Ireland or Scotland

My wife and I enjoy castles and scenery.

We enjoy both, but Scotland has far more castles than Ireland. Scotland's scenery is more rugged and rocky and the highlands are filled with lochs. Ireland is very green but the scenery is more gentle. You get more standing stones in Scotland. Ireland has better pubs, but the single malt in Scotland is superb. Edinburgh IMHO is far more interesting than Dublin. Neither one has a lot of trees---those ended up as the framing for the Royal Navy's ships. Your preference might also depend on your ancestry.

I can't help myself. Even though I have cousins in Ireland and I know that I should go there, I still vote for Scotland. The scenery is spectacular and there are some terrific castles. First there are the two historic castles--Edinburgh and Stirling. So much history has happened at them. The geographic for each is fascinating and clearly has played a role in their history. Here are some other castles to think about. Glamis--this was the home castle of the Queen Mum. It's a wonderful castle, with ghosts and stories. My parents picked up a lovely painting there that hangs in their dining room. Then there's Castle Doune. Are you a Monty Python fan? In which case you should take a pilgrimage to Castle Doune which is not far from Stirling. Or, you can head further north to Blair Castle. This is the only castle that has it's own army. I haven't even touche on the Castle Trail which is up in Aberdeenshire. There are so many castles there that I can't name them all. ; ) Of course, there are castles that are ruins--Urqhart Castle on Loch Ness is marvelous. Cawdor Castle east of Inverness has lovely gardens. Eileen Donan has a spectacular setting near Skye in the west. On Skye is Dunvegan Castle which has the fairy flag. Down in the borders there are stark Castles such as the Hermitage that were witness to the raids that used to be common on the border.

And, then there is the scenery....; ) Pam

I have to say that Scotland has my heart. It seems to have the perfect balance of wild, wonderful nature (moutains, small streams, lochs, heather, etc.) and facinating cities (Inverness and Edinburgh and Glasgow)and interesting small villages (Aviemore!!!). It has great history from prehistoric to current events, marvelous people, great literature (who else could write an ode to haggis but Robbie Burns) ... well I do go on and on. We "did" Ireland once and it was nice, but we've been to Scotland more times than I would want to say outloud and I still want to go back.

If you want castles and scenery do the Scotland tour. I think there is at least one castle per day! Gardens and scenery are fantastic. I took the RS Scotland tour in June 08 and we had fantastic weather. Very long days too- still light at 10:30 pm! The tour is strategically designed to lead you through Scottish history starting and ending in Edinburgh. So if you are into history that's a plus for Scotland.

Ireland is also on my list, and the main reason we haven't done it before is that it is a 14 day tour (actually, used to be longer than that-15 or 16 I think). When you add travel days onto that it didn't work for us based on the amount of vacation time I can take. So if time is an issue for you that might also be an advantage for the Scotland tour.

Having said that, I don't think you could go wrong with Ireland or ANY RS tour. You should check out the tour scrapbooks on this site. They give you a great look into the tours.

Thanks for the great response! My wife and I will read all of the comments and decide. :)