Please sign in to post.

Help with upcoming Edinburgh/Highlands itinerary

Posted by on

Would love some insight on our proposed itinerary -- it's very loose and would love help firming everything up. Confessing that due to crazy work schedules etc we are VERY late on planning! 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 elementary. We have hotels booked.

Days 1-4: Arrive in Edinburgh, see sights. (Would love suggestions!)
Day 4: Train to Inverness, dinner
Day 5: Inverness
Day 6: Pick up car Inverness airport and start driving to Portree
Days 7-10: See Skye sights via car
Day 11: Drive to Inv and return car, stay overnight
Day 12: Catch train to London from Inverness

Questions:

  1. Are we spending too long in Portree? I assumed each day we could get in the car and drive to various sights, but not sure if there will be enough to do to sustain 3 full days. We are light hikers.
  2. We're US drivers and feel okay about driving in the Highlands BUT we could be persuaded not to as we're somewhat nervous about driving on left and the one-lane roads.
  3. Should we visit Glasgow? We have flexibility in our itinerary such that we can move things around to also stay in Glasgow (assuming I can find a hotel at this late stage). We enjoy cities. Currently thinking we might take a day trip into Glasgow but open to devoting extra time here if needed.
  4. I suppose we could also just drive to Glasgow after Highlands and train to London from there instead of going back to Inverness?

Thanks so much for any assistance!

Posted by
128 posts

I see nothing seriously wrong with that plan but have two questions

Arrive in Edinburgh, finish London. Is there something else happening in connection with this plan or just some odd flight bookings?

Pick up car Inverness airport - why? It is obviously some distance from the city centre, Arnold Clark/Celtic Legend are based close to the centre in Harbour Road - in fact the listing for their "airport" branch says it's actually a shuttle back to Harbour Road (25 minutes they say). Who have you booked with?

With the family the car is not a terrible idea, make sure you inform the company about age/height of the youngest in case a booster seat is legally required. The roads are narrower than USA because tradtionally european cars were smaller - unfortunately the big manufacturers now think there is a "world car" which works everywhere. Note that on Arnold Clark's webiste a Skoda Octavia Estate (staion wagon) is classed as large but Wikipedia say it is small!

Posted by
6 posts

You don’t say what time of the year you will be going. We were there (Portree) for 2 nights in September and the hot spots were jammed up. We did a majority of of the sights listed Rick’s Isle of Skye “At a Glance” list. If you decide to split the time and head towards Glasgow then you should stop in Oban and hit Mull & Iona. We spent 2 nights there also. Whatever you do, if you’re there in prime season make sure you get dinner reservations especially in Portree. We got lucky one night and was able to snag a table after an hour. The next night we just grabbed some sandwiches and crisp’s for our dinner. Anyway it was a great trip! “Enjoy”

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.