The Open in Scotland July 2022-what else fits in 10-14 days?

Where in Scotland is the Open taking place ?

St. Andrews

With the time available just concentrate on Scotland and possibly the north of England. Don't try and add in Ireland as you will end up covering a lot of ground but not actually seeing much, apart through the windscreen... Distances may not look far on the map but will take a lot longer to cover than you might expect. Roads are not the sort you can move fast on!!! Scotland is somewhere to slow down and enjoy.

Consider a circuit of Scotland - up the east coast and then back down the west. Add in Northumberland and Durham if time allows.

You will be hitting school summer holidays, so will need to make sure you have accommodation booked asap. Many places may already be booked (Isle of Skye). Don't rely on winging it and booking as you go.

I would focus on Scotland. You need to remember that you can come back to the UK!! Back in the day we all assumed that is one trip and done, but for the most part that isn't true today. We live in a smaller world. There is a lot to be said to focusing on on country--Scotland. There is much more to Scotland than distilleries! Tell us a bit about what you are interested in. Is it history? Do you like Fiddle music? Do you enjoy artisan crafts? Are you interested in railways? Do you like the outdoors? Would you like to explore castles? Do you love sea food? These are all the questions that come to my mind when talking with people who are visiting Scotland.

Like history, castles, outdoors & food. Would love to be able to travel from place to place by train.

Pick up a guide to Scotland and see what appeals most to you. I liked Glasgow just as much as Edinburgh, and it's much, much less touristy, but most folks would prioritize Edinburgh, something of the Highlands, and one or two of the islands off the west coast. You can find a castle or two just about anywhere, so I'd tend to focus first on other things, and then check out what castles are nearby.

I've given some suggestions of things to do around St. Andrews and in Edinburgh is this current thread:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/scotland/scotland-may-2022

I vote Scotland and Hadrian's Wall Country just because I enjoyed my time there so much. (Hadrian's wall is to the south in England).

"Would love to be able to travel from place to place by train." The train service in Scotland isn't bad, but the network of bus routes is more robust and serves more of the smaller towns and villages. I'd recommend you consider some bus travel. Once you decide where you'd like to go, use the Rome2Rio site to see whether there is train or bus service (or both), how frequent, and whether you have to change.

Thanks! I was not aware of RometoRio.com. It is showing from St. Andrews to Edinburgh is 2Hrs 8Min $12 by bus and 2Hrs 27Min $14 by train. IS the bus really faster than the train? Although I guess it is a matter of where in Edinburgh you get dropped off.

Thinking now of not trying to do England but possibly adding Northern Ireland. Thoughts & Suggestions?

Also, does anyone have advice on where to stay without spending a fortune? I just get Rick Steves Scotland book and will be reading it with highlighter in hand.

Been using the RomeToRio as recommended. Seems strange to me that no matter which towns I out in, the bus route is much less time than the train route (Oban to Isle of Skye 2.5 hours longer by train). Can anyone explain this to me?

One reason the train isn't faster to and from St. Andrews is that St. Andrews has no train station. The train takes you to Leuchars, and then you have to take a bus the last little bit of the way. Any time you switch modes of transportation like that (and often even when you just switch from one train to another or from one bus to another), you lose at least some minutes in layover time.

Not all rail lines and trains are created equal. There are super-fast trains between some major cities around Europe, but the trains to and from smaller places do not run at 100+ mph. They are rather slow, and they make a lot of stops. It is the case that a bus is more likely to run behind schedule due to something like a traffic tie-up. That's a lot less common with trains, though it occasionally happens that something like a suicide on the rail line brings everything to a halt.

Edited to add: Especially in challenging terrain, rail lines and roads don't always follow the same path. I think there are roads between Oban and the gateways to Skye that are fairly direct. The rail line doesn't go the same way. The trains have to swing way to the east, travel north for quite some distance, and then head west. Take a look at Rome2Rio's maps for the bus to Fort William (on the way to Skye) vs. the train. I've never paid any attention to Rome2Rio's maps (see below), but I assume they bear some relationship to reality. The two maps make it quite clear why the train takes so much longer.

You should not use Rome2Rio to compare travel times of trains and buses. The fares, travel times and frequencies it displays are often quite inaccurate. You need to go to the nationalrail.co.uk website for train schedules and the appropriate bus company website for bus schedules. Rome2Rio is useful for indicating whether there is rail service or bus service on the route you're interested in, and in the case of bus service it will give you the name of the bus company. I never use it for decision-making beyond that.

Great thanks for the info. It looks like in order to do Isle Of Skye or any of the Highlands, a car is best. But from what I have read on this website, ditch the car before being in any cities. Thinking of picking up car in Glasgow driving to Skye, then to Balmoral. Could drop the car in Aberdeen, take the train to outside St. Andrew's (bus into St. Andrews). Was trying to avoid the rental car scene but it looks like driving is the best way to see anything outside the main cities.

It's true that having a rental car will give you the most freedom to choose where you want to go, when, and how much time to spend there. And the car begins to feel like home after a couple of days.

Since you want to visit Edinburgh as just a day trip from St. Andrews, you may be well off doing it by public transport. But where in St. Andrews is your glamping location? Will you be able to easily get around in St. Andrews without a car? Are you toting golf bags, or are you just going to be spectators for the golfing?

I can't speak for Ireland, but with the number of days you have, I believe you can't go wrong with Scotland and the north of England for stunning scenery, historic places, lovely people, and memorable experiences.

We will visit Edinburgh separately from St. Andrew's. Out glamping location on St. Andrew's is through The Open. They will transport all glampers to the course to watch The Open. From what I found on RomeToRio, it looks like we can take a bus from Edinburgh to St. Andrews and then from St. Andrew's to Glasgow. (or bus to Dundee and then train Glasgow). If anyone has advice on this, it is appreciated!

Yes, there is bus service between St. Andrews and Edinburgh. I took the slower, scenic route (East Neuk), so I don't know anything about the scenery on the regular bus route or the rail route.

You do not need to go to Dundee to pick up a train. There's frequent bus service from St. Andrews to the much-closer Leuchars train station. Switching at Leuchars instead of Dundee should save a bit of time. The bus-to-the-train route (switching at Leuchars) takes about 1-1/2 hours. The all-bus route looks as if it takes about 2 hours or more. Switching to a train at Dundee seems to take about as much time as the all-bus route.

Schedule info above is from www.travelinescotland.com.

Thank you for the tip about Leuchars.

Leuchars does look much quicker. Wonder why RomeToRio didn't list it.

It is a puzzlement, but Rome2Rio is often out to lunch, figuratively speaking. I must admit it is usually pretty accurate about suggesting points where one needs to transfer, though, so this particular omission is somewhat out of character.

If you have rental car I'd suggest considering keeping it whilst in St Andrews. It's generally a rural area and you'll be better able to travel around with a car. The flip side of that is there parking in St. Andrews town centre - especially during the open - can be very difficult.

If you want to hand it back I wouldn't drive into Aberdeen to do that - it's often pretty congested. Id drive down the coast to Dundee and hand it back there. You could stop off at somewhere like Dunottar or Glamis castle on the way. If you're passing through Dundee anyway you might also want to check out the V&A museum there.

Wrt to travelling to Glasgow from St Andrews there is the X24 direct bus service, although it take quite a long time (nearly 3hrs!)

You can also take the train direct from Dundee which takes about 85-90mins. However you also have to get from St Andrews to Dundee stn - The 99 bus runs very frequently between the two and takes about 25 minutes. Imo this is the best option, but note it will be more expensive than the X24 bus.

You cannot take the train from Leuchars to Glasgow (at least not directly). Leuchars stn is on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen line so there are NO trains to Glasgow from there and as such this isn't a good option for that journey. If you wanted to use Leuchars stn to get to Glasgow you'd need bus St Andrews to Leuchars, train to Edinburgh or Dundee and then change there to another train to Glasgow. This is inferior to the other options above.