Greetings, all.

My wife and I will be in the UK from Sep. 2-20 (2009), spending the majority of that time in Scotland. My main question is whether or not it would be wise for me to leave the latter part of the trip flexible and open-ended (not booking accommodations ahead of time). This seems a bit risky seeing as how B&Bs and inns may get booked up and we may not be able to find a room. Hopefully the risk is not too high during mid-September, but I'm not sure.

I suppose my worry is that the weather could turn sour in, say, the Isle of Lewis, and I'd like to be able to divert to, say, further south and do a circuit in the Inner Hebrides instead. Yes, I know that we should plan on enduring some rain. But if it gets too rainy for me to go hiking or visibility drops to 6 feet and I can't even use my camera, then it'd be disappointing. (--Skip down to the itinerary if the following is too wordy--)

My wife and I are from California. I've spent half a summer in London before. I've visited Edinburgh twice now (2-3 days each time), and once did a rather rushed 2-day stay in Aberfeldy/drive across to Ft. William and back to Edinburgh . The previous visits have included a smattering of day-trips (York, St. Andrews, Jedburgh). All of my previous visits were in July, so I'm a little unsure about weather in September. Of course, I'm expecting a fair share of rain no matter what.

However, this will be my wife's first trip to the UK. Everything will be new to her.

Our main priorities for the trip are the usual: to enjoy the Scottish outdoors and experience Scottish culture and history.

1. I'm a landscape photographer and hiker. Probably most of our time will be 'drive, take pictures, hike, take more pictures, drive some more, take more pictures' and so on. We'll look for moderate hikes (1-5 hours, moderate difficulty). We're not seeking out any extreme hikes (over 6 hours, or overnight hikes). Photographic opportunities accessible by car (with little to no hiking) are also quite welcome.

2. We want to meet and talk to Scots. Go to pubs, eat Scottish food, and of course kick back a few pints and a few drams. Eat good haggis, visit 1 or 2 distilleries. Stops that include music, especially traditional and folk music, are welcome. We'd love to stop in on at least one Ceilidh.

3. Museums, castles, and other historical sites. This will probably only take up 1/10th of our time, and most of it will be in Edinburgh. We'll be pretty picky - only visiting the few 'can't miss' sites along the way.

4. As funny as it sounds, my wife would give her right hand to spend some time interacting with Highland cows (petting, feeding, or whatever). I doubt she'd be content just watching them from a distance from the roadside. Don't know that there are many opportunities for this, though. Suggestions on this are welcome.

We'll seek out B&Bs for most of our accommodations. A reasonably-priced inn or even hotel here and there is acceptable.

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Itinerary

Here is what we have so far:

Sept. 2-5 Arrive at Gatwick Sept. 2. Stay in London (really old hat for me). On the morning of the 5th, take rail to York. Spend night in York.

Sept. 6-10 Stay with friends in Edinburgh after catching the train up from York on the morning of the 6th. May fit in a day trip to St. Andrew's. Rent car on 10th upon departing Edinburgh.

From here on out we will fill the schedule up with a circuit of the highlands and isles.

Sept. 10-12. Aberfeldy/Pitlochry. Drive and hike around Aberfeldy, Loch Tay, Glen Lyon. Visit Edradour distillery (repeat for me). I've done Aberfeldy briefly before, but it killed me to not explore the area more via hiking or driving. I didn't go any further out than the east shore of Loch Tay. It'll be nice to be able to take my time this time out.

Sept. 12-20. OK, here is the section I may want to make open-ended. No booking any lodging. Here are the options that would appeal to us:

1. Inverness/Loch Ness. We don't necessarily have to spend the majority of our time in either of those specific places, but it seemed like a good spot to lodge at as a 'base camp' for the northern highlands. Suggestions for this leg of the trip are most welcome. Find some good spots to hike. Find a Ceilidh to attend.

2. Outer Hebrides circuit. Drive to Ullapool and catch the ferry to Lewis/Harris. Spend a few days, and depart from Tarbert to Uig via ferry, spending the remainder on Skye.

3. West Coast/Inner Hebrides circuit. Drive to Oban. Lodge at Oban, using it as a 'base camp'. Weather permitting, take ferry for day trips to Mull and/or Islay. Or day trips to Glen Coe or as far out as Loch Lomond.

Obviously we can split the final 8 days up between 2 of these options. Trying to do all 3 would be too hectic, I think. While we, of course, want to cover as much ground as possible, we also want to enjoy things at a reasonably leisurely pace (this is supposed to be a vacation, after all!)

Sept. 20 Depart EDI in the morning to connect with our flight back to the U.S. in Gatwick.
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Any comments or critiques of the itinerary are welcome. Thanks in advance to any folks who can reply and offer us advice.

Cheers,

Dave & Denae
(from Southern California)

Well, first up you're safe in not booking accommodation that late in the season.

Second, I'll do more on your route and walks when I get home

Thanks, Sheila! Looking forward to it.

Aberfeldy/Pitlochry. This sounds good to me. My head immediately went to Kenmore as a base. Drummond Hill is a nice walk, and you can go a long way up the north side of Loch Tay. Glen Lyon has fabulous walks all over, and the further up the glen the better. If you take the road over the shoulder of Ben Lawyers, you can stop at the visitor centre and it's a good walk to the top. Or walk the other way over the Tarmachan Ridge down to Killin (But you have to get a taxi or something back to where you left the car). On the south side of the Loch there are a number of good walks up into the hills. Mostly linear unfortunately. In Aberfeldy you have the Birks, and if you do south through the Sma' Glen there are lots of places to get off the road. If you care to email me, I have a 5 day day list of things to do based here.

There's more round PItlochry, but Aberfeldy is better.

Sept. 12-20. OK, here is the section I may want to make open-ended. No booking any lodging. Here are the options that would appeal to us:

1. Inverness and Loch Ness are NOT good bases. Where do you want to go? If Glen Affric, then stay there. If the Black Isle, ditto. How long do you mean to be there?

2. Outer Hebrides I have a lack of knowledge about Lewis/Harris, but I'd suggest you take the boat from Leverburgh to Berneray when you leave and walk the West Beach. On the Uists anywhere on the machair is good. If the weather is fine, think about a day trip to St Kilda. Syke is spectacular, but please don't abandon the Western Isles in its favour.

3. Drive to Oban- see, you say that, and in three words you go past so much. The beach at Morar. Loch Morar. The beach at Arisaig. Will you then go east to Glenfinnan or south through Ardnamurchan? Both are worth doing. From Oban, go to Seil and Kilmartin, and Iona. You can't do Islay in a day trip. Loch Awe. Taynuilt. Glen Coe. Port Appin- you can walk round the tip of the peninsula where the cars can't go.

If it were me, I'd ditch the Inverness bit.

You need to understand that you can go anywhere on wild land in Scotland, so long as you don't damage anything. I know the notion can be a bit daunting, but it's the law. make the most of it.

Go south to Edinburgh or nearby the night before your flight.

Great stuff, Sheila. Thanks again.

Glad to know Aberfeldy is a good stop. Also good to know that I will be able to book accommodations 'on the fly'.

As for Inverness/Loch Ness, I haven't been that far north on my previous visits, so I didn't have a lot of solid ideas about what to do in the northern highlands. The Black Isle and Glen Affric seem like terrific ideas now that you mention them.

I didn't even know about half of the stuff you mentioned around Oban. I'll have to google them and mull over the options.

It looks like there are lots of options that are winners. So we'll have the luxury of picking and choosing according to the most hospitable climate upon our arrival.

Do come back if you want more input.

I drove around the western Highlands at the end of May. I too deliberated whether or not to book my B&Bs in advance and lose the flexibility in my itinerary by doing so. I finally decided to book mainly because it was so easy to do so because of the many good web sites such as www.roomfinderscotland.co.uk, the Scottish tourist board, or simply typing in the name of the town in Google along with "accomodation". I found good B&Bs in my price range (most show pictures of the rooms on their web page) and I was very satisfied with all of them.

The end of May was not exactly the high season, so I was surprised that throughout my trip almost every B&B that I drove by had a "No vacancy" sign out !! Several tourists that I met along the way told me that they wasted much time every evening finding a place suitable to their standards. So my conclusion is that I made the correct decision by booking in advance.

My route was Glasgow - Loch Lomond - Trossachs - Glencoe - Skye and back to Glasgow via Oban.

We did two hikes every day and I strongly recommend the www.walkhighlands.co.uk site where you can download detailed maps and information about hikes at any level (this site also has good B&B info). I printed out about 40 hikes scattered along our route and we stopped at the nearest one that was convenient (and when the weather was good).

We spent a day on Skye, mainly in the Cuillin mountain area, and you should be aware that the landscape is very barren and stark, as compared to the more gentle, forested scenery further south.

We saw Highland cows at several locations along our route so I am sure you will come across them a few times.

Re cattle - I found this article in the Guardian today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/ju...blers-blunkett

Please don't be put off by that article. Behave with common sense and you'll be fine. I think there are about 7 deaths per 10 years (46 reportable incidents). This is not a major risk, really. Now, is it?

Last year we spent a few days at a B&B on Islay, and one day, when we returned in the evening the place was overrun by a neighbor's highland cattle who had escaped their pasture. I parked the car and walked right into the middle of them, taking pictures of the shaggy beauties, with the light house as a backdrop. They paid little or no attention to me.

While you are in Pitlochry, consider a detour about 26 miles or so north to Kingussie and visit the Museum of Highland Life. Admission is free and if you want to get a feel for how Higland life has been for the past 250 years, this is a great place to visit.

Those 26 miles would be 44; but it is a lovely road past a very nice distillery

Hi again, folks.

OK, we have our accommodations all the way through Aberfeldy booked. We've got London, York, Edinburgh, and Aberfeldy covered - all the way up to the morning of Sept. 13th (departing from Gatwick on the 20th).

So we have a full 7 days to fill. Next stop:

I'm about 75% settled that we'll stay on the Black Isle for our stay in the northern highlands. The hiking and photographic opportunities there look fantastic. Fortrose seems like a lovely little town. And it'll give us good enough access to Inverness (for the nightlife) if we want it. Day trips out as far out as Glen Affric don't seem unreasonable. The Anderson is a pub and inn in Fortrose, that's my top pick for accommodation there so far (pretty reasonable tariff).

But at this point I don't have the stomach to book anything more - not even lodging on the Black Isle. I'm still too worried about the weather. I want to be able to juggle around this leg of the trip with the (still unsettled) west coast/island portion of the trip.

As for that portion of the trip, everything from Lewis down to Islay is fair game. Skye, Glen Coe, Oban, I'd be happy dividing up the final week between any of those places.

Although as far as I'm concerned, if the weather on the west coast and islands are really, really bad, then anything from the Orkney Islands to Jedburgh is fair game. I thought Jedburgh was very lovely when I passed through it the first time. And I really do love the Scotch that they make on Orkney.

Hopefully I'm not being too non-committal about this, but that is where we stand as far as committed bookings so far. We'll play out the last 7 days out as we go.

Comments and criticism welcome. Please convince me I'm making a mistake if indeed I am.

See my comments above re booking in advance. It's a difficult decision but you might end up spending a few hours every day looking for a suitable place. Keep in mind that the weather may be bad everywhere. What finally convinced me to book every night was how difficult it was to find a place for the first night. Perhaps you should try to find a place on the Black Isle and see how it goes.

OK, I just booked the Anderson in Fortrose for 3 nights. So now we only have 4 days open-ended.

Also, I'd like to get my Scottish hosts in Edinburgh a gift. They are friends of a friend, and are being kind enough to lodge us for the 4 nights we'll be in Edinburgh. We've never met.

Should I bring something from the States (perhaps a bottle of California wine), or will something like a bottle of Scotch do? Or perhaps something completely diffferent (something that is not consumable)?

I'm sure they would be very grateful for anything you bring, but I'm equally sure that something local to you would be better than something generic. Speaking personally, I'm very fond of Ridge Zin

Part of the problem with accomodation in Scotland is that there are just not actually many towns in Scotland !

Soounds a bit daft, I know. But if you were to draw a line on a map from Loch Lomond to Aberdeen (basically following the Highland fault line) you'll be lucky to find more than one town with a population of 20.000 or more (Inverness), and there are a mere cluster of lower population centre's in a huge area, compared with other countries.

Add to that the fact that 90% of a considerable number of tourists are using a handful of villages and small towns to base themselves in, and it's no wonder finding accomodation at the height of the season is so difficult.

First timers to Scotland often make two mistakes....firstly, they underestimate how empty Scotland is outside a small middle band. And then they hugely underestimate how long it takes to drive around a relatively small country.

In fact, most Scots do that as well.

P.S. As ever, Sheila's recommendations and tips make me feel homesick. They're great reading...

I'm using Googlemaps to estimate travel times. It has been accurate for me for destinations within the U.S., but I don't know if it will be for Scotland.

Dave,

We are also from California and headed for Scotland late August early September 2009. We have found that www.theaa.com works great for estimating mileage and realistic travel times. See what you think.