First time to Scotland

Hi There
Have you found Undiscovered Scotland's driving tour map? It's interactive so if you click on a driving route you'll get details of the route with further links to specific places.

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/ustours/index.html

We flew into Edinburgh and used Stirling as a base for a few days taking the Stirling/Dunfermline and Falklands/St Andrews driving tours in addition to a few more sites in the area.

We also used Oban as a base for a few days taking the Oban/Inverary route with the fascinating Kilmartin Glen and Oban/ Glen Coe route, including magnificent Glen Etive, driving tours and also explored a bit of Mull.

And... then have used Inverness as a base as we fly home from there. Day trips out of Inverness included Elgin Cathedral, Clava Cairns, Culloden Battlefield, Ruthven Barricks, Highland Folk Museum to name a few.

This is Undiscovered Scotland's home page with interactive an interactive map. I've spent hours on this site researching places we'd like to visit.
https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/

Scotland is wonderful. It cast a spell over us so we're planning a 3rd visit.

Happy planning!

Diane,
Thank you so much for your reply and I'll definitely check in to the interactive map using your suggestions as reference points. We expect to fall in love with Scotland as well and look forward to our visit. I do see that the highland games start at some locations in May. I would like to take in a day of this great tradition also. Have you had the opportunity to attend?
Thank you
Tony

I went to the Highland Games at Gordon Castle in 2023, and it was a wonderful and very unique experience. Keep in mind that most of them are later in the summer, but there are a few in May (that's when I went). Here is a calendar showing all of the Games for 2025 that you might want to look at. https://www.rshga.org/calendar

If you like history and churches and old ruins, I would suggest the Isle of Iona, which is a small island that is the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland, and has all of the above. It's a bit of trek to get there but there are day tours to Iona available from Oban. You can find more information here: http://www.welcometoiona.com/visiting-iona/day-trips/

Mardee,
This is great insight and I definitely will add to my list of resources when planning. I appreciate your response and trust me, there will be more questions from me, so hopefully you're available :) Thank you for your time!
Tony

Scotland may not see very big but will take a lot longer to cover distances than you might expect. Driving can be very slow. You also need to build in time just to ‘stop and stare’.

3-4 bases even in ten days is a lot of travelling and means you will only have 1-2 full days in each place to explore properly. Being realistic you need to trim this back to 2-3 bases

Don’t forget to allow for a day to recover from jet lag and to readjust to being in Scotland. So allow at least 2-3 nights in Edinburgh - there’s lots to do and see and plenty of scope for day trips too. (St Andrews with its ruined castle and cathedral is definitely recommended as a day trip. Also Stirling or even Glasgow which has a wonderful cemetery) . You won’t need a car in Edinburgh so rent one when you leave.

Skye is very very popular and accommodation does book up very quickly and you may well find places already booked for next year. If that is a must see then you need to start looking and booking accommodation up soon.

Diane has made a lot of good suggestions. Oban would be a good choice or even Isle of Mull (which is scenically very good and less visited than Skye), which would allow for a day trip to Iona (as mentioned by Mardee and a delight) as well as boat trips to Staffa and Fingal’s Cave ....

For the last stop head towards Inverness - Diane has some good suggestions there. There are also places like Dornoch with its cathedral, Dunrobin Castle, Glen Affric, possibly one of the prettiest glens in Scotland.

Car rental - Celtic Legend is highly recommended.

The Undiscovered Scotland website mentioned by Diane is fantastic and much better than any guide book.

A lot of great information and something that I will definitely use when determining our route(s). I'm glad you mentioned about the accommodations filling up fast, I thought it being early May shouldn't cause concern. Thank you so much for your input, all if this is invaluable when planning.
Tony

I definitely agree with wasleys about booking accommodations early, especially on Skye. Also, I would recommend stretching your trip to 10 days or even longer, if possible. Scotland is such a wonderful country and there are so many wonderful places to visit.

For ruins, consider visiting the border abbeys, Jedburgh, Dryburgh, Melrose, and Kelso. They are close together. Rosslyn Chapel is nice to visit and can be visited by bus from Edinburgh. There are plenty of castles one can visit.

This may be more than you want to read but here's my Trip Report from 2022.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-scotland-the-search-for-jamie-fraser

Highlights for us were Stirling Castle and Isle of Mull.

Thank you to all who have responded with such phenomenal information and insights. This will most assuredly help with the planning of our upcoming trip in May '25. We are so very excited and I will definitely share my experiences once we return. In the meantime, I'm still open to others' opinions and experiences as I'm sure there will be more questions from me. Again, thank you to this forum and the wonderful travel community.

Tony

We attended one of the smaller Highland Games in Killin. Pretty neat.

We stayed at a wonderful stone cottage near Loch Tay. This is not one of the usual Edinburgh, Skye, Loch Ness destinations; but was really a highlight. My son-in-law did all the driving so the location may not share my enthusiasm.
We struggled to find restaurants for the evening meals, reservations required.
We flew iout of Glasgow.

Last yr we did a 35 day trip to London, Normandy, Bruges, Amsterdam and finished up in Ireland. We stayed in airbnb in every stop except London. Do the majority of you stay in hotels or airbnbs? I find the price of airbnb to be much more affordable than hotels for 2 couples traveling, but not really sure of the selections in Scotland when referring to locations to the sites. See, I told I'd have more questions:)
Tony

Hi Tony
We stay in airbnb as we prefer to cook our evening meal over a discussion of the day's adventures. We try to find properties that are part of the owners' home location. We've meet some terrific hosts.

These are some places we stayed:

Stirling- Lime Grove Cottage. Plan to say here again during our 3rd visit
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/10197157?source_impression_id=p3_1683257564_Jbd8EOtNQW2aUlAV

Oban- Tom's House
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37177237?source_impression_id=p3_1731089163_P3JHvTf947X1hac9

Inverness- The Annexe at Rauldon. Stayed 2x plan to stay again during our 3rd visit
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/11917204?source_impression_id=p3_1731089245_P3oE2Ck6GFX_Uhvx

Lime Grove Cottaage & Tom's House are large enough for 2 couples but not so the Annexe.

These properties are all located on the owner's main home site are are truly little annexes.