Scotland and London 21 days
 

I had previously posted an aggressive Ireland, Scotland and London trip and have since modified our trip based on recommendations from very helpful forum members. We are instead choosing to go with Scotland alone with a 7 day stay in London. We are staying in several cities and doing day trips from each location. I would appreciate any input or recommendation on places to stay at the given locations. We will be flying into Edinburgh and departing from London. We would not use a rented vehicle in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Edinburgh - 3 nights (most likely staying at The Inn on the Mile)
Pitlochry - 1 night
Inverness - 4 nights
Fort William - 3 nights
Glasgow - 2 nights

From Glasgow we would take the train to London and take day trips throughout our stay in London with no car rented.

AJ

Assuming you will have a car except for in Edinburgh and in Glasgow . . . I would not stay in ANY of those 3 other places.

In stead of Inverness, choose a nice small town or village on the Black Isle or maybe in Nairn. Instead of pitlochry, Dunkeld or on Loch Tay. Instead of Ft William (the worst if all three) look at Glencoe, or Ballachulidh, or Oban.

Of the three, pitlochry would be OK, but Dunkeld is prettier.

From Glasgow we would take the train to London and take day trips throughout our stay in London with no car rented.>

Yes trains go all the time London to places like Salisbury (Stonehenge), Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, York- booking Glasgow to London trains far in advance can nab deep discounted tickets- www.nationalrail.co.uk to book your own. There is also an overnight Caledonian Sleeper train Glasgow to London. For lots on trains in general and night trains check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

discounted tickets also come in first class and may not cost much more and for a long trip first class is considerably nicer IME.

https://www.sleeper.scot/ for info and booking Glasgow-London overnight train.

Pitlochry is a lunch break en route from Edinburgh to the Inverness area.

Inverness isn't a tourist destination, stay outside the city and use the area as a hub for visiting various castles (Dunrobin, Cawdor, Brodie), battlefields, cairns, whatever.

Edinburgh deserves another day, even if only to do a day trip by train to Stirling for its castle.

Change based on your suggestions:

Edinburgh - 4 nights (no car)
Nairn - 4 nights
Glencoe - 3 nights
Glasgow - 2 nights (no car)

Train to London

London 8 nights

Glasgow was a big city that helped lead the industrial revolution and then fell into depression well before the Depression. War damage too. So for those interested in urban geography and history it has lots of relics, now preserved to show the way the place used to be. Not to all tastes; not picturesque. But I liked the raw muscle, the art that the industrialists bought and the crafts movement at the start of the 20th century. I'd take a day from Edinburgh and give it to Glasgow.

Much better. You really should book Glencoe ASAP.