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Travel before and after wedding

Traveling to Scotland in September for a wedding. Wedding events are in Inverness Sunday -Tuesday. Due to time restrictions, my wife and I plan to travel Friday - Friday.

Looking at ideas for the couple of days before and after. Desire is to explore small towns and villages with beautiful hiking, etc.

Current thought was something like:
Arrive Friday: rent car and begin traveling towards Glencoe. Stay in Glencoe until Sunday and drive to Inverness. On Wednesday we’d take train to Edinburgh for a couple days before traveling home.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Posted by
1583 posts

I think it might help if we know where you are arriving to and departing from. Are you flying into Inverness or another airport?

Posted by
2880 posts

Are you arriving off a transatlantic flight and are you likely to be jet lagged? If so, driving to Glencoe that day is not recommended... You would be better to start with Edinburgh to recover from jet lag and then catch the train to Inverness. Hire a car in Inverness and spend those two days trickling back down to Edinburgh.

Posted by
1825 posts

I agree with wasleys suggestion to start your trip in Edinburgh, train to Inverness on Sunday.

Pickup the car in Inverness and then head to Glencoe or wherever.

Are you able to fly nonstop from Edinburgh to your home airport? If not, consider flying home from Glasgow.

Posted by
1583 posts

I agree with the advice not to drive after a transatlantic flight (for everyone's safety not just your own!). Even getting out of Edinburgh airport in a rental car when driving on the unfamiliar side of the road will be hair raising. Indeed I don't enjoy driving to and from that airport and I'm a native.

If you stayed in Edinburgh on the Friday and Saturday evening you'd have a full day in Edinburgh on the Saturday and could then get the train to Inverness on Sunday. Or Saturday evening if timings don't work for a Sunday arrival. Then you could rent a car in Inverness and spend your remaining time driving south via Glencoe.

You obviously don't have lots of time for exploring but you could head south on the quieter east side of Loch Ness, maybe stopping for lunch in Fort Augustus - quite a scenic village on the banks of Loch Ness and with an interesting set of canal locks that help boats tackle a steep descent/ascent.

You could then continue south to Glencoe where there are lots of hiking opportunities (including exploring scenic Glen Etive) before maybe overnighting at the very good Kingshouse hotel at the top of Glencoe on Rannoch Moor. From there you can walk directly on to the West Highland Way (long distance walking route) for a bit, before continuing south by car.

Assuming you have to get back to Edinburgh airport to drop the car and fly out, one route would be to head south on A82, and then at Crianlariach turn left towards Callander on the A85/A84, stopping for lunch in Callander and maybe still have time to see Stirling Castle before heading to Edinburgh.