Need to plan a 6 day trip - Volunteer Request

This site has loads of information on trip planning. You can start here:
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning

I'm afraid Skye is very much on the beaten path these days... Somewhere like Arran is just we beautiful, far less overtouristed, and much easier to access from Glasgow/Edinburgh

Do you realise that practically everywhere will be shut on 25th and not much better on 26th, including public transport.

Weather is a lottery, wind is a bigger problem than snow and when Scotland says it's windy they are not kidding. And it will definately get light late and dark early, Edinburgh will have 7 hours between sunrise and sunset - and if there is heavy cloud that will seem less. Go further north and the light gets less. Not a good situation for photography

As said above almost everything will be closed on 25th. In a lot of rural areas very little of the tourist infrastructure will be open at all in December.

If you have booked the flights and cannot change to a different time of year, you are far better staying in Edinburgh or the Central Belt, and taking it from there. Furthermore if you want to eat out 25th will be expensive, and books up early, £65 to £70 per head at Beefeater.

You can have a good holiday in Scotland at that time of year, but I don't think it will be the sort you are looking for.

Edinburgh has very good public transport on 25 December, even as far as North Berwick.
And with the advent of Ember bus last Christmas there were pretty good inter city long distance coach services.

Because of time of year, the amount of daylight you will have, and only 6-7 days, I am going to suggest you actually center your trip in Edinburgh. You can take day trips with Rabbies (or something like this https://www.viator.com/search/32223P11?mcid=70066) and leave the transportation to them or take the train to Glasgow. That way you only need one lodging choice. Use booking.com to see what you can find.

You have only 6-7 days and that includes Christmas and Boxing day when nearly everything will be shut - that also includes food shops... If you are planning on eating nout, you will need to make reservations and especially for Chistmas Day when prices are not only horrendously high but also need to be made well in advance. You are also hitting the winter solstice, when day length is at its shortest. Sunrise will be just before 9am and sunset around 3.30. On a dull cloudy day it will seem even shorter than this.

Forget Skye - it will take a full day to drive there and another full day back. (Laphroaig is a whisky, distilled on Isle of Islay)

Edinburgh Castle and also the ruined Craigmillar Castle in Edinburtgh are open in December but shut Christmas Day and Boxing Day

As suggested, seriously consider basing yourself in Edinburgh, with a day trip by train to Pitlochry for a taste of the Highlands. Another nice day tip would be train to Leuchars and then bus to St Andrews.

Stirling or Glasgow are easily done on the train too.

You don't need to get anyone to plan/organise this for you - but don't leave booking accommodation too late!.

Thanks for the suggestions so far

• Tickets cant be changed - better than spentime time alone at home - accomadations will be done this week.
• Yes to train pieces that have been suggested - thanks for that.
• I am aware days will be shorter - when i said photography all i meant was that some places i can take an early start and take some pictures - not an influencer level certainly.
• The highland piece can do the train suggested above.
• The Laphroig portion was more like to visit any distillery that is a global brand - im ok to skip Laphroig as you mentioned it will be far and non practical - can explore something in Glasgow if need be.

You can certainly plan this yourself. You’ll just need to nail down accomodation and then look for meal reservations. There’s a lot to see and do in the area or with day trips. It will be great.

If you are interested in whisky, the Blair Athol Distillery is in Pitlochry (but I know nothing about whisky). In Edinburgh, you might visit Holyrood Palace if open, Edinburgh Castle, or Rosslyn Chapel, in addition to the day trips mentioned.

If you want a global brand of Whisky and an adventure to somewhere " a little on the off-beaten path" you could fly into the Isle of Islay from Glasgow for the day, and take a taxi tour to a couple of the distilleries (I think it's 10 distilleries now on Islay).

However, in December, there is the significant chance of weather disruption to the flights.

Easily reachable distilleries include the Glengoyne distillery, by bus from Glasgow- a bus which continues through the Trossachs to Glasgow.
From Edinburgh, and easy to reach by Lothian buses (but off the beaten track) is the Glenkinchie distillery, in East Lothian

Or a day trip by train to Oban, for the Oban Distillery.

Another of the insta worthy day trips (but again prone to winter weather disruption) would be the Glasgow to Isle of Barra flight, for the beach landing. If you can find a day with 2 flights there is a service bus from the airport which will take you around Barra between the flights (or taxi tour).

As mentioned above, the days in Edinburgh are very short this time of year and the few daylight hours there are tend to be overcast. I would definitely try to plan for indoor activities. If you're looking to visit a nearby castle, I would visit Stirling, which is very easy to get to on the train. For distilleries, if you're planning to visit Glasgow (which also has a lot of very good indoor activities), you could visit Auchentoshan, which is just outside of town. I'm not sure how to get there on public transport from central Glasgow so you might need a taxi. If you want to try different whiskeys I definitely recommend the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Edinburgh.

Another easy day trip is getting the bus to St Andrews. There's a ruined castle and it's a nice scenic town to walk around.