I'm back with a rough travel plan as far as how I'm going to utilize my short time in Scotland. I was thinking of splitting my time like this-
2 days each in Glencoe/Ft William, Isle of Skye and finish in Edinburgh. That leaves me with 1 "floater" day. My question(s) are, does this look reasonable and should I add the floater day to Skye or Edinburgh or somewhere else? I'm driving and I really am not looking for long hikes (3+hrs) and love the natural beauty and castles/ruins that I have read about. I'm not opposed to free sites either:). I'm getting a little anxious because i need to start booking stays. I'll be there May 16-23. Thank you in advance
Tony
Posted by
Isle of Skye, Scotland
1342 posts
Does the 2 days in each place including travelling time? If so then does your plan look like this? It's always useful to show the travel time as it helps you to see what time you really have on the ground.
Day 1 drive to Glencoe/Fort William - from where? How long travelling?
Day 2 explore Glencoe/Fort William and drive to Skye? Fort William to Skye Bridge is at least 2 hours without stops. Or if taking the Mallaig to Armadale ferry you need to make reservations.
Day 3 On Skye
Day 4 Travel to Edinburgh? At least 6 hours without much in the way of stops.
Day 5 & 6 in Edinburgh and onward travel to somewhere?
If that's how it looks then personally I'd add the extra day to Skye. It's a big island with plenty to see and do.
It's hard to know how to advise further without knowing how you are factoring in the travel to your plans.
Posted by
OP
Ohio
10 posts
Great point, my bad. We'll be in ireland for 2 weeks then we'll fly into Edinburgh, hopefully using one of the earliest flights (yet to reserve them). Pickup car and head out to glencoe/Ft William (day 1) and explore as much as we can, day 2 again explore as much of the area and sites, day 3 head out to Skye (stay in Portree?) and explore what we can, day 4 finish up exploring as much as possible, day 5 start return to Edinburgh drop car at airport transport back to city see whatever we can, day 6 explore city as much as we can. This is where I need to know if the floater day should be skye or Edinburgh. Things I'd like to see:
Skye- old man storr, fairy glen, fairy pools, nest pt lighthouse, dunvegan castle, kilt rock, and corran beach
Ft William/glencoe - steall falls, glenfinnan viaduct area, an torr walk, signal rock, lochness
Edinburgh- Edinburgh castle, royal mile, Hollyrood castle, national museum.
I realize this is aggressive and realize i won'tbe able to see it all, but I always plan for too much than not enough and I can take from some places or add to others. I also have some stops involved while driving to said locations. Hopefully this gives a little insight to my thoughts. If anything, are portree, glencoe/Ft William good stops and stay overs?
Thank you
Tony
Posted by
Lincolnshire, UK
2385 posts
Have you got accommodation booked yet - if not that might determine itinerary plans...
Posted by
OP
Ohio
10 posts
No I do not. I have some properties earmarked on airbnb, but haven't booked yet.
Posted by
Isle of Skye, Scotland
1342 posts
At the moment you have 1.5 days in Skye and your list includes all the 'honey pot' sites. You will struggle to see them all in 1.5 days, so if you really want to see all those places then your extra day should be Skye based. For reference it Dunvegan Castle and Neist Point are in north west Skye and it will take you 45 minutes to get to the castle from Portree. From there it will likely be another 45 minutes to the parking area at Neist Point as the road to get there is a poorly maintained single track road with passing places. I live along that road and can tell you it can be really slow in the season with rental cars and camper vans, many of whom don't know how to use the passing places correctly, which causes lots of delays and blockages. Add to that the many really bad potholes, which cause tyre blow outs, which in turn cause cars to block the road.
Fairy Pools to Portree is another 45 minute drive.
From Portree north you get to Old Man of Storr, Quiraing, An Corran beach, Fairy Glen etc. You will want one full day to those justice.
Posted by
Preston UK
1278 posts
As you haven't booked your flights from Ireland yet plan to fly to Glasgow rather than Edinburgh. GLA is to the north west of the city, so you can be on the road to Glencoe very quickly. That will mean a one-way car hire charge but that is likely to be reasonable from GLA to EDI.
Posted by
Isle of Skye, Scotland
1342 posts
I think flying into and out of Edinburgh is fine. You can still be on the road to Glencoe quickly. Follow signs to Stirling from Edinburgh airport, which will bring you up the M9. You can then cut across country via Callander to Crianlariach from where you pick up the A82 to Glencoe.
Glasgow airport to Glencoe is approx 2 hours
Edinburgh airport to Glencoe via the route I suggest is about 2 hours 20 minutes. And you avoid a one way rental car charge.