Help with Scotland itinerary
 

We will be in Scotland for 7 nights in mid April; 7 seniors. Our plan was to spend 3 nights in Edinburgh and then 3 nights Isle of Skye. Our last night will be in Glasgow where we depart for home. I would like to know if our choices are too far apart. We like sightseeing, castles, would like some of the whiskey trail. Can anyone suggest a better plan for us? Thanks for any and all help.

I don't have time to answer fully just now but I'll give it a start and ask a couple of questions to get you thinking.

The "whisky trail" is up on the Spey near to Inverness - a long ways from both Skye and Edinburgh. But there is an interesting distillery on Skye.

How were you planning on getting around outside of Edinburgh. To really make good time and see much of Skye or the whiskey trail area you would need to drive. But finding a vehicle big enough for 7 plus luggage means you would need a VERY large van. This would not be the best for driving on the narrow and single track roads you will encounter. If you get two cars, do you have two+ in the group willing to do a lot of driving?

How "senior" are you? Older folks can rent cars but finding agencies that rent to over 70's may take a bit more hunting.

I'll try to get back to this later - maybe Sheila or some of the other "Scotland experts" will see your questions and give you more to work with.

We will have 2 rental cars with 6 of us driving. We range in age from a non-senior (56ish) to 67 yrs of age. We do not let the 90 year old do any driving - she has earned a place without responsibility. All of us have had past experience driving on the "wrong" side - Ireland, England, Virgin Islands. We will be driving to Edinburgh and park the car for the druation of our stay there. Would it be advantageous to do any day trips from Edinburgh? Only 1 of us has been there before and she was a college student 35 years ago. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I think that is an OK itinerary for 7 nights in Scotland.

I'd stick with Edinburgh if you've only got three days and I'd not hire a car there if you can avoid it.

Can you expand a little? Where do you fly into and what time? What time is your flight out?

We will arrive in London April 7 but will not arrive in Scotland until the following week. Our scheduled departure is April 22 from Glasgow at 1:20pm. We're spending 4 nights in London and will then pick up our vehicles and drive through parts of England and Wales before our arrival in Scotland on April 15.

I'm trying to find out how long you'll have on the first day in Edinburgh. What time do you expect to arrive?

I would estimate our arrival to be about 12 noon. We'll stay 3 nights and depart at approx. the same time.