Lonely Planet's latest Guide To Great Britain, published today, finds many reasons to commend Scotland as a vacation destination, describing Edinburgh as "one of the most beautiful cities in Europe" with a "superlative" Festival.

Glasgow is hailed as "a loud, witty and wisecracking contrast" (to Edinburgh) with "a new sense of optimism and pride". Other highlights receiving credit include "increasingly sophisticated" Inverness, the "scenic jewel" Isle Of Arran, Glasgow's "colossal" Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum and Scotland's "magical wilderness".

Include any or all of these locations in your tour request from Get Around Scotland and discover them for yourself.

An Edinburgh man intends to bring the Homecoming Scotland celebrations to the USA by playing his bagpipes all the way across the States. Rob Calder (32) will spend six weeks busking from coast to coast, starting in New York on June 9th and ending in San Francisco on July 22nd. On his journey he hopes to be able to rely on the kindness of expatriate Scots and Americans of Scots descent to help him complete his mission, allowing any money generated by the trip to go to charity. So to see a real Scotsman and his kilt, go to his site and see if he'll pass through your town. See more at www.bagpipebusker.com

This summer in Glasgow will see the introduction of a special bus tour celebrating the work of the city's famous artist and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The Mackintosh Experience circular tour will run 5 times per day, visiting 9 locations around the city linked to CRM, with an audio commentary provided by the Mackintosh Heritage Group. Tickets are valid for two days, allowing visitors to hop on and off the pink tour bus as they wish. For more information see the news page at http://www.crmsociety.com/

Scotland comes out as the top golf tourist destination, through having no less than 17 of the Top 100 Courses Outside The USA, according to this month's Golf Digest.

And of the 17, five are all in the St Andrews area - what better excuse to put Fife on your Scotland tour route ?

Scotland's world-class mountain biking centre at Glentress never looked so stunning as it did on Saturday. The fine Easter sunshine showed off the forest trails at their best as my son & I tackled the 15km Blue course, one of four signposted routes at Glentress, near Peebles. Long climbs and thrilling descents through the pine trees, and all for nothing more than a few pounds for the car park.

Like ski runs, the routes are pitched at all levels of riders, from Green (5km and near flat) to Black (30km of hair-raising up and down). With the wonderful Hub cafe, MTB shop and showers on site, and bike hire available (limited - phone ahead), this really is a fantastic day out.