Great Britain Travel- London / Edinburgh
 

We will be traveling to GB for 9 nights in April. Not our first time. Our teens really want to see London so we plan on going to London for 4 nights and Edinburgh for 4 nights and final night near airport. We wish to travel to Highlands/Glen Coe/Lochness for at least a day trip or overnight trip. What is the best way to do this? Tour company? drive? train?
We can divide our 4 days up and spend time any where.

I was thinking 2 nights on Old town Edinburgh and then go for 2 nights to highlands. I can catch an afternoon train back to Heathrow area. Our flight is 11am back to USA

Thanks, Syd

Hi Syd,

For day tours from Edinburgh, Rabbies Tours have been highly recommended on this board.

www.rabbies.com/tour_scotland.asp

With only four nights in the city, I would prefer day excursions. Good luck!

Either all the time in Edinburgh and a day trip w/ Rabbies or Timberbush . . .

. . . OR two days in Edinburgh and a two-day tour w/ the same companies.

Like these http://www.rabbies.com/tours_scotlan...our.asp?lng=en

http://www.timberbush-tours.co.uk/ou...burgh/two-day/

While April isn't the best time of year obviously, you can do an overnight trip to the Highlands fairly easily. I'd rent a car and stay overnight somewhere around Glencoe; it's around a 3-hour drive from Edinburgh.

If Loch Ness is a must-see (it's not especially scenic) then you could make a fairly long day of it and drive from Edinburgh to Inverness, then back through the Great Glen (past Loch Ness, Loch Lochy etc.) down toward Fort William. Then return to Edinburgh the next day via Glencoe, maybe even Loch Lomond.

On the assumption you're taking the train from London to Edinburgh, you might look instead at flying straight to Inverness, getting a car there, then driving to Edinburgh from there, via the Great Glen and Glencoe etc. The numbers might not be as bad as you think, and it would save quite a lot of time and driving.

can catch an afternoon train back to Heathrow area>

there is also the Caledonian
sleeper overnight trains ex Sat night I think to London Euston from Edinburgh, Inverness, etc - give your kids the experience of an overnight train!

http://www.scotrail.co.uk/caledoniansleeper/index.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=cale...=1600&bih=1075

For lots on British trains check out www.seat61.com (who has nice info on the Caldenian Sleepers as well; www.budgeteuropetrvel.com and www.ricksteves.com. Book well in advance and get a 4-person compartment or two adjoining doubles for a nice discount perhaps and save on a night in a hotel.

Taking the train back to London makes no sense BTW. There are no trains to the "LHR area" from Scotland. You'd end up at Kings Cross and then have to schlepp across all of London to get to LHR. Or of you take the Sleeper -- you arrive at Euston -- but not early enough to make an 11AM flight since you need to be at LHR around 8AM

Fly from EDI to LHR - easy peasy.

Thanks for your advice,

If we take the sleeper Train from King's X to Inverness and then rent a car and drive down to Edinburgh via Fort William , Glen Coe and on to Edinburgh. We have 2 nights stay in the high lands.

We are interested in Scenery.

Should we go all the way to Inverness or use our 2 nights in Fort William and Mallaig.

Any help Appreciated
Syd

>>Should we go all the way to Inverness or use our 2 nights in Fort William and Mallaig. <<

Inverness is the center of a wonderful region -- but the city itself is nothing much.

Ft William is less than nothing much - absolutely don't stay there.

And Mallaig is primarily a ferry terminal. It is teensy. There is really no reason to stay there.

So no, I wouldn't stay in any of those three place.

Janisj

thanks ..where do you suggest we head to if we have 2 nights before heading to edinburgh?

Thanks, Syd

If you're taking the sleeper to Inverness and have two nights in the Highlands, then personally I'd head to the village of Plockton, not far from the Skye Bridge. Plockton is incredibly picturesque (used for the <i>Hamish Macbeth</i> TV series) and in April you'll probably have no problem with accommodation. http://gardyloo.us/plockton2s.jpg

Assuming your two nights doesn't include the sleeper night, then I'd stay both nights in Plockton and use the one full day to drive around Skye - maybe even out as far as Uig, where you're definitely reaching part of the "Celtic Fringe," or Dunvegan Castle, seat of Clan MacLeod.

On the last day, travel to Edinburgh via Glencoe, with - if time allows - a brief detour up Glen Etive, just at the south (upper) end of Glencoe on the edge of the Rannoch Moor. A short drive up the single-track road in Glen Etive will give you a real sense of the emptiness and wildness of the land.

Buchaille Etive Mor (Great Shepherd of the Etive,) looking toward Glencoe - http://gardyloo.us/20130613_71Hs.jpg

Map - http://goo.gl/maps/FvIh7

Great Tips.....Thanks So very much!!

Should we take the sleeper train all the way to Inverness..or get off earlier. Granted we still need to rent a car from the train station...

I love the idea of the Plockton/Skye area.

Is the drive from Plockton to Edinburgh ( via Glencoe) an easy drive?

Thanks, Syd

I'd take the sleeper to Inverness and rent the car there. Waverly station is in the center of Edinburgh and driving IN Edinburgh is a bear.

>>Is the drive from Plockton to Edinburgh ( via Glencoe) an easy drive?<<

Easy peasy -- but long. About 6 hours 'car time' w/o any stops -- and you'll want to stop a lot. At least at Glencoe, Killin, and maybe Doune or Stirling Castles. W/ stops it is a 10 to 12 hour drive.

If taking the Caledonian night train IME pay extra for a first-class compartment - I've had them and they are significantly nicer than 2nd class and get a private compartment and in no case sleep in regular seats if that option is offered - I took a night train from Glasgow to London once in what was advertised as 'reclining seats' but those seats reclined about one inch and were so close together it was hard to get any sleep at all - a veritable cattle car IME.

Thanks...so much for all the great advice

so schedule by nights ( 9 total)

london-1
london-2
london-3
london to Inverness over night ( 1st class sleepers)-4
rent a car from Train Station
drive to Portree- 5th night
drive via mallaig to Glencoe area/Killin/Callander(?) -overnight-6th
Edinburgh- 7
Edinburgh-8
Train to London -9
next am Airport

Thoughts?
Where should I spend the 6th night

Thanks, Syd

>>rent a car from Train Station
drive to Portree- 5th night
drive via mallaig to Glencoe area/Killin/Callander(?) -overnight-6th<<

Whoa! That is a LOT of driving for just one night on Skye. Inverness to Portree is 3+ hours and you'd only have that one day to see/do anything there. If you stop at Urquhart Castle, Eileen Donan, etc. count on about 5 hours to Portree and then just the rest of the day to see anything on Skye.

The next day you have 5-ish hours driving (just car time - w/o stops) to Callander. With stops at Glenfinnan, Glencoe, Killin, etc it is an 8 to 9 hour drive.

I think you need to do some soul searching whether this is what you want to do. Hours and hours in the car and almost no time actually 'being anywhere'.

If it was me, I'd stay two nights on Skye and the drive from Skye to EDI as one shot - it is a 6 hour drive plus stops - so essentially all day but at least you'd have time to see more on Skye.

(OR - I'd forget about Skye and concentrate on the Highlands and the Trossachs)

we have a Gleneagles Ryder Cup trip scheduled for Sep this year. in my prep I have been gratified to find dozens of helpful video clips on Youtube covering exactly the day or days trips in which you are interested. we are, too...Glencoe, Ft. William, Inverness, Loch Ness and Urquhart castle, where my forbears once lived...
http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/...?PropID=PL_297

If it was me, I'd stay two nights on Skye and the drive from Skye to EDI as one shot - it is a 6 hour drive plus stops - so essentially all day but at least you'd have time to see more on Skye.>

Having been to Skye if it were me I'd also say two nights on Skye so you have at least a full day to look around the main city and some countryside attractions.

But I also think that Skye is perhaps more romanticized than you may find it - I found it a nice bucolic backwater but not as gorgeous as much of the Scottish Highlands.

I think one problem with your plan is that you might find yourselves in horizontal rain in Skye in April. Granted, there's no escape from foul weather anywhere in the UK at that time, but the west and northwest of Scotland is really asking for it.

To be honest, I'd actually reconsider the Highlands given your time constraints, or else reduce the time allocated to the region. It's all about choices, of course - what could you do with any extra days if you <i>weren't</i> driving around the Highlands?

There are several alternative possibilities. For example, you could keep your idea of traveling on the overnight sleeper to Inverness, but instead of heading to Skye, just take that day to drive down the Great Glen past Loch Ness to Fort William, then out the A830 a few miles to the 1745 memorial at Glenfinnan, then back to Fort William and down through Glencoe to Killin at the head of Loch Tay for the night.

The next day, travel along Loch Tay to the A9, then around Perth and out to Dundee, then cross the River Tay to St Andrews. Lunch in St Andrews then travel to Edinburgh via the "East Neuk" of Fife - several lovely little fishing villages on the Fife coast - Crail, Anstruther, St Monans...

This would allow you to see a couple of the most scenic "highlights" in the western Highlands, but it would eventually get you over to the east coast, where the weather will <i>probably</i> be drier than the west. The East Neuk villages are worth a trip in themselves, and this would allow you to get to Edinburgh less road-weary and having seen more of the country. If you wanted to lose the car and spend an extra day in Edinburgh, fine, but you could also keep the car (stay in historic South Queensferry near Edinburgh airport where the car won't be such a nuisance) and the next day keep exploring.

On the attached map I show a second loop - from Edinburgh down through the Borders to England and across to the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne, a fascinating and incredibly historic place accessed by a causeway that's covered by water at high tide. There's an ancient monastery (one of the first Christian sites in the UK) and a wee castle, but in a very dramatic setting. Just down the way (on the mainland) is Bamburgh, with its imposing castle looming over the village. http://gardyloo.us/bamburghcastle2.jpg

Then back to Edinburgh via the A1 and/or A198, through some equally lovely villages on the Lothian side of the Firth of Forth - St Abbs, Dunbar, North Berwick. Again, you're on the "dry" side of the island in all this, very different from the Highlands but no less beautiful in its own way, and very historic.

Map - http://goo.gl/maps/V4l79

>>There are several alternative possibilities. For example, you could keep your idea of traveling on the overnight sleeper to Inverness, but instead of heading to Skye, just take that day to drive down the Great Glen past Loch Ness to Fort William, then out the A830 a few miles to the 1745 memorial at Glenfinnan, then back to Fort William and down through Glencoe to Killin at the head of Loch Tay for the night. <<

That route is sort of what I meant in my post above >>(OR - I'd forget about Skye and concentrate on the Highlands and the Trossachs)<< . . . But Gardyloo provided the details :)

https://www.google.com/search?q=rann...=1600&bih=1075

If anywhere near Fort William be sure to hit the desolate Rannoch Moor - only a few side roads go into the moor - the perfect moor - no trees, just desolation like you've never seen before.

From Fort William if you want to spend some time poking around the desolate Rannoch Moor you can take the train right thru it and get off at an isolated station, with a lonely but nice looking hotel, that is right in the middle of this beautfiul wasteland - you can drive there to and park I guess.

Now after two posts on the "desolation" of Rannoch Moor, I feel I need to clarify Pal's remarks. I don't know if Pal really hasn't spent that much time exploring the moor, or if he has been influenced by Robert Louis Stevenson's unfortunate remark regarding Rannoch Moor , or perhaps it is just a poor choice of words. Rannoch Moor is isolated but it is NOT desolate. The word desolate has a negative connotation implying something that's been laid to waste, forsaken, gloomy or lifeless. Rannoch Moor is none of these. If one looks at the link Pal provided, I'm sure most would concur that it is a place of spectacular beauty. I believe that beauty is enhanced by the moor's isolation. No shops, no pubs, no towns or even villages. It is a place of natural beauty of nature at its best and sometimes its worse.

There are no roads of any kind that run through the moor. The A 82 runs along its western border and one can drive to Rannoch Station ( site of the Moor of Rannoch Hotel and stopping point for the West Highland train route). Although most pictures of the moor will only show a lonely gnarled pine, there are trees on the moor. A very small percentage of the Great Caledonian Forest still exists, and there are other areas where small forests can be found. These are probably areas that have been planted as forestry projects. I often walk among Scottish pines that I refer to as Nature's skyscrapers. The moor is rich in wildlife although larger animals such as deer and even the Scottish wildcat are seldom seen. It is a great place to walk with numerous lochs,lochans, burns, and views that IMO are a quintessential representation of the Scottish Highlands.

One's opinion of Rannoch Moor can be influenced by the weather. A sunny day and the place is one of awe-inspiring beauty, a cold, windy, rainy day and you'll want nothing more than a warm spot and a wee dram. On my first train trip across the moor, a gentleman in the next seat remarked (in a rather negative tone) that the place was barren, desolate and boring, but I was enchanted and promised myself I would return and explore it further. I did. I have made about a half dozen trips to the moor since then, and it remains one of my favorite spots in Scotland.

Thanks for all the great information

so we have 2 options

1- Inverness to Skye ( 2 nights)- Three Chimney area...Cons- Drive back to Edinburgh very long and weather could be bad in Skye

2- Inverness to Edinburgh. Overnights in Glencoe and Callander or ??

We really wanted to see Skye area but I can see that It is very unrealistic.

If Scenery is Important which do you recommend.

Thanks, Syd

Maybe one solution is to drop Inverness and take the sleeper from London to Fort William instead. The sun will be up as you enter the western Highlands, and in fact you'll get a better view of the Rannoch Moor from the train than you can from the road. The train gets into Fort William mid-morning, and there are car rental companies close to the station, e.g. https://www.easydrivescotland.co.uk/

Get a car and go out the Road to the Isles (A830) to Mallaig and if you can see the mountains on Skye and have sixty quid you need rid of, get on the next ferry to Armadale and head up toward Sligachan for great views of the Black Cuillin hills. You'll have enough daylight to spend several hours on Skye, then head back to the ferry and back to Fort William, but continue past Fort William (which in fairness is nicer than it used to be, but that's rather faint praise) and spend the night in Glencoe village, at the bottom of Glencoe. If the weather's foul then don't take the ferry, and instead spend time at the Glenfinnan memorial, and maybe run up the Great Glen toward Inverness so you can say you saw Loch Ness.

Regardless, the next day, drive up Glencoe to the top and then a little way up Glen Etive, then turn around and head back down Glencoe to Ballachulish, turn left and follow the A828 down toward Oban, through Oban and stop for lunch at one of the most romantic and historic places in Scotland, the tiny village of Kilmartin. Kilmartin Glen, a flat little valley that sits below the village's ancient church, is littered with standing stones, burial cairns, and all sorts of neolithic or iron age bits and pieces. It's really a remarkable place. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...tin/kilmartin/

After lunch, continue south through Lochgilphead then north along Loch Fyne to Inverary, a lovely little village dominated by nearby Inverary Castle, seat of the Campbells (boo) and featured on Downton Abbey. Stay the second night in Inverary. The next day is a scenic and easy 2 1/2 hour drive to Edinburgh, past Loch Lomond.

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...ray/inveraray/

This would give you an excellent sampling of the western Highlands - great scenery, some amazing history, attractive villages, the odd castle, and relatively easy driving.

Map - http://goo.gl/maps/VqhEf

Gardyloo's suggestions are good - the only change I'd suggest is that (assuming the weather is nice and you go over to Skye) take the ferry over to the island and take the bridge back off the island. It looks farther on a map but it takes almost exactly the same time to drive each way and it lets you see glenfinan one way and Eilean Donan the other . . .

, or perhaps it is just a poor choice of words.>

history traveler - was a poor choice of words - yours are much more accurate and portray what I attempted to.

Thank You..One last question.

We decided in the interest of time..to take the train to Fort William..Provided we can return a car to Edinburgh.


What route should we drive to Edinburgh. We will be driving into the city on a wednesday afternoon. Should we take the Perth route or the route through Callender?

Thanks for all your help...
Syd

Me and my big mouth...

I went looking for off-season car hire in Fort William with a drop at Edinburgh and could only find this company - https://www.easydrivescotland.co.uk/ - which will include a hefty one way drop fee - £160 - for returns either at the airport or Waverly Station. Frankly for that I'd drop the car back in Fort William and take the train to Edinburgh. You'd have to change trains in Glasgow, but it's an easy connection, and the scenery for much of the trip is quite lovely. Plus the driver doesn't have to navigate through motorways or roundabouts, and you'd end up in central Edinburgh rather than the airport followed by a tram or expensive cab ride into the city. Around £20 per person and well worth it. http://www.scotrail.co.uk/

If you still want to tour parts of the lowlands, or Fife etc., just rent a second car in Edin. for a day or two and return it where you got it.

Agree with Gardyloo, an easy change at Glasgow Queen's Street Station, and a very scenic route.

The only reliable places to hire a car and get one-way rentals in the highlands are in Inverness and Perth.

I personally would not faff about with renting a car in Ft William. (Been there, tried to do that - real pain in the butt). I overlooked that bit in his post. I'd take the train to i'ness or Perth and collect a one-way car and drop it back in Edinburgh . . . Or better, at EDI and take public transport into the city.