Hello! My boyfriend and I (early and mid 30s) are going to Scotland end of May starting in Glasgow then moving on to Oban/Mull/Iona and ending the trip in Edinburgh. We will NOT have a car. I'm concerned about the best way to do the Oban/Mull/Iona trip and how long we should plan to take (2 days? 3?). Other forums lead me to believe staying on Mull is a beautiful/best option, but is that feasible without a car?

I know there are day tours but the thought of being on someone else's schedule doesn't appeal to us: we are late sleepers and laid back travelers, we want to see a lot but preferably without setting an alarm, we always stop for cocktail hour, and we don't like packing in a day of planning that doesn't leave wiggle room for unplanned activities.

Unfortunately -- if you don't want to/can't have a car you will be on other people's schedule.

There are infrequent local buses and you could possibly hire a driver guide, or hire a taxi in Tobermory. But honestly, w/o a car the day trips out of Oban are your best bet. If you relied on the local buses you could just about get from the ferry to Fionnphort/Iona and back in a day.

There is (or at least was a few years ago) a local garage in Tobermory that rents out a couple of cars for use on the Island.

W/o a car you certainly couldn't do it 'leisurely with time for cocktails' or have any wiggle room.

I agree, when you don't have a car you'll have to adapt, at least in some degree, to a schedule. There is a bus that meets the ferry from Oban at Craignure that goes to Tobermory, but you'll have to check schedules since it doesn't meet all the ferries. There are also coaches ( Bowman's ) that meet the ferry and travel to Fionnphort and include a ticket on the short ferry to Iona. It is pretty much a day trip, but I've done it and had no problem with the schedule. You have about 2 hours on Iona on your own. You will be back to Oban in time for cocktails unless your cocktail hour is really early. The drivers provide commentary enroute which is very informative.

There are taxi companies in Tobermory, but I think it'd be expensive for a trip out to Fionnphort/Iona. They will meet you at Craignure if you decide to go into Tobermory.

Janis and I have disagreed on this in the past, and will continue to disagree. We spent two nights in Oban two years ago, and on the full day took a day trip to Iona. We had a car, but we left it in Oban and took the ferry to Mull (Tobermory) and then a bus to Fionnphort, and another ferry to Iona. Since our main goal was to see Iona, we saw no point in taking the car, especially since we would have had no time to explore Mull anyway. Also, the road from Tobermory to Fionnphort is very narrow, and driving is slow going. We would not have been happy driving on it. There are pull-outs, but you don't always see the oncoming car in time to stop at one, so then you have to back up. The ferry to Iona doesn't take cars, so we would have had an annoying ride just to park the car in Fionnphort so we could visit Iona. And, last point, taking a car on the ferry to Mull complicates the trip considerably and costs a lot more.

We didn't get the earliest ferry from Oban, and we could have returned to Oban either on an earlier ferry, but we had trouble tearing ourselves away from Iona. The ferry we took back to Oban was very crowded. It took a long time to load the cars on it, and some didn't make it. I believe you can reserve in advance, but that also takes away some flexibility. Foot passengers don't (and can't) reserve.

The morning ferry served a great breakfast. We didn't eat on the ferry on the way back, because we wanted to return to the wonderful restaurant in Oban (Coast) where we had eaten the night before.

We had a wonderful day on Iona, and wouldn't have wanted to cut the visit short to see more of Mull. Iona is a small island and we walked everywhere with no problem.

If you have more than one day and want to explore Mull as well as Iona, a car would be a very good idea for traveling around Mull. I had researched the possibility of getting around by bus, because we originally thought of spending several days on Mull. It would have been a possibility, but the options were somewhat limited. Still, after seeing the roads, I'm not sure I would have wanted to drive there at all. Do a Google image search and see what you think.

But that was a day trip to IONA which I said was doable. But it seems the OP wants to see some of the rest of the island.