Need advice. We have a timeshare in central Scotland from April 28 through May 5, 2006. We're planning to spend a month in Scotland around that time. Tentative plan is to fly into either Edinburgh or Glasgow (whichever is the cheapest flight!) and spend a few days in that city before getting our rental car and driving to our timeshare on Loch Tay. We'd like to visit both cities but at the beginning and end of our trip so we don't need the car for a few days on either end. That way we can spend a month in Scotland but only rent a car for three weeks. (I hope this makes sense.)

Is there easy train service between, for instance, central Glasgow to the Edinburgh Airport? (or . . . central Edinburgh to Glasgow Airport?)

Is three days in each city reasonable or should we plan to spend more time in one of them? If so, which one and why? (We love architecture, art, museums, churches, classical music and local foods. We are not interested in shopping or sports.)

Is it reasonable to stay on Loch Tay for three weeks and plan to visit most of the "must-see" tourist sights in Scotland? . . . or Should we spend the timeshare week there and plan to spend a week in the Highlands and a week in southwestern Scotland?

Any advice will be deeply appreciated.

you need to get train from glasgow to edinburgh then bus to airport.there are trains every half hour & the buses are frequent too. i would say 3 days in each city is ok.in glasgow you have museum of modern art/ burrell collection/transport museum /religious museum st mungo, plenty of good restaurants(www.thelist.co.uk) & edinburgh the castle/national gallery & lots more.check out websites for both cities.where are you based on loch tay? kenmore is good, so is killin. good walk up ben lawers too.as for the must sees. it depends what you think they are!

SalB,

As scot1 says neither airport is easily accessible by train. On the other hand they are both well connected by bus to their respective city centres.

The good news is that train travel between Glasgow & Edinburgh city centres is very easy indeed. There are trains every 15 minutes & the journey should take around 45 minutes.

Being Glaswegian born & bred I probably shouldn't say this but I would recommend spending more time in Edinburgh, particularly if this is your first visit to Scotland. Glasgow does have a lot to offer but I think that Edinburgh is a better bet for a first time visitor - more history, sights etc.

It would be very easy for you to base yourself in Edinburgh & take daily train trips to, say, Glasgow, Stirling & Fife for example.

Jim

JJN and scot have pretty much answered the city/airport questions. I too woul dplan a bit more time in Edinburgh. 3 days is really fine there and 2 in Glasgow would be good.

Your plan of being car-less at the front and back ends of the trip is a good one.

Now about the other 2 weeks you have free. Loch Tay is a good central location - but I would not stay there for three weeks. It would be a good base for everything from Oban on the west to Fife/St Andrews in the east and for the Trossachs, Stirling, Blair Atholl etc.

One option you might consider is rent two cottages for the other two weeks. You'd still have the self-cateriong advantages and a base to come home to each night.

W/ one week at Loch Tay, the other two could be 1) somewhere a bit west of Inverness. Near Beauly might be good. This would be a great base for eveything from Nairn/Elgin, the Whisky Trail, Culloden, the NW and even Skye.

2) Then for something completely different the other week could be in the Borders or Ayrshire. I'd choose the Borders, but the SW is good too. From this base you could easily explore the east coast castles, Border abbeys, St Abbs Head, Holy Island and a bit of NE England including Bamburgh, Alnwick and even Hadrian's Wall.

Sorry - that should be scot1 and JJBhoy . . . .

Thank you very much. Yes, this is our first trip to Scotland. We've rented farm apartments in Italy through http://www.holiday-rentals.com/ and were very happy with them. I notice they have places in Scotland so I'll check on rentals in the areas suggested.

Any other info would be much appreciated. Thanks.

There are easy train/bus services between the two cities and their airports.

Three days in both cities is reasonable. You can probably manage with a bit less in Glasgow. Mind you, it's pretty good for art and architecture, so you may not want to. It IS a city where a lot of the experience is about being there, rather than doing things or seeing things.

I can never decide what the "must see" sights are. Loch Tay is very central and there are lots of places to see within easy day trip driving distance, but there are lots of good places to see which are further afield. The south west would fall into that category.

I have a set of links for cottage rental sites. If you email me, I'll send it on to you.

Hi Sal.

For the National Galleries in Edinburgh see www.nationalgalleries.org. All the galleries are linked by a free bus. There are also lots of private galleries & artists' spaces in both cities - your best bet is to get the fortnightly listings magaxine 'The List' (which covers both cities) when you arrive, to see what exhibitions are on & also listings for theatre, music etc.

The main venues for classical music in Edinburgh are the Usher Hall - www.usherhall.co.uk - and the Queen's Hall - http://www.thequeenshall.net/index.php.

Scottish Opera will be performing 'Carmen' & 'Don Giovanni' at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre & the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, in May & June - see http://www.scottishopera.org.uk/. Tickets have recently gone on sale & there is a discount if you book for both at the same venue.

For the main museums www.nms.ac.uk/nms/home/.

Any other questions, just ask.

Regards, Caroline

Sheila, I have e-mailed you for the cottage rental list. Thank you.

Caroline, I have bookmarked all your web sites and will start checking them. Thank you.

I deeply appreciate all the advice I've received here thus far.

More suggestions are certainly welcome.