Ideas for one day of Scotland Itinerary

I personally wouldn't stay in Aviemore. I would stay in places like Carrbridge (the next station towards Inverness), Newtonmore, Kingussie (the station before Aviemore), Boat of Garten or Nethy Bridge- all of which have good bus service into Aviemore.

For your spare day in the highlands I would think about Pitlochry or the bus to Grantown on Spey- you could build Carrbridge into that day as the bus goes on to Inverness.

From Edinburgh I would be looking at North Berwick (suburban train from Edinburgh)- for the Scottish Seabird Centre, the Bass Rock and beaches; Dunbar on the train (30 minutes) or the border town of Berwick on Tweed(40 minutes).

Dunbar and North Berwick also have good bus service from Edinburgh.

A bit more work, as it is a bus ride on the #253 from Edinburgh, if you enjoyed Whitby, are the fishing towns of Eyemouth and St Abbs. Eyemouth is 2 hours by bus from Edinburgh but only 20 minutes from Reston Station (to the north) or Berwick on Tweed station (to the south).

St Abbs is half an hour from Berwick on the #235 bus (the other bus which serves Eyemouth).

St. Andrews for a wee bit of eastern Scotland.

From Edinburgh, most people say to take the train to Leuchars and then the bus to St. Andrews. I'm going to suggest something different.

Take the train from Edinburgh to Dundee. Both the V & A museum and the Discovery Museum (next to each other) are virtually across the street from the train station. Then walk back to the station and get the #99 bus that will take you to St. Andrews. (Its the same bus that you'd get in Leuchars).

On the way back to Edinburgh you could get on the train at Leuchars for a slightly quicker return.

North Berwick is a lovely little coast town that’s a very easy short train ride from Edinburgh. It’s nothing like Whitby in appearance, but has a real charm of its own.