Help with short Scotland Highlands driving itinerary

Oh, I'm so glad you've talked your Mom in to travel!

Here's my limited opinion based on just finishing Rick's Best of Scotland.

IF your Mom likes gardens, I would nearly insist you do Cawdor Castle. I thought this had the best gardens of all the places we visited on the Scotland tour. I truly wish we had not spend any time in the house/Castle (neat and still lived in) but had spent all our time in the gardens. Mid-June they were fantastic. I also loved the little bit of the woodland walk we did there, out thru the Tall Trees - huge tree specimens from Western US - the Douglas Fir which we have naturally where I live were astounding there. Rhododendron were everywhere/huge/gorgeous.

I know lots of people love Culloden Battlefield (and I don't want to insult anyone) but I was underwhelmed. Nice museum leading up to the exit to the battlefield, nice audio tour, mostly you look over a largish moorland area and I just generally felt bad for all the loss of life. I know many are very moved by this site so this is just my opinion.

If you enjoy neolithic monuments I loved our lunch stop one day which was a picnic at Clava Cairns. There are passage tombs, standing stones and some circles in this small area. You can walk into and around the stones. If you or your Mom are Outlander fans, this is apparently where Diana Gabaldon got the idea for a split stone as there is one located here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clava_cairn

We also just did Mull to Iona and with a short time frame I'd opt for Skye since it now has a bridge. We hit stormy weather here and the trip across to Iona was doubtful up to the last 15 minutes before we boarded the ferry over. Had a rushed visit due to needing to get back to the dock for the last ferry before they shut down due to weather.

editing to add: After I wrote this, I suddenly couldn't remember if you had done Best of Scotland as well? If so, sorry for repetition!

When you drive from Glasgow to the highlands, you can easily stop in Inveraray, which has a lot of charm as well as a castle with spectacular gardens (it's lovely inside too). I can recommend Brambles for lodging and daytime meals, and the George Hotel for dinner/pub.

Also, along the shore of Loch Lomond you can take a short cruise on the loch at Luss. See http://www.cruiselochlomond.co.uk/

For a smaller town near the Culloden area rather than in Inverness, I recommend Nairn. The b&b Tali Ayer was superb, with extremely helpful hosts. The only trick is that their address is not that easy to find, even if you have GPS in your car, so if you do book with them, call them when you arrive in Nairn and they'll help you find the street. http://www.tali-ayer.com/

Hello Tamara! I cannot help you with your Scotland planning, as I have not traveled there extensively.

However, my husband and I have just returned from the Rick Steves Best of England in 14 Days tour. We enjoyed it but it was strenuous, and there were some very steep walks that I could not do.

I thought I would warn you about this, because you wrote:

"We are a couple in our 30's and will be traveling with my mom, age 66, on her first trip out of the country. We are excited to bring her, but know that we will need to slow things down from our normal style of travel. We will be taking the Best of England in 14 days tour.
She is good for walks, but not strenuous hikes or lots of stairs."

There are lots of stairs at some of the hotels on the tour.
The first hotel is in Bath, the Brooks Guesthouse. Large stairs going up to the front door. Once you get into the living room, there are several bedrooms on that floor. But some members of our group were given rooms upstairs, and complained that they had to climb lots of stairs every day.
There were steep stairs going down to the basement where the breakfast room was.

The walking tours our guide gave us in Bath included walks up a steep hill from the hotel to the Royal Crescent.
This was five long blocks of a continuous grade up a hill.
We did this walk three times in a three day period.

No problems at the next hotel in the Cotswolds. Straight walk in from the street. Our room was on the ground floor.

Next hotel was in Conwy, Wales. All tour members were given upstairs rooms. We walked up two and a half flights of stairs to our room.

Next was the Lake District, which was beautiful. We were given a hotel room on the top floor. No problem, but two flights of stairs. And steep steps to get into the front door of the hotel, and going down them as we left each morning.

The toughest part of this trip for your mom will be the walk in the Lake District up Cat Bells Mountain trail. The group walked all the way to the top for a beautiful view of the lake below. It is a rocky, steep climb that I was not able to do because I had injured my foot while on the tour.

This tour is strenuous. I am a very young 65 and it was tough on me. I could have easily done everything even five years ago.

But I wanted to warn you that this tour may be tough for your mom.

We had a great time. It's a wonderful tour, and you will see many sights that do not involve much walking or stairs. Just thought I'd outline some areas for you so you can decide if these things will be too much for your mom. Feel free to ask any questions you want about our trip experience.

My advice would be to let your tour guide know on the first day that your mom needs a room in each hotel that does not require her to go up stairs. The RS tour department will send you a questionnaire to fill out after you register for the tour. Be sure to mention your mom's preferences for this on that form.

The alternative would be to do your own England itinerary, not a tour. This is easy to do either by train (rail pass or tickets bought ahead of time) or by driving. This way, you could choose hotels with easy entrance to rooms or with elevators to make things easier for mom.
You would also not be paying for activities that she cannot do, such as the long hike up Cat Bells Mountain.

There are plenty of great sights to see in England that do not include lots of stairs or hiking.
One of my favorite castles in England is 25 minutes outside of London (no not Windsor), and it is not on the RS England tour. Another fab castle is on the train line from London to Edinburgh.

I hope you all have a great trip. I cannot advise you on Scotland, but I can be helpful (hopefully) on England.

My husband and I primarily travel on our own in England; we have for years. This is so we can slow down the pace and enjoy what we are seeing. The pace of the RS England tour is fast, strenuous, and left us wishing we had more time in each town. One person on our tour said he felt he was in a continual state of tension, with the packed-full schedule, and changing hotels every two days. We had to pack our bags and be ready at breakfast time to leave the hotel on travel days. Not given much time for breakfast, gulp and run. We like a slower pace.

I wanted to tell you what the pace of the tour is, as we have just finished it. Hopefully, the information I have given will help you to decide if your mom would be able to enjoy this tour or if it would be too strenuous for her.

Pam - I forgot to mention on my post that we have been on the RS Scotland tour. Somehow it feels totally different trying to plan a route ourselves! Excellent input, thank you!

epltd - thank you for your suggestions, especially for the little town near Culloden. I will definitely consider that for our night there, the place you stayed at looks lovely.

Rebecca - thank you for your feedback! I will definitely take it into consideration. I should have explained my original post better. My mom does fine with several flights of stairs, but she would not be up to climbing something longer than that, such as a tower for views. She would probably sit out the mountain hike, but I think she would be ok with most other things. I know the cumulative effect of going for so many days can wear you out though, for sure! I had considered doing a trip on our own. It would probably be cheaper and we could take things slower. One of the appeals to the tour for me is that she could meet other people. I think she would really like the social aspect, as she lives alone in a very small town and doesn't get to socialize with people that often. I think she would love the group time and group meals. I definitely plan to get the single supplement for her, however, so she can rest in her room if she needs to. I will definitely think about your review, and if we decide to do the tour I will consider some modifications for the issues you mentions. Thank you so much for your really helpful reply!

Regarding stairs, we have that limitation too, and found that lodgings in the U.K. (especially Scotland) do not often have rooms on the ground floor. This probably has to do with dampness. Many of them do, however, have an elevator (a "lift" in British English), so you may want to inquire about this before booking a given hotel or B&B.