Ireland vs Scotland

Both are fantastic. When would you be going?

Depends entirely on your opinion of their beer and whiskey.

We were trying to go to Scotland the last of May, but accommodations were mostly taken. The places we found were quite expensive. We had to go to Plan B--Rome and a cruise around the Eastern Med.

On our trip to Ireland in May before the pandemic, we went to the southwest end of Ireland. Frankly, we were quite bored. The pub life has been replaced by citizens staying home and watching satellite television. Pubs are now sports bars with a dozen guys talking and watching sports on big screens.

Our choice would be Scotland. The mountain scenery is also much better.

You can’t go wrong with either. My wife and I enjoyed Scotland slightly more than Ireland. We had a rental car in both countries.

I enjoyed both equally. Would you be willing to drive or will you depend entirely on public transportation? What time of year? What are your interests?

We would be going in July and we would be using public transportation. We would not be interested in spending a lot of time in pubs or museums. We like historical sites. Beautiful views.

It may depend on the availability of seats on the plane and accommodations. It sounds like everyone(except me) is going to Europe this summer.

I’ve been to both countries, and like them equally for different reasons. I travelled Ireland with a bus rail pass, and when planning the trip to Scotland I thought I would do the same thing, but it turned out it was going to be more difficult to get to the places I wanted to see without a car, so ended up renting one for ten days. So, if you aren’t going to have a car I would say Ireland would be the choice. Towns like Galway and Killarney, are easy to get to by train, and both have fantastic scenery nearby that you can find a guided day trip to. With Scotland, some of the best scenery is off the beaten path, and guided day trips may not go there, or they may be a very long day on a bus. For, instance, Isle of Skye from Inverness is quite a trek for a day trip, but Killarney National Park and the Gap of Dunloe are quick and easy access from Killarney.

Of the two, I prefer Scotland. To me it has a more interesting combination of wildness and historical things to see.

I've only used public transportation there -- train, bus, ferry and plane, along with short day tours. I've been to the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen. All of them have interesting things to see both in them and near them.

I took this day long Hairy Coo tour from Edinburgh and absolutely loved it:
https://www.thehairycoo.com/1-day-stirling-castle-kelpies-and-loch-lomond-tour/

There are others listed here:
https://www.thehairycoo.com/

My husband and I visited the Culloden Battlefield from Inverness. We were able to take a local bus straight to it from the bus station downtown and back. The bus wove its way through residential neighborhoods. I love being on local buses with people going about their normal daily activities. Here's the link to the Battlefield:
https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/culloden

I particularly liked visiting Orkney and the Neolithic and Viking sites there. Orkney is barely listed in the RS link on Scotland much farther below. The Wikipedia link gives a good description of Orkney and its history. I spent 4 nights there (and could've stayed longer), taking the ferry from Thurso to Stromness, the local bus (which arrives shortly after the ferry docks) to Kirkwall, and a small plane from Kirkwall to Aberdeen. Depending on your interests, you could probably do 2-3 nights with 1-2 full days in between.

Orkney on Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney

From Kirkwall, I took a private tour that included the major sites.
I scheduled that at the tourist information next to the bus station.
Kirkwall iCentre:
https://www.visitscotland.com/info/services/kirkwall-icentre-p333251

Here's what RS has on Scotland: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/scotland

Full disclosure: The first time I went to Scotland (1977), I immediately felt like I was home. It was decades later that I learned that I share a substantial portion (29%) of my DNA with modern day Scots. I knew that when I was there in 2016. After I returned, I learned that an ancestor of mine was from the Orkney island of Rousay. With only 3% Irish heritage, I may be a wee bit Scot-centric.

Really interesting question. I have to say I was completely blown away by Scotland, and really want to go back. It just far exceeded my expectations. The landscape, the people, the food, the music--I just totally fell in love. I always thought that I would love Ireland, and I will say that I really enjoyed the trip--we did mostly Northern Ireland, with a few days in Dublin. I would like to go back to see more of the Republic. It didn't touch my soul like I thought it was going to (which was a bit frustrating)--though I loved the wildness of Donegal, seeing the history and tragedy of the Troubles, and the energy of Dublin.

For Culloden Battlefield they keep changing which bus serves the Battlefield- currently it is route 27 which runs across Inverness hourly to the Victorian spa town of Strathpeffer.
Note that it also usefully calls at Inverness Airport .
There is also a suburb called Culloden, served by a different bus. That is not very close to the Battlefield- don't catch that bus by accident.

I think any criticism above of the Irish pub scene is Covid, not trend. we alternate between ireland and Scotland each Spring and love them both. Music is more plentiful in Ireland.