Itinerary for 11-12 days in Scotland? (doable without a car?)
 

We are looking to do ~11 days in Scotland. We are in our mid/late 20s but I am pregnant :) (Will be somewhere between 19-25 weeks when we go). We are looking at going sometime in March-early May.

My personal preference would be taking public transportation rather than renting a car, but if renting a car is a must we will consider it. Also, would prefer to balance seeing enough with also trying to have a semi-relaxing vacation. We live in NYC and have seen our fair share of museums here and throughout Europe but love to see castles, beautiful environmental attractions, and things that are unique to the area (with maybe a few museums). It looks like there aren't many direct flights from the NY area, only Newark, NJ. Is this true?. What are the must-see cities? can we do day trips to some places? Help!

Any suggestions for an itinerary? Or, for this kind of trip, are we better off going to Ireland? (our other option)

I think that to get the best out of your trip you would need to hire a car for at least part of it - especially if beautiful environmental attractions are top of your list. Having said that though one of the best train journeys in the world is in Scotland and we are disappointed that we can't fit it in to our trip this year as we will be in a car. Glasgow, Edinburgh and maybe Inverness would be the best 3 cities to visit. Glasgow and Edinburgh have world class attractions and Inverness gives you access to the stuning scenery of the Highlands.

You can certainly see a lot of Scotland by train/bus. But I'm pretty darn sure if I was pregnant I'd want the convenience of a car.

You could stop where and when and for as long as you wanted/needed to.

Just something to think about. Not that pregnant women can't take public transport. Of course they can. But not having to stick to a schedule would be much more restful IMO. March to May (except for around Easter) is not crowded and you could just travel at your own speed. Also -- trains go lots of wonderful places -- but cars can reach many more.

If it were me, I'd make it a 2 centre holiday,a nd I'd have a car for the second part.

I'd base in Edinburgh for about half the time and I'd do one mini bus day trip to the Borders, and maybe another to the Fife Coast.

Then I'd move myself to Blair Atholl, Oban or Gairloch with a car and use that to do trips round about interspersed with lots of chilling time.

You don't have to stay in both Glasgow and Edinburgh -- they're about 70 miles apart so stay in Edinburgh and do day trips to Stirling (exc. castle), Glasgow, etc. And do a second "center" in the Highlands (sheila mentions Blair Atholl, but Aberdeen area has LOTS of castles, and whisky, and the coast) or on the West Coast (Oban). And once you're wandering around Scotland outside of Edinburgh, you NEED a car -- much more convenient and the train network is nowhere near as extensive as England (Ireland's is worse -- sparse coverage).

Edinburgh would be the "must see" city if such a thing exists. And its main attractions are not necessarily museums -- the Castle, the Palace of Holyrood House, Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat, St. Giles Kirk, Princes Street Gardens, and the Royal Mile are all non-museum attractions. Just take lots of rests because it is all hills and every flippin' hill in Edinburgh goes up, never down. I don't know why that is. ;-).

Do try and and stay a couple of nights in Glasgow....it is only a 50 min train ride from Edinburgh, but worth more than a day trip and a completely different vibe from Edinburgh.

After seeing your similar post on Ireland, I'll say this:

(1) I'd go to Scotland generally over Ireland any time and twice over after winter is done. There are lots of reasons for this (mostly historical and political because I'm neither Scottish nor Irish). From your perspective, you said you like castles -- the Scottish ones are far better. You also said you like environmental attractions, and I think Scotland has Ireland beat there too.

The whisky's better too, though in your situation that could be a plus from your hubby's standpoint, not yours.

(2) If you're really dead set on traveling by public transport, then Scotland is better than Ireland because Irish transport infrastructure sucks. The roads are slow (winding two-lane roads) so that means buses are slow. The train system is Dublin-centric and not swift -- it's a classic hub-and-spoke system with essentially one hub, Dublin; at least Scotland has some high-speed lines even if they don't reach their top speeds.

(3) Scotland is economically and politically more stable because it is part of the UK and not the Eurozone. Ireland is one of the "PIIGS" of the Eurozone -- the five countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) whose debt problems and economic issues threaten to destroy the Euro.

(4) Edinburgh > Dublin, and this isn't a close call, it's a rout.

If your choice is Scotland or Ireland, based on your parameters above, I'd choose Scotland.

Ultimately, though, if you really want to go someplace in the Anglosphere that's easily accessible from NYC and has good public transportation, your best option is London and England.

FWIW, summer, you might scan my Trip report of a few years ago at this link:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...p-report-2.cfm
I love Ireland dearly, but tend to agree with BigRuss about the incredible castles all over Scotland offering so much more.
My opinion is that to make public transportation work as I did, you must be Really comfortable with doing a Considerable amount of advanced planning online to coordinate timetables. I never put so much work into planning a trip, but once done, everything went completely smoothly with minimal wasted time. However, I was covering a Lot of ground over my two weeks there. I agree with several posts above that you might be best off to choose 2-3 "base camps" to stay for several nights each, and use short-hop rail & buses to get to the sites you want to see from each one. Depending on how pregnant you will be, you can easily find many many castle sites within walking distance of either mode of transportation (or combination thereof). And to echo again--do spend 3-5 days in Edinburgh--fantastic city in & of itself, and day trips to dozens of wonderful places are so easy by train & bus!

Thanks everyone... we are now reconsidering Scotland for this trip. It looks like Scotland is best done as a big roadtrip around at 24-25 weeks pregnant and am not sure that is ideal for this particular trip. Appreciate your help

I think that you could do this, if you keep the trip fairly simple. In no particular order, stay in Edinburgh a few days see Edinburgh and do train day trips to Stirling and Linlithgow.
Do a few nights in Glasgow and maybe take the train out to Balloch at the bottom of Loch Lomond and take the boat trip out on the Loch, which is beautiful.
Take the train from Glasgow to Fort William, which isn't the finest town, but if perfectly OK and the train trip is one of the most beautiful that you will ever do.
Yes, you won't see all the Highlands, but you can come back! There's no rule that says you must see certainlthings on your trip. I think that you'd have a great time; just take things at your own pace

I'm being a tad harsh on Fort Wiliam...lots of places to stay and in a beautiful location......!