13 day First time Scotland trip

I’m sitting at the eye doctor right now, so I don’t have a lot of time to respond, and I’m sure there will be others that will get back with you about your itinerary. I do think your itinerary looks very nice. I’m planning on going in May and also will be going up the north east coast and I’m really looking forward to it.

But I did want to let you know that if you are planning on going to Skye in July, you may have a hard time finding accommodations. I booked my stay there last August and lodging is very hard to find. There is a Facebook group that posts last minute rooms that may show up, and you can request a room there as well. But, regardless, I would immediately start looking for rooms for your family.

ETA: the Skye Facebook group is called “Skye Rooms.”

• Mardee beat me to it. I've never been to Skye but everything I've read is that lodging is a challenge if you don't book early. If it doesn't work out, consider Mull or add to your time in Edinburgh and Glasgow to include day trips. I don't know your family's interests, but for us Stirling Castle was one of the highlights.
• I wouldn't bother with a car in Glasgow, it will be more trouble than it's worth. We booked through Celtic Legend which is an agent for Arnold Clark which has a place one tram stop before the airport in Edinburgh and then we dropped it off in Glasgow and were given a ride to our hotel.
• You've driven in the UK, so you're probably aware of the narrow roads, so the smaller the vehicle the better, I wouldn't want to go bigger than a Galaxy.

It's only an hour from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and will be quiet on a Sunday morning, so you could leave Glasgow at a civilised time and drive over.

Or if you wanted to return the car in Glasgow Citylink run a direct coach from Glasgow to Edinburgh Airport every 30 minutes-
https://www.citylink.co.uk/media/ttah3b1x/citlink-air-tt-leaflet-oct22.pdf

Premier Inn at Glasgow St Enoch Square (in the heart of the city) has a room for the 4 nights at £254.50 , and you get 50% off parking in the adjacent public car park

Hi, gbtormey,

Greetings from the other side of the bridge!

Good itinerary, but as previously noted, you need to get on those accommodation arrangements for Skye right away. With four of you travelling (and I'm assuming two separate rooms), accommodation will be a bit harder to find on Skye.

I was going to recommend Stonehaven over Gourdon, as there is much more to do. Then I remembered that the Stonehaven Folk Festival will be going on from the 7th. to the 9th. That will mean that accommodation in Stonehaven will be harder to find. However, that will also mean that you might be enjoying yourselves so much that you never leave Stonehaven for those three days!

If you do stay in Gourdon or Stonehaven, there are lots of places to visit nearby, like Lunan Bay and the Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve, and you can even take the Slug Road or the A90 Aberdeen Bypass to the A93, and visit some of the castles up that way. You could even travel down to Montrose and Arbroath.

Your best bet for accommodation in Inverness and in Glasgow, if you can't find an Air B&B or a classic hotel, would be the Premier Inn chain. Their family rooms consist of a regular bed and a sofa bed, and sometime even two regular bed, which would be more convenient for the "youngsters".

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday!

Mike (Auchterless)

Skye may well be tough, but while you're at it, I'd be looking for more than two nights there. It's a large island with a lot of sights. You won't be driving fast, and there's a very good chance you won't have perfect weather. Western Scotland is really wet, which tends to make for less efficient sightseeing.

Not much to add by means of travel advice, but the cars you are questioning are huge by Scottish/UK standards and we have a lot of single track roads. Family cars are often things like a Renault Megane, a Ford Focus, a VW Golf and equivalent. You are best looking at them and deciding if you will fit, bur families like yours do have them as family cars.

An added reason for going for a smaller car, is well, today a litre of petrol in the US averaged 97 cents. In the UK it averaged $1.80. The cars you are looking at drink like a fish, and surely the money is best spent on treats for you and yours and not being given to Esso and ultimately the UK government in taxes.

Don't worry, we'll still get that money off of you, 20% VAT on most things will see to that but it is included in the price so no surprises.