8 nights in Scotland - Itinerary Ideas

I can give you some great ideas for a bird watching itinerary, but that may not be of interest to you. If you were to provide some ideas as to what you are interested in, then you would get some more focused thoughts.

Are you hiring a car? Flying home from Glasgow? Pace of trip?

A general itinerary is a few days in Glasgow, a few in Edinburgh and a few days in the Highlands.

We do need more information from you - what are your interests? What do you want to do /see while in Scotland? (walking, museums, ruined castles, stately homes archaeology, whisky, pubs, shopping, wild life - the list is endless!) How are you getting around? How many nights do you want to stop in one place? How long do you want to spend travelling in the car each day?

It would help if you could elaborate on your thoughts to date - saves us repeating your research!

Hi -

Much as I love Glasgow, I think you can’t truly experience Scotland without going to the Highlands. So I’d consider a couple of nights in, to and from the Fort William area. Pass through Glencoe, take the Jacobite train (or scheduled train) to Mallaig and back, taking in the Glenfinnan Monument if possible. Great views of Ben Nevis on the way back. Shortish drive to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle/Drumnadrochit from Fort William.

If you are not planning to drive, and I understand why you might choose not to, see if you can get on one of Rabbie’s (or similar) small bus/short break (three days?) trips into the Highlands.

I’m sure you’ll get lots of other suggestions - Oban/Mull/Iona, St. Andrews, maybe even Arran. All perfectly valid of course - in the end you’ll need to determine what suits your interests best and best use of your time, but whatever you do I’m sure you’ll have a great trip.

Ian

Thank you for the tips/ideas! I think we would plan to stay two nights in Glasgow, two nights in Edinburgh and then do 3-4 nights in the Highlands. We can figure out things to do in the cities, but itinerary ideas for the highlands would be helpful. We would like to see at least one or two castles, visit a distillery, maybe golf and of course see the landscapes/nature. As of now we are planning on utilizing a bus to travel, but a rental car is an option if you think it is worth it. We fly out of Glasgow again at the end of the trip.
Thank you!

Huge fan of Glasgow though I am, I really don't think you have enough time to spend 2 nights in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. Eight nights is only 7 days. It takes time to shift hotels even when places are as close together an Edinburgh and Glasgow. And when you leave the cities and start traveling through scenic areas, you won't cover ground very fast. I'd pick just one city, and I know most folks tilt toward Edinburgh.

I don't know if this will be helpful or not but we're making our first trip to Scotland in June. Here's our itinerary; maybe you'll find some useful nuggets. This trip was actually supposed to happen in 2020, so it's been planned to death with two spare years with nothing to do.

Day 1

Land in Glasgow and make our way to Edinburgh for a 6 night stay at the Fraser Suites.
First day we tend to just wander, take a nap then wander some more. We’ve found it works for us on past European adventures. I never have trouble sleeping while I’m there, but once I get home it takes me a week or two to recover from jet lag.

Day 2

Royal Mile Tour with Mercat Tours. We love history and always hope to find a guide that can bring the sites to life.
Then Edinburgh Castle on our own. Bought the Scottish Explorer Pass. We estimate with the sites we want to see on this trip it will likely pay for itself. We bought the 1 year membership instead of the 14 day pass. We typically don’t research restaurants and just find something once we get to a location, but we’re always open to suggestions.

Day 3

Outlander day trip with Rabbies. A bucket list item for my wife. If she finds Jamie Fraser I’m probably heading home alone…

Day 4

Rabbies day tour to Rosslyn Chapel and Melrose Abbey. I honestly haven’t researched either that much yet, my wife wanted to go and I’m following along.

Day 5

National Museum and wandering. Possibly a ghost tour in the evening, will likely leave that to the last minute.

Day 6

Free day and and Laundry day. The hotel has self laundry facilities as well as a service, hoping my wife chooses the service so we’re not stuck for a few hours at the hotel.

Day 7

Check out of hotel, pick up rental car at 10am (I’ve driven on the other side of the road before). Meander to Inverness. First place we need to be is the Leault Working Sheepdog demonstration at 4:00-if there is a chance to see and pet dogs, I'm in. Thinking about stopping at the Highland Folk Museum nearby first. Check in at the North Kessock Hotel just across the bridge from Inverness.

Day 8

Culloden Battlefield, Clava Cairns and Cawdor Castle.

Day 9

Driving north until we get bored and then head back. Just for the views, no real itinerary yet.

Day 10

Leave Inverness and head to Oban. Probably stop at Urquhart Castle on the way. Possibly a side trip to Eilean Donan Castle. Can’t decide if the 1 hour there and 1-hour back side trip is worth it on this trip or save it for another time when we’ll come back to see Skye. Check in to Barcaldine Castle. This is a bucket list item to stay at a haunted castle, hopefully the ghost isn’t just a marketing ploy…

Day 11

On the 9:50 ferry to Mull. Stop at Duart Castle, drive to Calgary Beach-bucket list item, my hometown was named after it and I’ve always wanted to go-just because. Short hike to the Kilmore Standing Stones. 2-night stay at the Harbour View B & B in Tobermory.

Day 12

Up early and drive to Fionnphort and take the first ferry to Iona. Probably also take a tour to Staffa.

Day 13

9:55 ferry back to Oban, drive to Glasgow via the A82 past Loch Lomond. Nothing in particular booked this day. Want to arrive in Glasgow and drop off car before 4:00. Check into Motel One in Glasgow.

Day 14

Kelvingrove Art Museum, maybe Riverside Museum, probably find a restaurant in Ashton lane that evening.

Day 15

Train to Stirling Castle and back.

Day 16

Flight home from Glasgow at 9:30.

I neglected to touch on my favorite topic: weather. The weather in Scotland is very changeable and quite overcast. Glasgow, the Highlands and the islands tend to be a bit warmer but distinctly wetter than Edinburgh. I spent a total of over 10 days in the two big cities and didn't find rain that much of an impediment there. It was a problem for me in the eight nights I spent in Oban and on/near Skye. Persistent rain prevented my doing outdoor activities on a couple of days (given that I wasn't kitted out for an outdoor vacation with rain pants). Lots of places in the west have rain, on average, one out of every two days; one can hope it will be just a quick shower, but it doesn't always turn out that way, and when the rain will arrive isn't totally predictable.

The rain situation is something to keep in mind if you see yourselves hiking or taking long walks. If you try to blitz through a bunch of places, you may miss out on quite a few things that might have been manageable if you allowed more time so you could be flexible in your timing. Because the weather can be somewhat limiting, having a car in the rural areas can be quite an advantage. I was using public transportation. Inter-city buses and trains needed to be prebooked (demand can exceed supply) and local day-tours heading outside the cities were the same. Accurate weather forecasts just weren't available and early enough to make ideal decisions about my timing. With a car, one can drive in the direction of drier weather, and one doesn't have to make to make that decision ahead of time.

If I had 8 nights in Glasgow arriving on and overseas flight into Glasgow, I would start my first day by taking the train to Edinburgh. You arrive at your hotel and then go out and explore. Go to the castle, a lot of it is outdoors and will keep you going though your jet lag. Have a dinner around 6 or 7 and don't go to sleep until after 9PM. Second day explore other parts of Glasgow and spend the second night there.

Now you have six more nights. you could rent a car and do a marvelous round trip tour ending in Glasgow to do a final check of the city. Here's one route. On this route I take you to Aberfeldy you could stop here and walk the Birk's of Aberfeldy. Of you could continue over the mountain to Kinloch Ranoch on beautiful single track road. And stay somewhere further north. You could stop in Aberfeldy and then go on to Blair Castle in the AM and then on to Inverness. If you stay in Inverness check out Hootenanny or one of the really good restaurants. I plotted a route to Torridon. You could easily stay in the west of Scotland for a couple of days before wending back south. My southern route takes you through Glencoe and then to the Trossachs. Balqhidder is where Rob Roy McGregor is buried and a drive up the Glen is beautiful. Maybe the Steamship on Loch Katrine will be back in service.

This is one idea. Another one would be to take the train north to Inverness--its a beautiful train ride and then settle in that area and do some day trips. Then drive back to Glasgow via Loch Ness Fort William and down to Loch Lomond and Glasgow.

Personally I have done similar trips and would be happy doing either. Of course there are more ideas. I have not taken you truly north, or into the Cairngorms or over to the castles in Aberdeenshire.

Resolve that you will have to have a second trip. It is the only solution!

PAm

when you say 'utilizing a bus to travel', do you mean a tour or are you referring to punlic transport buses. If the later, you afre going to find it very difficult.

If meaning a tour, then check out rabbie's tours from Inverness. They get good reviews.

https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours/from-edinburgh

We LOVE Scotland. Inverness is a great base for day trips around the Highlands. We have stayed at the Royal Highland Hotel which is attached to the rail station. It is coinvent for walking the city, or along the river. Inverness has one of the best Tourist Information Offices. There are lots of great day trips from a very long one up to Orkney, to cruises on the firth, on Loch Ness (see Urquhart Castle ruins, as well as the Nessie stuff). etc. Aviemore is also a great Highland base. It is in the Cairngorm National Park at the foot of Mt. Cairngorm. Plenty of marvelous distilleries in that area (it is the heart of Speyside- my favorite kind of single malt), a local micro-brewery that gives tours and samples (hubby liked the Blessed Thistle Ale), and lots of other things to do- like hikes, horseback riding, canoeing, etc. And you can get to Blair Atholl castle easily by train or bus. If you are really interested in distilleries there is even something called a "Whisky Taxi" service. Basically, it will take you to several distilleries and you can enjoy a 'wee dram' or more without worrying about driving! Or do like we did and take bus or train to Dalwhinnie and walk to the distillery (it's a marvelous whisky and they give a good tour, too).

I second the idea of using Rabbies. I have only done one, but they are often recommended here.

The Royal Highland Hotel in Inverness is where we had booked for our 2020 trip, however a couple of months ago when we tried to rebook for June they were only accepting full payment at time of booking with no refunds for cancellation. I see now that they have changed the terms to not be so rigid, but they are charging a £20 non refundable booking fee.