First time traveling to Scotland and needing help as worried about off season and general itinerary. We are headed as a larger group of 9 people to Scotland for a week in mid-March.
It’s a diverse group of interests so trying to plan a combination of city vs nature. Most of the group prefers to have more of a homebase and get to know the area we are staying more deeply with the limited time. Don’t want to jump around every few days but we do plan on doing day trips (some guided) out of the cities. We have two nieces who this will be their first international trip and it’s a gift to them. They like the idea of seeing two different areas/places when choosing which cities to base out of like one city and one countryside or seaside. We know we can’t see it all especially with that idea.
We fly in and out of Edinburgh and would prefer to rely on public transport.
First itinerary thought:
- arrive and travel straight to Oban
-2-3 nights Oban (1 day isle of Mull/Iona, another isle visit again or explore the area with a distillery visit)
- Return to Edinburgh
- Rest of trip in Ediburgh with day trips (Glasgow/Sterling/etc)
Main questions:
- do people recommend Oban in March? We don’t like the idea of trying to get to Skye just due to the amount of time traveling so we thought this would give us a taste of what the isles are like.
- Will we be able to do Oban if it’s March without a car?
- Are there local tours to hire from there for isle tours?
(Considered Glencoe/Fort William but had similar hesitation with March timeframe & no car)
- another itinerary option was to base purely out of Edinburgh with guide tour(s) to see highlands but felt like they would enjoy staying and experiences two different places.
Thanks for the help!