FIrst time travelling to Scotland and my brother and I are quite excited. We are flying from Chicago in May and arrive in Glasgow- 1 week later we are planning on taking a cheap flight from Edinburgh to Ireland. Our plan is to rent a car in Glasgow and head north to loop up and back down to Edinburgh.
I am reading every travel book out there, but I was hoping for some insider secrets and top sites to see. Also, what is the best way to travel throughout Scotland? Thanks a ton!

Check out www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk - better than any book, but the best book IMHO is Scotland the Best by Peter Irvine. And the best way to travel is a combination of train and car and ferry ideally but car will be fine.

nothing controversial, there, then?

You can (as I have) spend a lifetime in Scotland and barely scrape the surface. So, in a week....

You need to give us a wee bit of a hint here. Cities? Nature? castles? seaside? islands? Art?

You might want to look at my trip report that started in Glasgow and ended in Edinburgh; just click on my name to find it.

Hey everybody, sorry I wasn't more specific, but really we are up for anything. I have heard Stirling is a can't miss, the Highlands and Aberdeen are great too.
We are also going to Ireland, so if there is something in Scotland we will also see in Ireland, we can pass. But the castles and culture is we are looking for! Thanks.

Your main problem is you have 1 week in Scotland and 1 week in Ireland. So you really can't see very much of either one. Especially in Ireland - the travel is very slow so you will see a teensy bit of Ireland and a bit more of Scotland.

Cutting down a basic "short list" of musts in Scotland to fit into one week is tough.

Plus -- your first day will be after an overnight flight and you'll likely be very jet lagged. Does the week actually mean 7 days 'on the ground' in Scotland -- or is day one when you leave ORD? Assuming you have a full week <u>after</u> landing at GLA, you still really only have 6 days since you won't be driving or doing anything super ambitious on day 1. And -- do you fly EDI to Ireland on day 7 or on day 8? If it is day 7:

Day 1 in Glasgow
Day 2 collect rental car and head out
Days 5 and 6 in Edinburgh
Day 7 fly to Ireland

So you'd really only have 3 days to tour around.

Fill in some of those blanks -- how many actual days 'on the ground' and which day you fly to Ireland?? Then we can help a bit more.

Sorry. To clarify
Scotland- Arrive May 12th in the morning. Departure date is flexible, but most likely leave 19th to DUB.
Ireland- Arrive May 19th, leave to Chicago May 26th.

We did a driving tour of a couple of the islands off the West coast last year. Click on my screen name to see if it helps.

Stirling is interesting, but wouldn't describe it as 'can't miss'

what do you LIKE?