tom_mn

EDI and GLA are about an hour’s drive apart so flying open jaw doesn’t have much geographic advantage. Note that you really want to avoid transferring in London or Amsterdam if possible. Delta has a Boston to Edinburgh nonstop. Icelandair flies to Glasgow via Reykjavik, there can be $1000 RT fares in Saga Class which is like premium economy. I think the only nonstop to Glasgow is on American from Philly.

janisj

Look at Crail and Anstruther -- pretty harbors, cafes, museums and close to St Andrews. Crail Harbor is the prettier, Anstruther has the terrific Scottish Fisheries Museum and boat trips to the Isle of May (up close and personal with Puffins ! - plus other sea birds, ruined lighthouses, etc) Both Crail and Anstruther are about 20 mins from St Andrews.

Or - maybe check out this place https://www.kilconquharcastle.co.uk About 25 mins from St Andrews and 15 mins to Anstruther/25 mins to Crail. It is a combination hotel/timeshare resort with pub and restaurant on site, formal garden, vast grounds . . . but it isn't on the water

KarenWoo

I know the European airports were a mess this summer but hopefully the situation will be better in 2023. I haven't researched flights yet. We have transferred at Heathrow several times, and never had problems but this was before the pandemic. We plan on using miles. Non-stop Boston to Edinburgh would be perfect. Thanks for your advice.

KarenWoo

How far in advance should we book our hotel accommodations? We are traveling with another couple, close friends of ours, and there might be another friend joining us, so we need at least 2 rooms, and possibly a third. We prefer B&B's and small inns. But will stay in larger hotels if necessary.

janisj

For Skye - as far ahead as they will let you (often places won't take bookings this far ahead) maybe start looking in December. Other than Skye -- you can leave it much later.

But IMO it's way too early to book flights yet since routes and schedules are definitely in flux. So maybe nail down flights and Skye around the first of the year . . . Then finalize the rest of the itinerary and book the rest of your accommodations Feb/Mar time frame.

tom_mn

My comment about London and Amsterdam was mostly about extra time and distance, Scotland is closer to North America so you are flying past it and backtracking when connecting.

If you are booking with miles from an American airline, then you can get a free redeposit of miles if you book now and things change for the worse. So there’s really no reason to hold back booking flights with miles, knowing that you can cancel for free, or if the price drops get a redeposit of the difference in points. I just did that in the Delta app in July, kept the flight but got 8000 miles redeposited.

But as JanisJ points out, changes these days are very frequent.

janisj

Oh -- I completely missed the using ff miles bit. You might want to look at flights earlier since there is little penalty for cancelling/rebooking. Are all 4 (or 5) of you all using miles?

KarenWoo

We have Star Alliance so we will have to use a Star Alliance member airline.

KarenWoo

Thanks for the information about when to book accommodations.

I don't know yet if our friends will be using miles. It's not that important to us that we fly over on the same flights. We can always just arrange to meet up in Edinburgh.

Gardyloo

There's no Star Alliance member that flies nonstop from Boston to Edinburgh, and no Star member that flies intra-Britain routes. So you will have to change planes someplace - Newark, Toronto, Chicago, Frankfurt, Zurich, Istanbul - if you want to arrive in Edinburgh, rather than taking the train or flying on British Airways from London.

I just checked for some arbitrary June dates and saw plenty of availability from Boston to Edinburgh on Lufthansa via Frankfurt - in economy, not business - for a number of days. Airlines release seats into "award" inventory on their own schedules, seldom earlier than 10 - 11 months pre-flight, and often much closer to the flight date, since of course they'd prefer to sell those seats for money and don't want to give up that opportunity too early. Business class is another thing - they're usually very stingy until much closer to the flight date, for the same reasons. However, it's also worth noting that in "normal" times (what does that mean?) transatlantic business class tickets are actually cheaper in the summer than in the rest of the year, owing to a fall off in actual business travel.

If you know your dates and can live with flying in economy and connecting in Frankfurt, then there's nothing stopping you from going ahead and booking now. If plans change (or schedules) you'll have the ability to move things around or amend your plans, usually at minimal out-of-pocket costs.

KarenWoo

Gardyloo, thanks for your detailed reply. I really appreciate it. You educated me on using miles! We have been saving up our miles so we've only used them once before, but now we need to start using our miles. We always fly economy so that's not an issue. We have flown Lufthansa and changed planes in Frankfurt many times, so not a problem for us. Of course flying non-stop on Delta is the most convenient but we really need to start using our miles (and saving our money). We don't know our exact dates just yet but hopefully in the next month or so we should be ready to book our airline reservations. I quickly checked schedules last night for arbitrary June dates and did notice the Toronto connection which would work for us as well. We did that returning from Greece last May.

tom_mn

The best Star Alliance itinerary, at least going over and on a Saturday, is backtracking to Dulles then nonstop to EDI from there, coming back the options are all about the same.

Sometimes countries and alliances don’t mesh well like this case, or say trying to use SkyMiles to get to New Zealand, and it’s better to just pay. On the other hand, Star Alliance miles work well to New Zealand or Capetown 😁.

Note that of the “big 4” only American Airlines miles still expire.

gruezi

Hi Karen,

I don’t have too much to add except:

janisj and gardyloo are very reliable (and patient) sources for travel to Scotland.

Early June is a good time to go in terms of weather.

I specifically went to Scotland to see Mull and Iona and they didn’t disappoint me so I think it’s good to listen to the pull of your heart when traveling to Scotland. Also, I did some last minute itinerary tweaks while there to better suit my mood and expectations.



Iona after the evening service.

KarenWoo

Tom_mn, I understand what you are saying about using miles. Right now it seems the best flight schedule is to backtrack to Dulles, as you suggest, or connect through Toronto. Or perhaps Frankfurt. I know that our miles don't expire. Honestly, we are eager to start using them because at our ages, and I hate to sound morbid, who knows how much longer we will be able to travel, especially internationally. In 10 years, we will be in our early to mid-80's. Yikes!!! Sounds scary to me! So that's why we want to start using them now. I did check airfares and right now if we chose the non-stop on Delta, it would cost us about $1200 per person R/T. I would prefer not to spend $2400 in cash if we don't have to.

Gruezi, I love your photo. How long did you spend on Mull and Iona? Where else did you go and for how many nights?

gruezi

View from my window where I stayed outside of Oban. (Oban itself was not nearly as lovely.) Loved this place and the bed was the most comfortable I’ve ever slept in.

I was solo and they gave me the nicest table every evening “so you have a nice view to keep you company.”

This is where I stayed about 35 minutes outside Oban. I was there 2-3 nights. There’s a little ruined castle nearby to the Inn and a small ferry to a little island just across from the inn. I spent a day walking around it.

https://www.airds-hotel.com/






From there I headed to Mull. I was supposed to stay 4 nights in Mull, but I had no car and getting around there without a car isn’t convenient. Also, the hotel was not comfortable or quaint, and I just didn’t settle in there well. Mull is a beautiful isle to explore though if you have a car. And I took a couple very long coastal walks. I left there after 2 nights to head to Iona. I loved the serenity and walkability of Iona and extended my stay there from 2 to 4 nights. I’m not sure it would be enough to do for most people for 4 nights, but I was sad to go. I did walk from north to south and East to west and swam in the icy but beautiful waters. (I had 14 days of perfect weather that trip.) I then spent some time in Glasgow. I don’t recall loving Glasgow, but I’m a nature person. I’ve been to Edinburgh (on another trip) and it suited me better (smaller, very walkable, easy to “figure out” so to speak) but I also didn’t do much research for Glasgow so probably my own ignorance. The purpose of my trip that time was primarily to see a bit of the Hebrides.

I’d say Scotland remains at the top of my list for overseas travel. I’m very keen to see the Orkneys and Shetland. I was supposed to go there on a family trip in 2020 and you know how that ended…

(Sorry this is a bit disjointed. I also remember doing a day trip from Iona to see the puffins and another geological island famous in photos - Staffa? - we also saw quite a few dolphins along the way. I can get bored on these kinds of trips to look at wildlife, but I was glad to see those puffins and the dolphins were also pretty fun even for a jaded person like me for whom it was not my “first rodeo” so to speak.

KarenWoo

Gruezi, thank you for the photos and the detailed information. Sounds like a wonderful trip.

gruezi

It was. I think it was in late spring 2018 or 2019. So kind of a last trip before the shutdown. I still long for more Scotland!

Maybe that’s my final thought - you probably can’t go too wrong if you listen to Janis. She helped me enormously before I went.

KarenWoo

katherinebw, what is the sersa? And what route did you take through the Cairngorms? Where did you stay your last night? I like Janisj's suggestion to spend our last night in Callender or Stirling, but that all depends on what time our flight leaves Edinburgh. I have done a quick preliminary search of flights, and our only choice might be a mid-morning flight. So I wonder if it makes sense to spend the last night in Edinburgh.

KarenWoo

dfourh, thank you for your suggestion but I don't think we will stay in 2 different places. We want to minimize our moving around and packing and unpacking. I hope to limit our bases to 5 places. I read up on the Black Isle and it does sound lovely. Seems like we could visit it as a daytrip from Nairn.

And thanks for the recommendation of the Aberlour Distillery!

tom_mn

There are several chain hotels on the EDI airport property, Hampton and Doubletree and Holiday Inn Express, and a Marriott just off property. It’s always nice to divorce the rental car return from the departure day procedures.

It’s worth the very short drive down the hill from the airport to see the RR Forth Bridge from the Queensferry shoreline. It conjures up Scotland’s importance in the Industrial Revolution.