Trip to Scotland 2026 or '27

I did a five-week trip through Scotland, mostly by train (buses on routes where train wasn't available). I can send you a link to my itinerary if you're interested.

Five weeks was not enough to see as much of Scotland as I would have liked to see, but it was enough to get a good sampling of the beauty and culture of the country.

I don't subscribe to the concept of "must-see" tourism. I think you go where you want to go, and whatever you see, that's your must-sees.

I can't name any favorite places I visited, because I loved almost everything. The one place I didn't care for was Inverness. And while I did like Dundee, I'd probably go somewhere else for the days I went there. It is a short bus ride to St. Andrews, though, which I did love.

I guess my point is, you should allow as much time as you can.

1 - as long or short as you want it. It may depend on how much vacation time you have. Our last trip was 3 weeks.
2 - many Outlander sites in Edinburgh are relatively unknown as you need to know where they are. Most people visiting Edinburgh aren’t there for Outlander sites. Last time we were there we picked up a bus directly across the street from one site (Jamie’s print shop) and didn’t realize it was there. Doune castle is about 8 miles from Stirling so many people don’t get to it since it is in a somewhat remote location. By that I mean that most people with a limited vacation probably won’t take the time to travel there to visit the castle for maybe an hour. We had a rental car.
3 - itinerary and must sees are whatever you want depending on your likes and preferences.

I suggest you do some research to find places in the country try that interest you and ones that can be reached by public transportation. For example, I like castles, but not everybody does. Likewise, some people like museums, but I don’t. Only you know what interests you.

But you see Doune Castle may be "remote", but it is only just outside Doune village. Not only is the village served by an hourly local bus from Stirling, it is also served by the Edinburgh & Edinburgh Airport to Fort William bus- currently 4x a day, but set for a greater frequency.

What is a must see?

That is impossible toi answer as that very much depends on what you regard as a must see.... My list might turn out to be the list from hell for you... Are you interested in scenery, historic sitres, ruined castles and abbeys. lived in stately homes, museums, sporting activities, fishing, walking, shopping, pubs, whisky... The list is endless. waht is it that attracts you to Scotland?

Length of time is equally as subjective, and depends on how long you have available. It can vary from a weekend in Edinburgh to Lane's five week trip. cotland may not look very large but it ddefinitely packs a punch. (There's a lot more to Scotland than Outlander....

The Visit Scotland website has ideas for itineraries including ideassa for rail travel. Any guide book will also have suggestions.

As stated already, your "interests" are important for good advice. We'd rather spend ten minutes sitting on a rock interacting with a puffin than going to dinner with the King in his palace.

The time of year is another important data point. Puffins, midges, lambs, weather, and crowds are all seasonal.

We settle on doing three week trips - a compromise between amortizing the relatively high airfare against time away from home, garden, and dogs. We have the added complication of living in fire country, so we can't be very far away from late June till October.

You should also look at the total economic package to decide if Loganair is justifiable over ferries to save time if you want to visit any of the islands.

Lastly, depending on the places you decide are must sees, there's a tradeoff between renting a car, joining a tour that lets you get off the public transport path, or missing something completely. We always have a car once we're out of Glasgow/Edinburgh, as a place to store luggage if nothing else. My calculations show that renting a car is less expensive and faster than train travel in many places. On a future trip we have planned, driving from Glasgow to Mallaig, parking the unused car for five days and driving back to Glasgow is less expensive than the train/bus fare. There is some environmental guilt over renting a car, but the entire idea of travel isn't very friendly either.

If you are into hiking and being outdoors, the Isle of Skye is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. Glencoe Valley is also stunning to drive through and explore. Not sure how reachable either of those places are by public transportation though, we were driving. I think there are tours available though if you don't want to drive

I haven't watched/read Outlander but my Wife has. I believe the only Outlander location we saw was Clava Cairns up near Inverness. That was very interesting to visit.

I watched Outlander, but I'm not a junkie. A friend traveling with us was, so we went to Doune Castle which I thought was great. Jamie narrates the audio tour, but you don't need to know who he is to enjoy it. I don't know if Outlander actually filmed at Culloden, but the actual place was interesting. We had a very nice lunch at the community owned Red Lion Inn in Culross, another set piece. We've been to Scotland four times for a total of 10 weeks, so picking favorites is pretty difficult, since we've never been disappointed.

Also not an Outlander groupie, and thus must note that Doune Castle was a Monty Python site before it was an Outlander site. :) I was happy to visit it on a non-Outlander tour. But I have considered taking an Outlander tour just to see Culross, as it’s not an easy place to get to by public transportation.