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13 day First time Scotland trip

Posted by (Central NJ USA) on

Hi all,

We're a mid 50's couple with 2 young adult kids (20 and 16) with us for our first ever trip to Scotland. we've got our flights and a hotel in Edinburgh (that may change) and the rest is ideas that I'd like your opininons on before locking things in. Our genral mode of touring is to see what we can see, but not get too tense about "missing" things or must sees. As someone said in another forum post, travel for us is whetting the appetite for more, not stuffing ourselves as if its our last meal.

  • 7/3 arrive EDI in the morning, take public transit (tram, taxi, or uber) to hotel area, drop bags at hotel, walk around or hop on hop off bus to get oriented. try to stay up til 2100 or 2200.

-7/4 thru 7/7 morning Exploring touring Edinburgh and surrounds

-7/7 to 7/9 go to EDI and pick up rental car ( have driven in UK twice before so think we will be ok). Take off to the NE coast somewhere like Gourdon or Stonehaven, to stay 2 nights in a Airbnb or hotel. and explore the area during the days there

  • 7/9 to 7/11 travel to Inverness area by car and stay in Airbnb or Hotel/Inn for 2 nights and explore the area there

-7/11 to 7/12 travel to Isle of Skye by car and stay in Airbnb or Hotel/inn for 2 nights and explore area there

  • 7/12 to 7/15 travel to Glasgow area by car and stay in Hotel and tour Glasgow area

-7/16 early morning Return to EDI for 1:30 pm Departure back to NJ

Questions:

General plan seem okay? change length of stay one way or another?

Is there enough time to return to EDI in the morning on a Sunday or should we return to EDI night before and stay in an airport hotel? another option would be to return Rental car upon arrival in Glasgow and use public transit to make our way back to EDI ?

General feeling on Airbnb's in small villages?

Rental Car - we're able to use my wife's corporate rates and we are "sturdy" Americans (2 over 6 feet tall, 2 over 5'10) any comments on a Volvo XC60 vs a Ford Galaxy for traipsing over the Scottish countryside?

Thanks in advance for any insight or critique you may offer.

Grant

Posted by
6291 posts

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.”

Posted by
4086 posts
  • 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.
Posted by
5724 posts

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

Posted by
1376 posts

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)

Posted by
27092 posts

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.

Posted by
1639 posts

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.

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