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10 day trip to Scotland

Posted by on

Hi to all the wonderful posters on this forum and thanks in advance for any help!

We are planning a trip to Scotland end of June - early July. We will be coming up from York towards Edinburgh on Day 1 of our Scotland trip, then looking to fly out of Inverness on Day 12 early morning. We also looked at flying out of EDI and Glasgow, but Inverness is (at the moment) significantly less expensive for us (returning back to LA).

So. I've read on this forum that we can't trust Google Maps for driving times - is there a source that is more accurate?

We are thinking of visiting the following in roughly this order:

  • Edinburgh - 2-3 nights (the first night I am assuming we will be arriving late afternoon / early evening as we are driving up from York, with some stops along the way)
  • Mull / Iona - 2-3 nights
  • Isle of Skye - 3 nights
  • Inverness area - 2 nights (arriving afternoon, spend the night, a day to sight see Culloden, etc, another night, and then fly out 7am the next morning) (Not planning on staying in Inverness, but possibly near Dingwall (my husband's a Davidson and it is cheesy, but we were thinking of staying in Tulloch Castle if they have the availability since it was part of Clan Davidson lands once upon a time. I have an email out to them, we will see)

We prefer country to city, we love water (ocean, rivers, lakes, etc), we enjoy castles and their history (but not too many) we wouldn't mind going kayaking and fishing if we can find a good guide, we like hiking, and we don't want to spend our entire trip in the car, and so have tried to leave breathing room (after reading some of the other whirlwind tours planned by others in this forum - good lessons and advice from all!)

Questions (in addition to a source for accurate timescales between locations):
1) Does this give enough breathing room and time to enjoy locations?
2) We had originally planned more of a round trip back to EDI and fly to LHR from there, but the fares are so much better out of Inverness, so we would be missing that entire part of the country between Edinburgh and Inverness since we'd be heading up west coast from Mull to Skye. Are we missing anything of interest if we do that?
3) We have an extra day or so in this itinerary....any other recommendations of things not to miss (that aren't super far out of the way)

Many many thanks for any input!!
Lidija

Posted by
1351 posts

Hello

  1. Google maps etc. No none of these sort of aps are any more reliable than the other for driving times. Add approx. 30% minimum to google maps times.

  2. Your extra day. I would suggest adding it to either Skye or Mull/Iona. I don't think you will regret it. Skye is a much bigger island than people realise and driving is slow due to the many single track roads.

  3. Accommodation on Skye. If you are coming in June you will find that many of the places with top reviews are already booked up. Better get your skates on and get your accommodation secured.

Jacqui (Skyegirl)

Posted by
459 posts

L,
I used this web site to help with my planning of visits to smaller towns and natural beauty in the highlands and out to Skye. if you play around on the site a bit it is a great resource for choosing spots to visit, times between locations etc. I like your schedule.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ just click on the area you hope to visit and it will open up numerous hikes and good info. dave

Posted by
1536 posts

Hi, lidija,

Just a quick recommendation - as you're going from Mull to Skye, the best way to go, and the most fun, is to take the CalMac ferry from Tobermory to Kilchoan. Then you take the roads through Ardnamurchan and Moidart, and meet up with the A830 at Lochailort, only a few miles from Mallaig. That will provide you with an excellent ferry trip, and some stunning countryside between Kilchoan and Lochailort. By going that way, you avoid going back through Oban, and you also avoid Fort William.

Best wishes,

Mike (Auchterless)

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you, Jacqui, Dave and Mike!

I really appreciate the suggestions - the hiking website is really comprehensive and love the car ferry suggestion. I never would have found it on my own. Will probably take your advice Jacqui and stay an extra day on the islands....the slower the better. Just need to finalize the plans - and yes, I have seen the accommodations are getting scarce. Will likely do an Airbnb - there seem to still be a few available. Wish I had a month to stay and see even more!

Best,
Lidija

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