orangetravelcat

Fly into Glasgow and after overnighting there, take the train to Oban. Spend three days, of which one will be spent going to Mull and Iona. Suggestions for another daytrip from Oban? From there, we go to Inverness for four days, and we have two daytrips lined up with Puffin Express - to Skye, and a John o'Groats/"nature" tour. What to do on our free day? And from there, to Dunkeld for one night, and then the next day to Glasgow for one night, and then fly back to the US. We are not fans of big cities. I know Inverness is a city but we got a great hotel rate there so we are using that as a base. Any suggestions for improvements to this itinerary? Thanks.

orangetravelcat

I forgot to mention we will rely on public transportation - train to Oban, bus to Inverness (via Ft William), then train to Dunkeld, train to Glasgow.

noe847

I have taken he train from Glasgow to Oban twice, and the ride is absolutely beautiful. Oban itself is filled with tourists and tours, but is a very pretty town.

The walk up the hill to the Folly is steep but great to do in good weather. You get a fabulous view out over the harbor (especially at sunset). The Oban distillery is in the center of town that you can tour. You can walk to castle ruins on the edge of town. Not the most spectacular castle ever, but atmospheric.

nessundorma

I quite like Inverness. Take a walk along the River Ness at sunset if the weather is nice and check what's playing at the Eden Court Theater. You might want to get some shopping done in Inverness, take in a show, and other relaxing things.

sheila

I have two ideas for your excusrion from Oban- assuming you tour Mull and Iona by land, take awhale and dolphin watching trip- if you went to Mull and Iona by sea, that might be a bit repetitive. If you did go to Mull and Iona by sea, take a land based trip to Mull

Suggestion 2 would be a trip through Kilmartin Glen, preferably as far as Crinan. Trouble is, I can't find anyone doing bus trips or anything.

I did find this guy, based in Fort William
http://www.scottishhighlandtours.co.uk/

and this lady

http://www.scotlandtourguide.co.uk/

but goodnes knows what either would cost. You COULD just hire a car for a day. It'sa really easy drive. Honest.

As to your spare day from Inverness, go south to Culloden, Brodie Castle, Cawdor Castle Forst George and maybe Elgin.

Or go into Speyside along the whisky train.

Or go into the Black Isle, and to Cromarty, Rosemarkie.

there are heaps of people doing such things. You'll find them on

http://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/tourguides.htm

plr

I am planning to spend a day exploring the Kilmartin Glen on my own in my upcoming visit. There's so much there that I finally decided it was worth car rental for the day, although the Oban tourism folks identified buses that provide limited travel through the area a couple of times per day. If you are interested in prehistorical sites, go to this website and scroll down to "Interactive Monuments" to see a great map of how you could fill at least a month! http://www.kilmartin.org/

I also found one tourguide for the area. I have no idea about quality, cost, etc. but am passing this along for your further enquiry if interested. http://www.ansgeulaiche.co.uk/tours.html

orangetravelcat

Thank you for your responses. I will check out your suggestions and links today. As far as renting a car, we did it once in England and it was a disaster for us. So I don't think we want to subject ourselves to that kind of stress again.