Driving from Edinburgh to Portree
 

We've never visited Scotland before let alone drive there. We are American visiting Scotland for one week and London for another. Our plan right now it to land in Edinburgh and stay for a couple of days. Take trip to Skye and stay in Portree for two night then return to Edinburgh for a couple more days. We will take the train from Edinburgh to London and then stay there for the second week. Please help me plan my trip. From Edinburgh to Skye the hubby wants to drive. Kids want to ride the Jacobite train from Fort William to Mallign. Then ferry to Skye. Is this reasonable to do in one day? What's the best route? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

very bad idea. Skye is wonderful -- but Edinburgh to Portree is at least a 6.5 hour drive w/o a single stop. In real life it will take about 9 hours if you only stop for one meal and at the OMG drop dead gorgeous photo ops. You have too short a time and want to go too far. There are MANY other really gorgeous parts of Scotland that are not all the way on the opposite side of the country.

If you want to take the Jacobite train - great. Take an early AM train to Ft William, catch the Jacobite out to Mallaig (not malign) and back, and back to Edinburgh the same night.

Scotland is a very big/varied place and if you plan on staying 4 days in Edinburgh you simply don't have enough time. If you want to stay on Skye you need more than 2 days from Edinburgh.

You can actually stay on the train all the way to Mallaig. It travels the same track as the Jacobite train but without the extra cost and without the steam. Unless you're set on a steam train experience, stick with the less expensive option.

Meant to add that it'll be a very long day leaving EDB about 7:30 and not returning untill 10:00pm. Of course you could overnight along the way but avoid Fort William and Mallaig. There are other good options.

I've done this drive (and back) over the course of a weekend, leaving first thing Saturday, returning late Sunday night. It truthfully doesn't do Skye justice. It was enough time to spend a few minutes trying to spot Nessie, an afternoon at Eilean Donan (beautiful from the outside, but that's it...I'd skip going in) and an evening in Portree, and that was it. You would definitely need more time to explore Skye. Agree with the other posters; there are good alternatives that are more doable given your time constraints.