Sheila

On of the problems with Glasgow is that there is not much nice on the south west side.<BR><BR>I agree with Ron that it is underrated, so if you found somewhere nice to stay on the southwest-Paisley, maybe?- it would be quite a good plan to stay there, see your garden and not get too involved with the city traffic in Glasgow or the tourist traffic on Loch Lomond side

janis

B.: Do not stay in Glasgow IF your main reason is to avoid Loch Lomond Traffic. Glasgow is by far the largest city in Scotland and traffic there is worse than anything you will encounter at Loch Lomond. The A82 along the Loch does get congested on weekends. What day are you arriving? If it is a weekday you will be MUCH better off staying on the Loch instead of trying to navigate workday Glasgow traffic.<BR><BR>If the 1st day is a Sat. or especially a Sun. then the Lochside traffic can be a problem and Glasgow traffic is less. <BR><BR>I personally would not go to Glasgow to do a garden visit. There are a lot of great things about Glasgow, but there are wonderful gardens everywhere.

Debbie

Sounds like a great trip you are planning. I am too a detail person and you should by all means see what interests you the most. My husband and I did a full Scotland trip in 2000 for nine days. Great relaxing trip and I was three months pregnant. Some people steer totally away from tours but we mixed ours up to save stress on me (since I'm always the trip organizer). Just for a run down of how we did our trip...flew into Glasgow and took the train to Edinburgh (good deal). Stayed at a wonderful B&B in Edinburgh and toured the sights for a few days then left from there with a fantastic local company called Prestige Tours. We went on a first class tour of Scotland on a luxury bus and the best thing about it is the slow pace of the company and high end overnighters. They had many destinations to choose from and they only accepted fifteen passengers max. Our full size bus only had twelve for our trip. We stayed in a castle, cruised Loch Lomond, Glen Coe, toured Loch Ness, ate scones at an Aberdeen angus farm, toured St. Andrews, Glamis Castle etc. We also took one of their day trips from Edinburgh to Stirling castle. They took us through scenic countryside roads on each day of our trips, and the bus drivers-guides were most informed and talked non stop about the history and sights. It was a perfect trip for us and then we slept in on our days back in Edinburgh if we wanted. We also didn't have jet lag to deal with though since we were living in Europe at the time. Happy travels. You will love Scotland. It was one of the most natural and scenic countries of Europe to visit in our opinion.