jmreeves

Family vacation--4 days in Scotland, would like to stay in Edinburgh, would like to visit Loch Ness, Glen Nevis, Fort William, Stirling, and catch some great views of Scottish scenery. Is this possible?

sheila

Doable, and not TOO too much- not what I would do, but then we're all Jock Tamson's bairns.

ardbroilach

If you manage all the places on your list you should see plenty of scenery. Most typically Scottish views are in the Highlands (Loch Ness) and on the West Coast (Fort William). Distances are not too great but the roads are often narrow and I guarantee you will get stuck behind a caravan at some point.

janis

Doable - but just. My question is -- are there specific reasons you have included Loch Ness and Ft William.? Family connections, friends there, or because they are places you have heard of and understandably assume are "the" Places to visit?

If you really just want to see Edinburgh, Stirling and some wonderful Highland scenery you could do it with a lot less traveling through prettier country. Say two days in Edinburgh, Then visit Stirling castle and drive through Glen Dochart on your way NW towards Glen Coe. Then a day near Loch Linnhe and back to Edinburgh (or to where ever you need to leave from)

GreenDragon

IMHO, Fort William was a bit of a disappointment -- ticky tacky touristy, and not much feeling of history. I'm a big history buff, and enjoyed many other places more than Fort William. Glen Nevis, on the other hand, is another story

jmreeves

Thanks!

We're really into history, and we really like great tranquil scenery--plus, we enjoy seeing new places. We would enjoy seeing the areas associated with William Wallace, and I was under the impression that Stirling and Fort William were the places to go for that. Am I wrong about those?

Also, Is it possible to have a hotel in Edinburgh for the entire 4 days and just make day trips to the other places? We do like to move around on a holiday excursion.

higgles

jmreeves,

Your plan is almost exactly what I did recently - based from Edinburgh.

And I agree Fort William is a dissapointment but there is much to see and do in Edinburgh which is an incredible city.

I think you could do all these places while staying in Edinburgh - thats what I did - but you may find the travelling a bit much and so a night or two in the highlands may be worth it (good quality/value accommodation can be found in the Highlands). On the subject of accommodation my tip for Edinburgh is the Aonach Mor Guest House - the friendly hosts where very helpful for me to arrange my trips and activities.

amyb

You could stay in Edinburgh the entire time and catch day tours out of Edinburgh to any of those areas. I know there are several to Loch Ness, and others that incorporate Glen Nevis, Fort William and Stirling. You would definitely be "catching some great views" with any day tour of the Highlands.

I just stayed in Edinburgh for a week and did a day tour to Western Highlands (I decided to skip Loch Ness) and it was beautiful. We stopped at Stirling on the way home just for a photo opp, but I would also recommend Stirling as a visit in itself.

Pam1951

We were in Scotland in February and had a wonderful time. We had two weeks so were not under as much of a time crunch.

My fiancee was not keen on driving the manual transmission car on the left during the first few days we were there so we took a Grayline bus tour from Edinburgh to Stirling - also stopped at Loch Lomond, Glasgow and drove through the Trossachs (just beautiful) We had a driver named Allen who was very good. He knew the hundreds of years of Scottish history better than we knew our own short history. He was very interesting and had a way of explaining all the different royalty, battles and castles so that we felt we had a background for the rest of our trip. I would recommend the tour highly especially if he was driving. I am not a fan of organized tours and usually avoid them but this was terrific

Pam

sheila

Wallace won (as you may have worked out) the battle of Stirling Bridge before being captured and eviscerated by the English. But his only connection with Fort William (as far as I am aware) is that some of the Braveheart scenes were filmed in nearby Glen Nevis. Its names is that of the English King who sent garrisons to control the Scots after the '45- which is when the town was established as a garrison.

To meet your requirements- history, tranquil scenery and 4 days. I'd take a Stirling or Linlithgow base, hire a car, but take the train for Edinburgh visits, and go (in random order) to Perth, Loch Leven, Stirling, Culloden, Inverary and Kilmartin Glen and Glenfinnan