Trip to Scotland
 

Could anyone tell me whether this trip is doable?

Day 1 - Drive to Keswick from Nottingham, stay in Keswick for the night

Day 2 - Drive to Oban, stay in Oban for a night (can anyone suggest a B and B for around £20 a night pp?)

Day 3 - Drive to Inverness and stay here (again, anyone suggest a b and b?)

Day 4 - Drive to Stirling and stay here (a b & b to recommend?)

Day 5 - Visit Edinburgh and back to Nottingham.

Is this too quick? There's four of us travelling and we just want to see as much of Scotland as possible. We're from Australia so we are used to doing a lot of driving, but is this being ridiculous?
Thank you!

Theoretically possible, yes. But if you don't factor in the Scottish weather, your ambitious itinerary could be derailed.

You didn't say when you were traveling, but if it's within the next few months, you will experience temperatures around freezing, adding one more element of uncertainty to the perennial rain and fog.

When I visited Inverness in 1999, we stayed at the Crown Hotel on Ardconnel Street. It was a lovely B & B in a great location in the center of Inverness, very spacious room and a gorgeous breakfast room which looked like it was once the parlor when the building was a private home. At the time we paid £16 or £18 per person per night, but it's may have gone up a bit since them. We found them on the SmoothHound website.

We did a similar trip 'pace' on our trip to Scotland. We ended up spending at least 3-5 hours every morning in the car. Just because the distance is 10 miles doesn't mean it takes you only 10 minutes to get there -- it's not like the US!

I would (personally) skip Inverness and stay in Oban another night, it's a delightful town. Nottingham is also very nice, but a bit busy. Not worth much tourist attention, IMHO.

Good luck!

Could it be done - yes, should it be done IMHO, no. You would not have time to "see" much of anything except through the car windows. But if you just want to say you've been there then OK.

Driving in the wide open spaces of Oz is not like driving in the west of Scotland - some places you will be LUCKY to average 35 mph. Of course on the motorways/dual carriageways you will go faster -- but they are not the scenic routes that let you stop and see anything.

And - If you are driving from Stirling into Edinburgh for some quick sightseeing before driving all the wayback to Nottingham you are talking about a VERY long day - just finding a place to park in Edinburgh can take you an hour, not counting the drive in to town from the motorway.

Plus, no matter how hard you try, you will be lucky to get breakfast, check out of a B&B and get on your way bt 9 or 10 a.m. So unless you pay up the night before and skip B'fasts (but that is a main reason to stay in B&Bs) you would be getting many early starts.

If Keswick/ Edinburgh and Oban are your main wishes you could just squeeze in those in that amount of time.

Spend a night in Keswick, then drive up to near Oban for 2 nights. I say 2 nights because by the time you get to Oban there won't be that much time to see anything in the area. OR, stay 1 night in Oban, then do some sightseeing the next day and then head east and stay somewhere near Callander or Stirling. There is lots to see between Oban and Callander/Stirling so you probably wouldn't get there in time to visit Stirling Castle. So hit the castle the next morning.

Then spend your last night in Edinburgh so you can actually see something.

Nottingham> Keswick > Oban > Inverness > Stirling > Edinburgh > Nottingham in 5 days is a forced march, not a holiday.

That sould read " . . . . you WOULDN"T be getting many early starts."

Thanks for all that info. The trip is for the 27/12/04- 1/1/04 but because we have left booking to the last minute, we haven't found anything in scotland, in our price range, for New Years. So that's why we are staying in Nottingham for New Years.
With all the advice, I have cut out Inverness and we are staying in: Keswick 1 night
Oban 1 night (anyone suggest accomodation, we haven't been able to find anything so far)
Stirling 2 nights
Then back to Nottingham for New Years.

Sound better?

Our B&B in Oban -- Kilchrenan House -- was very nice but well above your price range.

The website, www.visitscotland.com, lists 85 B&B accommodations in/around Oban, at all levels. If you haven't perused the listings there, it might be helpful.

For Oban you might chck out Greencourt Guest house. It is close to your price range, however, short of a hostel, I don't think you will have any luck in finding a b&b for 19 pounds pp. Wish you luck! Have fun.

I do think this sounds a bit ambitious, especially at that time of year. It's over 200 miles from Keswick to Oban, the days are very short and the weather could do just about anything. I'd say concentrate your time on Edinburgh Striling or maybe even Glasgow, where there will be things to do, even in bad weather. Perhaps even spend a couple of nights in Keswick and explore a bit more of the Lake District. You'll find cheapish accomodation in Travel Inns www.travelinn.co.uk and www.travelodge.co.uk with rooms for around £45 for a double room but I don't think there are any near Oban.

NOW you tell us this trip is in Dec/Jan! My comments were assuming (I know, I know - look where assuming can get you) it was in Spring or Summer -- in the dead of winter this is a much more difficult trek.

You MIGHT luck out and get reasonable (barely) weather, but more likely you will face wintry conditions. Combine bad weather with the VERY short daylight hours and you are probably not going to be able to pull this off.

Unfortunately you won't have any idea if the weather will be OK or horrible until a few days before. I would scrap the idea of doing any of this by car and just take the train to Edinburgh/Oban/Stirling in any order you wish.

If you put Edinburgh at the front end of the trip (farther from New Years) you will probably be able to find a room.

Given the time of year, why not go the road less travelled? Take the M1 direct from Nottingham and visit the wonderful county of Nothumbria on route to Edinburgh. You have a choice then of Harry Potter's Alnwick, Banburgh Castle, Coldstream, Berwick upon Tweed, then Edinburgh. This is much more doable in January. This apart, if you do decide on the Western route then stay at the "Falls of Lora" near Oban (recommended via Fodors message board), you will not be disappointed.

It may help your planning to know that it is not getting light here until after 8am, & it gets dark again at 4pm. And on New Year's Eve they start closing off the city centre from mid-afternoon.