Hi all,
I will have full days in Pitlochry and Inverness and 2 full days in Oban on my road trip with my wife and toddler in August. I am wondering if you could please recommend some must-sees for these places, as well as a practical way to approach a day trip to Iona. Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.
Look at the Visit Scotland web site for some great places to see and maybe some child friendly ideas.
Kenny,
Inverness is generally considered by most to be a jumping off point for nearby adventures (e.g., Culloden battlefield right outside of town; Loch Ness a short drive away; Fort George is an interesting historical site basically in town; etc.) rather than a must-see place itself.
However, we found Inverness to be charming and well worth spending an afternoon or evening in town, as the River Ness has some lovely paths along its banks which are very near the busy restaurants and hotels in the center of Inverness. It might lack a must-see-sight in the city itself and probably doesn't have as much polished charm as tiny Pitlochry, but I think it is well worth a short visit of a day/night. You could spend part of your day at Culloden or Loch Ness, and have an evening back in Inverness - and still keep your toddler happy. A car makes those trips out of town easier of course.
While I can't be much more help with your other questions, you really can't go wrong - Scotland is wonderful. Enjoy!
Steve
We spent time in all three places on our trip. From Oban, you can get to Iona and we used the West Coast Tours -- just bear in mind that you have a little over two hours on Iona and spend the rest of your day getting to/from (though we did enjoy the Mull scenery on our bus ride). If you have a car, checking out Glencoe Valley is amazing with the Three Sisters hills (this is probably what scenery you envision when you imagine what Scotland is like). You can hike or drive through. My husband loves scotch and he enjoyed the Oban distillery tour (I don't drink it, but didn't mind the tour to learn about it). Inverness -- we visited Culloden, Cawdor Castle and the Cairns around the city. Outside of the city, we went to see the Leault Working Sheep dogs demo (about an hour away), which was far more interesting than I expected it to be (a friend recommended it). We also drove north to Glenmorangie and to see Dunrobin Castle, which also had beautiful french gardens and a falconry demo. Pilocrhy honestly didn't do much for us and we regretted spending a night there, as it's primarily a strip of tourist shops. It probably didn't help that Ebradour Distillery was closed that day (an incorrect fact in the RS book), but we saw Blair Castle around it. I don't know how locked your itinerary is, but Skye was our favorite place -- far more than Inverness/Pitlocrhy areas if you have to make trade offs.
Thank you, Steve and Becky!
