Hello! A friend and I are planning a trip to Scotland in September 2025. We won't have a car, so we'll be using trains and buses to get around. I have been reading about the Scottish grand tour pass on the Scotrail website and it seems ideal, since it follows the same stops we intended to make. I do have a question though:
With this pass, we have to travel clockwise or anticlockwise. We wanted to start in Edinburgh and then Fort William, then from there the Isle of Skye, Inverness and then Glasgow. But to go from Edinburgh to Fort William, the train goes through Glasgow and we actually have a change there. Does this mean that we won't be able to go back to Glasgow after Inverness because the travel pass will assume that we are going in reverse?
Since we only have a week to see all of this, we are trying to be very organized and plan ahead every stop, so if you think there might be a problem with going to Glasgow twice (even though the first time it will only be to catch a train), we might rethink the whole itinerary and then start in Glasgow and end in Edinburgh.
Thank you in advance for your advice!
Posted by
Lake District, England
9721 posts
That is a very good question, and technically you are correct.
The way round this is to buy a normal bus or train ticket for Leg 1- Edinburgh to Glasgow and start the rover in Glasgow.
The really weak point in all of this is on Skye.
The included Armadale to Kyle bus hasn't existed for years. That is now a very poor connection at Broadford (as in a 2 or 3 hour wait)- and then only on a Monday to Friday.
And possibly not on every day of the week for a train-ferry -bus connection.
If you are not just passing through Skye, but staying there a night or two then I think there is a better itinerary -
Ember Bus Edinburgh to Fort William direct.
Buy an ordinary train ticket FW to Mallaig on a day when there is a connecting ferry from that first train of the day which then connects with the 1035 bus to Portree.
(or take the direct FW to Portree direct city link bus).
Citylink bus Portree to Kyle (or Inverness) then buy normal train tickets Kyle to Inverness and Inverness to Glasgow.