My family went back to Scotland for the first time in 6 years. The restaurants were allergy-friendly, and we were surprised by how friendly people were.

Chips (french fries) come with almost every meal, and the potato chip (crisp) flavors are better

My little one was pleasantly surprised that he could order chips — or french fries, to Americans — in almost every restaurant. He loves them, which isn’t a shocker because most people do. They’re bigger than most of the french fries we get back home, and our family much prefers them in the UK.

When it comes to crisps — or potato chips— the UK’s also got America beat. Our favorite salty snacks are salt and vinegar and cheese and onion. But a few flavors were new to me, like haggis and black pepper, turkey and stuffing, and beef teriyaki, which were fun to try, and equally delicious.

Restaurants were more allergy-friendly

We live in California, which is generally a great place to live if you have food allergies. But Scotland took it to a whole other level. In America, when asking about allergy specifics for my son, servers often make a note on their notepad to pass along to kitchen staff. In Scotland, servers asked us if we had allergies before I even had a chance to inquire.

More often than not, Scottish servers passed me an iPad (or QR code) with detailed nutritional information for each menu item so that I could see the specifics about potentially dangerous ingredients in each dish. My child felt safe eating. And as a mom to a kid with food allergies, I found this extremely comforting.

Everywhere is tap-to-pay

Tap-to-pay is everywhere — seriously, everywhere. Restaurant servers brought card machines to our table, and we also tapped to pay in shops, on trains, buses, and even in black taxis. My husband was surprised at how much this banking convenience has grown since we were last there.

We saw more cigarette butts and disposable vapes on the ground

In surveys in 2022, 15% of adults in Scotland said they smoked, compared with 9.7% of adults in California. My kid, who rarely sees cigarette butts on the ground where we live, got a kick out of spotting so many “dangerous” things.

While the cigarette butts surprised my son, my husband and I noticed way more people vaping. A 2023 survey on litter in Scotland suggested that single-use vapes were the fastest-growing litter item in the country.

Still, we loved every bit of our trip to Scotland and can’t wait to visit again. Until then, we’ll enjoy the bags of crisps we stashed in our luggage.