Please help planning 5 days in Scotland

My comment about Day 12 remains the same as on yesterday's (deleted) thread. You are starting the day 400 miles away from the airport you are flying from. All kinds of things can happen on the Railway line to delay services.

Only the week before last the overhead wires came down- resulting in many cancellations and delays of up to 3 hour for the services which did run.

It is 1 hour out from London to Heathrow and you must check in 3 hours ahead of your flight time, so you need to allow 4 hours from arriving by train in London to your flight departure time.

I do not think it prudent to further complicate that day by trying to add in a stop at York, tempting as it may be. If you want to add York you need to delete a day from Edinburgh IMHO. Starting from York (still almost 200 miles from London) at least there is a choice of routes if the railways are having a bad day.

Days 8 to 9- you only have Day 8 to explore Skye, as Day 9 is a full day drive from Skye to Edinburgh.

You have left it very late to secure accommodation in Skye for a trip happening in July. You might get lucky but it will be expensive. Have a look at booking.com and airbnb. If you come up with some options and want a local view you can ask me and if I know anything about the particular accommodation or location I will give you my opinion.

You only have one full day on Skye - day 8 so you will be fairly limited as to what you can see on the island in that time. Don't try to pack in all the main tourist sights. But if you have specifics in mind you can post your planned itinerary and again I'll give my view as a local.

Driving. You are going to want to watch some videos on how to deal with single track roads with passing places. This is a good one. You need to be very aware of always stopping on the left even if the passing place is on your right. And you need to be ready to reverse if you are closest to a passing place and it happens to be behind you. Also do not bunch up with other traffic. Always allow a good gap to the car in front, as most passing places only fit 2 cars and if you end up in a line then traffic is going nowhere and everyone gets angry! It's custom to wave at those who let you through via the passing place. Finally, be prepared to pull over to let faster traffic pass you. Locals will appreciate that and give you a friendly wave.

Day 9. Unless you particularly want to drive through Glencoe on the way to Edinburgh I would not go via Fort William. My preferred route is to turn left at Spean Bridge onto the A86 and head across country to pick up the A9 south at Dalwhinnie. Whichever way you go it's a full day of driving.

Day 12 is a very, very bad idea. What if the train is delayed as they often are? I would want to spend the final night very close to the airport from which I am departing. You definitely do not have time for York!

Jacqui (Skyegirl)

I’m not surprised you are feeling a bit overwhelmed in planning this - especially at such short notice! Have you secured accommodation yet? If not that might affect your itinerary as you may have to go where the accommodation is rather than where you want.... Skyegirl has already flagged up issues with finding accommodation on Skye . Much of it will have been booked for months. So you may need to rethink this and stop somewhere else. Fort William may be easier as there is much more accommodation to choose from.

As already pointed out, Day 12 is not a good idea. Serioulsy, is the time taken to get to and from Scotland actually worth the hassel?

@isn31c Thanks for your feedback. Not sure what happened with my other post in the England forum which I was not able to access anymore. Your callout regarding the risk of stopping in York on the same day as our return flight is a valid one. We will most likely remove a day from Edinburgh if we are still keen on York.

@Skyegirl Thanks for the feedback and giving a local's perspective which is much appreciated. We will definitely keep your driving tips in mind! Do you think it's still worthwhile trying to fit in Skye if we only have one full day to explore the island? For Day 12, agreed - we are now considering removing a day from Edinburgh to fit in York :)

Based on the feedback, we have two options at this point:

1. Be based in Edinburgh for the entire 4 nights and do day trips to the highlands. We can perhaps fit in the one night in York if needed.

2. Two nights in Skye and two nights in Edinburgh.

Any suggestions on which option would be best given the short time we have before our trip?

If you can get accommodation on Skye or perhaps nearby in Kyle of lochalsh then yes Skye is worth it. Day trips from Edinburgh will involve a drive of at least 2 hours before you get into the highlands.

I wouldn’t personally prioritise York over Edinburgh. But I would stay near the airport on my last night.

@wasleys - thanks for the feedback! I've started scouting around for accommodation and finding it quite difficult to get a decent place within our budget. I'll take a look at Fort William as well if Skye isn't working out. Are you suggesting we skip Scotland altogether? Would it still not be worthwhile being based somewhere central (like Edinburgh or Fort William) and making a few day trips, even if not to Skye?

@SkyGirl Accommodation in Skye does seem quite difficult. I've sent you a DM for your opinion on possible places I have found. This would be much appreciated :)

Mallaig, Morar or Arisaig are other possibilities to stay for Skye, then use the ferry.

Other interesting islands to stay on, which may have better availability, are Mull (Tobermory and Iona) for Staffa and the Puffins; or Islay (ferry from Kennacraig or flight from Glasgow)- especially (but not exclusively) it's 11 ish distilleries, also the neighbouring island if Jura (a very short ferry ride from Port Askaig).

If things are also tight on Mull, try Oban- day trip from there, you also have the isles of Kerrera and Lismore just off shore to explore by ferry, the Slate Isles and the Bridge over the Atlantic, and a lot else on the mainland close to Oban.

If you are starting in Inverness you could do the NE250 road trip- https://www.northeast250.com/ then continue down the North East Coast of Scotland via Aberdeen and Dundee ending in Edinburgh. Much more likely to find places to stay there.

Have you rented a car yet? Do you require an automatic? If yes and you haven’t yet rented one, you might check availability as automatics are really hard to come by.

@isn31c - Thanks for the suggestions. I managed to get a possible place in Skye (just waiting for confirmation). If this does not work out at all I'll definitely take your suggestions on other possible islands to go to.

@KB I require an automatic car and I do see availability on some of the big car rental providers.

I'm not sure why so many people think it's difficult to find auto trans rental cars in the UK; I've not had any problems. Just make sure you filter for auto trans when you do your search.

HI All,

Looking at the accommodation and car rental options, and the tight timeframe available for Skye, we have unfortunately decided to drop Skye and leave it for another trip. We would rather focus the extra time on seeing other parts of Scotland properly.

The only dilemma I'm facing is regarding where to base myself as follows and I'd really appreciate it if I could get some input on what would be a better way to go:

• Option 1: Flight to Inverness, rent a car at the airport and drive down to Fort William (or somewhere nearby) to stay for the night. Drive to Edinburgh via Glencoe or Cairngorm the following day. I can squeeze in another short trip (perhaps Sterling) before returning the car on the third day in Edinburgh. Stay in Edinburgh for 2 nights.
• Option 2: Flight or train to Edinburgh. Stay in Edinburgh for 3 nights, rent a car and do a day trip to the Highlands and nearby towns perhaps.

Any thoughts on the above two options? Option 1 would be a bit more tiring but will allow us to see more of Scotland I guess. Option 2 would give us more flexibility. Would it be worth going with Option 1? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

It is a long drive from Edinburgh to the Highlands for a day trip (depending on your definition of the Highlands). To me option 1 seems to me to be the better option.

Could I suggest a sort of option 1b? You might find it cheaper to fly to Glasgow or Edinburgh rather than Inverness and there are more flights each day, so greater choice. There are also more car rental options at those two airports. You could then construct a circular route, e.g. from Glasgow airport, north via Loch Lomond and Glencoe, staying overnight in Fort William. Then north to Inverness via Fort Augustus and Loch Ness, staying overnight near or in Inverness. Alternatively turn east at Spean Bridge driving across to Dalwhinnie before heading south to somewhere like Pitlochry to stay overnight. On the 3rd day visit Stirling Castle and then back to Glasgow to return the rental car. You could do something similar in reverse from Edinburgh airport.

I'm going to differ and suggest Option 2... There's a lot of very good scenery around Edinburgh.

do a day trip to the Highlands and nearby towns perhaps.

A lot depends on what you mean by this. If talking about Inverness/Loch Ness/Glencoe then yes it is a lot of driving. However you could easily spend a very good day seeing parts of the Highlands closer to Edinburgh. Have a look at this idea planned out on Google maps.

OR if you want a slightly longer day you could extend to Pitlochry and Loch Rannoch - possibly one of the most isolated areas of Scotland

Alternatively you could spend a day exploring the Kingdom of Fife with the Falkland Palace Fife Fishing villages and St Andrews.

OR a day around the Borders with the Border Abbeys and a bit further afield.

Thanks all for the feedback, much appreciated!

Looking at the costs and accommodation at this time, I decided to go with @SkyeGirl's suggestion: train to Edinburgh (stopping at York for a night) - drive to Fort William via Loch Lomond and Gelncoe (stay the night) - drive back to Edinburgh via Pitlorchy and Stirling. Stay in Edinburgh for 3 nights before heading back to London.

@wasleys Thanks for your suggestion! The alternative day trip seems like a great one to make, but we really wanted to cover the drive to Glencoe and Fort William so decided to do this instead with a stopover. If there's time on the third day, we'll definitely make a visit to Fife :)

Anyone has any tips regarding the midges and what areas to best avoid on our route?

Regarding midges you can find Smidge which is the repellent that most locals use, in outdoor shops or even supermarkets in the highlands. But any insect repellent helps. You might also pick up a head net in an outdoor shop. Midges are only usually an issue in damp, still conditions. They hate wind and sun. They are worse at dawn and dusk.