Getting to Inverness

If going to Edinburgh first, is it pretty easy to get a train to INV?

There are no trains to Inverness airport, but why would you want to go there from Edinburgh?

What is the best airline for all this? We are big fans of Condor but
always have to go through Frankfurt. Delta is nonstop but expensive.
Whatever airline, I am thinking it is cheaper to do a round-trip in
and out of AMS and then arrange a hopper to and from Scotland in
between those dates as opposed to the "multistep" option, which for
some reason is more $$$.

Open jaw tickets are usually the best, fly to your arrival city (Amsterdam?) and home from your departure city (Edinburgh?). Even if the ticket is more expensive, it saves you the cost of getting back to your arrival city.

Thanks, I will look again at open-jaw. Maybe I wasn't doing it right. The reason we need to get to INV is because our tour group starts off from there. I am trying to plan what to do before and after.

1)KLM has nonstop flights between Amsterdam and Inverness. There are also flights from Amsterdam and Edinburgh on KLM and Easyjet. From Edinburgh it's about three and a half hours to Inverness with no change of trains. (It's a pretty ride.)

2) There really isn't much in Inverness (I've been there twice.) I would suggest staying in Edinburgh a few days.

3) Best is subjective and depends on how you describe best....cheapest? fastest? easiest?

4) You could always fly in and out of London and then get cheap flights to Amsterdam, Edinburgh/Inverness and back to London.

When you refer to Inverness as INV we assume you mean the airport. That is the three letter code for Inverness airport. Does your tour start from the airport?

Ahh, my inexperience in all this is revealed! I was trying to abbreviate (typing with one finger due to broken arm) but thanks for the explanation - I was using "INV" to mean Inverness, not the airport! Now the other reply makes more sense. The tour starts from the city :)

By "best airline" (another good clarification request) I mean shortest and most comfortable - willing to pay more within reason.

I was trying to abbreviate (typing with one finger due to broken arm)
but thanks for the explanation - I was using "INV" to mean Inverness,
not the airport!

That explains things! Your question was a bit hard to understand. In Europe, airport codes are never used to refer to a city. So when you ask how to get to INV, we will assume you are going to the airport. Also, airports are usually refered to by their name and not their three letter code.

However, as for best airline between Portland and Amsterdam/Edinburgh it sounds like Icelandair could be a good choice if they serve Portland. Between Amsterdam and Scotland the options for direct flights are as mentioned KLM and Easyjet, but also an overnight ferry to Newcastle and train from there to Edinburgh.

It looks like EDI may have more sites and things to do than INV so
should we spend a day or two there?

Assuming you mean Edinburgh and Inverness, yes Edinburgh is worth a couple of days. Inverness is in my opinion a pretty boring city. There are some things to see there, but it can be done in half a day or so.

Thanks for putting up with me! I was so stuck on Amsterdam (so much easier to write AMS as I am doing on paper for my own notes - but no more here!) but now looking at going through London because such better flight choices. HOWEVER, Icelandic Air does fly out of PDX ;) - so will check them out as well since I know you can even stop over for no extra fee. We've not been to London and don't really like cities but imagine it would be worth a day or two.

Thanks for putting up with me!

Not a problem, glad we could teach you something new!

I was so stuck on Amsterdam (so much easier to write AMS as I am doing
on paper for my own notes - but no more here!) but now looking at
going through London because such better flight choices. HOWEVER,
Icelandic Air does fly out of PDX ;) - so will check them out as well
since I know you can even stop over for no extra fee.

Icelandair is in general a very good choice between "smaller" cities and Keflavík is a very efficient airport for transfers compared to the mega hubs.

We've not been to London and don't really like cities but imagine it
would be worth a day or two.

If you don't like cities it sounds like a stop over on Iceland would be better than a visit to London. But then again, London is not a bad choice for a couple of days. From London there are also trains to both Amsterdam and Edinburgh/Inverness.

I didn't know about trains from London - thanks!

I didn't know about trains from London - thanks!

Then you've learned another thing today! To buy tickets or find out more about the trains, see www.eurostar.com for the trains between London and Amsterdam and www.lner.co.uk for day trains between London and Edinburgh/Inverness and www.sleeper.scot for night trains. (And www.scotrail.co.uk for trains within Scotland.)

This is perfect - thank you! (RS forums are always so amazingly helpful!)

I would also keep an eye on the Delta flight cost as they can vary. Recently someone on here posted a link to an article saying the flight costs were changing sometimes 10 times a day. If they are staying the same when you check, delete your cookies after you do a fare check and see if you get a different amount next time.

(I'm pretty sure that is mumbo-jumbo on the deleting your cookies, but I do it anyway and I think it makes a difference!)

Thank you, Pam. I have long suspected that the price of tickets goes up after I check them! Even asked if this was so on the phone once - they said no, of course! But how do I delete cookies in a Mac?? Ive never done that.

It depends on the browser, but if you are using Safari you go to Settings in the Safari-menu.

Great - thanks. Looks like best flights (ie, timing and price) would be on British Air. So noe giving uo on seeing Amsterdam this trip and thinking about London!