Best Tips about Scotland/Itinerary.. PLEASE HELP!

A car for a few days would certainly allow you to see more. This is a real stretch ...

Day
1. ARRIVE Edinburgh (2)
2. Edinburgh
3. Via Stirling & Glencoe to Fort William (1)
4. Via Oban & Loch Lomond to Glasgow (1)
5. DEPART Glasgow

An extra day would allow you to visit the Borders or St Andrews from Edinburgh.

Favourite distiilery: Edradour near the town of Pitlochry.
Favourite Castle: Doune Castle.

What time of year is your trip and how much time do you have in total for Scotland and London?

I wouldn't bother trying to fit Skye into such a short trip. There is plenty to see closer to your start and end points that won't mean spending half your holiday in the car, which you will indeed need if you wish to see rural Scotland and don't want to join the day trippers on coach tours (shudder).

We are doing a week between Scotland and London and are going in September! I agree that Isle of Skye would be a bit of a stretch, but that will just be an excuse to go back!

If you only have one week and you want to see London as well as a bit of Scotland, you'll have to zero in on the top priorities. In London you could compromise the tour vs. "live like a local" by going on one or two London Walks walking tours and being on your own the rest of the time. Choose one hotel/B&B in each city and settle in.

I hope you'll be flying open jaw -- arrive London and depart Edinburgh, or the other way around. That will save you time & money.

I'd say do not rent a car for such a short time. Take the train between London & Edinburgh and use public transport, which is plentiful in both cities. In Edinburgh you can buy an all-day pass for the Lothian Bus system, which includes locations outside the city such as Roslin Chapel. The railways in Scotland serve a number of rural destinations so if you want to get out into the countryside for a walk (hike, in USA parlance) you can easily do so.

We did your option 2. We didn’t have a need to rent a car. You don’t need one in Edinburgh. We used Rabbies for various day tours out of Edinburgh and cannot brag enough about that! Was so enjoyable to relax and have someone else drive on challenging unmarked backroads.
Recommend: We built a ‘jet lag’ day for first full day. Got up early for first Rabbies tour of Edinburgh of day ($12 per person for 2 hours). Then hopped off tour and walked all over the Old Town. Was a fabulous way to learn our way around city, talk to tour guide, then burn off jet lag by walking around.
We were there this past November.
Hope that helps!

Thanks everyone! I think we may have to stick to some of the day tours out of Edinburgh and maybe take a day to venture out on our own towards Inverness! We are spending a week in Ireland prior to going to Scotland/London area so hopefully the jet lag wont be much of an issue!

Some people are going to disagree with me here, but I think if you have only a week you should spend it all in either London or Scotland. Otherwise, you are going to waste a lot of time getting between the two, time that could be spent seeing the sights. With only four days in Scotland you should probably just stick to Edinburgh as a base and make use of the many guided day tours available. You will probably see more this way as you won't have to deal with the hassle of picking up the rental car, getting used to driving on the left, and finding your own way around. I got lost the first day out with the car and missed a place I wanted to see, but I had the car for many more days so it didn't matter so much. If you spend your entire week in London you will get a good look at the city, but will probably still not be able to cover everything you want to see. You can spend an entire day just in the British Museum if you like that sort of thing. I spent six days in Edinburgh seeing the city and doing a couple of day trips. If you spend a whole week there you can also take the train over to Glasgow which is only an hour away. Keeping your focus small will make for a much more enjoyable, stress free, trip.

London does not actually exist. It is a figment of your imagination. It is Fake News.

If you decide to stay in Edinburgh there are also Craigmiller castle and Rosslyn chapel (seen in the da Vinci code movie and knights Templar connected) outside of Edinburgh that are easy to reach by bus. There’s no reason to have a rental car in the city.