I am planing a trip to scotland . We would like to see Inverness area , St Andrews golf course, And also the Orkney Islands. Can this be done on a self drive and we only have 10 days. Where would you fly into.
( coming from the east coast of the USA)We would probably do St Andrews golf courseOn the way back.
Thanks Amber ([email protected])

OK - you need to look at a map first. Orkney, Inverness (WHY??) and Fife are very far apart. You don't say anything about Edinburgh - is there no interest in seeing the city, or is that what you meant by &quot;<i>We would probably do St Andrews golf courseOn the way back</i>&quot; -- on the way back to Edinburgh.

Do you have a particular reason for wanting to visit Inverness? Or is it mainly that you have heard of Loch Ness/Inverness and just assume it is a &quot;must&quot;?

Does your 10 days include your travel to/from the States? If so, you will only have about 7 days on the ground for touring in Scotland. There are many, many threads on here about Scotland - but w/ only 7+ days you will have a hard time seeing Edinburgh, St Andrews/Fife, Inverness and Orkney.

I would suggest you read some of the other threads on here about Scotland and then tell us 1) What types of things you want to see? 2) Why Inverness? 3) What time of year is the trip? 4) Do you plan on playing the Old Course - or just see it? etc . . . .

As Janisj mentions there are more questions than answers to your posting at present.

If you intend doing Scotland then have a look at the Scotland section of a review
http://www.frommers.com/cgi-bin/WebX?128@@.eed91a1

This will give you a few ideas and photographs of places throughout Scotland which may interest you including St Andrews, Inverness, Skye, Loch Lomond, Edinburgh, etc.

If you are looking for accommodation in Inverness then the Trafford Bank in Inverness is now being highly recommended
http://www.traffordbankguesthouse.co.uk/

Might you be going down the whiskey trail then? That's a beautiful area of the country. You would probably fly into Edinburgh with a likely connection in London.

Anyway, if you're inclined also toward the golf related, you might consider going this July as the British Open is at Carnoustie. You could fly into Edinburgh and drive up to Carnoustie with a stop at St Andrews. After a visit to the tournament, you could continue up to Inverness along the whiskey trail.

Also check this Orkney website.

http://www.visitorkney.com/gettinghere.asp

Hi Amber,
We wanted to see Orkney on our recent trip to Scotland, too, but it just wasn't practical based on the other regions we wanted to see as well. It would be helpful if you posted a little more, as others have said, about why you are interested in these destinations, and then people can make alternative suggestions. To do everything you've mentioned on a self-driving tour would be very rushed. You can fly into Orkney from Glasgow or Edinburgh, as you probably already know, and skip a day of driving that way, but then you have the issue of transportation when you arrive.

OTOH, you could fly into Glasgow/Edinburgh, and fly straight on to Orkney. Hire a car, spend 3 days there. Take the little ferry to Scrabster, and drive south; spend time in Inverness (if you must). You can be in Inverness by lunchtime if you take the first ferry.


It'll take the guts of a day to drive from Inverness to St Andrews. Were it me, I'd probably NOT stay in Inverness, but take 3 days for the drive, with side trips and stops, then spend 3 days in Fife.

I'm making the wild assumeption that, if you didn't say you wanted Edinburgh in those 10 days, you don't want Edinburgh in those 10 days.

Feel free to come back for more detailed or specific input

Thanks for all the info. We are going for our 25th wedding ann. We choose the orkneys because we have ancestery roots there.I would like to go to inverness to explore the battle grounds.I would like to stay in a castle or two . St Andrews is of interest to friends that are joining us they would like to play the old course while there.We will be traveling Sept 2008 (I am an early Planner) A day of horse back riding would be welcome to. Any tricks to a cheaper flight?
Thanks Amber