ips50

solo traveler wants to see edinburgh, glasgow, stirling, ft. william, loch ness, and inverness. flying in & out of LHR. any suggestions for LHR- edinburgh, car rentals from there and b&bs

Roger

Sorry, I cannot advise on car rentals as I do rail and bus. All of the places you can do by rail. You might want to look into a Brit Rail pass. I think the train from London to Edingurgh is a fun trip with good view once up north. Unless you have a specific reason for Ft. William, I would give it a pass. Depending on time of year, you shouldn't have problems with booking B&B's. I use both "Smoothhound" and "undiscover Scotland" for places to stay.

Glitterball

I would definitely give renting a car at Heathrow a miss - it is a looong drive up to Edinburgh, the M25 London Orbital is the road from hell, and there really isn't much scenery on the way up (M1 motorway all the way). The train is a much better option - it takes about 5 hours from London Kings Cross (you can get the Tube straight there from Heathrow, or alternatively take the Heathrow Express to Paddington and get the tube or a taxi from there). There is some much nicer scenery to be seen from the train. You can pick up pretty cheap flights too - try British Midland (who fly from LHR)or the mega cheap Easyjet (which goes from Luton and Gatwick, both of which have good links in to London).

Edinburgh is best done without a car anyway - you can walk everywhere and parking is a nightmare. Perhaps you could rent a car when you are leaving Edinburgh and drop it off in Inverness? While Fort William isn't very exciting, it would be a crime to miss it out, because the scenery on the way up there just has to be seen to be believed- drive over to Glasgow and up the A82 and you get great views of Loch Lomond, and drive through Glencoe. The drive up from Fort William to Inverness is also great, taking in Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness.

Maybe you could take a train back down to Edinburgh if you drop off your car in Inverness, and this will give you great views of the Cairngorms and Perthshire.

Have a great trip - visit http://www.visitscotland.com for ideas and some accommodation. I'm sure others can recommend some other sites that are good for accommodation.

caroline_edinburgh

Actually, I think you meant suggestions for LHR-EDI *&* car rental from Edinburgh, didn't you ? Although London & Edinburgh are both on the east coast, the quickest driving route is actually up the west (M6 etc), not up the M1, but it's still slow, difficult & not very scenic. Yes, flying or train is much better - I usually fly bmi (www.flybmi.com). Also try BA, who fly from LHR too - usually more expensive than bmi but not invariably. If starting from LHR I wouldn't bother flogging over to Luton, Gatwick or Stansted : if you can't fly bmi or BA, I'd get the train. The tube from LHR goes direct to King's Cross so actually more convenient than the Heathrow Express.

For Edinburgh B&Bs people on this board frequently recommend the Castle View guesthouse on Castle Street : it's very central but is several floors up without a lift. Here are links to 2 other B&Bs run by nice people I know slightly :

http://www.edinburgh-scotland.uk.com/pringle/

http://www.specialplacestostay.com/s...FileID=bbb2002

They are both in Morningside which is quite a nice area about 2 miles from the centre, on a very good bus route & with quite good local amenities.

Out of town, have you considered staying in pubs rather than B&Bs ? It's what I'd rather do if I were travelling alone. More likely to be sociable - and have good food ! If you want to stay in Glencoe, the Clachaig Inn is good fun, has good food & beer & often live music.

janis

If you were traveling from London I'd recommend the train to Edinburgh. But you aren't traveling from London - you are traveling from LHR. You can easily fly up to Edinburgh in an hour -- you won't even be to Kings Cross to catch your train in an hour.

I do have a question why you chose the 6 specific places on your list of must sees. Ft William is definitely worth a miss, and Inverness is nearly as bad. Loch Ness is fine, but there are many, MANY lochs all over Scotland that are more scenic. What sorts of things are you interested in?

I second Caroline_edinburgh's suggestions re Castle View and the Clachaig Inn. I've stayed at Castle View a couple of times and LOVE the location, accomodations - tho' the climb can be a bit much after a long day out. Haven't stayed at the Clachaig Inn, but I eat there every time I'm in Glencoe (maybe once/twice a year) and it is great.

ips50

thanks for the info. i became interested in scotland after reading a series of historical fiction books by diana gabaldon, although my interest in things british began when i acquired a pen friend at age 8. i've travelled to england, wales, and ireland before- although it certainly wasn't in THIS century. but, somehow i'd missed scotland.

i think i'm going to fly to edi, only because i'll be too tired to do much else (eta at lhr is @ 9 a.m.).i'm renting the car when i leave edinburgh on the 8th. are there any places between the places i've mentioned that i could use as a "base camp" for several days, rather than hopping from place to place each night?
i will consider leaving the car in scotland and taking the train back to london.

i'll also consider the pub idea, although i neither smoke nor drink.
again, thanks all.