Scotland Travel Suggestions

[agulati]

We are heading to Scotland end August and I thought I might take some help from the CP brain trust.

We are initially doing a couple of nights in Glasgow (open to other suggestions) initially since we are flying out to France for a few days on Day 3 of the trip.

We fly back to Scotland and have 7 nights in a stretch. We are planning to rent a vehicle for the highlands portion. Some initial research is pointing towards the breakdown being as follows
St Andrews / Dundee - 1 night (basically getting out of Edinburgh and en route)
Take the scenic route around the coast line to Inverness
Inverness - 2 nights
Oban/Glencoe - 1 night
Edinburgh - 3 nights

Any sights that are must do (or potential skips)
Any scotch tours that are must do
Should we do the highlands clockwise or counter clockwise?

I don’t know if we would be able to do the Isle of Skye in this time, but would you recommend that over any of the other spots listed?

[Fuzz]

We didn't do the coastline, just went as far as Aberdeen. We did a day stop at St Andrews from Edinburgh up to Aberdeen, spent 2 nights, then head west to the Cairgorns. Incredible stuff. Not saying you will run in to the Queen like I did(kinda late for that), but King Charles frequents the area at that time of year. We saw him in the distance hiking at Glenshee. You can take a chairlift up to save the climb, so it doesn't have to be a long stop. Ended the day in Inverness, so you can see a lot.

[Bill Bumface]

I spent a week there, a few days in Stirling (the old capital) and a few days in Edinburgh.

We bought one of these: https://www.historicenvironment.scot...plorer-passes/

Our grand plans to make it to the Isle of Skye immediately fell apart as we found a massive amount of cool castles and towns to check out in the south. I definitely plan on going back and spending time further north, and making sure we have enough time to wander around to all the amazing sites there are to stumble upon in that country.

Have fun!

[lucky1]

a few of the distilleries that I really enjoyed visiting - Edradour, Glen Moray, Deanston. The Macallan distillery is also worth a stop, as its so modern and new compared to the older ones - Glenfiddich was ok as well
Try to visit the battlefield of Cullodan Moor - there was definitely an aura about the place

[Fuzz]

Sky is incredible, but I think you need a few more days to make it work.

[RoadGame]

This may be too "west coast" for your itinerary, but if you have any interest in heritage railways / Victorian engineering / Harry Potter then the Jacobite rail excursion may be appealing to you: https://westcoastrailways.co.uk/jaco...eam-train-trip

If you do go west but don't do the train, the Glenfinnan Viaduct and immediate area around it is very beautiful.


oh, and also: if you are interested in Scottish cultural stuff I'd see if you can find a Ceilidh to go to. My wife and I went to a one in Auchtermuchty that attracted mostly locals and it was an amazing experience.

[Fuzz]

Ya, that was neat to go to. Get there early, it's busy for parking. Once the train goes by you can go to the station and see it up close, in all it's steamy goodness.

Spoiler!

[Nyah]

Originally Posted by agulati

Take the scenic route around the coast line to Inverness

Make absolutely sure you stop and check out Dunnottar Castle. It's wild, was probably my favourite castle in Scotland. It's right on the coast between St. Andrews and Aberdeen.

[Icon]

Originally Posted by agulati

St Andrews / Dundee - 1 night (basically getting out of Edinburgh and en route)
Take the scenic route around the coast line to Inverness
Inverness - 2 nights
Oban/Glencoe - 1 night
Edinburgh - 3 nights

I don’t know if we would be able to do the Isle of Skye in this time, but would you recommend that over any of the other spots listed?

Did a lap around Scotland 2 summers ago, similar stops.

St Andrews was cool to see, we just did a stop there for lunch en route north from Edinburgh, didn't stay or play or anything.

Heading up to Inverness from there, depends what you're into for sightseeing... There's castles all over the place (Glamis, Dunnottar, Fyvie were ones we swung past for a peek). If you're looking for more golf, or oddly enough a really nice beach, Cruden Bay was nice. Might be more east than you're planning for the loop.

For Inverness, just east of it is Culloden & Clava Carins which was kinda neat if you're at all into war history & archaeology. We didn't actually do much in Inverness, was just basecamp for a night since we added Skye to our trip. Food-wise we liked the Mustard Seed restaurant in Inverness.

In general in the highlands keep an eye out for the hairy coos

If you're headed to Oban from Inverness, you'll go right past Loch Ness. We went west from there over to Skye which was amazing, but tacking that on is either redistributing your days or more time driving on days.

If you do go to Skye:
- Eilan Donan Castle is impressive and en-route.
- Man of Storr is worth seeing - if you're a hiker it's 1-3hrs to hike up to the "top" there and back down, depending on the weather and fitness. We lucked out and it was a rare clear sunny day so it was awesome, but would guess on more typical rainy/cloudy days there'd be a little less to see and the trail might be a little tougher/slippery.
- Neist Point Lighthouse to the west was really cool, and the drive there is definitely interesting, mostly 1 lane winding roads... patience is a virtue for the drive, lol
- We stayed in a tiny town/village called Stein for one night so we could sightsee on the way there and on the way out of Skye
- Coming back from Skye you could easily still hit that Glenfinnan Viaduct others have noted

We skipped Glasgow and went through Stirling instead on the way back to Edinburgh. Stirling Castle & the National Wallace Monument are some sightseeing options there. Stirling was the only place it rained on us the whole trip, so hard to say what else there was to see around there as we were pretty socked in.

As for Edinburgh itself the wife and I liked the hike (more of a walk up/down hill) to Arthur's Seat. Go early in the morning or it gets quite busy. We stayed right on the Royal Mile which was cool. Depending when in August you're going the festival may still be on there, lots of street performers and shows all around the city but especially on and near the Royal Mile. Edinburgh Castle was a decent tour. We also did "The Real Mary King's Close" which was neat to see the old underbelly of the city (again more history/archeology type stuff).
Food-wise in Edinburgh we liked the Whiski Rooms, Dishoom (if you haven't been to a Dishoom for brunch in London or Edinburgh I highly recommend it), and of course just good pubs all over.
We had also headed out to Roslin Chapel from Edinburgh, another interesting stop on the historical side of things.

Damn now I want to go back to Scotland. Enjoy your trip!!

[Fuzz]

If you are a fast hiker you can do Old Man of Storr in 45 min in the pissing rain while your wife waits in the car.

[DoubleF]

If you're a Scotch lover, there's an experience worth seeking out beyond going to distilleries. I've never done this and I admit the advice is old so it might not be available and/or the price may have doubled or more since then. If it exists though, it's worth seeking out as an experience if you're a Scotch lover.

I was told to find a place that has all you can drink Scotch (or similar) and carefully sip your way up to the stuff that's discontinued and rare. It's not cheap, but ultimately far cheaper than the costs of even getting a whiff of this stuff outside of Scotland.

The person I spoke with in Hong Kong said that for around 100-150 Euros, they were able to enter the realm of getting access to unlimited drams which came with occasional tastes of stuff in the 20-30+ year range, some discontinued, some from distilleries that no longer existed. Basically she said it's unlimited Scotch on a fixed list. But at the bartender discretion, they gives access to taste the rare stuff. She said if you did the unlimited Scotch with a friend, the bartender hinted he was more likely to unlock higher end stuff than if someone did it on their own, but she doesn't know if he was being truthful or hitting on her and her girlfriend.

She said it wasn't a Scotch library, just a place locals frequented. She said she compared the price paid vs the Scotch consumed and concluded it made no sense for a local/regular, but could make a ton of sense vs individual pours of higher end/rare Scotch. She is not a Scotch lover like her girlfriend but really enjoyed the 20-30+ year old stuff they got access to.

I spoke with another friend who enjoys Scotch and they said they ran into something similar 3-4 years ish years ago (but not the same). A fixed price for unlimited Scotch offerings from all the nearby distilleries. However, in his situation, he did say that there wasn't access to anything rare. It was just the normal offerings that the distilleries had on their tours. He also said the value wasn't great (even if it was basically unlimited) and within a few drams, his tastebuds were shot so it wasn't really even a helpful experience in trying a variety of stuff. He did admit he went there after a tour though, which he thinks might have contributed to it being poor value/taste buds overloading. I completely forget which area he was though.

EDIT: Something like this, but not specifically this?

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attractio..._Scotland.html

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Originally Posted by Fuzz

If you are a fast hiker you can do Old Man of Storr in 45 min in the pissing rain while your wife waits in the car.

I originally had 1-1.5 hrs in my estimate but in hindsight remember we were passing a LOT of people as my parents who were on the trip with us waited down at the car, haha. There were definitely people there who would have taken twice as long as us at least

[Fuzz]

The number of flip flop wearers I saw that day was astounding. There were some slooooow movers.

[redforever]

If you go in August, go to the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

If you're a Scotch lover, there's an experience worth seeking out beyond going to distilleries. I've never done this and I admit the advice is old so it might not be available and/or the price may have doubled or more since then. If it exists though, it's worth seeking out as an experience if you're a Scotch lover.

I was told to find a place that has all you can drink Scotch (or similar) and carefully sip your way up to the stuff that's discontinued and rare. It's not cheap, but ultimately far cheaper than the costs of even getting a whiff of this stuff outside of Scotland.

The person I spoke with in Hong Kong said that for around 100-150 Euros, they were able to enter the realm of getting access to unlimited drams which came with occasional tastes of stuff in the 20-30+ year range, some discontinued, some from distilleries that no longer existed. Basically she said it's unlimited Scotch on a fixed list. But at the bartender discretion, they gives access to taste the rare stuff. She said if you did the unlimited Scotch with a friend, the bartender hinted he was more likely to unlock higher end stuff than if someone did it on their own, but she doesn't know if he was being truthful or hitting on her and her girlfriend.

She said it wasn't a Scotch library, just a place locals frequented. She said she compared the price paid vs the Scotch consumed and concluded it made no sense for a local/regular, but could make a ton of sense vs individual pours of higher end/rare Scotch. She is not a Scotch lover like her girlfriend but really enjoyed the 20-30+ year old stuff they got access to.

I spoke with another friend who enjoys Scotch and they said they ran into something similar 3-4 years ish years ago (but not the same). A fixed price for unlimited Scotch offerings from all the nearby distilleries. However, in his situation, he did say that there wasn't access to anything rare. It was just the normal offerings that the distilleries had on their tours. He also said the value wasn't great (even if it was basically unlimited) and within a few drams, his tastebuds were shot so it wasn't really even a helpful experience in trying a variety of stuff. He did admit he went there after a tour though, which he thinks might have contributed to it being poor value/taste buds overloading. I completely forget which area he was though.

EDIT: Something like this, but not specifically this?

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attractio..._Scotland.html

I didn't go to that place, but in Glasgow there is a place called the Pot Still and they have 1000 whiskies (or something like that). I went to Auchentoshan and the girl there who was the guide told me about it. I spent an evening there and a fair amount of money trying a bunch. It was great!

[Icon]

Originally Posted by redforever

If you go in August, go to the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh.

Oh that's a good shout, we missed out, was sold out by the time we thought of it.

[Bill Bumface]

While catching the big/famous castles is a must, stopping at out-of-the-way semi ruined ones is super cool too. Sometimes you'll get the place to yourself, and there is nothing cooler than just wandering around a castle imagining what it was like hundreds of years ago without fellow tourists swarming everywhere.

[bigtmac19]

My son and daughter-in-law went last fall - 3 nights in Edinburgh, staying right on the Royal Mile. Tons of walking, tons of stairs. My son's favourite was the Wallace Monument, they did the castle, Arthur's Seat, some churches and libraries. They stayed right across the street from St. Giles Cathedral where Queen Elizabeth laid in state while she was still in Scotland. They went to the cathedral in the evening where they had a free concert of beautiful choral music.

[soreshins]

I’m from than neck of the woods so my advice would be to take the route from Dundee to Inverness via the A9 and make sure to stop in Dunkeld and Pitlochry. That would be a much nicer trip than taking the coastal route via Aberdeen.

Definitely go to the Moulin Inn in Pitlochry for lunch - maybe haggis, neeps and tatties. You won’t regret it.

If you are up for a bit of a diversion off the A9 you could take a drive to Aberfeldy and then on to Fortingall where you will find the Fortingall Yew tree which is believed to be one of the oldest living things in Europe at nearly 5000 years old. Pontius Pilate is alleged to have been born in the shadow of the tree.

Bit of a warning - lots of British town centres are a bit run-down these days after Covid and the development of out of town malls. Dundee is an example of that - but it’s happening in Glasgow and Edinburgh too. In Dundee I would go and see the V&A museum, the Discovery and take a walk up the Perth Road which has lots of little shops, pubs and restaurants.

Also, if you have time in Dundee head out of the city to Broughty Ferry. Lovely seaside town where I used to live. Get a fish supper from Murray’s and eat it overlooking the water. I miss that place a lot.

[soreshins]

Also, if you’re driving from Glasgow to St Andrew’s I would do the route via Pittenweem and Crail then onto St Andrew’s. They are two beautiful old fishing villages and worth stopping.

Anstruther is also near there and the Anstruther Fish Bar do some of the best fish and chips in the world.