11 Days in Scotland - Thoughts?
 

Hello, we'll be taking our first trip to Scotland (with my husband and 2 year old daughter). We have a rough itinerary, now I'm trying to research more specific areas where we should stay/visit, and would particularly appreciate B&B or hotel recommendations and must-see sights.

We are trying to keep driving distances per day minimal (aiming for 2 hours, but can do up to 4), we enjoy the outdoors but are not anticipating long hikes or activities with our daughter. We want a leisurely trip, see some sights and enjoy the country. Any input or thoughts would be appreciated!

Day 1: Arrive in Edinburgh
Day 2: Edinburgh - Royal Mile, National Museum, Castle, Arthur's Seat (not expecting to do it all, just ideas)
Day 3: Drive to Stirling, have lunch, continue on to Loch Lomond, overnight there
Day 4: Drive to Oban
Day 5: Oban, possible boat tour?
Day 6: Drive to Isle of Skye - Stopping at Eilean Donan castle on the way. Where to stay? What do we want to be near? We have talked about the fairy pools and not much else.
Day 7: Isle of Skye
Day 8: Drive to Loch Ness, possible boat tour. Drive to Iverness, overnight there.
Day 9: Iverness
Day 10: Return to Edinburgh
Day 11: Depart Scotland.

Not sure if I can edit, but to add a bit more information: We'll be traveling in May, coming from Eastern Europe so hoping for minimal jet lag, and we have a car rental for our whole trip.

If you do the Loch Ness boat tour, do the one that leaves across the street from the Clansman Hotel -- it will save you some time.

Thanks for the tip. Is that the side of the Lock we want to stay/travel on? I'm looking at AirBnB accommodations and it would be nice to be on that side, it might give us some more options of places to stay outside of the city.

The road is only on that side of the Loch. You'll be based in Inverness so you might as well drive from Skye to Inverness and spend 2-3 nights in Inverness. The Loch Ness cruise will only take a few hours.

We stayed at a great B&B on Loch Ness But I don't know if they are still open or not: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_R..._Scotland.html

When in Oban, you may want to go to Mull and Iona for the day. We saw very little of Mull, because we went straight to Iona and didn't want to leave. I don't know if it's just me, but it was truly an enchanting place.

Otherwise, there are various nature tours by boat from Oban and Mull. It seems to me that more of them departed from Mull than from Oban, but that could be faulty memory. We had planned to stay longer on Mull, so maybe I didn't look for departures from Oban. There's not a lot to see in Oban itself, although a walk along the waterfront, especially early in the morning, is very nice. We found an excellent restaurant in Oban, called Coast.

I put a trip report on TripAdvisor, which you can see here:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTop...-Scotland.html

Thanks for the link to your trip report. I made a note about Coast, and I'm looking up your B&B in Oban right now. I'm surprised to learn many B&Bs don't allow young children, so that's taken quite a few options off our list. We're looking at Grove House, about 10 minutes outside Oban right now.

Our B&B, whose name escapes me just now, was right on the waterfront, although we were in the rear. Parking is a problem in Oban, but the proprietor let us park in the driveway if we left the key with him when we were out, so he could move it to let other people out. All in all, it was fine, although not as nice as our hotel in Glasgow. By the way, we loved Glasgow, more than Edinburgh, to be honest.

Places that don't allow young children are almost certainly too stuffy for me anyway.

Bvlenci is very correct.

Mull and Skye are truly magical places, much of this down the the rapidly changing landscapes with the way the large tides and small islands effect the light and weather.

This is purely a personal view but I think a tour of the highlands misses the point. One of you will be driving and even our A roads take some concentration. It's easy to miss the magic in mile after mile of tick boxing.

I would spend time in Edinburgh then rent a cottage for a week in either the Mull or Skye area. Look to the area around Glenelg or near Iona.

I would warn you that the road system on Mull is truly basic. Much is single travel, although paved, with passing points every half mile. In summer patience is a prerequisite.

We are spending May on Mull again this year, it's packed with seals, dolphins, otters, eagles and all. There also some of the clearest sea on earth and beautiful sandy beaches for hikes.

I totally agree w/ BritishCaicos that a whirlwind driving tour -- ESPECIALLY w/ a toddler strapped in the back seat won't be all that much fun. Sure you'd see a lot - but mostly through you car windows and at the child's schedule.

Edinburgh, a couple of days in the Trossachs and a cottage rental on Skye or Mull for the rest would be much more enjoyable.

Re B&Bs not allowing young children -- has nothing at all to do w/ being stuffy- at least in <i>most</i> cases. Most B&Bs are quite small w/ just 2 or 3 rooms to let -- and having fussy or even screaming little ones is not fair to the other guests.

oops - didn't mean to submit yet. . .

Having a toddler along makes a cottage rental even that much more desirable. Having a washer, a kitchen/fridge is a godsend if she is a picky eater, lots of space including a separate bedroom to put her down earlier than the adults want to sleep.

B&Bs really aren't appropriate for really young children - unless you have a large enough family to rent out the whole place.

I agree with janisj that B& B's might not be your best option. Look at hotels especially in Oban and/ or Inverness. I think they would better serve a young family than a B&B. A cottage rental would be your best bet. You should have another look at drive time for your current itinerary, seems a bit much with a toddler and a large portion falls into your maximum time limit.

Currently feeling very Scottish at the moment Janis. I've re-read "Ring of Bright Water" for the first time in 30 years. If you leave the text in the context it's written, it's beautiful. You just have to ignore the true Maxwell.

You know, I read that years and years ago and I may need to hit it again . . .

Polo

If you are interested, I can dig up the details of a cottage we rented on Mull a few years ago. It's in Ffionphort , on the beach and a two minute walk to the Iona ferry.

Alternatively, if you are interested in luxury Campervans , we are renting one on Mull this May. You just pay as cheap foot passangers on the ferry from Oban then pick up the Camper on Mull.

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/ga...ye-in-pictures

Sorry

I've been disturbed by raucous students and drunken adults far more often in B&Bs than by babies. I've twice had drunken adults awaken me at night and insist on trying to enter my room, once in a B&B in Germany, and once in a hotel in China.

The same is true on flights. The planes are full of annoying adults, but everyone complains about the babies. At least babies don't recline their seats into your lap.

This forum used to be so much fun.

It's sssssooooo long since we had a good child hater thread.

BritishCaicos - I would be interested in the name of where you stayed!

historytraveler - Maybe I'm not giving us enough time? Here's what we calculated as the driving time:
1 hour to Stirling, and then 1 hour to Loch Lomond (broken up by lunch, sight seeing)
2 hour drive to Oban
Oban to Skye - 3 hours. This one I'm having the most difficulty with - do we actually want to stay on Skye? What makes the most sense? I appreciate the suggestion of having a base area and branching out from there.
Skye to Loch Ness - 3 hours. Then I had us visiting Loch Ness and making our way to Iverness, but now I'm looking at airbnb rentals closer to Loch Ness instead.
Return to Edinburgh - 3-4 hours. This could be a beast of a day!

It's harder than I expected, I need to do some more research on my own so I understand the towns and drive times a bit better!

With regard to driving times, we did an early train from London to Edinburgh, picked up a rental car, drove to Stirling and toured the castle, then drove on to Inveraray arriving late afternoon or early evening. If you are starting out from Edinburgh, it would certainly be possible to go from Edinburgh to Oban in one day, stopping to see the castle in Stirling along the way. There are things along the way that you could see and stretch that trip out if you want, or not.

When you go from Oban to Skye, you might consider going to Mallaig and taking the ferry on your way to Skye, rather than going up to Eilean Donnan, as you would go past that on your way to Inverness (why cover the same ground twice?). If you do that, there is a single track road that turns off the main road a couple of miles from Armadale that will take you to the other side of the peninsula, through Tarskavaig and Tokvaig which will give you some excellent views.

Here is the house we rented on Mull

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Vacatio...rides_Sco.html

Perfect for a toddler as long as the weather is fine. If it isn't, then I'd head to the Caribbean.

Polo1425: When figuring your drives -- I assume you are using one of the on-line calculators - you need to add significantly to times.

The one from Edinburgh to Stirling is pretty accurate because it is Motorway all the way. But that is the last motorway you will see and you really do need to add 24% to 75% (sometimes even more) to most of the times. Especially in rural areas w/ narrow roads -- all you need is get behind one caravan (travel trailer), or heavy lorry, or encounter sheep in the road and your 2 hour drive easily becomes 3 hours.

The driving ON Mull and ON Skye can very very very slow, but anywhere in the highlands or on the coast can be slow as well.

I wanted to add that I've driven from Portree on Skye to Edinburgh. I think it took about 7 hours with a few stops along the way. While doable for adults, I think it's too long if traveling with a toddler. There is a big difference if traveling solo or with another adult and traveling with a toddler. And, yes, you do need to add time to any of the journey planners.

Thanks for all the tips, especially the notes about drive times. We will reconsider our itinerary and expect to be flexible. Much appreciated!

Okay, slight revisions based on recommendations here.

Day 1: Arrive in Edinburgh
Day 2: Edinburgh - Royal Mile, National Museum, Castle, Arthur's Seat (not expecting to do it all, just ideas)
Day 3: Drive to Stirling, have lunch, continue on to Oban.
Day 4: Oban
Day 5: Oban, possible boat tour/Isle of Mull
Day 6-9- We'd like to find a base - somewhere near Skye, Loch Ness or Inverness and rent a cottage for 4 nights. Then we'll do small trips from there to explore. I'm looking into rentals now. Ideally we'll also see the Fairy Pools and Eilean Donan Castle, among other things.
Day 10: Return to Edinburgh
Day 11: Depart Scotland.

For Days 6-9, it's probably best to base yourself in Inverness.

Inverness ?

If find really strange as a base. Syke is a world class location. It's an obvious base.

A boat trip for wildlife from Oban makes much sense. The trips go to the "inland sea" formed by Mull, Skye, Coll and Tiree. It's full of dolphins, minke whales, pilot whales, frequent Orca and basking sharks.

The basking shark population is blooming following attempts to fish them 50 years ago. There is current work in the sound between Coll and Tiree to investigate whether the sharks breed there. Last year over 100 were spotted in one location!

I said Inverness because it is within a 90 min drive of most of OP's desired stops. Plus it has Hootananny and Gellions and The Room and Johnny Foxes.

BritishCaicos, I'm still in the early stages of boat trip research, but it seems that many of them are 10-12 hours. I don't think our toddler can hang quite that long being out all day. I was looking into driving ourselves - taking our car over on the ferry from Oban, driving across Mull, and then a quick ferry to Iona. We'd at least get to explore the islands, but we'd have some more control over our timing and how long we stay.

I would absolutely LOVE to see any of the animals you described above, but I suspect our best bet for that kind of tour would be a private one and I don't think it's in our budget.

Elgol is a good spot.

Beautiful and close to the ferry.

while B&Bs in china and germany are interesting they are not that relevant to the UK.

Some B&Bs just want adults and that is their marketing choice.

Some hotels have the same rules in the UK.

I'd travel less, enjoy more.

If wanting to tour Skye, Inverness area is not the best place to stay. It's 2 12 hours to Portree ( not many sites to visit between crossing the bridge and Portree unless you head toward Armadale ).

BTW I love Skye but Mull is beautiful too. Iona is a magical place IMO especially if you get away from the crowds a bit. I have always wanted to stay on Iona for a few days but haven't yet managed it.

bookmarking in case airfares come down.

>>I said Inverness because it is within a 90 min drive of most of OP's desired stops. <<

IF one was relying on public transport then basing IN Inverness makes a lot of sense. But w/ a car, one can stay absolutely <i>anywhere</i> and staying IN the city would be my last choice.

Hi Polo

It's really good to see a poster who comes back and communicates.

It's so frustrating to have given time and effort only to see no response,

I do think Ffionphort is perfect. Mull is beautiful, the area around the village is absolutely full of Golden Eagles and Hen Harriers. We regularly see dolphins swim between the village and Iona. Iona is a 5 minute cheap foot ferry away, Iona is very magical.

A good walk south (1 hour) takes you to Erraid with Caribbean standard beaches and a large colony of seals. I am going to snorkel with them in May.

Loch Na Keal is around an hour from Ffionphort by road , it's the main site to see the Sea Eagles in action. Huge birds with a 2.5m wing span. Loch Na Keal is very dramatic.

To cap all this, the boat trips from Ffionphort are much shorter than from Oban, as you have driven half way to the sea locations which the trips head towards.

Staffa and Lunga are around a 4 hour round trip by boat from Ffionphort.

If you visit between May and July, Lunga is swamped by Puffins : it's an incredible experience as they are very approachable, very naive as to how awful humans can be and very lovable. People actually use the trip for emotional therapy.

The volcanic rock formations of Staffa are world famous, as is Fingal's Cave on the island.

The only downside is that it is around £120 to take the car on the CallyMac ferry from Oban to Mull. It's about time the Scottish Government increased the ferry subsidies. Which is why this year we are leaving the car in Oban, going as £7 foot passangers on the ferry and renting the Camper. It's much more cost effective.

agree w/ everything BritishCaicos says. Yes, taking a car on the ferry is expensive, but it is sooooo worth having one on the island.

The trips out to Staffa (the boat stays long enough to explore Fingal's Cave and some of the island, and Lunga, Iona via the foot ferry, castles, gorgeous beaches, eagles, seals and PUFFINS :) ( I <i>LOVE</i> puffins.)

I've stayed in Fionnphort 3 times (twice in a terrific B&B and once in a rented cottage).

I really enjoy Skye, but Mull is maybe even better for a family stay -- so much to see and do.

"agree w/ everything BritishCaicos says"

Other than the fact that I still can't spell Fionnphort.

Which is something probably due to me being a half Scottish, a quarter Welsh and a bit English!

I don't know how to post photos but we took one from the beach in FIONNPHORT looking across to Iona abbey with dolphins leaping in the foreground.

I don't have dolphins (have lots in other places like on the Black Isle and from Ft George)

But I do have one of a glorious sunset on that same beach w/ a ewe/two lambs lying on the sand and the abbey in the distance . . .

We took a couple of boat trips cruising the area around Skye and Raasay, one departing Portree, one departing the mainland. They were shortish (1-2hrs?) but we saw a sea eagle (which swooped down in response to fish thrown from a boat), lots of seals, including pups, and through the glass bottom of one of the boats, the most enormous jellyfish I've ever seen. It glowed like moonstone. There were also binoculars handed round so we could look for otters (none spotted on our watch unfortunately).

One of the cruises had the added benefit of departing a pier in Localsh that had a superb seafood trailer where we got Cullen Skink and Jaffa cake ice creams!

Seal pics attached:-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/494523...7630903321624/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/494523...7630903321624/