dulciusexasperis

Sparkypink, you are free to do as you please with your time. It is after all your time and your dime. I'm really not writing about your plan so much as I am about ALL such plans.

You now write, "we have six days, and we want to see as much as possible, even if that just means highlights of certain areas".

The choice of words we use indicates what we are telling ourselves. What does the word 'much' mean? Is it syonymous with the word 'many'? I don't think so.

What people would normally mean by the word 'much' is that they want to get as much as possible out of their time. But how do you get as much as possible out of your time in terms of travel? By moving from place to place or by spending your time IN places?

The more you move, the less time you spend IN places obviously. Therefore moving means seeing/doing LESS than if you did not move.

So when someone says they want to get as 'much' as they can out of their time and then goes on to describe moving from place to place, they are in fact contradicting themselves. What they should have written was 'we consciously plan to see as MANY places as possible, even though it means not seeing any, more than superficially.'

Try telling yourself that what you are honestly saying is you plan to give up quality for quantity and be superficial in your travels. Most people I believe don't want to be that honest with themselves. So they say 'much' instead of 'many' and 'highlights' instead of 'superficial'. Much more palatable words to use to deceive ourselves.

We are conditioned to rush and conditioned to justify it to ourselves as being normal. What civilized person could possibly justify only having a half hour for lunch? Yet countless numbers do every day.

janisj

Sparky: HE has spoken (and will continue to lecture til you surrender ).

Absolutely it would be better if you gad 2 or 3 weeks (and philosophically I may agree w/ HIM but hopefully I'm not so condescending about it) . . . But for the time you do have 2 nights in Edinburgh, 2 nights up north and maybe 2 nights in glencoe or a more central bit (Callander) is a reasonable division of time (assuming you have the week you mention and not just 5 nights)

schnauzer

Sparky let me know if you choose Clachaig Hotel as a friend of mine works there... Maybe I can put in a good word for you!

achay

Last fall we stayed at the Strathness House in Inverness. It's right on the Ness River. We were in room 7 overlooking the river. My husband played golf at Fortrose and Rosemarkie golf course, a small links course on the water. Riverside Café is a good restaurant.

We took the Jacobite Steam Train and had to do a one night layover because we were traveling on the entire trip by train. We stayed at the Myrtle Bank Guest House. We were there just to sleep and didn't even get to stay for breakfast because we had to catch a train. I can tell you that finding a good restaurant in Ft. William is a big challenge.

Have a great trip!

historytraveler

Sparky, in an earlier post you mentioned that you hadn't decided whether to take the Jacobite train on your return journey or depart on an earlier regular train. Just in case you didn't know, the regular train covers the same route as the Jacobite at a fraction of the cost. Considering the time element and costs, the better option might be to do the Jacobite train out and return to Fort William via regular service. The Clachaig Hotel in Glencoe would be the best place to spend the night.

sparkypink

I am definitely leaning towards taking the Jacobite Train out and return on regular service. That seems to make more sense. It also seems like Glencoe seems the more popular choice.

Lots of recommendations for Clachaig Hotel. I'll have to look that up right now.

janisj

Another option . . . Especially on a tight trip, forget about the train and drive out to mallaig and back. The road and train take the exact same route, and the advantages to driving are you can stop where you like to take photos, etc, - and- you can get great views OF the train which you can't ON the train.

The train is fine (I've taken it a few times) but I personally prefer driving the road to the Isles

sparkypink

Yes, driving is definitely a consideration too. I guess I will have to leave that up to my husband since he is the one that will be doing most of the driving. He doesn't like my driving in the US, I would imagine his feelings would be amplified when driving in the UK!

I wonder what the likelihood would be of timing it so we could actually see the steam train crossing the viaduct.

historytraveler

The viaduct is at Glenfinnan. The train from Fort Williams arrives about 30 minutes after leaving Fort William and about 45/50 minutes after leaving Mallaig. Their is a car park at Glenfinnan and a short but somewhat steep trail gets you very near the viaduct.

historytraveler

Their? Yikes, it's still early and the brain seems to have shut down already. Edit, edit, edit!

megdean

sparkypink, we just returned from Scotland and included 2 nights in Inverness (we went up there to play golf at Royal Dornach). We stayed at the Inverglen Guest House and would recommend it. Had a great meal at Urquharts in Inverness. Regarding Urquhart Castle, our friends very much enjoyed their visit there. (Alas, my husband left his cell phone at the B&B and we spent the morning driving all the way back to Inverness to pick it up, so missed seeing the castle.)

sparkypink

We ended up booking at the Claichag Inn since so many people said it was great. Thank you for all of the recommendations.

And we have decided to not book the Jacobite Steam train, but rather drive to Glenfinnan ourselves, and hopefully time it right so that we can see it. Then we can enjoy the scenery on our own time.

Does anyone have any recommendations for must see/do between Glenfinnan and Glencoe?