Hello friends,

A group of 6 adults will be staying in Aberfeldy, Scotland in mid-August and would like to know your top 5 picks for day trips from there (preferably max of 1-2 hour drives).

So far on the list:
Edinburgh - 1-2 days - what should we see?
Loch Ness and Colloden - 1 day
St. Andrews area - 1 day
Whiskey tasting - what's the best place to get a good variety?

If there are any restaurants that we shouldn't miss, let us know that as well. We love fresh seafood and would like to try good Scottish food.

And what about places to find traditional music?

Thanks for your recommendations!

Hmmm; well I wouldn't do Edinburgh OR Loch Ness from Aberfeldy.

I do have a Word document I did for someone with lots of much closer places to visit. Email me and I'll send it to you.

Whisky (no "e")- well, don't be fooled into thinking Dewar's World of Whisky is it. It's really not. Edradour in Pitlochry is probably the nearest good visit.

I don't know anywhere from personal experience in Perthshire, but the Dunalastair in Kinloch Rannoch does a good job of advertising itself in that fashion. The Curly Coo (don't blame me- I didn't make up the name) in Crieff is given a rave review on Trip Advisor. The Weem Hotel which is only a few miles away says it's a got a lot. It goes up and down in reputation. I DO know the Atholl Palace in Pitlochry has a good selection in its main bar.

For food, try the Mains of Taymouth in Kenmore. The Watermill in Aberfeldy does good lunch stuff, as does the House of Menzies. We've always liked the Ailean Craggan at Weem. The Ardeonaig on south Loch Tay is superb- but expect a very meaty menu.

If you go to St Andrews you will need to try the Seafood Restaurant.

There's a lot of traditional music at the Famous Grouse Festival on 12th and 13th August. The Black Watch is the pub to go to in Aberfeldy for Folk Music, at least on fridays. In Dunkeld it's Mclean's Music bar at the Taybank (although I see its web site hasn't been updated since the tail end of last year), and in Pitlochry there's Mckay's.

There will be touristy things on too- billed as "Celtic Nights" or some such. Doesn't mean they won't be good.

"Edinburgh - 1-2 days - what should we see?"

Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh Book Festival, Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh Arts Festival, enough street performers to sink a battleship and that's before you get onto the "run of the mill" stuff in Edinburgh like Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile, National Museum of Scotland, Scott Monument Holyrood Palace, the Royal Yacht Britannia.

To quote from wikipedia "The Fringe 2009 sold 1,859,235 tickets for 34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues, over 25 days, for an average of over 74,000 admissions and 1,300 performances per day. There were an estimated 18,901 performers, from 60 countries." The 2010 Festival Fringe was busier having over 40,000 performances.

You do BTW realise that Edinburgh is a 2 hour drive from Aberfeldy?

If you do decide to day trip to Edinburgh - don't drive (what would you do w/ that car - the city will be full to bursting). Take the train from Pitlochry or Dunkeld, or maybe Perth. You really will be a long, and often slow, drive from most places.

(Any chance you are staying at the Moness Hotel/Country Club resort on a trade?)

Great advice to train to Edinburgh. We did from Stirling. It was great! Left the rental car behind.

Thanks to all who have responded! Yes, we're staying at the Moness. Please don't tell me it was a bad decision.

I love the idea of taking the train to Edinburgh. Can you tell me where we can find more info on the train times and rates? 2 hours is our max drive for a day trip. We've lived in Arizona and California so we're used to driving a long way to get out of town.

The Fringe Festival sounds a bit overwhelming. Are there a lot of crime issues(pick pocket, etc.)?

Thanks again for your help.

"<i> 2 hours is our max drive for a day trip. We've lived in Arizona and California so we're used to driving a long way to get out of town.</i>"

The thing is there isn't anything like I-5, or the 405 or I-10 in central Scotland. When figuring where you can go in a day, you'll want to figure around 40 mph, and less than 30 to 35mph in lots of places.

For instance, Aberfeldy (Moness) to Glencoe is only about 70 miles, but it is easily a 2 hour drive. Aberfeldy to St Andrews is about 65 miles -- and again, about a 2 hour drive. And a loop up to Culloden, down the west side of Loch Ness, through Glencoe and back to Aberfeldy is about 275 miles and a whopping 6.5 - 7 hours 'car time' w/o any stops. If you just drive up to Culloden, take a peek at Loch ness/Urquhart Castle and back retracing your route is nearly 240 miles and 5.5-6 hours.

There are LOTS of gorgeous places not too awfully far from Moness -- just not the places on your wish list.

A couple of sites for train times/prices:

http://www.scotrail.co.uk/
http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/

"Are there a lot of crime issues(pick pocket, etc.)?"

No, is crime a problem in theatres where you live?

" 2 hours is our max drive for a day trip. We've lived in Arizona and California so we're used to driving a long way to get out of town."

And to add to that you can't just turn on the radio & cruise control and your brain off. Roads are narrower, busier and far twistier than you are used to

"<i>And to add to that you can't just turn on the radio & cruise control and your brain off. Roads are narrower, busier and far twistier than you are used to</i>"

Narrower and twistier for 100% sure. But not busier. That part of Scotland (well most every part of Scotland except for a few cities) is very rural and pretty remote so you won't have much of any traffic -- except sheep, lorries (trucks), and caravans (Travel Trailers) will slow you down.

Don't worry about traffic --NOTHING like what you'd face in LA or Phoenix. But the cities are more difficult - that is one reason for taking the train in to Edinburgh.

Thanks again for everyone's help. We'll definitely be looking at some of our possibilities for what makes sense as far as distance.

I'm sure we'll enjoy our vacation no matter what part of Scotland we end up in.