We are planning a mother/daughter trip (2 Moms with our 20 y/o daughters). The daughters are studying abroad in Spain this summer and we are meeting them at the end in London for a UK trip. We will arrive in London on July 13th and depart from Glasgow on July 29th. Our daughters will be flying in from Madrid to meet us in London. Here is our general itinerary (the places we want to visit). We need suggestions for the best order & number of days in each place.

London - 3 or 4 nights
Edinburgh - 2 or 3 nights
Stirling area - 1 night
Loch Ness area - 2 nights
Skye area - 2 nights
Glencoe - 1 night
Mull/Iona - 2 nights
Loch Lomond area - 1 night
Glasgow - 1 night (just for departure - not planning to visit the city)
We want to stay in small inns or B&Bs, inexpensive. Any recommendations would be welcome.,as well as the best order to visit these places. Should be take the train from London to Edinburgh, or fly? We will rent a car when we leave Edinburgh and then drop it off in Glasgow. Thanks for your help!

I, personally, wouldn't move hotels from Edinburgh to Stirling- they are very close. What is the focus of your interest in the Stirling area?

I would also not stay AT Loch Ness for 2 night. Again, what is the focus of your interest. If it's the Nessie thing, then I'm inclined to suggest you can do that in 2 hours tops, and stay somewhere more interesting.

Otherwise, tickety boo.

Your order of route is pretty much OK too.

Once we've sorted the rest out I can maybe suggest some places to stay. What is inexpensive, please? (per person per night, please)

I'd take a day time train, were it me, but I love te views and things.

Two nights at Loch Ness/Inverness is due to the long day's drive to get there from Stirling or Edinburgh, one day to fully explore the area, then a full day to drive on to Skye, with stops along the way there. We don't want to drive all the way there (how long would it take from Edinburgh?), just for 2 hours visit.

We could do Stirling and Loch Lomond together for a couple nights prior to our departure from Glasgow. Would that be a better idea?

We'd like to keep our cost per person, per night to 30-35 GBP.

Just time for a very quick comment right now.

There is no need to stay in Glasgow one night. Loch Lomond is a very easy and fairly quick drive from GLA. Especially if you have an early morning flight there will be next to no traffic. I almost always stay somewhere near the middle/southern end of Loch Lomond (or near Helensburgh/Rhu) before a flight out of GLA.

you'd have an extra night to play with - which you can add to any of your other stops so there is less frequent packing and moving. If you stay 3 nights in Edinburgh - you can use one of those days to take the train to Stirling to visit the castle if you want. But to add a day/night for Stirling really doesn't make too much sense. Staying in Stirling doesn't even break your journey effectively since it is less than an hour from Edinburgh.

topping

It's 2/12- 3 hours from the central belt to Inverness- OK add an extra half hour to the loch, but it's not, really, a long day's drive, and it's only another hour and a half to Skye. And, while there's nothing really WRONG with Loch Ness there are prettier places. If you intend doing the Black Isle or Glen Affric or something, then that's a reason for one stopover, but not really two.