Hello,

Please review our itineray for Scotland and let me know if you have suggestions. I feel like maybe we are jumping from hotel to hotel too much. THANK YOU!

Note: I am thankful to all who have answered my previous posts. I was not able to thank anyone since my computer went down earlier this week. Now I am back online using my husband's laptop.

Day 1&2 Edinburgh

Day 3 Pick up car downtown Edinburgh. Tour Fife area and St. Andrews. Stay in Perth at Parksland Hotel.

Day 4 See Scone Palace and Glamis. Drive to Stonehaven to see Dunottar. (See the next morning if too late). Stay at Ardoe House.

Day 5 See some castles on Castle trail and a distillery (?). Stay at Minmore House in Glenlivet.

Day 6 Drive to Inverness area. See Culloden battlefield, Cawdor Castle, Fort George and Loch Ness. Stay at Culloden House. (Does this area need more than one day?)

Day 7 Drive to Skye. May see something along the way we missed the day before. Arrive in Skye mid afternoon. Stay at Toravaig Hotel.

Day 8 Tour Skye. Stay at Toravaig.

Day 9 Do something in Skye until mid afternoon. Take late afternoon ferry to Mallaig. Ben Nevis. Glen Coe. Stay at Manor House is Oban.

Day 10 See area surrounding Oban. Stay on or near Loch Lomond. Or should we stay in Oban 2 nights?

Day 11 See Loch Lomond area. Stay on or near Loch Lomond.

Day 12 See Stirling Castle and Bannockburn and other sites. Stay near Stirling or in same place near Loch Lomond.

Day 13 Pack and drive to Edinburgh airport for 6 PM flight to London. Will have time to do something along the way to airport. Any suggestions?

Also, any suggestions for a nice place to stay near Loch Lomond and Stirling.

THANK YOU!

Ginny

Well - I (personally) wouldn't like it. Just too much packing and moving IMHO. I know we've all kicked your plans around a lot - and it is soooooo tempting to do/see it all or die trying. But your basic itinerary is doable.

Just a couple of comments: Scone Palace, Glamis and Dunnottar in one day is a killer. Each place is worth 2 or 3 hours plus all the driving time. Unless Scone Palace/Perth is very important for some reason, I'd drop that loop. From Edinburgh tour Fife and stay in/near St Andrews. Next morning leave for Glamis and then to Dunnottar in the afternoon. That is more doable.

And I do think you need another day near Inverness IF you are at all interested in Ft George. The place is MAMMOTH. All of Edinburgh Castle would fit w/i its parade ground. Just visiting the basic bits w/o even climbing the walls and seeing the firth/dolphins takes 2 or 3 hours.

oops - meant to include links to a few places near Loch Lomond/Stirling good for a couple of nights.

http://www.visit-lochlomond.com/hoishfarm/
http://www.thehawthorns-drymen.com/
http://www.corrieglen.co.uk/index.html

or for a bit of a splurge http://www.lake-of-menteith-hotel.com/ Unfortunately the new website is under construction. But you can phone them. it is a lovely hotel on the shore of the Lake of Menteith

here are a couple more in that area:

http://www.westerton.co.uk/
http://www.milford.co.uk/go/creag-ard.html

And if you want a REAL splurge for your last night or two in Scotland http://www.romancamphotel.co.uk/ is fabulous

Well, taking as "our" remit that you want to change hotels less, I would make the following suggestions.

Stay an extra night in Edinburgh, still using it as your base for Fife.

Provided you're not the sort of people who rise at 10, I see no reason for not managing Scone Palace, Glamis and Dunnottar in one day, leaving from Edinburgh- say you got out of Edinburgh at 9.30am- there's not really any point in leaving earlier unless you mean to be away by 7.30am- which is stupid when you're on holiday-you'll be at Scone for 10.30am easily; Glamis by 2, Dunottar by 6, Ardoe by 8; and you could do it in less.


I would then stay an extra night at Ardoe (OK, OK, but you want to reduce hotel changes) and see stuff on Deeside and Lochnagar distillery. You can still be at Cawdor by 11 next day with a 9am departure. leaving you plenty time to see your hit points. You COULD do more in that area, but your itinerary is pretty well balanced. Incidentally you mentioned on another thread splurging on Ardoe. Culloden HOuse is MUCH nicer than Ardoe.

I think you'll struggle to get everything you want to do between Skye and Oban done, if you don't leave till mid afternoon. Lunch time at the latest, please.

I would sty teh extra night in Oban and go to Kilmartin Glen and Easdale.

If I were you- and yes, I know, I'm not- I'd stay at Rowardennan on Loch Lomond- you will pretty much have seen the west side on the way there, and it's a good base from which to see Stirling and the Trossachs.

Doune Castle and linlithgow Palalce for you en route to Edinburgh places.

We stayed at Culloden House last month and really enjoyed it. The food was delicious, our room very spacious (our bathroom was larger than my first apartment!) and the people who work there were so nice and very helpful. The location was easy to find and made touring very easy. I agree that Fort George needs a lot of time. We loved it and took a free tour, walked around ourselves afterwards and took pictures. I think we must have spent about 3 hours there which was much more than I had expected.
In the Oban area, I highly recommend the Loch Etive cruise. It leaves from Taynuilt and they have 90 minute cruises (which we took) and 3 hour cruises (which we didn't have time for). In addition to beautiful scenery, we also got views of seals and birds. The men who run the cruise were so nice and full of information. And the price was very reasonable.
I also recommend a stop at Doune Castle in the Stirling area. Linlithgow, on the way to Edinburg, was a very worthwhile stop. It was beautiful and spooky and very interesting.

One <u>major</u> problem w/ the Scone/Glamis/Dunnottar day. Sheila says &quot;<i>Dunottar by 6</i>&quot; - But the Castle closes at 6:00 p.m. (5:00 on sundays). That is when the castle shuts up - not when the last ticket is sold. Since it takes a minuimum of 2 hours (just walking out to the castle takes about 15 minutes) you'd have to get there by about 4 p.m. Simply not possible to do all three in one day.

I am taking in all suggestions mentioned. Just checked some places recommended by janisj and Shiela in Loch Lomond area. Just a note: I am so disappointed to find that the beautiful Roman Camp Hotel is full! I recommend to anyone else looking for a gorgeous place to stay near the area to see their website at the link posted by janisj. Wow!

Thanks for the helpful suggestions and hotel links! I will respond later as to what and where we end up.

Ginny

Yeah, but they rarely shut the door.