Scotland: Architectural Highlights and Natural Beauty
 

My daughters are taking me on my dream vacation to Scotland for 2 weeks in July. I am especially interested in architecture(Macintosh.) Our rough plans as of now are 3 nights in Edinburgh, train to Glasgow for 3 nights, rent a car and visit Loch Lomond, Isle of Skye, Inverness(giving this portion of trip 3nights) then one night in Perth and back to Edinburgh for 2 nights. Does the driving portion seem realistic timewise? My daughters seem to think we need 5 days in Edinburgh. Does this seem excessive? Is going to Hill House very out of the way for this trip? We are trying to accommodate all our tastes. Also how do we pack for this trip? Will it get very cold in July? Would appreciate any guidance you may offer. Thank you.

Yes, you could do it, but the country bit is too much in too little time to be enjoyable..

You can certainly spend 5 days in Edinburgh without flagging, and if you mean to go to Loch Lomond, Hill House is not out of the way. But, if architecture and especially McIntosh, is yor thing, I believe you should not miss it.

Not cold as such, but bring layers. There are no guarantees, here:)

could be cold, could be hot, could be dry, could be wet . . . and might be all four of the above. In May I just had everything from 7C/45F to 28C/82F in the space of 4 days.

You could easily spend 5 or more days in Edinburgh - but I don't think you have that luxury if you also want to do the Isle of Skye and up north. It will take most of a day to get to Skye (when you factor in stops like Oban or Inveraray or Glencoe, Glenfinnan etc and the slow driving on Skye.)

To do <i>any</i> justice to Skye you need a minimum of 2 nights (which only nets a bit over one full day). So you'd really want 3 nights/2+ days just on Skye.

Inverness itself is nothing to write home about - but there are enough great things in the general area to fill another couple of days- more if you had the time.

A friend who is interested in McIntosh did a private tour and said it was wonderful. I think she booked the tour through the hotel.

I enjoyed Culzean Castle for architecture.
http://www.culzeanexperience.org/

Culzean is wonderful -- but certainly adds to the too much in too little time.

Meant to add --yes 100% definitely go to Hill House.

Do you need three days in weegieville (that's Glasgow)? What do you want to see in Glasgow that won't be covered by a day trip or two - it's only about an hour and change from Edinburgh. If you're primarily interested in Mackintosh architecture, there may be a good way to see the best of it in a day trip (go googling). You could ultimately donate a couple days in weegieville to either the first stay in Edinburgh or your travels around the country.

Be careful of this: "We are trying to accommodate all our tastes." It causes problems.

You might want to think of day trips. This is a website that someone on this forum mentioned. I've got it bookmarked.

http://www.rabbies.com/

Stop by the Wallace monument. I visited there before Braveheart came out. Impressive monument.

Stop by the Scone Palace. http://www.scone-palace.co.uk/

This is where the Scottish kings were crowned. The stone of Scone has been used by the crowning of English Monarchs, and currently is in Edinburgh Castle when not used for Coronations.

We just got back from Callander/Skye/Loch Ness. See if this helps (lots of photos in the blog):

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

More lazy arsed appraisals of Glasgow. OP ignore Russ. He has no appreciation of what Glasgow has to offer. For someone actually interested in architecture, particularly Mackintosh, you will be well entertained. The following site has some nice links of interest.

http://www.scotcities.com/mackintosh/