8 days in Scotland want to do Edinburgh and a few distilleries

Hi Carrie
Does your 8 days total mean 8 full days on the ground, or does it take out 2 days for arrival in and departure from Scotland, leaving you 6 full days on the ground? I've assumed the latter. I'm assuming you're flying into Edinburgh?

I am not a public transport expert, so my suggestion is car based.
Day 1 arrive Edinburgh airport and use tram or airport bus to get in to the city. Check into hotel and spend rest of day exploring.
Day 2 (first full day) - explore Edinburgh
Day 3 explore Edinburgh
Day 4 early morning tram/bus back to airport to pick up rental car and drive north. Head for Speyside (approx 4 hour drive) arriving early afternoon.

Day 5 Maccallan tour and possibly other distilleries or Speyside activities
Day 6 - Leave Speyside early morning to drive to Oban (approx 4 hour drive) arriving early afternoon. Distillery tour
Day 7 (last full day) - drive back towards Edinburgh, your route could take you via Stirling or via Loch Lomond. Return car to hire car depot. Stay at airport hotel.
Day 8 Flight from Edinburgh

I'm sure there are Rabbie's (or similar) tours to Speyside from Inverness (their Edinburgh tours don't seem to go to Speyside) but I couldn't see one at a quick glance that included Macallan. Their Glasgow one day tour does get to Oban, but doesn't specifically include the distillery. So I think you'd be best to come with your own plan.

Public transport to Speyside from Edinburgh is possible by a mix of train and buses, but will take much longer than the car. Speyside to Oban would be several buses, and again take longer than by car. It depends how much you enjoy public transport over driving I guess.

Buses to Craigellachie are hourly from Elgin (for the train from Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness)
Interestingly there is also a three times a day bus has resumed, after quite a few years break, from Aviemore.
If using the Elgin bus that would be a very good reason to stay in Nairn.

You could also visit Elgin Cathedral.

I'm on a train currently so can't link it. But there is a lady called Ruth Aisling who has recently posted a very good you tube video of a driving tour around the Speyside Distilleries. To visit several of the Speyside ones by public transport is possible, but a bit of a PITA, to be honest.

If I remember rightly Speyside don't like giving driver's drams as a general rule.

Oban is dead easy, being right in the town centre. So that can be done by train. Ruth has also done a good video in the same series on the Campbeltown due distilleries, at the bottom of Kintyre. That is a bit of an extension from Oban, but could allow you to take in Islay 's 11 ish distilleries (another Ruth video) and maybe Arran.

I suppose if you wanted to link Speyside and Oban by bus it would be the twice daily bus from Inverness via Fort Wiliam.

To link these two areas in 8 days driving will be the most efficient way. If you are doing Oban by car I might suggest staying somewhere more interesting like Taynuilt (for the Historic ironworks) or Loch Awe (the village).

Carrie, you definitely do not want or need a car in Edinburgh, so you could rent a car to explore outside Edinburgh and visit some distilleries. Last year I visiting Scotland and rented from Arnold Clark, via Celtic Legend (great service and price, btw), but I wound up going to their location right outside Edinburgh in Sighthill. I used it to just drop off as I picked up outside Glasgow, but you could easily pick up your rental car there. I took the bus there (or you could take a taxi).

They were great to deal with and very thorough and I could not have been happier with the service. If you don't go into the Isles, driving should be relatively easy although unless you are exceptionally proficient with manual transmission, I would request an automatic. Driving on the left becomes automatic after just a couple of minutes.

if you decided not to drive, there is a 3-day Rabbies tour to Speyside that looks interesting: https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours/from-edinburgh/2-4-day-tours/speyside-whisky-trail-3-day-tour Keep in mind that Rabbies tours do not include accommodation, but they will book lodging for you at a separate price. Here is another whisky tour from EDI: https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours/from-edinburgh/day-tours/discover-malt-whisky-day-tour And you can also search for more: https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours/see/whisky-tours-scotland

Here is a link to the Speyside Whisky YouTube video that isn31c was referring to: https://youtu.be/nfaksXDqXOY?si=VYJlkMaLhr-TdevV

It would be good to know what kind of Scotch you like to drink - Islay, Speyside, Highland. For me, at least, peated Scotch is as different from unpeated Scotch as it is from bourbon. Maybe more so.

Last year hubby and I visited Scotland last year. My favorite part was visiting Speyside. We stayed at the Mash Tun in Aberlour. Loved the location next to the River Spey. We walked along the river and watched a fly fisherman. The room was beautiful and the breakfast yummy.

https://www.mashtun-aberlour.com/

Good luck on getting reservations at Macallan Estate. I tried when the reservations first came out and could not get a reservation. I even emailed them and they just replies "So sorry." Instead, we visited Speyburn Distillery. Loved the tour. I also found the Speyside Cooperage tour to be fantastic. They even serve some of their own brand of whisky at the end of the tour. The tour of Glenfiddich was good also. They all offered drivers tastings in small bottles to take away.
https://www.speyburn.com/visit-us
https://www.speysidecooperage.co.uk/

Have fun, we loved Scotland.