First Scotland driving tour- nine nights
 

Hello,

Dear Garyloo, Improvisor and Janis, and others,
I have read the latest amazing discussion about this prospect. I was so intrigued and impressed by your repartee that I was inspired to start my own thread because we are all unique.

Basics. Arrive Eve. 10/22 Leave morning 10/31-Husband /Wife 65: Seasoned ( like to do it ourselves) travelers-

We love wildlife, scenery,theatre, music,architecture, laughter, spontaneous adaptions, adventure, local folk, My wife likes History. I love food and getting lost.

I fully agree with you- There are no bests or must sees that can be counted on. Everyone has different interests and in nine days there is no way to explore enough to return home feeling like I know Scotland.

Sure, it's fun to plan, dream and figure and re figure the best possible ways to go about seeing a new place but, having done this so many times, I have come to appreciate someone with obvious great personal knowledge offer a touring idea with artful simplicity.

Garyloo expressed it this way:
Three or four nights in Glencoe.
Two or three nights in... wait.... Fife.
Four nights in Edinburgh.

I'm up for that idea:

Now having said that, looking at our interests. could you give me any additional specifics on what I may want to avoid and what seems like a good move to include? Are there special roads I should explore? Restaurants or to look into check out?

We are open to a variety of accommodations-- Thoughts?
We will rent a car for seven nights after our stay in Edin.

You might want to take a look at my Scotland trip report of a few years back; click on my name to find it.

I did those 3 with 3 separate trips along with a few others locations as well. See if this helps:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...s-and-more.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-with-kids.cfm

tony2phones should be your best bet for an answer, as he lives in Ireland and posts frequently.

Sorry, brain went totally dead on which post I was on.

Arrive Eve? Do you mean EDI? If so how about:

Night 1 Edinburgh
Night 2 Edinburgh
Night 3 Aberfeldy
Night 4 Aberfeldy
Night 5 Tobermory
Night 6 Tobermory
Night 7 Tobermory

Sorry pressed enter too soon:

Night 8 Callender

Night 9 Edinburgh

There are lots of alternatives to this, but you'll drive through some fantastic scenery and see some lovely places.

Obviously a road tour in late October is going to be quite different than one in mid-summer. Don't forget how far north you are - it's not just the weather that will need to be considered, it's the daylight hours too.

One of the things that led to (some of the) confusion on the other thread was a lack of clarity on the "before and after" details. Are you coming straight to Scotland from overseas or are you departing the UK at the end of your visit to Scotland? Or is Scotland part of a longer UK visit? How will you be arriving and departing, and from/to where?

Not trying to pry with these questions, only trying to get a feel of how to handle the timing and route.

Why not stay in Oban instead of Tobermory ?
I´ve never been to Tobermory myself to be honest but Oban will give you the opportunity to explore the surrounding area on the mainland as well as taking a daytrip to Mull.
You can take the car over to Craignure (leaves from Oban) and visit Tobermory or drive over to Fionnphort, pronounced "Finn-a-fort", and take the ferry over to Iona.
Mind that if you do that, leave the car in Fionnphort as everything on Iona is walking distance and it´ll be a lot cheaper.

No disrespect to Tobermory but there will probably be more to see and do around Oban.
Seeing as you like to get lost Tobermory is the last place you want to go, there´s only one way in and one way out :)