We are going to Scotland for 10 days. We are starting in Edinburgh. Would like help planning 10 day self drive itinerary. Don't care about golf and one distillery visit would be more than enough. We are interested in castles, beautiful scenery, and interesting villages. How would you suggest we route ourselves assuming we spend two days in Edinburgh at the start or the end. We were told t skip Glasgow by a local friend. Thanks for your help.
Joe/Kentucky

when?
Suggestions: look at- Inverness- Cairngorms- Durness- Tain- Gairloch- Dornoch
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/scotland/itinerary
10-day Scotland itinerary...What would you do?
Why miss out Glasgow? https://peoplemakeglasgow.com/

Thanks for all for your ideas. So if we were to spend one full day in Edinburgh and one day in Glasgow (day trip via train from Edinburgh), what sights would you recommend in each city? We probably do not want to spend hours in museums and galleries. Or would you recommend staying in Glasgow and do a day trip to Edinburgh?Thanks again!

September 9 is when we are going.

I never recommend day stays. I never like to tick boxes when on vacation.

These pictures might give you some ideas of what to see: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjpM2soa They are geotagged so that they can be correlated with a map. I also wrote a trip report; click on my name to find it.

So if we work our way northeast from Edinburgh and cut over to Skye and then work our way back down south b to Edinburgh, what are the must see castles along all that way. We want to see some really cool castles. Thanks.

I just saw your other threads. If you are spending ANY time in Edinburgh and only have 10 days and jet lag as well, you will have to cut your castle list a LOT. You certainly do not have time to dash to Skye, then up to Cawdor hen down to balmoral and Blair.

Driving in rural Scotland is slooooow, and one night stays don't cut it in most places.

​​​​​​​If your 10 days includes travel days, I'd seriously cut way ack and maybe ditch Skye.

If you had more time, you might include Glasgow, but, IMO, there is more to see in Edinburgh if you can add some more time there. I like Glasgow just fine, but I did not go there until I had been to Scotland a few times.

Hello
I've never been in Glasgow, but Edinburgh is the most beautiful city in the world (granted, haven't seen the world) and i would stay there more than 1 day. If you like castle, the Edinburgh Castle took us 4 hours to tour, and we only left after the canon (1pm) because it became too crowded. So I would allow more time for Edinburgh after that. I would add that we are fast paced and dynamics travelers. I really liked Stirling and the Stirling castle. Stonehaven and the Dunnotar Castle was definitively one of my favorite. We did 12 castle, going from Edinburgh to Elgin, but we had a car and were very motivated. If you like castle and history, i would highly recommend always opting for the guided narration. We also stayed in Duffthown and toured Glenfiddich, which included to blend our whisky and take one home and really enjoyed it.