Itinerary help please

I think you are trying to cover far too much ground in the time you have. You will not have much time to actually get out of the car. By my count you have eight nights, which means seven days, Every time you change locations you have to spend time packing and checking out, the finding your hotel in the next town and checking in. With this number of days I would be tempted to spend it all in Edinburgh, don’t bother renting the car, just look at the guided day trips available. I think Skye will have to be removed, it’s a long way to go for just two nights. You might split your time between two locations, York and Edinburgh, but I wouldn’t try for more.

If it’s any help, Chartwell isn’t in London, it’s in Kent, to the southeast of London. You’d have to take the train and then a taxi from the station, or drive, which no-one would recommend. It’s not inaccessible but it will take you some time to get there and back. Why don’t you assume you’ll come to London some time in the future and spend your time focussing on Scotland? As it is, St Andrews already takes you out of your way it you’re heading from Edinburgh to Skye.

This is a crazy schedule in my opinion. I live on Skye and it takes me 6 hours to drive to Edinburgh, and that's without the huge diversion for St Andrews. And you're trying to see York too! As you now know Chartwell is not in London. It's in Kent - so basically a day trip from London. I'd suggest forgetting Chartwell on this trip. The journey from there to Manchester would not be an easy one, requiring train to London and from there on to Manchester. It would effectively take up a full day doing that journey.

2 nights on Skye is only one full day to explore what is a large island with a poor road network, meaning that it takes ages to get between the major tourist sites. Many roads are single track with passing places which really slows things down and can be stressful both for tourists and locals when visitors don't know how to use that kind of road.

You might do better basing yourself in Edinburgh and doing trips from there. Check out Rabbies, they are highly recommended and do a number of one day and multi day tours on small buses from Edinburgh that include the Highlands. This would mean you could avoid renting a car and having the stress of driving on the other side of the road.

Way way too aggressive. Two nights only effectively gives just over a day for a place. Husband needs to realise that driving in the UK is slow. Distances may not look far on a map but will take a lot longer to cover than he might expect.

Edinburgh, St Andrews to Fort William is about 190miles. but is still going to take 5+ hours to drive - and that is WITHOUT any stops. Fort William to Portree is another 110 miles and 3 hours drive.

If it takes Skyegirl, a local, 6 hours to drive to Edinburgh, it will take you a lot longer. This is a holiday not an endurance race!!!

You don’t need a car in Edinburgh (a nightmare) and St Andrews can easily be done as a day trip from Edinburgh - train to Leuchars and then bus.

Think about spending all the time in Edinburgh - there’s loads to do and see there as well as a day trip on the train to either Stirling or Glasgow, or a one day Rabbies tour .

If you can talk your husband out of Chartwell (good excuse for another trip to the UK) use those two extra nights in Scotland. If not Skye, then think about Mull (doing Oban and Glencoe) or Isle of Aran - easily reached by ferry from Ardrossan, south west of Glasgow. This is smaller and more manageable than Skye and is often described as Scotland in miniature.

Thank you all for your wise advice!! We are definitely dropping London! I have been thinking, reading and watching YouTube to help narrow my must sees for the trip. If I had to choose, the main things I want to see are Edinburgh (day trip to St. Andrews) and Isle of Skye. We have 8 nights to work with the 8th being near a station to get us to Manchester the next day.

I would appreciate any suggestions you have. I feel quite overwhelmed! Do any of you know of a local travel agency that I could contact to help me make a plan. I feel like all of the US agencies just want to put me in a tour group!
Thanks again in advance for your help.
Ginger

Rabbies will do customised private tours.

Secret Scotland will also prepare a customised itinerary for you suggesting places to book for overnight accommodation.

If you drive from Edinburgh to Skye without stopping it will take you about 6 hours. Once there you would want to have at least two days to tour the island. Then you would have another long day of driving to get back to Edinburgh and still have time to see some things in the city. There is some good information on this web site https://www.ytravelblog.com/road-trip-edinburgh-to-isle-of-skye-scotland/

I think what you need to decide is do you want to see Skye so much, that you will sacrifice seeing other places closer to Edinburgh. If the answer is yes, then go for it. I used Secret Scotland to come up with my driving itinerary and they were very good.

I honestly don't think you need to pay someone to come with a plan for you! Lots of free advice here. Many people want a similar trip to you and looking back through threads will help. But also looking at google maps as there are not really many routes from Edinburgh to Skye! Do you really want to see York on this trip? If so would one night work to give you more time in Scotland? Or maybe just concentrate on Scotland?

From Edinburgh you can do a day trip to St Andrews. Or if you sacrificed York you could do 1 night in St Andrews on the way to Skye.
If you've visited St Andrews as a day trip on leaving Edinburgh you'd head north on the M90 towards Perth, and then take the A9 north to Dalwhinnie and then the A86 west to Spean Bridge. Then it's A82 and A87 to Skye - using the bridge onto the island at Kyle of Lochalsh. You could do that journey in one day if your priority is getting to Skye.

You could base
yourself in Portree for your Skye adventures, leaving the island by the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig, from where you'd drive south using the A82 via Glencoe. If returning your rental car to Edinburgh you'd turn off the A82 at Crianlarich, taking your back across east via Stirling to pick up the M9 motorway to Edinburgh.

This could be something like
Edinburgh 3 nights
Skye 4 nights
Edinburgh (for journey to Manchester) 1 night

or Edinburgh 3 nights
St Andrews 1 night
Skye 3 nights
Edinburgh (for journey to Manchester) 1 night

Thank you all for taking time to reply to me! The directions, itinerary ideas, and websites are all very helpful! I think you are right Skyegirl I can do this on my own. I get overwhelmed for a bit and then some pieces begin to fall into place! I have bookmarked some different threads that discuss my same issues. I know I will get it figured out....with all of your help!

A few questions have come up that I would love some help with please. (instruct me if I need to make a new post instead of adding to this one.)

1. Where is the best place for me to pick up the rental car in Edinburgh? Many threads mention that I don't want to drive in Edinburgh. Is there a way to avoid that or at least minimize the city driving?
2. If I do decide to see St. Andrews upon leaving Edinburgh, do you all have a city you recommend for us to stay the night on our way to Skye? I see that Secret Scotland seems to always recommend Pitlochry.
   
3. If we leave Edinburgh without a side trip to St. Andrews, do you recommend going to Inverness for the night and entering Skye from that direction or continuing on the path Skyegirl set through Perth and Spean Bridge?
4. If taking the route Skyegirl mentioned on the way back is there a town you suggest we stay the night? And do I need a reservation for that ferry on the way out?

Thank you again for helping!! You are all very patient with me!

Where is the best place for me to pick up the rental car in Edinburgh? Many threads mention that I don't want to drive in Edinburgh. Is there a way to avoid that or at least minimize the city driving?

Either at the airport or at the off airport facility at Sighthill- both on the western edge of the city, Sighthill has easy transit into the city.

If I do decide to see St. Andrews upon leaving Edinburgh, do you all have a city you recommend for us to stay the night on our way to Skye? I see that Secret Scotland seems to always recommend Pitlochry.

There is nothing wrong with Pitlochry, and many benefits to staying there. However if everyone recommends somewhere then I know it will be busy. Thus personally I would be inclined to look at Dunkeld, Blair Atholl or even the hotel at Dalwhinnie.

If we leave Edinburgh without a side trip to St. Andrews, do you recommend going to Inverness for the night and entering Skye from that direction or continuing on the path Skyegirl set through Perth and Spean Bridge?

No. Skyegirl has given you by far the best route. There is very little point and almost no gain in over shooting so far north, then back tracking south along Loch Ness.

If taking the route Skyegirl mentioned on the way back is there a town you suggest we stay the night? And do I need a reservation for that ferry on the way out?

Yes you need to book the ferry.

Stirling would be a good place for an overnight stop. But always overlooked on this forum are Crianlarich and Tyndrum. Callander would be another rather nice alternative for an overnight stop.

If you are returning to Manchester for your flight home, have you thought of doing an open jaw car rental EDI to MAN? It is a straight run down the motorway system from Stirling to Manchester- about 4 hours without a break. Although the train from EDI direct to MAN airport every 2 hours would be a much nicer way to do the journey. It would also (if booked in Advance) also be cheaper than the combination of the petrol for the journey and the open jaw car drop off fee.

Ginger,
So glad you're planning the trip yourself and not feeling that you need to pay someone to do that for you.

isn31c has given you great advice on your specific questions.

Personally I don't think you'd need to use up previous nights going to and from Skye but if you did decided that you wanted or needed to then perhaps just choose the outbound journey for your extra night. Pitlochry is very nice but would be quite busy. Dunkeld or Aberfeldy would be other suggestions.

If you decide to take the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig on leaving Skye then yes you'd definitely need to make a reservation via Calmac

I think you could make it back to Edinburgh without an overnight stop and it'd give you another night on Skye.

best wishes
Jacqui

If the one-way fee is not excessive it would make more sense to come back from Western Scotland to Glasgow rather than Edinburgh. It would be a shorter and quicker drive and there is more choice of trains from there to Manchester. There is still only one direct train every two hours but there are plenty of other trains down to Preston where it's an easy change for Manchester.
Unless your flight is very early it would be more interesting to get off the train in central Manchester and stay in the city for the night.

Hello!

Once again I want to thank all of you for your valuable input! Everyone on this forum is always so kind to help with an itinerary question. After more research and taking all of your input into account I feel like I have developed a much better itinerary! However, I still need a little guidance on the last few days.

Night in Glencoe
Night - the question below*
Night in Manchester before flight

* My current plan is to drive from Glencoe to Stirling for the night. I plan to drop off my rental car(Celtic Legends) in Stirling and take the train to Manchester via Edinburgh. I realize I could drive back to Edinburgh to drop off the car and take the direct train from Edinburgh but it seemed like more work to me. I could also drive to Manchester but that also seems like a headache for this USA driver.
Is this the best plan in your opinion?
Am I overlooking another logical place for the night before traveling to Manchester? I did consider Glasgow but I chose Stirling. But I am open to being convinced otherwise!

Thank you in advance!