We've just booked flights for a trip to Scotland - 10 days in-county. We fly into Edinburgh and back out of Inverness. We plan to spend a couple of full days exploring Edinburgh (is that enough?). Other than that, we don't have any specific plans yet. We generally gravitate toward historical sights and beautiful scenery. We prefer small towns with lots of character to large city centers. We'd like to stay a couple of nights at one of the castles or manor houses that has been converted into a hotel. Any other ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Much Better

You haven't provided many details -- what locations/sites are you already considering? Do you plan on having a car or relying on public transport? (You won't want a car in Edinburgh of course)

Just in to EDI and out of INV leaves literally hundreds of options.

My absolute FAVORITE castle/ancient home to stay in is Traquair House. Wonderful historic site plus three rooms rented out B&B . . . but it is in the Borders and nowhere near Inverness. https://www.traquair.co.uk

Great point, but the reality is - we don't even know what we don't know. My wife wants to visit one or more of the northern island chains, which is why we're focused on the northern half of the country. We do like to drive on trips like this, so I figure we'll probably rent a car and drive our way north after the first couple of days in Edinburgh.

In addition to getting advice from this travel forum, I also recommend reading some guidebooks. That is how I start out planning our trips, and then when I have a tentative itinerary, I come here and ask people to critique it and get recommendations for hotels, restaurants, etc. I also search for travel blogs on the internet. For Scotland, I used the Michelin Green Guide and Lonely Planet.

Exactly how many nights do you have on the ground? Is it 10 nights or 11 nights? That makes a big difference; one reason is because you need to know how many nights you have to book accommodations for. Also, keep in mind that generally 2 nights gives you one full day and perhaps 1/2 a day on arrival or departure; 3 nights gives you 2 full days, and so on and so on.

We spent 4 nights in Edinburgh and I wished we had an extra night. It all depends on what you like to do. We explored Old Town (but not as much as I would have liked), took a Mercat tour of the Royal Mile, and spent a lot of time at the National Museum of Scotland (which is fascinating) and the Royal Botanical Gardens (just gorgeous). But we also had 16 nights on the ground which you don't have. So maybe 3 nights in Edinburgh would be a good start.

Following the advice of the Scotland experts on this forum (including janisj) we stayed in Nairn instead of Inverness. Inverness is a busy commercial center. Nairn is a lovely seaside village about 20 minutes from Inverness. Our favorite accommodation is in Nairn at the Sunny Brae B&B. From Nairn, we visited Elgin Cathedral, Glen Moray Distillery, Cawdor Castle and Gardens, and Culloden Battlefield. On our drive from Nairn to Portree on Skye, we visited Urquhart Castle. We loved Skye! Some people will say it's too crowded, but we really didn't think the crowds were that bad and they certainly didn't ruin our trip for us.

Another beautiful area you might consider is Glen Coe. Skye and Glen Coe are our favorites as far as outstanding scenery and stunning beauty are concerned.

Here is the link to our B&B in Nairn if you consider Nairn.
https://sunnybraenairn.co.uk/

Here is the link to my TR if you are interested:
Our SPECTACULAR Scottish Journey!!!

10 days (you say 10 days 'in country' which means 11 nights) will not give you much time for island chains. Driving in the rural/scenic bits and especially on any islands is very slow -- like 30 mph slow. I think you would benefit by picking up a guidebook or two and read through the fabulous site: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/index.html

For a castle hotel north of Inverness -- the Dornoch Castle Hotel has a combo of historic rooms and modern garden rooms. https://dornochcastlehotel.com. It is just across the way from the Cathedral.

We just spent 5 nights in Edinburgh and it was just the right amount of time for what we wanted to do. It was very rainy and unfortunately that prevented us from our planned Sunday day trip to St Andrews as you can walk the course on Sunday as long as there isn't a tournament but too rainy. In fact much of Scotland north of Edinburgh was under water with flooding and rail closures. We did one day tour that took us to Rosslyn Chapel, Stirling Castle and Dumfernline Abbey. Additionally we toured the Royal Mile visiting both Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace, St Giles Cathedral, both the National Museum and the National Gallery of Art and my absolute favorite, the Royal Yacht Britannia. Edinburgh very easy to get around by tram, by bus and by walking. It is hilly and if wet when it rains on the cobblestones and slate sidewalks.

Agree with doing a lot of research as we used both the Fodor's Scotland guide and the Michelin guide. Because we weren't going until October we didn't plan to tour the north and we weren't planning on driving with the steering on the other side of the car and driving on the other side of the road.

If by "one of the northern island chains" you mean Orkney or Shetland, you really don't have enough time for either, unless you're willing to fly (direct services from Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness) but given you "don't even know what you don't know" which is refreshingly honest, BTW - I'd suggest you look at ways to score twofers or the like with the days you DO have available.

For example, castle hotel, picturesque small towns, island and Highland scenery (is that a threefer or a fourfer?) imagine this:

Enjoy Edinburgh, and IMO two days isn't enough - say three minimum, maybe with a day trip on one of them to someplace like Stirling or maybe the East Lothian or Fife coasts.

Then head in the car to the west coast and the Isle of Mull, one of the Inner Hebrides. Google the places on this map - https://maps.app.goo.gl/XtY15kMzmC29ML2Y6

This would take you from Edinburgh (the airport for easy car pickup) out to Glen Etive (glorious in the spring) and through Glen Coe to Barcaldine Castle (aka the "Black Castle") a luxury B&B around ten miles north of Oban. From this location you could do day trips to places like Kilmartin, an hour south of Oban, which is home to hundreds of prehistoric sites - standing stones, stone circles, etc. - or back to Glen Coe, or east to Kilchurn Castle on the banks of Loch Awe - many alternatives. Luxury Bed & Breakfast Oban | Barcaldine Castle, Scotland

Then you'd cross over to the Isle of Mull by ferry from Oban. Head to Fionnphort at the southwest point of Mull for a passenger ferry crossing to historic Iona, and/or a tour out to the magical island of Staffa, with amazing Fingal's Cave and hundreds of puffins flying about, as well as seals, porpoise and other swimming things. Like I say, magical.

Then head to the other end of Mull to picturesque Tobermory. Along the way, see some of Mull's gorgeous beaches, waterfalls, more prehistoric sites, etc. Maybe visit the old distillery in Tobermory. Spend a night or two there, then cross back to the mainland at Kilchoan, and make your way across the Ardnamurchan peninsula to beautiful and historic Glenfinnan with its Jacobite monument and Harry Potter railway viaduct. From there it's up the Great Glen, along Loch Ness (don't set your expectations high - it's not all that scenic) to Inverness.

I think this would give you a terrific snapshot of the Highlands as well as allowing for enough time in Argyll and Mull to get a sense of the Inner Hebrides and the rich history of the region. Worth some googling (or use Undiscovered Scotland) but don't delay in making hotel bookings - things fill up quickly.

Gardyloo, how much of that interesting itinerary could be done without driving? I wonder if there is a small group tour that does it.

Not Gardy and I'm sure he will respond . . . but very little could be done sans car Edinburgh, Ft William Stirling and Oban are served by trains but nowhere else . . . and not all directly from each other. I can't imagine there would be a tour that would follow anything like that itinerary. However Rabbies does small group tours to most of those places -- though not all would be on the same itinerary so you'd have to book multiple tours. However Rabbies will also work with you designing private/personalized tours. https://www.rabbies.com/en