DanM

After three full days in Edinburgh and before 6 full days in London, my wife, my 17 year-old son, my 13 year-old daughter, and I would like to spend some time exploring Scotland outside of big cities. We have four days. My thoughts were as follows:

Day one: Drive to Stirling, visit Bannockburn and the castle, and then drive east to St. Andrews. Arrive late, wander the town, and hopefully be there in time to play the Himalayas.

Day two: This is really up in the air and will be driven by the mood of the group. Maybe we knock around St. Andrews if we did not have time the day before. There is talk about visiting the Scone Palace, hiking Ben Vrackie, and visiting the Dalwhinnie distillery. We would end the day in Grantown-on-Spey. If people feel like just getting up and driving, we may head up to Culloden and skip the things between St. Andrews and Grantown.

Day Three: Do Culloden if we did not, and then drive down Loch Ness and Loch Lochy, visit the viaduct at Glenfinnan, and spend the night in the Glencoe to Oban area. Alternatively, we have talked about spending all of the day around the Inverness area. It looks like doing Culloden, Urquhart Castle, and maybe driving along the coast would be as much driving as going from Grantown to Glencoe.

Day Four: Head back towards Stirling with the principal goal for the day to be spent enjoying highland games in a town between Stirling and Edinburgh. Fly out of Edinburgh at 8:00 p.m. on day four. My plan is to be at the airport returning the car at about 6:00. The airport is approximately 30 minutes from the highland games.

Driving is not an issue for us. We live in Texas. It is not unusual for us to drive three hours each way to play a baseball game on a school night. Dinner with friends who live 1.5 hours away is not unheard of. The three hour drive from St. Andrews to the Inverness area will not bother anybody. That being said, I fear I am trying to do too much in the name of keeping people engaged and to provide us with a greater appreciation for the history and people of Scotland. Thoughts? Anything teens would enjoy that I am leaving out for this portion of the trip?

Thanks in advance for the advice and critiques.

dotheboyshall

<i>Head back towards Stirling with the principal goal for the day to be spent enjoying highland games in a town between Stirling and Edinburgh. </i>

Doesn't that depend if there are Highland Games on that day somewhere between Stirling and Edinburgh

<i> It is not unusual for us to drive three hours each way to play a baseball game on a school night.</i>

I had a car like that as well.

Seriously if you think you can turn on the radio, turn on the cruise control and turn off your brain when driving in Scotland then you are going to have a hell of a shock, do ensure your insurance is up to date. Scottish roads have these strange things called "bends", "traffic" and aren't all 10 lane highways where everything travels at 55 for several hours at a time. In much of Scotland you'd be lucky to do half the distance you could do in Texas.

BigRuss

We have streets in Texas that are wider than highways in Scotland, (and which carry far more car traffic). Even the A roads in Scotland could be just one-lane (each way) highways.

What do the spawn actually like? Culloden is really just fields with a path and some markers describing what happened and where. You need to contextualize the whole area to get anything out of it and the kids may not care.

I'd second Scone Palace . . . and Blair Castle too.

janisj

>>Driving is not an issue for us. We live in Texas. It is not unusual for us to drive three hours each way to play a baseball game on a school night. Dinner with friends who live 1.5 hours away is not unheard of. The three hour drive from St. Andrews to the Inverness area will not bother anybody.<<

Sorry -- but you cannot compare driving in Texas w/ driving in Scotland. I live in California and similar to you think nothing of driving 100 miles for a nice lunch. In Scotland 100 miles is more like a 3 hour drive.

And one can't take the on-line mileage calculators at face value. Especially googlemaps. You need to add 25% to nearly 100% to the times. St Andrews to Inverness w/o any stops will take nearly 4 hours.

IF St Andrews is a must, then I would stick to the east coast. There is lots to see and do w/o zig zagging back and forth across the country twice.

Places like the Fife fishing villages, Glamis Castle, Crathes Castle/Garden, Dollar Glen/Castle Campbell, Dunnottar, the Isle of May, Glenshee

Dunnottar: http://www.dunnottarmains.co.uk/imag...ttarcastle.jpg

Isle of May: http://m0.i.pbase.com/o9/60/842160/1...May_Banner.jpg

Glamis: http://static.thousandwonders.net/Gl...ginal.9717.jpg

Castle Campbell: http://www.willgoto.com/images/Size3...4580fc8123.jpg

Glenshee: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/perth...6_2/6_2_6l.JPG

OR . . . If you want to hit Inverness and the north -- do that and skip St Andrews.

Which games? I can't think of any w/i 30 mins of EDI except perhaps Bridge of Allan. If that is the one, it is about an hour from EDI.

DanM

Good points on the differences in roads. I have driven there before, and understand exactly what you mean. It will certainly be white knuckled at times and not as carefree as 85 on the toll road.

On the highland games, we have found some for the day we will be attending.

The kids like history. Our son recently took AP European History and is looking forward to more military type sites. In London, his top choices were the Tower, Imperial War Museum, and the National Gallery. He would be equally happy spending a day fishing. He is super laid back and up for just about anything. He is the easy one.

A daughter is a little harder. She is the one who wants to go on the hike, but she wants it to be shorter rather than longer. She wants to see castles and palaces, but she also wants experiences.

DanM

Alva Highland games, about 35 to 45 minutes from the airport.

janisj

>>On the highland games, we have found some for the day we will be attending<<

Why so secretive . . . WHICH games? It could make a huge difference.

janisj

oh we were posting at the same time.. Alva is not 30 mins from EDI . . . Assuming no traffic is is about an hour.

DanM

Thanks, janisj. Your recs are great! I really appreciate your time. I had thought about staying south of a Glencoe to St. Andrews line or staying more east (cut out the Glencoe side of things) or more west (cutting St Andrews) too. I am trying to find a way to make it all happen, and I am pretty sure I cannot do that with the time we have.

janisj

Either to the north (Trossachs/Glencoe/Inverness) or to the east (St Andrews/Fife/Glamis/maybe Deeside) would work and be a wonderful 3.5 day trip. Just not both the north and the east.

If it will help any -- Stirling is a very easy day trip from Edinburgh by train. So if you eliminate having to visit Stirling it simplifies both driving options.

MRaiser

If you stay near Glencoe and can visit the Claichaig Inn, look around the mountains and across the street and you will find the background for Harry Potter (Prisoner of Azkaban and later) movies. My daughter and I actually had made reservations at the time they were filming and saw Hadrid's hut and the pumpkin patch in person.

It is so relaxing to hang out in this area away from major cities for a day or two!

janisj

MRaiser -- welcome to Fodors. This thread is from back in June and their trip was in July.

RM67

Sea life trips? (seals, otters, eagles, puffins)
Wild swimming?
Hairy coo spotting?
Sea kayaking?
(I actually like the fishing idea too if you get to keep/eat what you've caught).

Tbh you'd be better off on the west coast for most of the above. Do you have time to get across there instead of Inverness/Loch Ness?

janisj

RM67 . . . the OP's trip is over and done with . . .