Best time to visit Scotland? Spring or late Summer / early Fall?

Kent is right. TripAdvisor has lots of locals who can answer questions from the perspective of living there. I've visited Scotland in July (once) and Aug/Sept (nine times). Someday I will visit in Spring. The spring trip will be specifically to go back to Orkney when all the birds are there! Personally I think that March/April will be a bit cold and you'll find that many attractions are not open yet or are open with limited hours. But see what the locals say. I suspect that the air fares might be good at that time. I've been exploring going to Glasgow for a music festival in January and have been pleasantly pleased with the air fare aspect of my exploration.

I really enjoy the late summer / early fall time. The English children go back to school the last week of August and the Scottish children go back about a week later. That means that things are open, but not packed. Of course, the fun of a mid summer visit is the long evenings. When we visited Orkney in July the sun was still setting around 10 at night and came up around 2 AM. ; )

You can check rates by season on my hotel websites. Check the smaller ones and you'll know how the seasons change. Edinburgh in particular gets expensive during the festival. Book early if you want to be in Edinburgh during the festival.

Pam

If you want replies from locals, post your question here. Don't think there are any residents of Scotland on this forum.

I have been there in late Spring and Fall and I prefer fall. Fares may be similiar but weather will usually be better, but no guarantees. I would also expect lodging to be similiar price wise. If you cannot get a B&B also try www.travelodge.com. While no brfast is included the lodging can be quite reasonable if you book way ahead.

We have been in late summer (end of July) and late fall/early winter (Nov/Dec). We loved both times of year. I actually enjoyed the winter time- it snowed lightly on us a couple of times- just enough to be pretty and feel wintery. Prices in the fall/winter were a little bit better and there were fewer tourists. I think that March/April would be a bit early for real spring in the Highlands- so gardens, etc. would not be at their peak. You'd want to go May/June if that is your interest.

I can only speak to the Edinburgh area, but for April this year and last, the third week was gorgeous! I expect the weather is probably like the stock market--history is no guarantee of future performance--but I have some videos posted made from trip pics at http://www.youtube.com/user/thistlelib#play/uploads

For each of my trips the spring blossoms and flowers were so pretty. The sun was shining most of the time, only 15 minutes of rain this trip, and a couple of tiny sprinkles, but those 15 minutes were definite rain! Last year the weather was sunny at first and then the week finished with light showers morning changing to warm sun for the afternoons. I do wonder if being on the east side of the country that I had better weather than the Atlantic side. The morning weather map seemed to show shower drops more for Glasgow than Edinburgh.

Coming from New England, just exiting its 0-30 F degrees of winter, Edinburgh's mid 40s F to mid 50s F sure felt very nice .. "cold" is a very relative term :-)

I've been to Scotland twice, 1- 2nd week of April, 2- 1st week of May. Weather was beautiful both times, but one days each was crazy weather day with temps ranging from frosty to short sleeves and perspiring, mild breeze to gentle sprinkly to good pour to snow. Both trips we did day trips through the highlands too. Also beautiful, changeable weather.

My advice, dress in layers with at least one-water proof layer available. And I'd go in later April. All the tourist sites are reopened but its still off-peak (May 1 is peak). And the staff aren't worn out and grumpy yet.