Here is some background. We are in our late 30's....seasoned travelers.... flying into Edinburgh Staying for 4 nights(already booked an apartment). . We're taking our 2 girls ages 4 and 7. We finish our 13 day scotland trip to go to London visit family etc. and to fly out of from there . I am a bit confused and need advice regarding my plans and knew experts at fodors will come to the rescue as always. Also we are planning on renting a car and are a little concerned about driving since we are from the US.

Plan A
Train to Inverness- stay 2 or 3 nights-rent a car drive down to stopping at Stirling or Fort Williams/ glen coe(sp) on our way to St. Andrews. Spend 2 to 3 days there doing day trips to the fishing villages near St . Andrews like Crail, Elie harbor, Anstruther etc

Drive to the train station in Edinburgh for a train to london

Plan B
Train to Inverness- Stay 2 or 3 nights- Rent a car and do a day trip to Kyle of Lochalsh and maybe Isle of Skye. Then from Inverness drive to St. Andrews and spend a few days there doing day trips before boarding a train in Edinburgh where we return our car at the station.

Plan C
After Edinburgh- Train to Inverness (not sure to spend 2 or 3 nights) rent a car and do day trips to :
Isle of Skye? and Kyle of Lochalsh? Or should we stay on Isle of Skye(Portree area?) Is there enough for the children to do? is one day all day enough?

drive back to Inverness and take a train to London.

ANY other ideas are more than welcome. Does it make sense....is it to much with kids?

thanks
Monica

Plan D, hire car, travel to St Andrews, cross country to Fort William, travel to Mallaig via Glenfinnan Viaduct (Harry Potter bridge) take ferry to Skye, stay Skye, leave Skye by Skye Bridge to Kyle of Lochalsh then Inverness, fly / sleeper train to London

you're talking about 13 days in Scotland with Inverness, St Andrews and Edinburgh being the only fixed point? What time of year?

Don't worry about the driving. Everyone does it.

Sheila -Edinburgh, Inverness are for sure(although not sure how much time in inverness...the others are flexible. We are going in August.

Alan-how many days in Skye? do I stay in the fort williams area or just a day trip on the way to Skye?

You could also come back down from Skye to Glasgow, since you're on that side of the country, take the kids to the Science Centre, Kelvingrove Gallery and brand new Transport Museum (opening in Spring) right on the banks for the river Clyde and then get the train to London, which takes less than 4.5 hours. (er, the train jounrney that is!)

I'll just tell you what we did with our kids last summer, then ages 4 and 9.

We took the overnight train from London to Glasgow, arriving around 8:30 a.m., and took showers in the train station. I took a cab to pick up our rental car, then gathered the family and luggage, and (after a bit of wandering through downtown to the river and back), headed to Loch Ness.

We stopped at the Loch Ness Monster Exhibition, fairly well received, particularly by our son (the older child), and then at Castle Urquhart, which was great for both kids, climbing about the ruins, rolling down the grassy hill, skipping rocks at lochside, watching the RAF planes flying over the hill and down the loch. The kids conked out in the backseat shortly after we left there on our way to Skye.

We spent 3 nights on Skye (at Woodbine Lodge in Uig, which I highly recommend), and the kids enjoyed our wandering about the Trotternish Peninsula and eating mostly in Portree. This was an intentional outdoor break after having spent a week in London at the start of our trip. Wind was too strong for our scheduled whale-watching boat trip, but it kept the bugs away.

One thing we stumbled upon that proved popular:
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...ain/index.html
The kids put on the hard hats and crawled around in this muddy iron-age underground structure. Bring a flashlight if you have one. The Museum of Island Life is nearby and worth a visit.

From Skye we had planned to take the ferry to Mallaig and drive to Fort William. This would have taken us past the Glenfinnan Viaduct of Harry Potter Hogwarts Express fame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenfinnan_Viaduct

Alas, the weather was poor on our departure day and we were running late, so we took the land route through Fort William and missed that. We had lunch in Fort William and drove onward to spend the night in Crianlarich.

The next morning we drove on first to Castle Doune. It was a pleasant stop, but honestly a bigger hit with Dad than the kids, as this was the site of much of the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

A short ways further down the road was Stirling, which was a fine stop all around. We had lunch in the town, wandered up the hill in and around the cathedral (the cemetery, with elaborate and sometimes gruesome grave markers, and a high rock formation in the center with great views, were both hits), and then to the Castle (also a hit). Finally, I highly recommend to you the huge adventure playground in Kings Park (where armies used to camp), at the foot of the hill with the castle in the background. The long zipline here was terrific.

We then went on to Edinburgh for a few nights. Our visit to the castle was marred by rain, but the older child really liked the military museums there, and when he studied Jamestown earlier this year in school I reminded him that he was in the room where King James was born. We intended to get to the science museum but didn't make it. We had a nice time roaming about the Royal Botanic Garden (good food in the new visitor's center there, and a great hide and seek location in the Queen Mum's Memorial Garden), and there is a large city park directly across the street to the west of there with a big playground and open fields and people with dogs to pet. I wished we had brought a small soccer ball for the kids to kick around.

Don't worry about the driving.

Wow...you had a wonderful adventure. One thing that is concerning me is the weather. We are going in August so might there be a chance of bad weather like your experienced? not sure when you went. you drove from Skye through the bridge then I assume?

"<i>We are going in August so might there be a chance of bad weather </i>"

There <i>might</i> be a chance of bad weather at any time. It could be hot-<i>ish</i> and humid, warm and dry, cool and cloudy, or pouring down w/ rain -- or all of the above.

That is what "changeable" means.

May I ask -- is there a reason Inverness is such a 'must'? The general area is great -- just tons of things to see/do w/i 20 - 25 miles. But the city itself is mainly a busy commercial center for northern Scotland. There are many nice places to stay w/o being actually IN Inverness.

And I'm hoping you have your lodging for Edinburgh set up now. If not, act fast -- Edinburgh triples in size because 900,000 visitors descend upon it every August for the festivals and the Tattoo.

Inverness is not much to hang around in -- stay somewhere outside the city, drive around the area. Go to Dunrobin Castle -- the falconry, pictish ruins in the museum and the castle itself should keep the hobbits entertained.

I don't mean to overemphasize the weather. It was regularly fairly windy while we were on Skye, but not unpleasantly stormy, and there were occasional showers that could blow up quite suddenly, but nothing that kept us from getting out and about. The day we left Skye (yes, by the bridge) was just more of a steady rainy day, not stormy. The compensation for that was that we were treated with spectacular waterfalls as we drove through the valleys.

BTW, I screwed up above, we took the train to Inverness, not Glasgow.

And I highly recommend the overnight train for your trip back to London. It was quite comfortable, an adventure for the kids, and a reasonable cost, particularly considering that meant one less hotel night for us.

Also I should mention that we rented through Auto Europe (the car ended up being from National), and there was no dropoff charge to pick up in Inverness and drop in Edinburgh.

I only wanted Inverness for it's central location to the area. A boat ride is my plan for the location and a visit to the castle . If there are interesting cities to visit I'm very open to it. All suggestions are welcome.

Edinburgh accommodations and Tattoo tickets are done... It's the first thing I did.

"<i>I only wanted Inverness for it's central location to the area. A boat ride is my plan for the location and a visit to the castle . If there are interesting cities to visit I'm very open to it..</i>"

The point is - northern Scotland is not a 'city sort of place'. Inverness is the ONLY city in the region. There is no reason to stay IN Inverness. There are lots of rural and village B&Bs- what is your budget?

our budget would be under 200 pounds. I thought staying in inverness would be easier to find accommodations for 4. What specific suggestions of towns to you have in the highlands area?

"<i>I thought staying in inverness would be easier to find accommodations for 4.</i>"

Many B&Bs (most actually) have family rooms that sleep 2 adults and 2 children. So you can stay just about anywhere -- and your budget is VERY generous. A posh/high end B&B would run half that.

Just to give you an idea, this one is right on the shore of Loch Ness w/ amazing views and a family room http://www.kimcraigan.co.uk/

But most hotels/B&Bs will have family rooms.

How about the Fort Williams area instead?

Ft William is a dump. The area has a lot of beautiful scenery, but Ft William itself is not a nice place to stay. It isn't horrible -- its just that there are a hundred better places. Ft William is basically just a ton of B&Bs and a couple of bad restaurants

Whether you want to stay "near" Inverness or "near" Ft William mostly depends on what you want to see/where you'll be going next. But don't stay IN either town.

hmm...I took at look at the place you recommended and it did look great!! However it seems that we should just drive from Edinburgh directly there and not take the train to Inverness and then rent a car. What i was hoping to see was Isle of Skye...i'm still not sure if I should head there first and on the way back do other things.

If you're going to Inverness, I'd recommend a stopover in Pilochry and maybe even an overnight there. Also, depending on how much time you end up spending in Edinburgh, there's a quaint seaside town to the south of Edinburgh called North Berwick that's worth an afternoon- Nice beach area and some neat shops, etc. It's around 30-40 mins on the train. Actually, you could check it out on the way to London.

I also agree the night train from Edinburgh to London is a nice experience. However, be aware, that service arrives at London Paddington Station, while the normal day service brings you into King's Cross Station.

As for weather- Plan on rain and cool temps. As someone said above, it could be 70's & Sunny, but you have to be prepared at all times to avoid a dousing. Get a light Gore-Tex jacket with a pair of roll-up rain pants, water-proof hiking boots and just go with it....