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August Itinerary - 2 Days Outside of Edinburgh - Suggestions please :)

Posted by (Vegas) on

Adult late 30s couple coming in to check out some of the Fringe. Flying into MAN on Sat 8/2 and will catch a train to Edinburgh, where we have a hotel booked already for 5 nights. On arrival day we intend to go to the late show of the Tattoo (trying to decide what seats I am buying, but intend to purchase soon). Sun-Weds we will see events at the Fringe, but at least one day will likely catch the train to Glasgow to explore there, and possibly train to Stirling another day.

Thursday we intend to rent a car, and go explore a bit more of Scotland, this is where I am seeking input. Our flight leaves MAN on Sun AM pretty early, so I am thinking we want to catch a train to MAN by Saturday night and get a hotel near the airport. This gives me all day Thursday/Friday, and partial Saturday for driving/exploring.

I drink and want to taste some Scotch, partner does not, so I have a built in driver, but also can likely only convince them to visit 2ish distilleries. I am not well versed in Scotch, I drink a lot of bourbon and bold red california style wines. Oban however is probably my favorite Scotch I have had, but of what I have tried, I tend to prefer peatier (Talisker, Laphroiag, Lagavulin, however I did go to a Whiskey event once and the Aberlour A'bundah was my favorite of the night).

We like nature/scenery and don't mind being a little active, but I would said if we went hiking we are taking a couple miles, rather than a true trek. I love a dramatic coastline, that is definitely a view I enjoy. Also do like some history - but prefer self-guided experiences rather than a guided tour.

I am currently thinking maybe we head to Oban and spend a night near there, going to the distillery, and exploring that area. Unsure if we should try to explore any of the islands from there or not, worried that we simply don't have enough time. I assume getting out to Islay simply does not make sense. Then perhaps on way back from Oban head to the Loch Lomand and spend a night in that area, before winding our way back to Edinburg.

My other idea was instead head north out of Edinburgh towards Aberdeen, working our way to Speyside, and Cairngorms National Park.

I think I need to make some decisions soon so that I can book hotels for the nights we are not in Edinburgh. Speaking of, what is the vibe on VRBO/AirBNB-type accommodations? I did see some when searching, but not sure if they are looked down upon by locals like they are in many areas of the US for taking housing options away from locals.

Posted by
369 posts

I think you'll be on the move, so small hotels make more sense than VRBO/airBNBs where you need to do cleanup, have service charges each place, etc.

Last fall we left Stirling in the afternoon and drove to a hotel on the west side of Loch Lomand. The next morning we visited Inverary Castle and then dropped down the peninsula to several neolithic stone sites. We ended in Oban for the night. The following day I visited charity shops and a small museum while the other 3 took a tour at the distillery. They said I would've enjoyed the tour but I wished I had even more time for more charity shops (just wore one of the coats I got last night:). I also would've been happy sitting on a bench watching the harbor or curled up with a book or taking photos of flowers at the lovely little manor house where we stayed. We headed to the Glencoe area for the next night at a less expensive hotel.

It sounds as if you will only have 2 or 3 (if you leave Edinburgh Wednesday) nights so I think meandering to Oban and back will fill your short time. (IOthers will have to say if an island day trip is feasible from Oban.) We scheduled the Oban Distillery tour for the day after our night in Oban, not the day before, so we were not rushed en route (but I still wish we had more time en route to see more stones and a couple of other villages).

Posted by
1851 posts

With two days don’t be too ambitious in your driving plans. Scotland may not seem that large compared with USA but distances can take a lot longer to cover than you might expect.

You do know there’s a distillery in Edinburgh?

Why twoish distilleries? Is it to taste the different styles of whisky (note there is no 'e' in whisky in Scotland. Irish whiskey has the 'e' and the Scots can get uptight about this...) The actual process of making whisky is the same and distillery tours will be very similar. This does rather sound like overkill.

If you are wanting to experience different styles of whisky then there are plenty of places to do this in Edinburgh. There is also the Whisky Experience which gets consistently good reviews on Trip Advisor

So - do your drinking in Edinburgh and spend the two days exploring some of Scotland (as well as keeping your partner happy...)

Posted by
27138 posts

In Manchester your first landing point in Europe after an overnight flight? If so, I'm concerned that you will be in no condition to enjoy the late Tattoo performance on your arrival day. You're a lot younger than I am, so you may do better on that flight than I do. I'm always totally zombified on my arrival day; I would never, ever pre-pay for any activity that day much less something in the evening.

I'd recommend planning to attend a Fringe event that first evening if you're in condition to do so and buying Tattoo tickets for one of your other evenings in Edinburgh.

Posted by
2 posts

Why twoish distilleries? Is it to taste the different styles of whisky (note there is no 'e' in whisky in Scotland. Irish whiskey has the 'e' and the Scots can get uptight about this...) The actual process of making whisky is the same and distillery tours will be very similar. This does rather sound like overkill.

@wasleys I’m used to doing wine tastings in the US where you get to sample a variety of expressions from the same winemaker. Maybe this is less of a thing with whisky tasting? I’m not so interested in tours, more of a guided tasting experience where someone may tell me what makes X different from Y in each sample, as well as give a little history/story about the distillery itself.

I'm concerned that you will be in no condition to enjoy the late Tattoo performance on your arrival day

@acraven I won’t lie, makes me nervous too, but I figure worst case we nap for a few hours before the show. Maybe I’ll switch to Weds, but I was thinking I don’t want to be out too late that evening so we can get an early start on Thurs when we depart from Edinburgh…

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