Travel Route 6 days in Scotland:
 

We are planning our trip to Scotland next May, last year we stayed three days in Edinburgh with a day trip to the Highlands. We will be arriving on a Monday night at Edinburgh Airport 8:30pm where we plan to rent a car from the airport for six/seven days.

Tuesday morning we would like to drive to Saint Andrews visiting for several hours then head toward the Isle of Sky. I thought we could drive straight thru yet after reading the forums I would love to make other stops along the way. (Scone Palace, Blair Castle, Loch Rannoch, Loch Ness and Eilean Donan Castle)

Originally we planned Tuesday-Thursday (3) nights in Portree (It would now be just two nights if we stop in route from Saint Andrews) then traveling to Oban for Friday and Saturday (2) nights, visiting Mull, Iona and Staffa Island. Sunday we would travel through Glen Coe down to Sterling Castle, Wallace Monument and the Falkirk Wheel returning to Edinburgh Airport and dropping off car Sunday night.

Where should we spend the Tuesday night on the trip over to Sky and does our itinerary sound too ambitious or does it sound doable.

I had thought about staying in Pitlochry but I would like to be closer to Portree and we are planning on traveling from Pitlochry on A9 then cutting over to A87 via A86.

Thank You

"<i>Where should we spend the Tuesday night on the trip over to Sky and does our itinerary sound too ambitious </i>"

Too ambitious by half IMO.

Edinburgh to St Andrews to Perth to Loch Rannoch to Blair Atholl to Loch Ness to Portree is about 4 days worth, not two.

Perth (Scone) to Loch Rannoch, Blair Atholl, up around Loch Ness and on to Portree takes about nine hours 'behind the wheel' time. That is w/ NO stops at all. In real life - even doing it in two days would be a stretch. That isn't even counting St Andrews/Fife.

And Oban to Glencoe to Stirling to Falkirk to Edinburgh is about a 4.5-5 hour drive w/ about 6 or 7 hours worth of stops. So too much for one day unless you are just driving through.

Janisj,

Thank you for the reality check, I think I knew it was too much but with 6 days I was hoping we could manage to experience more. My husband wants to visit Sky and I really want to visit the Oban area for Mull, Iona and Staffa for Fingal’s Cave.

Do you have any thoughts on how we could accomplish more with the time we have?

We could possibly add an extra day arriving back at Edinburgh Monday late afternoon.

Thanks

You could easily do Mull/Iona/Staffa and Skye (note the spelling) and back in 6 days. It is the St Andrews/Perthshire/Loch Ness bits that won't fit (though you <i>could</i> squeeze in Loch Ness if you really had to. I wouldn't personally)

Edinburgh to Oban day 1. Normally I'd say press on to Mull, but there is a LOT to see between EDI and Oban. So arrive in Oban in the early evening and stay the night.

Take the first ferry next morning and stay 2 nights in Fionnphort. You can take excursion boats to Staffa and the ferry to Iona from the pier in Fionnphort. Use one day to visit the islands and the other to explore Mull.

Take the FIRST Lochaline ferry and drive on to Skye - this is a beautiful drive - about 2.5 hours to Mallaig w/o stops. Ferry to Skye and stay 2 nights.

Then a long drive back to EDI

If it were me, I'd take the car straight from the airport to St Andrews and spend the night there(Monday). Leave at 2.30-ish after a nice lunch and stop at the top of Glen Coe for the night (Tuesday). I'd take the little ferry to Mull about lunchtime the next day, and drive to Fionnport, maybe getting the ferry to Iona and staying there that night(Wednesday).

Leave Iona after lunch the following day, take the ferry to Oban, and stay the night(Thursday).Leave Oban the following afternoon and drive to Skye. Stay two nights (Friday and Saturday). Drive to Edinburgh on Sunday.


Is that? If not, ditch Mull and Iona, and you can fit the rest in.

Sheila's plan is doable. But the driving on Mull is very slow (the entire island is basically single track roads.) And it would be pretty difficult to fit in a trip out to Satffa since they mostly leave around mid day. But there is at least one early morning Staffa trip

Janisj

Once again thank you very much for your suggestions, I’m sure we will be able to plan a great visit without just rushing by everything.

I don’t have a problem missing Lock Ness…but will have to plan an additional visit for the St Andrews Fife area.

I'll try and not refer to Skye again without the "E" can't believe I typed that, and not just once.

Thank You

Sheila,
Thank you also, I did enjoy Glen Coe.

Last year when we took the one day Highland Tour this is the area we fell in love with and the reason we wanted to make sure we had additional time for a longer visit to Scotland.

My husband suggested I give up our time in Paris to visit longer in Scotland. I would like more time...so plans may change.

Thank You

That should be Loch Ness not Lock....