Best Itinerary for August/September to England and Scotland

If it was me, I'd probably explore your England places first, and wait until September for Scotland. August is chock full of festivals, especially in Edinburgh, which means huge crowds and high prices for hotels. Plus hotels there will book up many months in advance. Of course if one or more of those festivals are on your bucket list, then disregard.

You might want to revise your title to England and Scotland instead of England and Ireland.

I agree that Scotland will be busier in August because of all of the festivals. Unless you want to experience any of them I would save Scotland for September.

Thank you for noting the error---Scotland and England for this trip :)

If you are planning to get to the highlands of Scotland then September would be a better time as the midge problem will have lessened. The little blighters are prevalent in July and August, but September sees fewer of them. Not a problem at any time in Edinburgh, but definitely a consideration if you are going north west of there.

We do plan to visit the highlands! If we come from England to Scotland and plan to fly out of Edinburgh or Glasgow after exploring the country, do you have suggestions on:
1. Best way to get to a Scotland base (smaller town) from England
2. Itinerary for about 10-12 days before we head to city of Edinburgh and/or Glasgow (our final stop before heading home)
3. travel mode around Scotland
4. Charming towns to explore

Thank you in advance-we are just at the beginning of our planning and feel we are a bit ignorant about everything right now!

It's really not possible to provide transportation advice for trips between unknown origins and unknown destinations. It's likely that the fastest trip from your last stop in England to your first stop in Scotland would include some time on a train, but you might need to use a bus as well if a small town is involved. If you want to see rural Scotland and are willing to drive, having a car for part of the trip is likely to be helpful. A lot of the rural bus routes don't run very often, so being tied to bus schedules can be very limiting.

For my 2019 trip, I used travelinescotland.com for bus schedules but preferred to verify any rail information found there on the nationalrail.co.uk website. It's now over five years later, so there might be a better option now.

As @acraven says it's impossible to advise on your question of travel routes without knowing starting point and destination. Scotland is a pretty big country!

However, Inverness or Fort William are usually the main bases people chose from which to explore the Highlands. Unless you want to visit one or more of the many islands. You probably need to do a little more research on locations before we can advise in detail.

However, it's possible to get to Fort William by train via Glasgow and to Inverness by train via Edinburgh. It's also possible to fly from England to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen and there are onward connections to some of the islands.

Once north of the Central Belt (Glasgow/Edinburgh) options via public transport become more limited. There are Citylink bus services linking major population centres, e.g. Glasgow to Portree & Uig (Skye) via Fort William. Inverness is also reachable by Citylink bus from various starting points.

However, to fully explore the Highlands and islands you will want a rental car. A well regarded national provider in Scotland is Arnold Clark, but the other major companies e.g. Avis are also available in the cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness. You'll want to consider the costs v benefits of a one way hire versus a round trip. The major rental companies do not have bases on the islands, but there are local providers which would need very early booking especially if you need an automatic transmission as these are much less common in the UK than USA.

It's also worth bearing in mind that while distances might look small on the map the road conditions mean that journeys take longer than you might expect, and typically 1/3 longer than google maps might suggest. For example from my house in Skye it takes me 6 hours minimum to drive to Glasgow or Edinburgh and longer during the summer season when there are lots of camper vans and rental cars on the roads.

Thinking of your specifications of

however we love the off-the-beaten-path gems, small towns, outdoors., We appreciate engaging in the local culture and getting to know locals. the many festivals at this time of year, and is it worth checking some out if we happen to be there, regardless of crowds?

One possibility is the Cowal Highland Gathering from 29 to 31 August. This is one of the biggest (probably the biggest) of the Highland Games, and is held at Dunoon on the Cowal Peninsula. Dunoon is a very easy ferry trip from Gourock- and Gourock has several trains an hour from Glasgow (and thus Edinburgh). You could do all three days, or just one or two of the days.

Yes it will be very busy there, but it is worth it IMO.

In keeping with the first part of your brief you could precede that with a couple of days on the Isle of Bute (accessed via ferry from Wemyss Bay on the mainland. Scottish Schools have gone back in mid August so places like Bute which are mainly Scottish domestic tourism are quieter by the end of August. Then cross to Cowal on the very short Rhubodach to Colintraive ferry- you can do that either by local bus or by car.

While on Cowal Benmore Botanic Gardens might interest you.

From Cowal you can drive or take the public bus #486 up to Inveraray for the Castle etc.

As well as driving Citylink run connections from Inveraray to Oban (for the Isle of Mull/Iona), and also to Campbeltown. The latter bus also calls at Kennacraig Ferry Terminal for the Isle of Islay (whisky distilleries by the bucket load and so much more). And Islay does have a pretty good bus service if you are not driving. Campbeltown is one of those off the beaten path small town gems. It also has a wee airport for twice daily flights back to Glasgow, or even the Kintyre Express foot ferry to either Islay or Ballycastle (Northern Ireland). Campbeltown is one of the distinctive Whisky regions having a style all it's own- currently 3 (I think) distilleries there.

You can then take a short flight back from Islay to Glasgow.

A short cut to Islay missing out Inveraray is the bus or drive to Portavadie, then the short ferry ride over to Tarbert (Loch Fyne) for onward travel south.

I so appreciate this very helpful feedback! I am starting to formulate an itinerary and have some thoughts...would you suggest using Glasgow as a base to explore the Isle of Bute, Islay, as well as attend the Highland Games at Dunoon (we are very interested!) or would you suggest a 3-4 day stay in Glasgow then staying somewhere on the Isles and exploring from there? Is it reasonable to have a base for Bute etc., a base for Mull etc., and a base for Skye etc.? Am I trying to cover too much in the 12ish days? Are these areas similar and would you suggest adding another non-isle area, such as the Inverness/Nairn area or other place?

Does it make sense to end back in Edinburgh to explore the city before catching our flight back home? I can already see that we will need to plan another trip to Scotland as there is so much to cover!

We plan on renting a car/using bus/train, etc. I am comfortable with a stick shift, but driving on the opposite side of the road will require some attention :).

I don't think you can add anything on to this itinerary further like Inverness or Nairn-
For 12 days an itinerary might look something like
Day 1- Glasgow as jet lag recovery day
Day 2- explore Glasgow- possible day trip to Stirling for the Castle etc; or Falkirk (for the Falkirk Wheel/the Kelpies) or Edinburgh (45 minutes each way on the train).
Day 2- Bute from Glasgow (possibly stay overnight on Bute)
Day 3- Dunoon Highland Games from Glasgow, or from Bute, possible overnight stay in Dunoon.
Day 4- If you have done Bute and Dunoon from Glasgow the morning flight from GLA to Islay; if you stayed overnight in Dunoon bus or drive round to Islay, arriving late afternoon
Day 5 and 6 Islay
Day 7 (Wednesday or Saturday)- the 1150 ferry from Port Askaig (Islay) to Oban arrive 1610, transfer onto a ferry to Mull
Days 8 and 9 Mull
Day 10- Mull to Oban for the 0930 bus to Fort William, change, arrive Portree about 5pm.
Oban to Portree over the bridge is a 4 hour drive.
If you stayed at Tobermory on Mull you could take the early ferry over to Kilchoan then the 3 hour drive to Mallaig, for an early afternoon ferry to Armadale on Skye, then drive to Portree. Or Monday to Friday the Shiel Buses #506 from Kilchoan to Fort William.
Days 11 and 12- Skye
Day 13- full day transfer back to Edinburgh

Whether in fact you would be better on Day 10 to go to Inverness/Nairn is a personal decision, transferring to Edinburgh on Day 12.

Then fly out on Day 13.

I'll offer a different perspective: the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August makes Edinburgh as exciting and vital a place as one can imagine. Yes, lodgings are more expensive, and the city becomes very crowded. But it's such a wonderful experience. The Tattoo is performed during this time, and it's a should-not-miss.

Some people won't like being there during the Fringe, but many of us love it.