I am really amazed at how many threads are presently active about Scotland itineraries. I have one too. I think my itinerary is 80% complete, due to the great help of Greendragon, but I still have a few questions and a couple of holes. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

We are planning a 16 day trip in the middle of June. Here is the tentative itinerary:

Day 1: arrive at Edinburgh, rent car, drive to Perth for 1 night. (no jet lag problem as our time zone is only 1 hour away.)

Days 2-5: drive to Grantown on Spey for 3 nights there. One day touring to the east and one day touring to the north including Inverness.

Day 5: Visit Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle, continue to overnight in Plockton

Days 6-8: Skye (stay in Portree) for 3 nights

Day 9-10: Take ferry to Mallaig, drive to Fort William and continue to Oban for 2 nights. Visit Mull.

Days 11-12: We want to visit Glencoe, Stirling, and Culross on the way to Edinburgh but I don't know how to divide the time or where to stay. See my thoughts below.

Days 13-16: 5 nights / 4 days in Edinburgh with a day trip to Glasgow.
Fly home on day 17.

We hate one-nighters. The above plan has only 2 – the first night in Perth which is prudent and necessary, and the second at Plockton on day 5 which I chose to do to limit the driving on that day and not wind up arriving on Skye in the late evening. That brings me to days 11-12 where I am not sure what to do.

My problem on days 11-12 is that I don't know where to stay or how to divide our time on the way back to Edinburgh. We definitely want to visit Glencoe and Stirling on the way and if possible, Falkirk and/or Culross. One possibility I have considered is staying in Oban for another night and doing a day trip to Glencoe. That would make 3 nights at Oban and a ride to Stirling the next day with a one-nighter near Stirling. Another possibility would be staying in the Stirling area for 2 nights, but the drive from Oban to Stirling with a visit to Glencoe in the middle looks like a bit of a stretch.

I have also considered cutting one of the nights on Skye and using it somewhere else (maybe Edinburgh). We will be in Plockton the night before Skye, so we will arrive on Skye early the next morning giving us 2 full days even if we stay for only 2 nights.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds good to me - IMO you are allowing a sensible amount of time for everything. The only thing I'd change is I wouldn't stay in Oban, which I think is a bit grotty, but would stay on Mull or Iona instead.

What do you actually want to do in Glencoe ? Unless you want to go hillwalking, it's just a valley via which you can drive on your way back south east, stopping to look round the vistor centre if that appeals. You could spend the night at the Clachaig Inn in the middle of Glencoe if you fancy it - it's mainly a walkers' pub & does good pub food & real ales. But if you don't like one night stays, I guess not. Otherwise press on and spend the night in or near Stirling, then just drive through Culross (maybe stopping for lunch) on your way to Edinburgh.

In case you haven't discovered it, try playing around with routes on www.theaa.com - for instance you can use it to map the route Oban-Glencoe-Stirling-Culross-Edinburgh (total 151 miles), and see where you think best to stop. Beware their timings, though - I generally add on at least a third.

Caroline:

Thanks. Yes, I realize that Glencoe is for the view and we don't plan on doing any long hikes. No doubt we'll stop in the visitor's center and take in the panorama if it's a nice day. All that takes time and I figured that that would make it a long day's drive from Oban to Stirling.

I have not used the map site you mentioned but I will check it out. I generally use Googlemaps which is very powerful.

I decided on Oban because of the hassle of ferrying to Mull for 2 nights and just one full day.

Although I could guess, please tell me what "grotty" means.

Just an addition to my previous response.

If we drive from Oban to Stirling via Glencoe, do you think we will have enough time to visit Stirling Castle on the same day, like after lunch?
(I'm trying to be very conservative regarding driving times because so many people warn about the slow driving in Scotland.)

Then we would spend one night in Stirling (we don't like one-nighters but do them when necessary) and the next morning drive to edinburgh via Culross.

Oban to Stirling via Glencoe is 115 miles and 2 hrs 53 mins according to the AA; so even if you assume 4 hrs, you could be in Stirling for lunch if you make an early-ish start.

Stirling to Edinburgh via Culross is only 62 miles / theoretically 1hr 32 mins, though.

So an alternative would be to spend all day travelling from Oban to Stirling via Glencoe, maybe with lunch in Glencoe and/or a visit to Falkirk en route, arrive Stirling teatime-ish, stay the night, see Stirling Castle the next morning then drive to Edinburgh via Culross. I think that's what I'd do.

There are lots of other possibilities, but much depends on how far you want to drive at a time & how early you want to get up v. your desire to avoid 1 night stays.

Grotty means, er, hm, let's see what the official definition is - http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/grotty?view=uk. I wouldn't go so far as to call Oban actually unpleasant, I just don't think it's the nicest place. And didn't you say you intend to visit Mull anyway - or were you thinking to go as foot passengers ? Are there other places you are thinking to visit from Oban ?

I've stayed in Oban on several times and while I agree it's not one of Scotland's more charming towns, I don't think it's that bad. The convenience of the CalMac ferries for day trips is great adn the views of the town as one comes into the harbor are picture worthy.

If you do stay, just be careful in your choice of accommodations. I stay at the Manor House on Gallanch Rd. which is pricey but a wonderful spot overlooking the water and town of Oban. I also get full board as they have the best food in Oban. There is also a nice B&B (Dungallan House) along Gallanch Rd.

I prefer this area of Oban as the views are wonderful and you are less than ten minutes from the town.Oban is really not grotty just a bit charmless whhen one is actually in its midst.

Caroline:

Yes, I had intended to visit Mull by foot on the ferry. It's cheaper and easier. Also, I figured that we would reach Oban in the late afternoon and from what I've read, a ferry reservation is recommended, but it's hard to pinpoint exactly what time we'll arrive. So, it becomes much easier to walk on the ferry and visit Mull for one full day.

However, now I will have to check out the grottiness of Oban to decide if we want to stay there. I was raised in a pretty grotty place, so a place has to be pretty grotty for me to reject it.

Historytraveller:

I've found several highly recommended B&B's in Oban. One in particular is called Dunheanish and is right near the McCaig's tower and is supposed to have great views. Is this a decent area to stay in Oban?

Sounds like you're getting good help here Bookmarking!

Yep, Greendragon, it's hard to find good help these days!

sssteve, I'm not familar with the Dunheanish but if it's near McCaig's
Tower/Folly the views should be great. There really is no bad place to stay in Oban, but I'm not fond of the B&B's along Corran Esplanade. Some seem fine, but the road consists of one B&B after another with little to differentiate them.

Well, I consider caroline_edinburgh one of the great Scotland experts on the board, so you're in good care. Add janisj and sheilaritchie, and you've got a triple play!

A thread on Scotland wouldn't be complete without Janis! Hope she shows up!

You are very kind, Green Dragon - but you probably know more than I do about most of Scotland outwith the 2 main cities !

I have been to Oban/Mull/Iona a few times, though. sssteve, what are you planning to do on Mull as a foot passenger ? Just see the (not particularly interesting) where the ferry docks, or get a bus around ? It's a surprisingly big place. Personally I'd take the car, drive to Tobermory and stay there for a couple of nights, exploring the island in between. Unless I was going to stay on Iona, which is very special especially when the daytrippers have gone. Ideally both.

caroline_edinburgh, I've only been to Scotland twice (so far!) unless you count the time I was gestating - and I can't really count that

I'm sure you know more than you think.

I thought we would visit the 2 castles near Craigmure (Torosay & Duart) and take a bus to visit Tobermory.

There are also tours available which leave from Oban, go the length of Mull and visit Iona.

We have 2 nights and we will arrive at Oban at the end of the day. I felt that the best way to take advantage of our time would be not to deal with the car ferry.

sssteve, just a quick note regarding trips/tours to Mull.

I've driven across Iona and over to Iona on my own but on a recent trip took the CalMac tour to Iona which meant a ferry to Craignure and then a Bowman bus tour across Mull to the short ferry over to Iona. I was concerned about the tour as I usually prefer to travel independently. However, the bus tour across Mull was excellent. Our driver was a font of information which I would never had been exposed to if I had traveled by myself.

Local buses will get you to both Duart and Torosay Castles. Torosay is about a mile or so from Craignure so it is walkable if you're so inclined, or even better, you could take the Mull Rail, a steam/diesel train that goes to Torosay.I'm sure you're aware that the gardens at Torosay are fabulous.

As caroline explained Craignure is not particulary interesting, but Tobermory is a pleasant town.

Sorry, I should do a btter job of editing posts. It should read 'driven across Mull and over to Iona'.

historytraveler;

We are also independent travelers, but sometimes the only way to go is as a "day tripper".

Did the Calmac tour start and finish in Oban?

Caroline:

As for my original question, what to do on days 11 and 12 of my itinerary, I think I've decided what to do. We'll drive from Oban through Glencoe to Stirling. We'll spend 2 nights in Stirling or the nearby area. If we manage to visit the castle on day 11, then we'll visit Glasgow (by train) on day 12. On day 13, we'll drive to Edinburgh via Falkirk of Culross. How long is the visit to Stirling castle?

I know the trains run from Stirling to Glasgow. Can you suggest a closer town which is convenient to drive into and park for taking a short train ride into Glasgow?

My turn. I actually like Oban. Tons of decent to very good B&B's. Last time they had a good place to eat right on the waterfront. Lots of pubs and well after the day tourist have gone home it is very peaceful. My wife and I took the Bowman's tour. It was great! Starts in Oban by ferry to Mull, bus to other side od Mull, another small ferry to Iona and return. A really grand day. Two years ago, in winter, I spent a day in Tombermory, the longest most boring day ever.

sssteve, the tour starts in Oban at the ferry terminal. Once you arrive at Craignure you'll board a bus that takes across Mull to Fionnphort and then the short ferry to Iona. Other than the time you are on the bus, travel is independent. I beleive the tour runs daily. CalMac also has tours to Tobermory and one that does a circular tour of Mull with a stop at Duart Castle if you want to see Mull & Duart Castle instead of Iona. If I was going to Torosay Castle, I'd just get a ferry ticket to Craignure and do the castle on my own (I like walking). Calmac also offers a tour of Torosay Castle and the Mull Railway if you're interested in taking the train. Check out the CalMac website for their offerings.

www.calmac.co.uk