Scotland May '24 Need Input
 

I am planning a milestone birthday trip and need some help. Here is the itinerary planned so far. I need help with transportation to and from all of these places as we don't intend to rent a car as the focus of this trip is drinking whisky and I don't want anyone to miss out. I have at least 6 people that need to get to the train (we are leaving from Edinburgh) and then to Islay a couple days later.
I also need help with where to stay after the Keith Dufftown Railway. Is it better to stay in that area? Head to Aberdeen or back toward the ferry to Islay?
After Islay the last few days will be in England and I've included the tentative stops for those days. Please let me know if that's too ambitious. The other goal of this trip is for it to be relaxing and not overly rushed or planned. Thank you in advance!

Day 3
Sat 5/18
Whisky Train
3 hr trip to Dufftown Station
Maybe stay in Aberdeen - TBD

Day 4
Sun 5/19
Springbank or other TBD
Accommodations TBD

Day 5
Mon 5/20
Ferry to Islay
Islay - North distilleries - Bruchladdich
Stay overnight on Islay - 2 nights

Day 6
Tues 5/21
Laphroaig - picnic tour

Day 7
Wed 5/22
Leave Islay to England

Day 8
Thurs 5/23
The Weald and Downland Museum

Day 9
Fri 5/24
the Cotswolds - Diddly Squat Farm Shop

Welcome to Fodors.

I honestly do not see how you could possible accomplish much of this without driving :(

But a bigger issue (HUGE) -- there is no way you could do northern Scotland, Springbank (I assume you mean the distillery in Campbeltown), Islay, The weald & Downland Museum in far southern England, And Jeremy's farm outside Chipping Norton . . . in SEVEN days. That would be a 3 week trip absolute minimum if one was driving and nigh on impossible by public transport.

Where are you flying in to and home from? You'd have to be in either Inverness or Aberdeen to get a train to Keith to take the Whisky train excursion.

Thank you for your reply!
Flying into Edinburgh (5/16) and out of London (5/25)

We will be driving but would like to hire a driver. Do you have any recommendations?

Sorry but I do not know how to even massage this combination of far flung places. It would really three or four completely separate one week trips, I honestly think your plan wouldn't be possible even with a private plane and chauffeurs at each stop.

One for Edinburgh/Dufftown/the northern bits.
One for Cambeltown/Islay/Argyle
One for London plus the Weald and Downland Museum
One for London and the Cotswolds

Each of these would be fairly ambitious to accomplish in seven days. You simply need to go back to the drawing board.

Just to illustrate the above. JUST the drive (no stops, no distillery tours, no museums, no sightseeing - just butts in seats drive time) Edinburgh > Keith > Campbelltown > Port Askaig > The Weald and Downland > Chipping Norton > London is approx 1300 miles and would take a minimum of thirty-five hours. i.e. Seven straight days of five hours in the car and a few hours for seeing/doing.

Thanks for this. So the main obstacle is distance between places?

More like the sheer number of places. You do plan to stop to eat and maybe sleep?

I guess you could say that. But it is more that these are such completely unconnected places -- hard to figure out the theme of this trip. Truly curious how you devised such a plan?? Of course single malts are apparently one target. But even trying to combine Speyside distilleries, with Campbelltown, with Islay would be almost impossible in one week. And that is eliminating Edinburgh and anything other than distilleries.

But then you throw in a completely different theme of rural England -- and not even two rural destinations near each other.

An then add in London.

Just mind spinning really - sort of like combining New Orleans, Cape Cod and Yosemite -- all are magnificent but really have nothing to do with each other.

With a May 16 arrival at EDI and May 25 departure from LHR, you have eight days to play with (can't count arrival nor departure days). So you're pretty much limited a couple of options.

1) The most straightforward being 2 or 3 days in Edinburgh, drive or take the train to Inverness or Aberdeen. Then drive to Keith for the whisky excursion train, spend a couple of days exploring the general area including some of the many distilleries and various castes, scenic spots, Culloden, etc. Drop the car at INV, fly to LHR, spend a couple of days in London and fly home. This is quite rushed but doable.

2) A couple of days in Edinburgh, drive to Campbeltown via the Ardrossan Ferry, two nights there, then to Islay for two nights. Then drive to GLA, drop car and fly down to LHR, a couple of days in London, fly home. Still pretty hectic but doable.

These itineraries are based self-driving a rental car -- I couldn't imagine how much hiring a driver for either option would cost. Hundreds of ££££ for sure

I really appreciate this input and your alternate itinerary suggestions.

Just by dropping the horrible Diddly Squat out of the equation things get a little more sensible. If you could drop England then again better still. I still see an incredibly rushed holiday.

BTW janisj is being very nice in her comments ;-)

You noticed that ;)