Best driving route from Glasgow to Oban

The best option might be a bus. Driving too fast and not paying attention is not a great strategy.

If your driver is a speed demon and a gawker, I agree with Trelawney that you should seriously consider taking either the bus or the train. Both are convenient and will offer beautiful views.

The safest route will not make a difference if your driver doesn't take it seriously.

If you stay in Oban you can get around without a car. You can visit the islands of Mull and Iona without a car. There are other places that can be reached by ferry, biking, walking and taxis.

Forgive me for attempting to be humorous. I was hoping for some specific details, including worthwhile stops, about the route options from folks who've driven them.
We will be driving. We will be fine. I think we'll take the Inverary, Kilmarten route.

The A82 - A85 via Loch Lomond and Crianlarich is the regular route most folk would take.

OP, sorry we didn't catch your humor. There have been many posts by folks insisting on hopping in a car immediately after a sleepless transatlantic flight and driving several hundred miles. It's such a bad mix. Anyway, to answer your question.

Will you be going roundtrip from Glasgow? Or heading elsewhere after Oban?

With the Loch Lomond route you can stop off in Luss for a stroll or even a boat trip. There are several viewpoints along the way including Firkin Point on Loch Lomond and Rest and Be Thankful. The Inveraray Castle has nice interior rooms to tour with lovely gardens and a tearoom for a lunch break.

From Inveraray you can either go north and skirt Loch Awe with Kilchurn Castle ruins. You may see some Hairy Coos. Or continue along Loch Awe to Lochgilphead for the Kilmartin Museum and the Standing Stones, Circles and Cairns.

Yes, jeanm has some good ideas for stop offs. Going up the A82 to Crianlarich is all main roads. More of an A to B route. Still nice though. Duck Bay is another popular stop on Loch Lomond. It's a resort complex etc, but still a nice place to get out and look at the water.

A fun drive is the old military road from the A82 over to Garelochhead (Google tells me it's the A817). That's like a rollercoaster. You could see some of Loch Lomond, then to Garelochhead and up to Oban from there via Arrochar and Inverary.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/h6GKce1PLSJh8h6P6

[edited to tweak the route and change Maps link]

You could be very adventurous and drive to Gourock for the ferry across to Dunnon. Then take A815 which takes you along Holy Loch m passed Benmore Gardens (lovely place for a stop), Loch Eck and round the top of Loch Fyne to Inveraray. You then have the two choices suggested by jeanm.

Thus route avoids the A82 along the side of Loch Lomond which is a major route and always busy.

Thanks everyone.
We're flying into Edinburgh, taking the Citylink to Glasgow, and staying the night so we should be well rested. The entire next day our only plan is the drive to Oban. I was hoping to make a day of it. I'm thinking A82 to A83 to Inverary then the A816 through Kilmarten to Oban. And I guess I'll add myself as a driver on the rental in case I need to take over. 🙂
We're driving to Portree after 2 nights in Oban. Then to Inverness after 3 nights in Portree. We leave the car in Inverness (2 nights) and train to Edinburgh.

I get you were being humorous in your OP, but is it your first time driving in Scotland? It really pays to do some homework on driving before you come. It's very different to driving in North America, and staying safe and keeping the car in one piece is ideal.

There's lots of resources on YouTube for American drivers, the Highway Code is the UK bible for driving and I'm sure you could turn up more tips with a few deft Google searches.

The Gourock ferry route is one worth while being aware of, just in case of an incident on the other routes, and it is a scenic route in itself. The ferry runs several times an hour, and doesn't need booking. It is also the most reliable ferry in Scotland- if it cancels then you know the weather is really bad.
It is a quick dash down the M8/A8 from Glasgow Airport to Gourock McInroy's Point.

I understand you were being humorous but I've had three speeding tickets on that part of the A8!!

I also mention being aware of alternative routes because it has been impossible today to get to the Mallaig ferry for Skye from Fort William- the A830 has been closed for 12 hours due to an RTA, and the normal diversion via the Corran ferry has also been closed due to a defect with the ferry. So anyone for Skye has had to continue north to use the bridge.

OP, have you already booked your car rental?

Take a look at Arnold Clark Car Rental, the largest rental agency in Scotland. And, also, get a quote from their partner, Celtic Legend .Same car, but sometimes the rates are better with one or the other. We booked through Celtic Legend on our last trip in 2023 and they gave us free 2nd driver and free GPS. Both companies are very easy to work with.

It might not look much on American scale maps (I'm assuming your nationality btw, apologies) but you've got some big drives planned. Be prepared for it to take much longer than you expect.

You need to watch your speed. It's a few years since I drove these A-roads, but I'd imagine they've all been tightened up with speed cameras these days. All the same, on a straight bit of A road, if you're doing less than 50, you're dawdling and holding people up. Where we talked about going over the Rest and Be Thankful, that used to be like a race track for motorcycles at the weekend. Bikes would pass at scary speeds. I hope that's a bit more tightly controlled these days. The A9 felt much safer the last time I used it because of improvrments.

If you'll excuse me being a bit glib, tyres seem to be a consumable in Scotland with visitors. Lots of people on here seem to lose tyres while driving. I think it pays to start out being conscious of that and watching where the left side of the vehicle is so you don't hit any kerbs or stones. If you're doing a bit of driving in Skye, you need to be aware of the potholes and not hit them full speed. We have a regular contributor who lives on Skye and maybe she could share how she keeps her tyres safe.

Please excuse me if you know all this stuff. I'm all for visitors driving, but some folk don't find it the easiest thing in the world.

I'm the regular Skye based contributor referred to above. Other posters are correct that our roads are very different from those elsewhere (especially when compared to the States). Most of our roads (except motorways and there aren't many of those in Scotland) do not have shoulders and are generally much narrower than you'll be expecting. Potholes are frequent, both at the edges of the carriageway and also in the middle of the road. When filled with water they are especially dangerous as you don't know whether you are about to hit 'just' a puddle or a massive water filled crater. Here we see a lot of tourist swerving to miss potholes, which brings them on to the wrong side of the road. It's much safer to slow down in you can. We do replace our tyres more often here than we did when we lived in the south of England and that has to be because of the state of the roads. We also have visitors arriving very late at our B&B having experienced tyre blow outs on the journey up here. If you do blow a tyre you can expect to wait hours for a recovery truck. They are busy and distances between towns are large.

Your humour about being a speed demon and a gawker missed the mark because we see so many road accidents involving tourists. Sometimes fatal accidents caused by a moment of distraction. You'll also see official road signs saying 'Frustration causes accidents, pull over to let faster traffic pass'. So if you're in 'gawker' mode then you'll want to pull over to do the gawking.

If you're in speed demon mode then be aware of speed cameras, especially on the A82 just north of Crianlariach and on the A9 (entire route from Stirling to Inverness at least) where they are actually average speed cameras and catch lots of folk out. People here tend to drive to the speed limit, which is 60mph on single carriageway roads, 70mph on dual carriageways and motorways where there is a central barrier, and as low as 20mph in built up areas.

We've had a lot of rain this year, but very few freeze and thaw cycles that wreck roads and cause potholes.

Skyegirl, what's your current report on the roads on Skye? Is there roads in particular visitors should watch out for big potholes on? I'd assume the roads still get a lot of press locally. Is it Argyll and Bute Council? How are they doing? Much maintenance planned before the summer rush?