PhillyGirl

My husband and I have a wedding to attend in Perth, Scotland in a few weeks. We will have three days after the wedding to tour around. We rented a car and are planning to drive to Loch Ness. We are stuck on what to do after that- Aberdeen or Isles of Skye- any suggestions

sheila

Lovely. Do I know the bride and groom? (being from Perth, myself) Where are you staying?

What do you like? that should determine what you do. I'm tempted to suggest staying put, since Perth is a great centre for touring.

janis

I would tend to agree w/ Sheila. Loch Ness is not really a be-all-end-all destination.

But within a reasonable drive of Perth you can get to St Andrews and all the Fife fishing villages, Edinburgh (tho' taking the train is easier), Stirling, the Trossachs, Loch Earn, Loch Tay, Blair Atholl, Dunkeld and a LOT of other wonderful places.

PhillyGirl

Okay As some background:
My husband and I are newlyweds ourselves and skipped taking a honeymoon- so this trip is supposed to be somewhat romantic for us. We are also relatively young- and wanted to do some outdoor activities and "fun" things. We like doing the nature-type activities, enjoy beach/ water activities/ scenerey/ etc. If we see one castle, I think that will be plenty. He has been to Scotland once or twice before when he was younger- I have never been.
We are attending a wedding at Huntingtower Castle? somewhere in the Peth area. I will be arriving on Thursday evening (from Italy- so no need to worry about jet lag) and the wedding is on Friday. My husband will have arrived earlier on Thursday.
1) Should we try to do something at one of the festivals on Thursday night? We have a room at the hotel where the wedding is for that night. Are Thursdays a big going out night?
2) The wedding is not until 2pm on Friday- Can we see Stirling castle in a morning?
3) There is a post wedding picnic (weather permitting) on Saturday in a small village called Dunkeld. After that, we really haven't decided on what we should do.
I was planning on:
Going to see loch ness, maybe spending the saturday night in inviernes. Then going to Aberdeen on Sunday and staying a night there, leaving mid day on Monday to go back to Edinborough.
OR I was thinking from Loch Ness driving to Skye for the night and most of the day on Monday.
Is that too much driving? I have found some cute b&b's and some activities in Aberdeen if we go there- but I am really not sure how to fit loch ness (which we must see, even if only passing through) into the iteniary or what to do if we head west to skye. Any suggestions on how to organize would be appreciated.

Also, we leave early Tuesday morning from Edinbourgh- I doubt we will be able to get a hotel room for just Monday night- does anyone have any suggestions as to where we can stay? something inexpensive?

Thanks.

janis

Some notes: Dunkeld is one of the loveliest villages in inland Scotland. You can do Stirling Castle in a morning.

Now - Why is Loch Ness/Inverness a "must see"? Aberdeen is a nice city but there are a LOT more scenic and romantic places you could choose than Aberdeen and Loch Ness.

If you simply MUST see Loch Ness - stop at the southern tip as you head west to Skye or elsewhere on the west coast.

Three days is simply not enough time to see Loch Ness, Aberdeen, Skye and Edinburgh.

I would pick one of these:

The west coast -- Skye/Oban/Plockton - places like that.

OR Edinburgh and Fife - the fishing villages are really lovely.

OR The area around Lochs Tay and Earn.

Otherwise you will spen your entire 3 days in a car getting from place to place.

PhillyGirl

Thanks for the tips. Can we leave on Saturday from picnic in Dunkeld and hit the southern tip of loch ness. Would we have to stay the night somewhere in invierness?
From there, how should we go to Skye? We will have a rental. Do we take a ferry to Skye. I heard that we should cross at Loch Linnhe. Any suggestions.
Thanks again.

sheila

Hi again, PhillyGirl. Congratulations on your own wedding and all the best for this trip and the rest of your lives.


I doubt that the wedding is in Huntingtower Castle, tho' i suppose it could be. It's probably at Huntingtower Hotel which is very nice country style hotel just a few minutes west of Perth. My sister got married there, and I worked in the bar when I was a student.(I feel you need to know this

It's an easy drive both from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Perth, so no worries there.

Thursday night's not a big night out, although ANYTHING at the Edinburgh Festival will be crowded.It's a good hour's drive back up from Edinburgh so you wouldn't want to be THAT late. As an alternative there is a VERY good restaurant in Perth, called Let's Eat, so why not book in and have a fine romantic meal together. If you have a look at this site, you can see what's on in Perth itself.

http://www.perthshire.co.uk/newevents/index.htm


You could see Stirling castle on Friday morning, but Huntingtower Castle is a nice castle to visit and worth taking in.

You do realise that a Scottish wedding will last till the wee hours don't you?

3) Send me an email and I'll send you my pocket guide to Dunkeld. Lovely town. If you get a chance tehre's a very pleasant walk at the Hermitage just outside Dunkeld for after the picnic.

i'm not a huge fan of Loch Ness myself, but if you're determined, then it'll take about 2 hours to drive there from Dunkeld if you go straight there (and don't get stuck behind too many caravans. I'd stay in Invergarry or Drumnadrochit if I were you.

I think it would be daft to try to fit in both Skye and Aberdeen. I live in Aberdeen and even I'm struggling with why you'd pick it over Skye. (you could go to Aberdeen for Saturday night and be in Skye by early afternoon, Sunday- but why would you?)
On the other hand, leaving from Invergarry at 9am you'll be tooling past the Cuillins by 10.30am.

That gives you a fairly leisurely drive through Sleat, Lochaber, Glen Coe, and Strathardle to Stirling then over to Edinburgh for Monday. A hotel room in the town might be difficult, but you could stay out of town a bit.

FWIW I wouldn't go north from Dunkeld. I'd go due west along Loch Tay and on and stay overnight in Oban. I'd spend Sunday including Sunday night on Mull, probably with a trip to Iona thrown in, then I'd come south through Kilmartin, up Loch Fyne, over the Rest and be Thankful, up Loch Lomond and down to Stirling and aim for the airport from there.

But that's just me

deannagld

I recently went to Aberdeen, Inverness and Isle of Skye on a three day trip with several school friends. (We are all in Scotland on a Study Abroad program.)
Aberdeen was very nice, but we didn't find much to do there, and ended up only spending a few hours there before catching our bus to Inverness.
The same with Inverness. I don't know how much we probably missed (Alot I imagine, as everyone says you need more time there. For us, it simply wasn't that interesting.)
Loch Ness was neat. I would suggest stopping both at the Visitor's Center (I am assuming you MUST go for the toursit appeal. ;-) and also stop at Urquahart (I think I spelled that right) castle, which is right on the loch and very beautiful castle ruins.

The drive to Isle of Skye was fantastic. The most beautiful scenery I have ever scene in my life. And the beaches there were fun to visit.

I think that in three days, you may not get to see everything, but you can certainly have a very pleasant and memorable trip. Have Fun!

crazieladybug

From what you posted about yourself I think you'd love Skye. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! It is quite a drive though. Let's see we drove from Aberdeen to Loch Ness (I must admit I was very disappointed with Loch Ness, as a previous poster said, it's not very scenic... I'm from the US btw and my fiance lives in Aberdeen) and then to Skye. It was a five hour drive all together. I can't remember if it was 2 hours to loch ness or 3. I'm thinking it was 2 hours to Loch Ness and then 3 hours to Portree on Skye (someone can verify that). The drive itself is amazing though.

Definitely choose the Isle of Skye over Aberdeen, while I LOVE Aberdeen, I just think Skye is something not to be missed.

I wouldn't put so much emphasis on Inverness and Loch Ness though. We stopped there for lunch going to skye and on the way back and I wasn't that impressed.

You could stop and see Eileen Donan (sp?) castle on the drive to Skye. Or you could see Dunvegan Castle on Skye itself (I prefered the first one).

However, I'm a castle buff and have been to over 30....Glamis Castle is my favorite, followed by Stirling.

Good Luck, and have fun!! I'm sure you will love whatever you do and see, Scotland is the best