Critique My Scotland Itenerary...Please!
 

I have 10 1/2 days and 11 nights in Scotland with my husband. He has a few things which he feels are necessary to see (so we must do those...even if they are out of the way). His &quot;musts&quot; are Hadrian's Wall (I know, it's not in Scotland), and Loch Ness. If you read my previous question, you know that we like scenery, walks, and relaxation (my husband loves battle armor and castles)... not tourist traps (though we might want to see at least one &quot;cheesy&quot; scottish show). So here is what I have come up with..... (Please critique what we could skip or how much time we spend in each place)<BR><BR>Day 1- Arrive in Edinburgh at (Coming from Chicago, USA, then layover in Manchester) 2:00 PM. Drive to Hadrians wall... maybe see it when we get there (don't know how long the drive is from E)? Stay near wall.<BR>Day 2- Drive to Borders, see Traquair, and Abbotsford houses, St. Abb's Head<BR>Day 3- Drive to Stirling, see castle, the Trossachs (rob roy), maybe falls of bruar and Blair Castle<BR>Day 4- Drive to Loch Tay and then on to Invernay and Glen Coe<BR>Day 5- More of day 4, maybe Oban?, then on to Mull<BR>Day 6- Mull, Fingals Cave<BR>Day 7- Glenfinnian then to Skye<BR>Day 8- Skye<BR>Day 9- Loch Ness, Cawdor Castle, Landmark Visitor's Center<BR>Day 10- (??? Fort George, Moray of Firth, Craigellachie, Kingussie, Aigas dam fish lift, Loch an Eilean???)<BR>Day 11- To Edinburgh --- the mile<BR>Day 12- 8:40 am flight<BR><BR>I know, it is a lot.... are there any activities that are definitely not worth the time?<BR>

1. Remind us when you're going? It must be a good two hour, maybe 2 1/2 hour run down to the nearest useful point on the Wall. bearing in mind that it crosses England, was there one bit in particular you wanted to see? If it were me I'd find a nice place near the Wall to crash and then see the stuff first thing next morning.<BR><BR>Day 3 is mindblowing in a &quot;you cannot be serious!&quot; kind of way<BR><BR>Otherwise, and other than that I just couldn't DO that, it's achieveable.<BR><BR>Ditch Stirling and the Trossachs

I am going to be in Scotland June 9th through the 20th.

Now that I have a rough plan, any suggestions on reasonably priced, cozy, friendly B&amp;B's in the areas I will be visiting?<BR>Thanks a lot; I really appreciate it!

No, no. NO. This is a crazy routing and you will only be spending hours a day in the car. Luckily you are there in June so the daylight hours are very long (Light until about 11PM.)<BR><BR>Look over this route and see how it sounds.<BR><BR>Arrive Jun 9 - stay in Edinburgh 2 nights - it doesn't make sense to drive all the way to Northumberland if you don't get to Edinburgh until after 2PM.<BR><BR>June 11 drive to Hexham/Haltwhistle area early in the AM. Spend several hours expolring the wall and then drive up to Jedburgh/Kelso or Melrose for 2 nights exploring the border area on June 12<BR><BR>June 13 early AM drive from the Borders to Oban - it is a long drive but certainly doable stay night of June 13 in Oban.<BR><BR>June 14 take the first ferry to Mull. take the boat to Staffa and when you land (it is about a 4 hour total trip) and as soon as you return take the ferry over to Iona for a few hours. Stay June 14 and 15 on Mull. Explore Mull June 14.<BR><BR>June 15 early ferry fishnish to lochaline and cross the peninsula to Mallaig - ferry to Skye. Stay June 15 on Skye.<BR><BR>June 16 Kyle to near Inverness along Loch Ness - Visit Urquhart Castle enroute. Stay June 16 - 17 near Inverness and visit Ft George and Brodie Castle<BR><BR>June 18 drive down the A9 - visit Blair Atholl and stay June 18 - 19 near Stirling. On June 19 see as much as you can - Stirling Castle, trossachs, Loch Tay, Balqhiddar etc - but you will miss some things.<BR><BR>Stirling is less than a 45 minute drive from Edinburgh Airport so you could easily catch your morning flight on the 20th. <BR><BR>(Actually - if you are flying into Manchester I would have driven from there through Northumberland and the Borders)

Do you have time to see Hoylrood Palace in Edinburgh? It's one of the Queens vacation homes filled with antiquities. Definitely worth the visit. Traquiair House &amp; Borders is a great stop. Hadrian's wall will take all of about 5 mins. to see. Sorry that's all the common ground I know about, have a great vacation!

Wow, that sounds either like an exhausting trip or that you like to spend ALOT of time in a car and/or on motorways. Add in time for jetlag, finding parking, stopping and getting out of the car, visiting a site, eating, drinking, making a pitstop or two, going for a walk or two, finding your hotel/B&amp;B, etc. and you are making for some very full days, and not what I would deem to be relaxing. If your &quot;musts&quot; are Hadrian's Wall and Loch Ness (though I don't see why for Loch Ness and you will too once you get there...) you may want to take a look at a map and center your trip a little lower in Scotland. Maybe just go as far as Mull/Oban and skip Skye. Or skip Mull and just go to Skye. When leaving the West Coast to head back to Edinburgh, you might consider driving along Loch Ness, then turning to drive down through the Grampians toward Loch Tay area on your way to Edinburgh. Or you could always do the Trossachs area on your way back toward Edinburgh. I would suggest you look at a map, realise that you won't be driving as fast as you would in the US, think about what you really want to be doing (driving all the time?) and make some realistic cuts to your itinerary. Good luck!

A slight correction on my suggestion - re June 18 - 19. On the 18th If you get to Blair Atholl by opening time (10AM) you would have time to visit the Castle and then take a detour along Loch Tay through Killen (Falls of Dochart), visit Balquidder (Rob Roy's grave) and then on to near Stirling. This will give you all day on the 19th to explore Stirling Castle and maybe Inchmahome Priory or Doune Castle.

Your suggestions have been wonderful, especially the re-routing. I thought I might be over doing it when I made the itenerary, but I did not consider the roads... now I think I need to cut something. I really don't want to be in the car all day long. Question is, what to cut. I wish I could cut Hadrians Wall and Loch Ness, but my husband is persistant ;-)

Don't cut Hadrian's Wall, it's very interesting and will take more than five minutes. Janis' routing makes much more sense.<BR>cnmiranda, Holyrood Palace is actually the Queen's official residence in Scotland.

Thanks Barb, but I knew that =)