OBrusov

Ok, my first attempt was a bust. I wasn't prepared and you all call me out on it. So I slunk away into the shadows with my tail between my legs ready to take on research. The truth of the matter is that I am out of practice. With having kids the last 4 yrs, I haven't been able to take a vacation, let alone have time to research or plan one. Nevertheless, the time has come! A child-free vacation, and I may have gotten ahead of myself. So apologies to all, but at least now I know who the big guns are in this forum.

I have done some research and reorganized my itinerary. This one is most likely not the final version as well. But with the more I read, the more I change it. My husband and I are not big on museums. We are big on scenery, ruins, good food, good drinks, good people. We will be flying into Glasgow on the morning of a Sunday in June (undecided which Sunday).

Sun: Arrive in Glasgow, hop on the West Highland Line, arrive in Arrochar
Mon: Lake Lomond (we are lake people)
Tues: Hop back on the West Highland Line to Mallaig, take ferry to Skye, rent car
Wed: Explore Skye
Thurs: Morning explore Skye, return car, hope on train to Inverness, rent another car there and drive to Dufftown
Fri: Whisky experimentation in Dufftown
Sat: Drive down from Dufftown to Glasgow along the castle trail stopping at (Fraser, Craigievar, Dunnottar)
Sun: Spend last night in Glasgow and depart in afternoon

Is this too strenuous with the change in car rentals and the one day drive through the castle trail? I know I am trying to fit a lot in. My original thought was to start at Glasgow with a car rental and go backwards (than the itinerary above) on the same car but, firstly, we don't want to drive THAT much and, secondly, I would really like that long train ride.

Fire away!

janisj

>>So I slunk away into the shadows with my tail between my legs ready to take on research<<

aah -- buck up We've ALL planned a few mind boggling itineraries from time to time!

I have two games on (NFL and NBA) and trying to multitask at the moment. But just my first quick comment . . . >>Sat: Drive down from Dufftown to Glasgow along the castle trail stopping at (Fraser, Craigievar, Dunnottar)<<. is totally unrealistic and verges on impossible. That would be a good 3 days 4 night trip (2/3 if you were in a real time crunch). Just the straight drive with no stops is nearly 6 hours. Dunnottar requires a MINIMUM of two hours if only because of the hike out and back, Craigievar = about an hour, Castle Fraser a little more - so 'could be done in 2 full days but you'd be missing an awful lot in the same areas.

You have 6 usable full days and are trying to see places and thing hundreds of miles apart on both sides of the country. In your calculations figure averaging 35 mph - and much less than that on Skye.

IMO you have so little time you REALLY need to cut way back. The trains and Skye plus breaking your journey on Loch Lomond is really all you have time for. OR re-think everything

historytraveler

ellenem

If your castle trail back to Glasgow is unrealistic, consider flying home from Inverness. Then you could spend one more day exploring the area--there's enough nearby to fill your final day without long drives.

My home airport is JFK. I found reasonable flights to and from Inverness via Dublin on Aer Lingus.

OBrusov

janisj

Flying out if Inverness is an option but doesn't save them any time. Driving back to INV is just as difficult unless they add time. Dufftown to the the castles mentioned and back to Inverness airport is almost exactly the same drive time as down to GLA -- it is 6 hours car time no matter how you slice it. Since one wouldn't want to do that drive the same day as the flight out (of either airport) they'd have the same time investment.

janisj

we were posting the same time -- one thing you need to understand about basing an entire itinerary around Skye, which is what you are describing . . . You may or may not see ANYTHING. They don't call it the "misty Isle' for nothing. I visited Skye 3 times before I saw a darned thing. First trip (in June) it was raining sideways and I never stepped out of the car except to run into my B&B an back out. Second time (in August) it rained some but between the fog and midges I still didn't see much at all. Third time was wonderful (also in June) and I've been back a few times since (half of which had nasty weather).

Basically is is a long way to go on the off chance you'll have decent weather. Besides - I personally prefer Mull)

MissPrism

Another fan of Mull. You can boat trips to Staffa and Iona and to the Treshnish islands for a bit of “puffin therapy”.
As you are arriving in Glasgow, may I suggest a trip to Arran. It is truly described as Scotland in miniature. It’s got mountains, lochs and two distilleries.
it also has surprisingly good food

MissPrism

https://foodanddrink.scotsman.com/ge...-eat-on-arran/

bilboburgler

Just to upset the whole apple cart, I prefer Orkney to the western isles, no religious nutcases, lots of nice people but again the islands are out in the Atlantic and the weather can be bad. But you present itin is fine just a wee bit too tight as janisj says.

You do need to recognise that the roads are slow, not that you cannot drive fast but the roads are narrow, sometimes with passing spaces and all the other idiots want to look out their windows. So an average of 35 is a high speed for many of the roads you have identified.

ellenem

I mentioned using Inverness to fly home and pending the final day nearby INSTEAD OF seeing that list of castles. The OP might find sights interesting to them near Inverness and skip those castles.

OBrusov

ellenem We wouldn't be able to fly home from Inverness. We are getting the flights via miles we have collected so to-and-from Glasgow is our only option.

janisj I completely understand the possibility of bad weather but June is recommended as the driest time to visit. The weather is always something that you just cross you fingers for and hope that it works out in your favor when traveling. Especially when things need to be booked well in advanced. Why do you prefer Mull to Skye? Less crowds? Aside question, is the weather usually better on the East coast of the highlands (more dry I mean)?

MissPrism I have read about Arran and wanted to include it but I thought that if we want to include Skye then we couldn't do both. Can you get to and around Arran with no car? How long would we need?

janisj

>>but June is recommended as the driest time to visit. <<

By whom? There is no 'driest time' really, but as you say there is ALWAYS a chance for bad weather. If you had say 3 weeks to leisurely tour around you could play the 'wait out the weather game'. But you don't have the luxury.

Yes - in general the east coast is cooler/drier, the west coast is a little warmer but wetter and more windy.

Re Mull vs Skye -- Mull is much less crowded. Lovely scenery. Iona/Staffa. etc. Skye used to be much less crowded but has become enormously popular (overly so) and now one really has to book months in advance and the narrow roads which were just slow before are now sloooooow with all the lookie loos stopping in the middle of the road ro take photos - and parking has become an issue at popular view points.

This is more than 2 years old and things have got worse since then https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-40874488

janisj

Arran - or the Castle Trail or Fife or Dunnottar or the Northern Highlands or Orkney or the Borders or the SW or the Trossachs or Edinburgh or Argyll or Ayrshire or the Whisky Trail or any of scores of other regions . . . Are ALL worth visiting. But instead of us throwing out even more options - you just need to pick two general 'districts' because that is all you really have time for -- you have 6 days plus a little time in Glasgow so say three nights on Skye if you must, and two nights somewhere like the Trossachs or the southern Highlands or you name it. Then back to Glasgow. You would need 3 nights on Skye because it will take you just about a full day to get there so 3 nights will give you 2 days which is enough to scratch the surface.

If you chose Mull instead you could get away with two nights simply because it is a bit smaller and while the roads are just as slow - there are less crowds.

OBrusov

janisj Okay, I hear your. Would going earlier help? Like middle-end of May? Or am I then going up against worse weather statistics? I know I am probably looking for a non-existent sweet spot. If we cut out the eastern Highlands then it would give us an extra day on Skye (4 days, 3 nights). I will look more into Mull now though.

If we have 2 nights in Glasgow, is a day trip to Arran possible or better to use the time more wisely and explore Glasgow?

janisj

>>Or am I then going up against worse weather statistics?<<

OK - throw ALL weather statistics out the window The UK is an Island(s) The weather changes just about every single day. Sometimes it is nicer in April than in July or vice versa. You can have 3 or even 4 seasons in a day or two. The only 'given' is the daylight hours are longest in June.

>> . . . it would give us an extra day on Skye (4 days, 3 nights)<<

Sorry but it doesn't work that way. to get 4 days in a place requires 5 nights. Three nights will net you TWO full days.

Jean

IMO, Scotland is one of those places where one says there is no bad weather, only wrong clothing for the conditions. You need to be prepared year-round for rain, wind, and everything else. Even if it isn't raining at any given time, the unpaved ground may be too wet for most street shoes.

As my relatives in Seattle say, if you wait for "good" weather, you'll never leave the house.

The last time we were in Scotland was in the first two weeks of June. (We only explored Edinburgh to Speyside and only went as far west as Callander.) It was lovely, but it did rain every single day. Most days just a brief, light shower, but a couple of days it rained the better part of the day, sometimes hard.

MissPrism

The ferries to Arran take foot passengers. There are buses on the island, but if you are reasonably fit, you could hire a bike https://www.arranbikehire.com

historytraveler

Gardyloo

I want to come back to this opening statement on priorities and relate it to your plans on the ground. First, let's eliminate the good drinks and good people issues - those are everywhere. Good food... well, that's everywhere too, but there's also food that's - y'know...

But with time limits like you those you face, I think it would behoove you to focus on the other elements, and pick an itinerary that offers the maximum "yield" in a relatively compact geographic area. Including Skye complicates things considerably, due to the time required to access the island, as well as by its size and popularity. It's for this reason that I would join the Mull bandwagon, but including more of Argyll in the process.

Google the places on this map - https://goo.gl/maps/9oTG78StziR8xEvq6

The idea here is to respect your desire for a train ride, but combine it with a "base" in the Highlands where you can pick up and drop off a rental car while having immediate access to the sorts of things you list - scenery, good food and drink, ruins, etc. Oban is the place I have in mind for this. You can reach it on a branch of the West Highland Line from Glasgow, and it's a good place to use as a mainland base from which to visit other (relatively) nearby places. While there are no Oban branches of any major or international car hire companies, there are a couple of local ones (same as Fort William) which would give you access to all the marvelous destinations within a short driving distance from the town.

Let me describe a couple of these to illustrate.

Ruins: A few miles south of Oban is the village of Kilmartin. In Kilmartin Glen, just below the village, one can find numerous prehistoric sites - standing stones, stone circles, burial cairns, etc. - speaking to the fact that this area has been occupied for thousands and thousands of years. In the village there's a wee museum containing carved gravestones with Celtic designs and more antiquities. Up the road are a ruined castle and the site of the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dalriada, In just a couple of hours around Kilmartin you can absorb more ancient and medieval history than you can in days in other parts of the country. Plus, it's drop-dead gorgeous.



Castles: On the coast north of Oban is Castle Stalker, used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and as you approach Mull on the ferry from Oban you'll pass Duart Castle, with a site fully as iconic as the famous Eilean Donan castle (much) farther to the north.




Whisky: There are distilleries on the mainland in Oban, and also on Mull, in the pretty town of Tobermory.

Food: Loch Fyne, with the pretty town of Inveraray (home of the Campbells; their florid castle was Cousin Shrimpy's place in Downton Abbey) is famous for its fish and seafood. You can eat very well indeed in Argll.

Access: From Oban you can take day tours to Iona and Staffa as well as Mull; or with a car you could explore the area up to the Road to the Isles (Glenfinnan Viaduct for your steam train pictures) or to Glen Coe or stunning Glen Etive. In general, a one- or two-base itinerary (Oban and maybe Mull for a couple of nights) would be terrific in the area, and you'd still have a great train ride coming and going.