Best of Scotland extra days

The tour doesn’t spend a lot of time in Edinburgh, and it looks like the only place it visits is the castle. I can’t imagine it spends all day there, so I’m guessing you will have some free time after that. There are many options open to you, but the simplest is to just wander down the royal mile, popping into places along the way. I got lucky the day I popped into St. Giles, and the organist was practising. At the bottom there is Holyrood, the home of Mary Queen of Scots. Outside of the royal mile you may want to visit the royal yacht Britannia, take a walk up Calton Hill for a great view of the city, or just wander around the base of the castle. I also visited Victoria House, which was an interesting look into the lives of a wealthy family. You might want to visit Mary King’s Close, which takes you into the underground part of the city. If you like spooky things you could try a ghosts and torture tour which also goes into the underground.

Such helpful information! Thanks!

Are there any sights we should try to see in Glasgow before the tour begins?

We love the Museum of Scotland , which also has a great gift shop with unique items. Also, a rooftop restaurant!
Enjoy!

Re- Glasgow- see wasley's post on this thread- https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/scotland/daytrip-to-glasgow-from-edinburgh

My recommendation is that you take the HoHo bus on arrival in Glasgow for one circuit then decide where you want to visit using the HoHo as your primary transit means.

On the Sunday you have plenty of time to use the suburban train to Helensburgh to visit the Hill House; Those trains run through all the way from Edinburgh as well.

The tour bus appears to come direct from St Andrews to Edinburgh on the A91, missing out the East Neuk fishing villages. They are now much easier to visit on the new Edinburgh to Leven Railway then a citybus through the villages to St Andrew's.

From Edinburgh there is also Falkirk for the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel- easily accessible by pubic transit (not covered on the tour) and the train to North Berwick for the Scottish Seabird Centre

Besides the Museum of Scotland there's the National Gallery of Scotland. I enjoyed visiting and learning about the Scottish Parliament. You probably won't have time to get up to Arthur's Seat overlooking the city, but Calton Hill would be another good choice. There's a Georgian house open for tours north of Princes St., I think it's called the Georgian House. Another interesting building, much older, is Gladstone's Land along the Royal Mile. That's all in Edinburgh.

In Glasgow, where I haven't been, I'd explore the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and visit Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis. There's a transportation museum in a new building along the river. The Burrell Collection, south of the city, is supposed to be a very good gallery. And the Tenement House seems interesting, a place occupied by one person from 1911 to 1965 and preserved as she left it.

For a tour with a different company we also took the hoho bus in Glasgow stopping at the Transportation museum and Kelvingrove gallery. We had lunch at the galleries restaurant.

In Edinburgh we used the newly extended tram system to visit the Britannia and had an excellent lunch on board. Fyi, military vets get discounted walk up tickets. On a different day we took the bus to to Roslynn Chapel. The Scottish National museum is excellent and free.

And you can take public transit to Leith to see the Royal Yacht Britannia! Amazing way to spend a morning or afternoon just a few minutes from Edinburgh...could also go to Rosalyn Chapel but that would need to be set up in advance.

I wish I had at least 1 extra day in Edinburgh and Glasgow, so you might consider splitting your extra time between the two. Arrive early in Glasgow to have some time to explore & spend and extra day in Edinburgh after the tour. I don't have specific recommendations as it depends on what you like. I would suggest reviewing your RS guidebook for what you'd prefer. I know there were several museums, etc. that I didn't have time to visit in my free time on the tour.

Another place in Glasgow rarely mentioned on here is Govan Old Parish Church for their unique collection of Viking and Celtic sculptured stones- https://thegovanstones.org.uk/

Easy to get to on the 'Clockwork Orange'- the Glasgow subway.

I've been there- it is an amazing collection.

Also on Tuesday I picked up a flyer about walking tours in Glasgow- https://walkingtoursin.com/scotland-tours/glasgow/

Thanks for so many great suggestions!

To anyone who has done this tour in late August or September….. We will have a free day in Oban and the itinerary notes suggest that on our own we book a tour to see the puffins through Staffa Tours. Unfortunately, the puffins will have already migrated, so this tour is not an option. Would love to hear about any other Staffa Tours that people have enjoyed; there were several listed. Also, any other recommendations for that free day in Oban would be appreciated.

I did this tour at the end of May/early June 2023. For the free day in Oban, a few of us hiked up to Dunollie Castle, which wasn't a far walk from our hotel. It had some great views and the museum was interesting. Our guide organized a seafood lunch near the ferry dock, so we did that and then just enjoyed walking around the town. A few other tour members organized laundry in the morning and climbed up to McCaig's Tower. There's also some hiking on Kerry - I think the ferry to the island was further from town than those to Mull, so it may necessitate a taxi (or an extra walk/hike).

A few people on our tour trekked out to Staffa. My understanding is that the tours to Staffa revisit Mull and Iona first (which you visit on the tour the day before) and have limited time in Staffa, so that's something to consider.

My wife and I just did the Best of Scotland tour, July 30-Aug. 11. We arrived in Glasgow on the 28th. If you like art, the Hunterian Museum is free and the collection includes paintings by Whistler and Chardin. A reconstruction of the Mackintosh House is part of the museum, tickets required. Also recommend doing the tour of Mackintosh at the Willow Tea Rooms, 217 Sauchiehall St (book ahead). The Kelvingrove Museum is also excellent, and free.

We had a couple of days in Edinburgh at the end and went to Roslin to see the Rosslyn Chapel. You need to buy tickets and book a tour time on their website. It can be reached by Uber or bus from Edinburgh but the bus is the only option for the return trip, which takes an hour. We also saw Holyrood Palace and the adjacent King's Gallery, also the National Gallery of Scotland.

Plan for rain. It's mostly intermittent but on our trip to Iona from Oban it rained the whole day.

Such great suggestions! What did you do with free time in Oban? Unfortunately the puffins will have migrated already.

We just did this trip in June. In Oban we took the ferry to Kerrera Island for our day off. The ferry is very small (it takes 12 people and 1 car) and only maybe a 10 minute trip. We took an easy hike of about an hour to a small teahouse (Kerrera Tea Garden) for lunch and then visited the castle ruins close by (Gylen Castle) which took maybe another 15 minutes and then walked back to the ferry. We walked to the ferry from Oban, but it made for a long day's walk, and if I were you I would taxi to the ferry terminal and save your walking for the island. It was well worth the trip! In Glasgow we went on The Tennant Brewery tour which was really good, if you like beer! Enjoy your trip!

We came in a day early (landed 8:30am) and spent 1 night leaving for Glasgow at 1pm the next day. We walked the Royal Mile and the Princess St. area, went into St. Giles Cathedral and National Museum of Scotland (the tour does not give in near enough time) on the first day. The next morning we climbed Arthur’s Seat (wonderful views) and went to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. If you like Italian food, Gordon's Trattoria on the Royal Mile is awesome!! For our extra day when we got back we visited a house to see how people lived in the Charlotte Square area in the 1700’s and went to the Royal Yacht Britannia.

We plan to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia during our extra days either before or after the tour. Should we purchase our tickets now—two weeks ahead—or is it not likely to be a problem to buy same day tickets?

You can also walk to the Britannia along the Water of Leith Walkway. If you start at Modern One (National Gallery of Scotland), you can see Six Times, a sculpture series by Anthony Gormley. The first one is in front of the museum, and the second one is in the water behind it. The Walkway goes through Dene Village, which is very popular with Instagrammers (because it's very beautiful), and all the way to Leith. It takes a couple of hours, but it's a lovely walk. The last of the sculptures is in the harbor. They are marked on Google Maps. Leith is a very nice area with lots of good restaurants. Certainly there were tourists there (including me), but it was mostly local folks.

That sounds like a really nice walk. So, is there any need for me to purchase our tickets in advance, or we should be just fine buying that day?

I’m at the tail end of this tour now. I visited the National Museum, National Gallery (both free) on my pre-trip days and will visit the Royal Yacht tomorrow. I haven’t booked a ticket, but it looks like there’s plenty available.

In Oban, I did the distillery tour and shopping on my free day. It’s possible to get walk-up tickets for the distillery, which is what I did and lucked into a spot, but take some of the stress out and pre-book it if that’s something you’re interested in.

We had lots of rain on our tour, so be sure to bring some rain gear. The Scots have been complaining loudly about how dismal their summer has been. On the bright side, we didn’t encounter any midges. Enjoy your tour!

Grayfrier's Cemetery in Edinburgh - we did this on a RS tour.
In Glasgow, we did a walking tour and loved it!