Would love some help finalizing our plans for our trip to Scotland this summer! We (Husband, two 'children' ages 17 and 20, and myself) will arrive in Edinburgh the morning of July 27. We will get a car as we depart Edinburgh. Here are our lodging locations with amount of nights at each one. We would love suggestions for "must sees" as well as restaurant recommendations. In particular, the time we are basing ourselves in Pitlochry (we plan to take multiple day trips during our stay there).
A little background on us: We love to travel, are adventurous and thoroughly enjoy getting to know the locals wherever we go. We plan to explore the castles, scenery, museums, my son and husband plan to golf a couple of times, food and spirits and "go where the locals go"
July 27-29 Edinburgh
July 29-30 Cupar (exploring St Andrews)
July 30-Aug. 3 Pitlochry
Aug. 3-4 Loch Ness
Aug. 4-6 Portree
Aug. 6-8 Bishopton
Aug. 8 fly home out of Glascow

We are very excited and appreciate any input very much!

Why are you going to Loch Ness exactly?

You are counting things a bit 'generously'. What you actually have is:

July 27-28 Edinburgh
July 29 Cupar (exploring St Andrews)
July 30-Aug. 2 Pitlochry
Aug. 3 Loch Ness
Aug. 4-5 Portree
Aug. 6-7 Bishopton
Aug. 8 fly home out of Glas<B><red>g</B></red>ow

So less time most places than you may imagine.

May I ask why Bishopton? Ancestors from there? Otherwise I can't think of a reason.

Loch Ness is ENORMOUS so staying there could mean anywhere from Inverness to Ft Augustus - where exactly?

Meant to add -- you have only 1.5 days in Edinburgh followed by one day for Fife. That is too rushed to really see/do much.

I am a total advocate of slow travel and like to stay a while in most places. But 4 days in Pitlochry when you are only allowing one day for Fife and two for Skye seems an odd division of time.

WTH are you seeing in Pitlochry? We went there, stayed two hours (including lunch), bought some Edradour toffees, and felt like we'd exhausted the place. You can ditch the whole time there and spend multiple nights OUTSIDE OF Inverness. Near Inverness are Culloden Battlefield, the Clava Cairns, Brodie and Cawdor Castles, and more. Up the road a touch are Glenmorangie Distillery and Dunrobin Castle (yes, go there). Or do any number of other things from another base (e.g., Aberdeen and the various castles and distilleries in Aberdeenshire and the Grampian Highlands).

The name of the largest city in Scotland is not a portmanteau of glass and cow. ;-).

Big Russ, what you found to see and do in Pitlochry is of course based on your interests. To suggest that because it only interested you for 2 hours means it should only interest anyone else for the same amount of time is simply foolish.

What's more, you either didn't take the time to read or are ignoring that the OP is planning to use it as a base for day trips. So how is your opinion of the town alone, relevant at all?

Going back to Pitlochry itself, do you know there is a very good theatre there? https://pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com/

Do you know there are 2 distilleries?
https://www.pitlochry.org/shopping-a...tilleries.html

Do you know there is a castle just a few miles up the road?
http://blair-castle.co.uk/

You suggest going elsewhere to do things like visiting castles and distilleries that can just as easily be done from Pitlochry.

Pitlochry is also a good location from which to do day hikes.
http://www.mapmyhike.com/gb/pitlochry-sct/

Maybe you need to visit Pitlochry again but do some research before you go to see what would be of interest to you when you get there rather than just walk down the main street and say, 'been there, done that'.

Bethbl, I would suggest as janisj has indicated, that you count your travel time OUT of your time IN places. Each time you move, you lose time to travel that could have been spent IN places, seeing and doing things. In travel, less is more. The less you move the more you see and do. Quantity is not quality.

For Pitlochry restaurants, I would suggest Fern Cottage. http://ferncottagepitlochry.co.uk/

Great for a pre-theatre dinner and just a short walk from there to the theatre.

And oh yeah, there is a golf course for your husband and son to play if they have time.
http://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/pitlochry

I guess BigRuss missed that as well.

For a place to stay, our favourite is https://www.craigatinhouse.co.uk/

Some people like Pitlochry . . . and it IS a step above Inverness or Ft William. But it does seem a shame to spend so much of ones limited time in Scotland there. As a base for day trips -- fine, but there are much better options IMO/IME.

(The fact that Sojourntraveller likes it is just another reason to stay away )

Dogeared - you make many assumptions about my suggestions and reading comprehension, none of which are correct. Perhaps you should not do so in the future based on your inaccuracy to date.

My comments stand - there's very little "there" in Pitlochry, which means it's inherently less useful as a base of operations. Even if nicer than Inverness, the area has less to do and see.