Best Driving Route - Glasgow to Oban

Maybe Option 3- A82 route to Tarbet (Loch Lomond) then A83 via the Rest and Be Thankful to Inveraray then A819 to Dalmally- rejoin the A85.

or the long way round A83 from Inveraray to Lochgilphead, then A816 to Oban.

I'm not sure that Route 1 is less scenic, more differently scenic.

Option 2 every time for me.

Option 1 is taking you miles out of your way.

The third option proposed above is an alternative - but I'd go with A82-A85.

do you mean windy (as in the windy city) or winding (as in the long and winding road, which was actually inspired by Macca's journey from Glasgow to Campbeltown in Kintyre)?

Oooh Ramblin’ on, i never knew that ! Fun !

isn31c's extra routes, via Inveraray and Lochgoilphead are good.

You can have a look at all the routes on GSV if you want to get an idea on the conditions of the roads in question.

Following your edit ds, I think people consider the A82 alongside Loch Lomond to be challenging? But it's not as long as you take you time on the narrow stretches.

The route via Inveraray is pleasant and Inveraray is worth a stop. But as a local I"m always looking for the most direct route so the A82 wins out for me, and the drive alongside Loch Lomond is scenic.

The worst bit of the A82 has been sorted out, the lights that had been there since King Robert was a lad, and it is not that long anyway and the speeds are generally low.

Can you explain where exactly the “worst bits” of A82 are located? Is is single lane? What roadwork was done?

Does the A83 avoid the “worst” part of A82? Does it add a lot of extra travel time?

What it is at that point is it is narrow, but is a proper single carriageway with one lane in each direction so that vehicles including trucks can pass each other.

This is the A82 in roughly that area. You can go back and forth and see the rest of the area.

There is, indeed, nothing "bad" about the A82: it is a two-lane road throughout. A few curves might need some care if a truck is coming the other way, but that is true of just about any 2-lane road in Scotland besides the A9.

We just got back from Scotland, and on Sunday (April 30th) we had a beautiful drive from Oban to the Glasgow Airport in Paisley. Based on RS's Scotland guidebook, we took its advice for a scenic drive and loved it. From Oban, we did the A85/A819/A83/A82 route. All together I think it took 2-1/2 hours. We had the time, so it was a good choice for a more leisurely route.
Highlights: Inverary Castle, the Rest-and-Be-Thankful overlook in the Trossachs (sign said "Argyll Forest"), and the drive along Loch Lomand. In Arrochar, we made a spontaneous supper stop at a neat little restaurant with a view called Cu Mara--great pizza and other things. They do stay pretty busy, but we got lucky by going early.
Driving for us wasn't so much about being on the left. It was about the narrowness of the roads. It was definitely doable but took a little while getting used to.
Have a great trip!

Thank you!!

Did you only have that 1 stop and still did the drive in 2.5 hours?? It sounds like the drive wasn’t as long as I thought. Seems much shorter after all than I’ve been reading about.

Was there a lot of traffic to contend with and did you have a small car?

Good signage or did you use map? Satellite navigation?

Any other tips?

Thank you again :)

We had three stops: Inveraray Castle (bought tickets in advance), Rest and Be Thankful overlook (about 10 minutes) and the restaurant. That 2.5 hours doesn’t include time at each of these.

Traffic really wasn’t bad. Drive was very pleasant. Maybe it was partly because it was a Sunday during the non-peak tourist season. There was one stop for construction, near the overlook—added about 5 minutes.

We were in the equivalent of a Nissan Rogue Sport SUV. The space inside was nice. Driving it was very doable, but a slightly narrower car would’ve have hurt for the narrow roads. We did see lots of small SUVs like ours everywhere. We picked up our rental at Edinburgh airport and drove through a lot of the Highlands all week.

PS: I thought the signage on the highways was very good, but we also used sat nav/gps a lot too, especially in towns.