Help! We are two American girls studying abroad in London: our first European experience. We would love to visit the Scotland Highlands, and we already have time planned for a Thurs. afternoon through a Sun. evening, but are completely overwhelmed with such a vast collection of opportunities. A "roughing it" adventure, wth scenic views, but also historic experience with plenty of time to relax on a hill and meditate are certainly in our expectations. We enjoy castles, walks, beautiful views and cute Scotish gentleman. What cities/sites/views would you recommend for top priority?

Anyone have any suggestions?

keep checking back...there are a few highlands experts (sheila, janis???). i can only speak for the southern highlands (Cairngorms, ben nevis, etc). this is a great area for walking. ben nevis is the tallest mountain in the UK. i'm not sure what your fitness/skill level is. a real walk will take a full day. i'm not sure about the meditation and relaxation thing...highland walks can be wild depending on the weather. it can change 5 times on a day's walk from sunny and mild to typhoon.

forget cities...nearby cities like inverness are only useful for their airports. a car is a must but i assume that you already know that.

your problem is time. you have two full days and a lot of expectation. distances are rather great in these parts and getting to and from the airport (on both ends) will eat up a lot of time.

when are you visiting? i would go asap....days will start getting seriously short rather quickly as you get into oct and nov.

I assume you won't have a car - right? If so your, "relax on a hill and meditate" options are a bit limited. Does the Thurs p.m. - Sun p.m. include travel time from London and back? - If, so you really have Friday morning to Sunday lunch time.

Normally I'd say go to Edinburgh where you can hook up w/ day or overnight tours to the highlands. I know a bus tour probably isn't high on your list - but on weekends public transport can be pretty spotty.

Or you could take the train (or fly) to Inverness and take organized day trips from there.

How old are you? If old enough to rent a car - then your options are greatly improved. You could take the train from London to Edinburgh, Ft William, Perth or Inverness and pick up a rental car and go almost anywhere.

So - let us know 1) if a car hire is a possibility, and 2) when is the trip?

We're both 20 years old so I'm assuming renting a car not a possibility. I was kind of joking about the meditation thing. We want to relax, but would also like to do some sort of a walk. We'll be leaving Thurs. at around noon and will get the latest flight on Sun. night. Any help you have to give is great appreciated! The trip is this next weekend- Sept 7-10. Thanks!

Can you tell us what time of year you intend coming?

I think, if you're coming from London, you should look at flying Easyjet to Inverness from Luton and back, rather than get stuck spending hours in transit.

Will you be able to hire a car when you get here?

These questions are quite important to find the right place for you.

Both posting at the same time. So.

I don't suppose you could get the Thursday morning off too? If so, I'd suggest that you take the sleeper to Oban and spend the weekend there. You'd have Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then get the sleeper back. If you can't, you could still do that but you lose the Thursday. There is no rational day time train trip to Oban from London.

The same option applies to Fort William, but it's not nearly so nice a town.

There are lots of low level walks to Dunstaffnage, the Folly, along the shore opposite Kerrera, nice cafes and restaurants, real nightlife (albeit, not quite at the Morven Callar level), the option of day trips to Iona, or to Mull where you can walk easily in VERY remote places.

Now, if that all seems not so fine, then you can do the same thing with a lunch time departure by train and sleeper home overnight on Sunday, to Aviemore.

You're within a few minutes of serious hills, in a bustling (slightly tacky) town with all of the above. No sea

Castles nearby but quite hard to get to by public transport.

If you're truly determined to fly, same option for Inverness, but get a bus to Aviemore from, persumably Inverness.

All these palces have B&Bs by the million, and, indeed hostels.

What do you think?