Which do you think is a better day trip from Glasgow?

I assume that these are all bus trips.

Kilchurn Castle is just a photo op- there is no public access currently due to renovation works. Castle Stalker is another photo op- there is only infrequent public access, it is unlikely a bus trip would be on the right day or have the time for a tour on such days.
Glencoe is presumably just a stop in the village. Inveraray is a fairly small and flat village. So #1 seems OK to me.

2 is mainly a day on the bus, so is ideal for your MiL, but is a fair bit of time seeing the scenery/bus time. Which may or may not be a good thing. By the sound of it the boat cruise is the usual bus tour RT cruise from the Clansman Hotel, not a landing cruise at Urquhart Castle- the latter is better IMO BUT would give me cause for thought for your MIL

3 is fine- in August Luss is horribly touristy and busy, I'm not sure how I feel about these tame Highland Coos (it feels unnatural, a bit like animals who are meant to be wild being in a zoo, but that is just me), at the Kelpies/Helix there is a bit of flat walking from the parking lot- but hopefully the tour will give enough time for that.

4- Tyndrum is a small village just a restroom and cafe stop really. What might give me room for thought is mobility at Kilmartin. However if it can be managed it is a pretty important place to try to get to if you have the opportunity and can support your Mum.

I guess I don't want to rule any of them out, each has their pros and cons, it is about managing and coping with available abilities rather than letting those limit your Mum. Life is too short for that.

My very personal ranking would be 1, 4, 2 then 3. If #3 was Falkirk Wheel, Kelpies, Callander and Trossachs Tour (preferably with the steamship on Loch Katrine the ranking would be significantly different.
Also in an ideal world I would like #1 to have had a boat trip on the Loch in the package. For that reason I think 1 and 4 are a close tie, with my deciding vote really being on mobility.

In some ways I think Loch Ness is possibly over-rated, I don't think it would be so popular without Nessie in the background so to speak. But then I might think differently if the Loch Ness area didn't get so many tourists. An interesting conundrum.

I have never taken as much as a taxi in Scotland--only used public transportation--but I wonder...With three people traveling, a day-long bus tour will not be cheap. Would it be possible to put together a custom trip of, say, 6 hours that would be tailored to the capabilities of your MIL? I don't know how far you need to travel from Glasgow to get into some dramatic scenery, but Inveraray Castle and grounds are very nice.

I haven't been to Arran yet, but it's accessible from Glasgow by public transportation and (per reports) has good bus service. The northern part of the island is quite scenic.

Just a thought. Those tours up to the Highlands seems to require a lot of time just sitting on a bus. (I realize that's not a wholly bad thing in this situation.)

Here’s a new one day tour by Rabbies from Glasgow to Arran. I think this is the first year it has been offered as I haven’t seen it advertised before. Not to complicate things by giving you another option, but it might be worth a look.

https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours/from-glasgow/day-tours/day-island-arran-day-tour

mustlovedogs, the Rabbie’s one-day Arran tour was offered for the first time last year, replacing their three-day Arran Adventure tour. My sister and I signed up for it but, alas, had to cancel when it got moved from a Friday to a Wednesday due to some of those ferry schedule changes that isn31c does such a marvelous job of sharing with us in this forum.

We swapped it for the Culzean Castle and Burns Country tour, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

@isn31c, these are technically small group tours in a mini-coach. Not quite a bus, but not far from it! LOL

@acraven (I was friends with a girl in high school with the last name Craven, by the way!), these are the prices of each tour in USD (not including food or gratuities):

1. $205.23
2. $335.40
3. $488.89 (private tour, not a group)
4. $257.67

I can post links to each of them if you want, I just didn't want it to look like I'm selling anything ;-P They're all on Viator, though.

I had talked to Rabbies about a private tour to some places, but it was going to be about $1200 /day. I found a few other guides on SGTA, and all ranged from $750 to $1000 /day plus $200 /night for accommodations for the guide if needed.

We're already spending WAY more on this trip than I had originally planned (it started out as a 1-week trip, now it's 5 weeks!), and it's hard to justify that much on a day trip when we really don't know anything about any of the destinations. If it was something we REALLY wanted to see then it would be different, of course, but we don't know anything about any of these places so we're more or less just filling the time.

I was originally going to rent a car, but ALL of the driving would fall on me so I've pretty much decided against that.

@Mustlovedogs, that's an interesting one! I'll be spending 5 days on Islay and touring Jura one day, though (the original reason for this trip). Is Arran different enough to justify a full day?

Nancy, thanks for letting me know, I wasn’t sure if it was new but thought so also bc they didn’t have any reviews. Csdude, we’re going to Arran, Glasgow and Edinburgh in September. It’ll be our first trip to Scotland. We only have 9 days, travel time included, so we wanted to station ourselves somewhere that we could see a lot of scenery and urban sites in a short period of time. Hopefully it’ll fit the bill!

You are aware, I assume, that Viator is a re-seller, they do not run the tours. It may be worth looking on the listings to see the actual operator and seeing what kind of a mark up Viator are applying.

With regard to Inveraray two things strike me- firstly I hope they have time to visit the Castle. Secondly if I was paying that much money I would be asking the guide to tell me about HMS Quebec (the allied forces 'stone frigate' /training base at the village in the second world war, one of several on Loch Fyne). Americans were among those who trained there. There are two memorials to Quebec- one of which is a bit of a tragic story involving a young WREN from Donegal, Ireland.

If number three is a private tour that explains the price tag.

Arran as a day trip involves about 3 hours to and from the port (including wait time in line) and two hours on the ferry RT- so that is 5 hours out of the day before you have done anything on the island. Just something to keep in mind.

Certainly all your 4 are fairly standard day trips from Glasgow, and all are worth doing. As I say number three could be rewritten, in fact could give you time in Stirling as opposed to Luss and the hairy coos.

Two thoughts- are you really totally opposed to driving? If not you could write your own itinerary based roughly on one of the above. Let's say a one day car rental is £50. Loch Ness (the longest of the trips) is about 350 miles return trip- ten gallons (at most) of petrol/gas at £6 gallon-= £60. Total cost £110. A guide adds value of course, but how much value? A rhetorical question.

Second thought- reading the RS guide on line what would be your ideal day in or from Glasgow? Can that be facilitated?

@Mustlovedogs, this will be my first trip to Scotland, 1oo! I'm going for my 50th birthday in August (Virgo, not Leo); starting in Dublin Ireland for 5 days, then taking the ferry from Ballycastle to Islay where we'll be for 5 days.

From there we're flying to Glasgow, but haven't booked hotels yet so we have 6 days that we can split between Glasgow, Edinburgh, or anywhere else we decide to stay.

After that we train to London, then Paris, then Rotterdam to take a Holland America cruise around Norway, and back to Amsterdam.

My whole trip is August 1 - September 6 :-O By FAR the longest trip I'll have ever taken!

@isn31c:

You are aware, I assume, that Viator is a re-seller, they do not run
the tours. It may be worth looking on the listings to see the actual
operator and seeing what kind of a mark up Viator are applying.

Oh yeah, we're just using it to find things. I would say that we're pretty experienced travelers in general, just new to Scotland.

if I was paying that much money I would be asking the guide to tell me
about HMS Quebec

Awesome tip, thanks! I had no idea.

Two thoughts- are you really totally opposed to driving? If not you
could write your own itinerary based roughly on one of the above.
Let's say a one day car rental is £50. Loch Ness (the longest of the
trips) is about 350 miles return trip- ten gallons (at most) of
petrol/gas at £6 gallon-= £60. Total cost £110. A guide adds value of
course, but how much value? A rhetorical question.

We've REALLY gone back and forth on the idea of a rental car.

A big concern is that I have a permanent injury to my left hand, so while I can drive manual I think it would be a challenge to shift gears with my bad hand.

I would also be the only one driving, which means that they get to look around at everything while I'm staring at the road! We did that in Alaska and I kept missing things like eagles and bears, so it was a pretty disappointing ride for me.

The third (and biggest) issue is that we're having a hard time finding a company that would let me rent in Glasgow and return in Edinburgh, so we'd spend a good bit of money for the car that we would probably use 2, maybe 3 times.

If I could find a company that would let me pick up in Dublin and return in Edinburgh, that would solve a lot of problems!

Second thought- reading the RS guide on line what would be your ideal
day in or from Glasgow? Can that be facilitated?

This is a great question, but the unfortunate answer is... I have no idea. If I'm being totally honest, the first time in my life that I ever HEARD the word "Glasgow" was about a month ago! So when I say that I have no idea what anything is or what to do, I mean that quite literally.

We typically love old architecture (bonus points for old religions), beautiful views, animals (especially those that aren't native to our area), and trying new foods. I love Scotch (thus the focus on Islay for my birthday), but the ladies don't. We also much prefer local stuff over tourist traps.

We've seen a lot of old architecture over the years, though, so I'm trying to avoid a constant stream of old castles that start to look alike :-O

If you are considering a rental car, try using Arnold Clark which is a large rental car company that is based mainly in Scotland. Plenty of automatics are now available - no need to rent a manual trans. We rented from them in 2022 and were very happy with them.

Now Arnold Clark have a depot on South Street in the west end of Glasgow. We found out recently on another thread which went off line to PM's that they do hotel pick ups (at least in the west end of the City). That location is cheaper than the off site airport site, and has the benefit of being on a relatively quiet street in an industrial area. So that gives you a bit of time to get used to the car before you reach the highway.

As many on here will testify I am the last person to say you should drive if you don't want to, but want to give you the option if it seems to be the most cost effective method.

In the City you have the Charles Rennie Mackintosh trail- https://www.visitglasgow.com/see-do/tours-trails/charles-rennie-mackintosh
(so don't need a car) and the Highland Coos at the Pollock Country Park.
If you wanted to do the Kelpies at Falkirk that is easy by train to Falkirk then a local taxi.

Also on the Mackintosh trail there is the Hill House at Helensburgh. Train every 30 minutes to Helensburgh Central then taxi up the hill, or a West Highland line train to Helensburgh Upper then a short walk (the walk may or may not be suitable for your MIL).

I also think that the city HoHo bus may give you a good introduction to the City- and be an effective means of transport- https://citysightseeingglasgow.co.uk/