Scotland without car

Following with great interest! Different circumstances but we’re also hoping to avoid renting a car if possible.

I see most posts using a rental car. I'd like to base out of a smaller town with great train access but could do part time in Edinburgh and part time in Glasgow and take a few Rabbie day tours to get to the highlands and further afield. Looking for your experiences without a car.

You can get around a good part of Scotland using public transportation (trains and buses) but it's not as readily available in the Highlands and on the islands (except for the Isle of Arran, which has a very good bus system). So your idea of using Rabbies is probably a good one.

A lot depends on where you want to base yourself. Have you considered the Moray coast? You could head north from Edinburgh to maybe Aberdeen by train, then make your way up the coast by bus. It's a lovely area and has some really charming coastal villages like Cruden Bay, Cullen, Portknockie and Nairn. Then continue by bus to Inverness, take some of your Highland Rabbies tours from there, then train to Glasgow.

I did this route (the opposite direction) although I had a rental car. But I think it would be doable by bus and would probably be fun.

Hi, hallettm,

Can't say I blame you for wanting to get out of Dodge (or should I say "DOGE"!). As an inveterate car user myself for all but one of my holidays in Scotland, I can certainly say that I appreciate anyone who would prefer to tour by public transportation. The trick is to not get loaded down with luggage. With just ten days, you shouldn't need to bring too much in the way of spare clothing, and as the weather is a bit cooler in May, you probably wouldn't need much in the way of a major change of outergarments.

Having said that, if you want to stay in a smaller city, with access to trains going in many directions, Stirling would definitely be a good choice. Also Inverness, with trains going west to Kyle, east to Aberdeen, north to Thurso and Wick, and south to Aviemore, Pitlochry, and Stirling. You could use a combination of train and bus to go pretty much anywhere, but granted, you're not going to be able to explore as much as if you had a car. You could train to Oban, bus to Fort William, and train to Mallaig, for one possibility.

Choices are somewhat limited once you get west of the Caledonian Canal, but other than the trains, there are buses to take you to many out of the way locations.

Best thing to do is to check out some of the videos on YouTube, get hold of a good guidebook (RS or Rough Guide), find out what you'd like to see, then find out if train or bus takes you there.

Best wishes, and good luck!

Mike (Auchterless)

ALL the Clyde Islands (Bute and Cumbrae as well as Arran) have good bus services. In fact Bute is an awful lot better than Arran in service frequency for both bus and ferry. And on Cumbrae a bus meets every ferry, drives down the east side of the island into Millport, and then you walk back down the west side of the island to the ferry- around an hour or so.

Services both north and south of Aberdeen are very good- down to Dundee (for the various museums) there is the train, the very frequent Scottish Citylink bus service, the new (February this year) electric Ember Bus service, and the coastal X7 service down through all the villages and past Dunottar Castle (which usually uses the same vehicles as the inter city services).
North of Aberdeen the X60/X63 for Peterhead run to Cruden Bay every 30 minutes.
Fraserburgh, for the Scottish Lighthouse Centre has the X67/X68 every 30 minutes

For points along the Moray Coast west of Banff (Cullen, Portnockie etc) there is the 35 Aberdeen to Elgin bus which runs hourly.
However the distances are long and I would suggest going up to, say, Banff straight off the sleeper and basing out of there.
Or train out of the Aberdeen or Inverness sleeper and train to Elgin as a base.

Burghead and Hopeman has the hourly 32 from Elgin and Lossiemouth the half hourly 33/33C.

There is also the hourly 36 inland to Duffown from Elgin, for the Distillery and the Craigelachie Bridge.

Both Stagecoach and Citylink also run fast services inland from Aberdeen to Elgin and on to Inverness.

Inverness is also well served with buses- hourly down Loch Ness to Fort William, hourly to Culloden, hourly to Ardersier (for Fort George) and on to Nairn.
Two hourly to Grantown on Spey and Aviemore (hourly Grantown to Aviemore) - a different route to the train.
Hourly to Fortrose and Cromarty on the Black Isle.
Hourly to Dornoch

Many, many possibilities

Even Fort William has local services- as well as Citylink there is the two hourly local bus to Glencoe. Also there should again be the two hourly local bus to Glen Nevis for lovely walks (currently on a sparse winter timetable).

You can even connect for the Isle of Mull by bus via both the small ferries (Fishnish to Lochaline and Tobermory to Kilchoan- both wonderful trips.
And on the Isle of Mull there is usually an hourly summer bus service to Craignure (the ferry port for Oban) with several connecting buses daily to Fionnphort for Iona.
Also a few a day to Calgary Beach and a couple a day to the Isle of Ulva.

You could train to Oban, bus to Fort William, and train to Mallaig, for one possibility.

The trains from Fort William to Mallaig are supplemented several times a day by the local bus service- #500 If the sleeper is on time there is a direct bus connection off it at Fort William for Mallaig which even beats the steam train there.

I am answering this as someone who used to live in Edinburgh, and has never owned a car. You can absolutely explore quite a bit of Scotland without one, though I would recommend basing yourself in Edinburgh or Glasgow. Between buses and trains you can easily visit south to the borders (e.g. Peebles), east to Fife (e.g. St Andrew's), north along the east coast- towards Aberdeen, Dundee, Arbroath, etc, north up to Inverness and even Loch Ness, northwest up to Skye (there is a direct bus from Glasgow to Portree- at least there was several years ago!), and even west out to the islands. Of course it's also very easy to get around the Forth Valley (Stirling) and the area between Edinburgh and Glasgow (Falkirk, Linlithgow). What you will have more trouble with is north of Inverness (tho public transport there does exist, it's just a bit more sparse) and visiting the smaller towns. I think it makes sense to use Rabbie's for a day tour or two to get to places that are harder to get to on public transport (like Glen Coe). Good luck with the planning!

Rabbie’s is a great option. I took a couple of day trips with them from Edinburgh. And there’s great options from Edinburgh too using the train. Take a look at Dunbar and North Berwick.

My trip report from 2023 might give you some ideas. Just stroll past the York info.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-the-uk-my-york-and-edinburgh-trip-report

I enjoyed my time so much I’m going back later this year, once again basing in Edinburgh.

Thanks everyone for your kind replies. Your information is invaluable and I'm busy planning as we speak!!

happy traveling,

Malinda