I am in early stages of planning a Scotland driving trip. We will be flying in from London to Edinburgh. Will stay a few days in Edinburgh and then rent a car to explore . My original thought was to drive north toward Inverness, but after reading some posts, it seems the west coast is more picturesque.

We are into scenery, history, good food, interesting towns. We will have about 5-6 days in total to spend in Scotland. Any ideas on cities besides Edinburgh to visit? Any help is much appreciated.

I suggest you look at some guidebooks, particularly the DK Kinderling series; they have lots of pictures. (You don't have to buy them; get them from the library.) Frommer's has a "Best Loved Driving Tours" of Scotland, and Michelin lays out some tours. All this is to get a better idea of what places you want to see. Then lay out your trip on one of the mapping programs, like www.multimap.com or www.theaa.com. Driving is relatively slow in Scotland, especially on the one-lane roads with pull-outs that they have in the Highlands.

You must see Sterling. And if you are a Monty Python fan Castle Doane just north of Sterling is a must. They even have coconuts for you to borrow. I didn't get it but my friend got a huge kick out of it. It was a great ruined castle to visit and we had the place mostly to ourselves. Great after the crush of Sterling. Callander was a charming touristy town.

I loved the Iona Mull Staffa tour out of OBAN. Let them do the driving on that one. Fingal's cave is a geologic wonder, and it was fun to be on a small boat like the Scottish fishermen.

Don't be afraid of the one lane roads. They are one lane because there is hardly any traffic. People are great about passing and being passed. There are turnouts every few feet in most places.

If you do your research, Glencoe is very moving.

Inverness is the heart of the highlands and makes a great home base. Make sure you take a distilery tour. Even for a non-drinker, it was quite a highlight.

Being a Diana Gabaldon fan I had to see standing stones. The best were on the Isle of Lewis, but very out of the way. The second best were on the Orkneys. We did that one as a day tour out of Inverness and let them do the driving again. Well worth it so we could both relax and enjoy.

It's Stirling, not Sterling which is the British currency (or an alloy of silver)

And it's Doune - Doane

And, is Inverness really the heart of the Highlands? Guess I missed that one!

Ok. Thanks for the help so far. I've started using multimap - great suggestion. The idea of a "home base" is actually my main issue right now. Whether to drive from place to place, staying one night in each, OR to stay somewhere central (I don't see Inverness as really central - but maybe it is an option). Thoughts?

Why not make it a linear trip between Edinburgh & Inverness, drop the car off there and return to London either by Caledonian Sleeper or by flying.

Saves you a day just getting back to Edinburgh

To be prefectly honest, Inverness is usually recommended by folks who 1) have only been once, or 2) are relying solely on trains/public transport to get around.

For anyone w/ a choice (and having a car) spending part of one's limited time in in Scotland staying in Inverness is a bit of a waste. Sort of like visitors to CA staying in San Jose instead of Carmel or Mendocino. Nothing horribly wrong w/ the place - there are just soooooo many better choices.

Now re a series of 1 night stands vs settling in to a base. One-night stays are a lot more trouble/work. One is always packing, unpacking, checking in checking out. So even if you do decide to move around it is usually better to stay 2 or 3 nights in one location and then move to the next.

You can work out wonderful itineraries either way -- a base for your full 5-6 days, or two bases for 2-3 days each.

You are flying in from London, and will have 5-6 days total in Scotland (that includes your time in Edinburgh?) How many days were you thinking of spending in Edinburgh? The reason I'm asking is that you really won't have a ton of time for exploring <i>Scotland</i> - 3 days or so. Given that constraint, I wouldn't go very FAR, but pick one destination and explore that area.

Oh - I may have completely mis-read the OP. I thought it meant 5 -6 days besides Edinburgh, but it does look like you meant 5-6 days in total. Which is it?? If you only have 5-6 days total for the whole trip - you really don't have time for a lot of exploring. 2 or 3 days in Edinburgh and a couple of days for somewhere like the Trossachs/Stirling is about it.

Stirling, Doune and round about are good ideas; but so is Highland Perthshire- Loch Tay, Loch earn, Balquhidder.

If you only have a couple of days outside Edinburgh I wouldn't go too far, were I you. There's a lot of good stuff within 100 miles.

We will have 5-6 days including Edinburgh - so my thought was 2 days in Edinburgh, then pick another location and make that a base for touring other sites. My problem is which city to make that base???

Thanks for your help so far.

No city - choose someplace like Callander which is convenient for Stirling, Doune, Loch Lomond, Balquhidder, and the Trossachs. Or a bit farther north maybe on Loch Earn/Loch Tay for Perth/Scone, Balquhidder, Blair Atholl, Killin/Falls of Dochart etc.

W/ 3 days you could see quite a bit and make it as far as Glencoe from either area.

I'm going to second the idea of Frommer's Best Loved Driving Tours book. I bought it before going to Scotland last year, and although I really only followed a couple of the trails, I found it really useful. It gives you a really good idea of where you can go in a limited amount of time. If you didn't get out the car and spend time at all of the recommended stops, you might be able to shorten the drive time on some of the tours. For example, we didn't tour every recommended castle that was on one of the tours. We picked a couple that looked particularly interesting to us and skipped the others. There's just never enough time and money....