Kids 14 and 12 in Scotland

We've been to Edinburgh with and without kids. I'm afraid if your two weeks are solely in July you'll miss the Tattoo whose dates are 4-26 August 2017 this year. Kids will enjoy the Castle and climbing up the hill overlooking Edinburgh, Arthur's Seat. You can take a train then connecting bus to St. Andrews if you don't rent a car. While you can't play the old course, you can walk it on sundays when it is closed to golfers. There are beautiful abbey ruins to explore in St. Andrews too. If you purchase train tickets in advance and buy the Friends and Family card before you start your first train journey you spcan save significantly. Our son's family spent only 40£ plus the 30£ for the F&FCard for a trip from London to Edinburgh 2 years ago. The card paid for itself easily as they had two other train journeys they took on that holiday.

If you have the time, I highly recommend York as a city along the way that kids and adults alike enjoy. If you can spare 2 nights to explore York it's well worth the time with its walkable wall, narrowboats, impressive Minster, museums and narrow cobbled streets.

Consider the Royal Yacht Britannia, an easy bus ride from "downtown" Edinburgh. If you stay in a hotel, ask the front desk if they have any discount vouchers.

In St. Andrews the public can play mini golf on the "Himalayas" Ladies Putting Green (so named because it's full of small hills) for a very cheap fee. Note there's no locker room or other facility to store your gear. You don't have to wear golf shoes, but high heels are prohibited. The kiosk where you pay and get your clubs & balls is around the side of the ladies' clubhouse that says "Members Only," but during the open-to-public hours you don't have to be a member to go up to the kiosk and play. You just can't go inside the clubhouse.

I believe playing regular golf on all the St. Andrews courses is by lottery. You'll want to check how long in advance you can put your names in.

There's a walking tour of the Old Course at least once a day, rain or shine (book ahead). Be aware that the "walking" consists mostly of standing around on the 1st/18th holes listening to a lot of golf jargon and anecdotes about famous golfers, delivered in a strong Scottish accent. If you're into golf it's fabulous, but if you know nothing about the sport it's fairly boring. If you're lucky you'll get to photograph your loved ones standing on the Swilcan Bridge.

https://www.standrews.com/relax/guided-walks-of-the-old-course

The British Golf Museum is wonderful even if for those not all that interested in golf, and it has a nice cafe upstairs overlooking the Old Course.

You do not need a car in London or in Edinburgh. Outwith Edinburgh and Glasgow a car is all but essential, especially as you are wanting to go to Strathaven, it is is quite isolated.

For a family I would suggest looking self catering. With kids it can be fun popping into the supermarket for a look around.

Getting from London to Edinburgh, I would definitely recommend the train. More relaxing and it runs along the coast once into Northumberland.

A word about Edinburgh in August...

The Tattoo is just a tiny part of what goes on in Edinburgh in August. There is also the International Festival (arts), the Edinburgh Fringe (grew out of the International Festival but has way outgrown it to become a monstrously huge event, the world's biggest arts festival), plus the Book Festival and a bunch of others.

The upshot of all of this is that hotel room prices shoot up in August: double, treble, quadruple the normal prices. The main streets (the Royal Mile especially) will be packed with people trying to flyer their shows, live performances by jugglers, fire eaters, pesky groups of a capella singers, ukulele players and worst of all, drama students.... Sometimes just walking down the street can feel like a battle.

It's an amazing time to be there - there is nowhere on earth like Edinburgh in August - but you need to be prepared. You could go to a different Fringe performance every hour of every day for the full three and a half weeks, if you wanted to, and not scrape the surface.

Oh, and there's some marching and military bands doing something up at the castle every night that seems quite popular with foreign visitors... ;-)

We did a trip to golf at St. Andrews 10 years ago, so I won't pretend to have current correct information. However, before we went I got so much conflicting information that I went on their website and just emailed my questions. You have to have a handicap card and a certain handicap to be considered for the Old Course, but I think that is the only one. My husband was a single, so he had to get in line to play the Old Course (at 04:30) and then was given a number. When a spot was available, he got to play. He had no trouble ( in September) getting on at the other courses. There is a wonderful golf museum right across the street from the starter's box and if you visit the graveyard at the other end of town, Old Tom Morris and his son are buried there. If your kids are interested, you can even walk by the university and guess where Prince William and Kate hung out

My husband rented a nice set of golf clubs from Aucherleone's (sp).

If you have two full week in Scotland I would not recommend staying the entire time in Edinburgh. If you are going in August, and want to go to the Tattoo, you need buy tickets very soon. Look at the International Festival Program and the Fringe Festival Programs. If you don't see anything that you want to attend and can't get tickets to the Tattoo, then I would really recommend limiting time in Edinburgh to just enough to see the sights that interest you. I love Edinburgh, but it is much more expensive and madly crowded during the Festivals. But there is so much to Scotland. I would head north and then west. You mention that you are golfers, you could head out from Edinburgh toward St. Andrews with a car and tour Fife--Falkland Palace or the Village of East Neuk . Spend the night in St. Andrews. Stay a couple of nights if you can work out the golf. I would advise using the Golf Forum on TA to see if you can pick up more information.

You could continue up the coast to Arbroath Abbey where the Declaration of Arbroath was signed (and eat some Arbroath Smokies. Then go on to Dunnottar Castle in Stonehaven. I would then find a place in Ballater or one of the other smaller Aberdeenshire towns and explore the castles, stone circles and the Cairngorms for a few days.

Then I would head a bit further north to Inverness and Loch Ness before finding a base on the west coast for a few more days.

Pam