the museum version of the quiz question I asked about what industry took over Aberdeen from the 1970s. If you want the full answer instead of just the multiple choice, this is where it lives.
Hours Generally Tue-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12pm-3pm, closed Mondays, check before visiting
Address Shiprow, Aberdeen AB11 5BY
Official site aagm.co.uk/venue/aberdeen-maritime-museum
The Gordon Highlanders Museum
A five-star Visit Scotland attraction out in the city's west end, telling 200 years of the Gordon Highlanders' story from the Napoleonic Wars through to their amalgamation into the Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2006. There's a replica WWI trench in the grounds, an audio tour in nine languages including Doric and Gaelic, and a genuinely good little café on site.
It sits in the former home of the Scottish artist Sir George Reid, which is a nice enough building on its own terms even before you get to the medals and the silver room.
Hours Generally Tue-Sat 10am-4.30pm, closed Sun-Mon, seasonal variations
Address St Luke's, Viewfield Road, Aberdeen AB15 7XH
Official site gordonhighlanders.com
Duthie Park & the Winter Gardens
Aberdeen's big Victorian park, running along the River Dee since 1883, with a bandstand, boating ponds, and the Winter Gardens tucked inside it, tropical, arid and temperate glasshouses full of cacti, ferns, and a small Japanese peace garden commemorating those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All free, all indoors if the weather turns, which around here it will.
It's the kind of place I'd recommend for an hour when you've had enough of museums and want somewhere quiet to sit that isn't a pub.
Hours Park open daylight hours; Winter Gardens typically 9.30am-4pm or later in summer, check seasonal times
Address Polmuir Road, Aberdeen AB11 7TH
Footdee (Fittie)
A genuine 19th-century fishing village squeezed onto the edge of the harbour, a short walk past the beach, rows of small, brightly painted cottages arranged around communal squares, still lived in, still looking almost exactly like they did a century ago. It's one of those places nobody plans a trip around and everybody's glad they found.
Combine it with a walk along Aberdeen Beach itself, two miles of sand running north from the harbour mouth, more bracing than tropical, but a proper Aberdeen thing to do on a clear day.
Getting there A 20-25 minute walk from the city centre along the beach, or a short bus ride
Old Aberdeen & King's College
A world away from the granite grid of the city centre, Old Aberdeen is cobbled streets and 15th-century college buildings, centred on King's College, founded in 1495 and the answer to another one of my quiz questions, the one about which universities in Scotland are older than Aberdeen. Spoiler: only St Andrews and Glasgow.
St Machar's Cathedral, a short walk further on, has a genuinely striking heraldic ceiling worth putting your head back for, and the whole area is free to wander at any pace you like.
Getting there Bus from the city centre, or about a 30-minute walk
Johnston Gardens
A small, sheltered garden with streams, waterfalls, a rockery and a rustic bridge, once part of a private estate before it was gifted to the city in the 1930s. It rarely makes the top of anyone's list and is often the thing visitors say they wish they'd found sooner.
Good for twenty quiet minutes if you're staying out west near the Gordon Highlanders Museum, which is a five-minute walk away.
Address Viewfield Road, Aberdeen AB15 7XL
Best time to visit Aberdeen
May to September gives you the best odds of a dry day for the beach, Duthie Park and Fittie, and it's when Aberdeen's cruise ships and festival events tend to land. That said, the museums, the Art Gallery and the Maritime Museum are just as good year-round and cost nothing whatever the weather's doing, which in Aberdeen is worth planning around more than the calendar is.
Getting around Aberdeen
The centre is compact and walkable, most of what's above sits within 25 minutes of Union Street on foot. For Old Aberdeen, Johnston Gardens or the Gordon Highlanders Museum, a First Bus day ticket is generally cheaper than paying per journey if you're making more than two trips. Aberdeen Airport (ABZ) sits about 20 minutes from the centre if you're flying in.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Aberdeen worth visiting?
- Yes. It has free world-class museums, two miles of beach, a genuine fishing village within city limits, and it gets a fraction of the tourist attention that Edinburgh does, which tends to work in its favour.
- How many days do you need in Aberdeen?
- A full weekend covers the highlights comfortably. Add a day if you want to properly explore Old Aberdeen and Royal Deeside beyond the city.
- Is Aberdeen expensive?
- Not particularly for a UK city of its size. Most of the best things to do, the Art Gallery, the Maritime Museum, the beach, Duthie Park, cost nothing at all.
- What is Aberdeen famous for?
- Its granite architecture, which genuinely sparkles in sunlight after rain, the North Sea oil and gas industry, and being home to Scotland's third-oldest university.
That's everything I've got.
A note before you plan around this: prices, opening hours, booking requirements and admission details in this guide were correct at the time of writing, but venues change these often and sometimes without notice. Always check directly with the attraction or its official website before you travel or build a schedule around a specific time or price.
Before travelling to any destination featured on this site, please also check your government's latest travel advice, as safety situations, entry requirements and travel warnings can change.
