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Day trip to Highlands from Edinburgh

My family of 4 will be visiting Scotland for a week in July. We have a 10 and 13 year old. Edinburgh will be our home base for the trip. We are looking for suggestions on how to see the Highlands (if a reasonable day trip is possible). We already are planning day trips to St. Andrews, Stirling Castle and hopefully see a Highland Games festival. We do not want to rent a car, but would be happy to pay a driver or take a train. A full day (12-hour) bus tour will be too long for our children. Is Pitlochry worth the visit? Loch Lochmund? Any suggestions on private guides we could hire?

Posted by
6502 posts

Rabbies offers one-day van tours from Edinburgh, as well as longer ones. I haven't used them, but their reputation is good in this forum and elsewhere.

Posted by
545 posts

Here's a website about visiting the Highlands that might help - https://www.visitscotland.com/destinations-maps/highlands/
Depending on where you go, a day trip can be quite a long one. It would probably entail at least 2.5 hours each way just to get somewhere. Personally, I think to visit the highlands you'd need to spend the night.
Stirling Castle is very good and there's a lot of buildings to explore. They also have a decent cafe for a meal or snack.
Please try to leave some time to explore in Edinburgh, there's enough there to see for a week in my opinion. Good luck and enjoy Scotland, it is beautiful!