flying iad to edi mid-july. want to travel directly to shetlands and then to the orkneys (or via versa). what's the best way to do this?

1) fly (see www.edinburghairport.com)
2) train to Aberdeen, ferry to Orkney / Shetland (see www.nationalrail.co.uk / www.northlinkferries.co.uk)

You could get a ferry from Scrabster to Orkney but the extra travel time is not a good idea

Also see www.aferry.to

The ferry from Scrabster is horrific, avoid at all costs if you can and get the John O'Groats one.

I would fly if time was an issue and money wasn't.

If the weather's fine the ferry option is much nicer.

I disagree mildly with weelynie on eth ferry crossing. The water between the mainland and Orkney is called the Pentland Firth and it's infamous as difficult water... but it's much worse on the short crossing than the Scrabster one.

The Aberdeen ferry goes round the outside and is pretty much unaffected by the race through the Firth.

We just returned from an Orkney/Shetland trip. We took the Northlink Ferry with our car and found it to be quite pleasing. We went from Scrabster to Stromness, then Kirkwall to Lerwick, then Lerwick to Aberdeen. I do not suggest the food on the ferry though. It was by far the worst meals we had while there.