Trip Report: 3 Days in Edinburgh and Scottish Highlands

Day 1: Mile Count: 10.3

Day 2: Highlands Tour

The morning did not get off to a great start admittedly. I am a bit of a grouch in the mornings and was not in the mood to be poked fun at by the tour operator, who basically joked that I didn’t look like I was paying attention / not understanding a single word he said. I think my visible irritation in the beginning definitely made my relationship with my tour guide go cold (didn’t even get the “Have a nice evening” that everyone else got at the very end). First stop was the Kelpies, and they were nice and pretty, if a bit modern for what I had expected. Unfortunately, because of the severe rain, I wasn’t able to get close to them since the area around the base was pretty flooded. Second stop we made was for Loch Lomond, and the boat tour there was a bit underwhelming to say the least. The rain was going down hard, so all the views were obscured by fog / raindrops on the windows, and I was only able to see brief glimpses of the places of interest being pointed out. I also instinctively sat on the right side of the boat before realizing once the seats had filled up that the British probably drove boats on the left-side, so I was able to see even less. Got some decent views and pictures, but I’m sure that it would’ve been much better if it wasn’t downpouring.

From there, though, the trip got interesting, to say the least. As I’ve emphasized repeatedly, it was raining hard, and, well, I suppose I underestimated how hard it was actually raining because when we reached shore, the road was quickly filling up with water overflowing from the loch. And it only got worse from there. While we were making our way to the next destination, we passed by tons of pastures that had just been submerged and parts of roads that had just turned into shallow (1-2 feet deep) but wide rivers. Luckily, the tour van was able to handle it, and we went to a cute little town for lunch, though I wished that we had more time to explore it. Unfortunately, part of that town was submerged, and the original scenic route was also underwater, so we switched gears and went to a hairy cow farm instead. They were quite cute, but I was getting a bit impatient to go to Stirling castle at that point. Because other people wanted to spend more time at the farm, we made it to the castle about a bit more than an hour before closing time, so I had to rush through it. That being said, it was definitely the highlight of the Highlands tour. There were some cute gardens and intricate buildings (great orange and gray contrast), not to mention a creepy cemetery visible from the castle wall walk. I loved just walking around the castle, especially since the rain had died down significantly, and got some great views of the gray and white homes of Stirling along with a bit of countryside, though museum lovers could be a bit underwhelmed by the very average museums present. After that, we did the 3 bridges, which were cool but hard to see with the fog and unbearably cold, and made our way back to Edinburgh. Because of the restaurant situation yesterday and given how crowded Edinburgh seemed, I didn’t even bother to look for dinner and elected to just explore Edinburgh a bit more since I felt a bit guilty for doing less than 10 hours a day after doing 16 hour days in my prior travels to Spain and Greece. But because of the cold and rain, I walked a bit around the Old Town and Pink Triangle before calling it a day since I was freezing and my shoes were so soggy.

Mile Count: 6.3

Day 3: Edinburgh

After being stuck indoors for much of this weekend as a result of the rain, I hoped that the weather would cooperate so that I wouldn’t be stuck in museums all day (not to say museums are not worthwhile but that I was craving the outdoors, especially since Edinburgh was supposed to have some great hikes) Luckily for me, because it was only projected to rain in the morning, so I would have an opportunity to do some hiking in the afternoon, and that’s what I planned my day around. After checking out of my hostel, I went to the Scottish National Gallery and hung out there for about an hour and a half or so. It’s a small and pretty nice museum, so I was able to cover it pretty quickly while waiting for the rain to stop. Once that happened, I made my way to the Arthur’s Seat hike, though I wasn’t exactly sure how far I wanted to walk up since the rain could’ve messed up trail conditions. However, when I reached there, I saw tons of people doing the hike, probably also enjoying the reprieve from the rain that had doused Scotland all weekend, so I felt pretty comfortable about doing the whole thing. And man was it a hike, especially since I was carrying all my stuff, like my computer, filled up water bottle, and soggy clothes in my backpack that were weighing me down. But there were amazing views: lots of lush grasslands dotted with trees with overgrown boulders and ridges jutting out from the ground, and once I had reached the top, I caught some amazing views of Edinburgh, with the foreground of the rocks and rolling hills of the mountain.

Unfortunately for me, it was at that point, when I looked below me, that I realized that I did not go on the hike that I wanted to. While this hike was absolutely beautiful, I was a bit surprised that I didn’t see the jagged cliffs that I recalled seeing in the pictures of the hike online, and when I looked down, I realized that the hike for that was on a different path, which was quite far from where I was. With this and the knowledge that I had to make it to my train station in about 2 hours, I reached a dilemma: do the hike and possibly risk missing the train or bail and hang out at Calton Hill and Old Town. Normally, I’d choose the latter, but I guess I was feeling a bit risky and didn’t want to leave Edinburgh with regrets, so I quickly made my way down (somehow not slipping), and swapped to the second hike. While I was only planning on doing the beginning before turning back, I guess I got a bit sucked into it and did the entire hike (didn’t help that the best shots were close to the end of the trail). It was definitely worth it though. I got those amazing views of Edinburgh, sliced up with those stunning cliffs, with some admittedly scary drops, not to mention some great views of the hill that I had climbed earlier. After looping back to the start using the easy trail, I realized that the hike had took less time than I had anticipated, so I quickly made my way to Calton Hill, passing through an interesting graveyard, and hung there from a while, taking lots of photos of Edinburgh with the famous dome in the foreground, along with the Greek-esque pillars on the hill, officially finishing my cold, rainy trip in Edinburgh as I rushed to grab food and hop onto my train. Sadly, though, after somehow not slipping at all during the steep and muddy hike, I took a bad one while I was speed walking to the train, nearly face-planting into the floor. A bit of an (paradoxically) anti-climatic scare to end my trip in Edinburgh!

Mile Count: 9.8

Overall Ratings:

Edinburgh: 9/10
Scottish Highlands Tour: 7.5/10

Concluding Thoughts:

Overall, I had a wonderful time in Edinburgh and (very briefly) the Scottish Highlands. Much like Bath, I didn’t have a very strict itinerary (outside of the highlands trip that I had booked), so I had a bit of flexibility when it came to deciding how I wanted to explore Edinburgh. I think it’s this freedom and power to choose what I want to do is why I didn’t have an amazing time during the Scottish Highlands Tour, only a decent one. There were some places where I just wished I had more time to explore, and I didn’t enjoy having parts of my trip be dictated by other people’s preferences. I think while I thought it was a worthwhile excursion, perhaps a (long) day trip to a different city, like Glasgow, could’ve been a bit more worthwhile. Similarly, while Edinburgh received an excellent score from me, I felt like, just like Barcelona, it’s a city that I thought I’d love a bit more than I did. I think much of it stems from the weather (and the food situation to a lesser extent). While I had expected Scotland to be rainy and cold, it definitely hit me a lot harder than I had expected, mostly because I’ve realized just how little cold tolerance I have (in contrast, I can easily do 15+ miles a day in 90-100 degree weather). I just felt very soggy and worn-out all the time, and it has me rethinking some of my trips out from London during November, not to mention how I’ll deal with London weather then. I might have to pack even heavier clothes for some of those trips since I was triple-layered and still shivering at night.

One thing that I need to buy is a lock for hostels. Lugging my computer around during strenuous hikes was backbreaking. My shoulders are sore and the additional weight made these hikes much more intense than they would be normally. As for the hostel situation, while it was nice and quiet, I felt like the room was a freezer at night. And annoyingly, the comforter they had provided was just a handful of inches too short for me, so I constantly woke up because of the cold. Definitely the worst sleep of any of my trips. About doing a bit better socially here, well, I had no chance. The hostel was very quiet and filled with 30+ year old travelers or couples. While the kitchen and common room of the prior hostel would be bustling, here, it was pretty quiet, with everyone doing their own thing with headphones in. It was a bit more of my vibe (certainly lacking the FOMO factor), but admittedly, not conducive to my self-set goals. But maybe it’s good to have a bit of downtime since I had decided to book a much more social hostel in Paris next weekend. Hoping that it’ll go well and see you all then!

(PS: I would love some suggestions of activities to do in Paris while the weather is nice. My family will be visiting in the winter, so I’ll have a second chance to check out Paris and don’t really need to rush to get everything done)

Pics: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFwxtjjHJ8/5RRrvSXFCjwaQ-CWhUJuKA/edit?utm_content=DAFwxtjjHJ8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Your first night in Edinburgh sounds a lot like mine from a few weeks ago--despite being jet-lagged upon arrival I covered a lot of ground, had an early lunch at a museum, and ended up wandering around in the rain later hoping to find a restaurant to have dinner in--no luck! Over to Waverley and a Subway sandwich ended up being a decent meal.

Hi, I'm glad you got to visit Scotland but sorry you didn't have a great experience. I loved Scotland but I was there in May and had pretty good weather overall. That's the problem with short trips. You can't move things around to compensate for the weather. It probably would have been better to save Scotland for a warmer month. :-)

And I totally understand that about day tours - that's one reason I haven't taken any. But it also sounds like the tour was impacted by the weather, which I'm sure didn't help.

Thanks for sharing! Hopefully your next trip will go better.

Great travel report. I really get how you want to love Edinburgh more. I like Edinburgh but it is not my favorite European city for sure.
We went to Edinburgh in 2019, it was very hot and crowded. I walked away not feeling satisfied. I returned this September and had a great time. Sometimes, you just have to give it another chance! We spent 5 hours at the castle and looking at all the museums and the jewels/Stone of Destiny.

We did the highland tour with the HP train. while I am not into bus tours, we had a pretty good time because our driver was excellent. The rain held off each time we got off the bus and the scenery was magnificent.

Stirling, we did it on our own. There were some vibrant rainbows in the distance as we looked towards the Wallace Monument and the sun shone in between showers. However, by the time we left and walked downhill to the station in the afternoon, I was drenched. I looked like I had just dived into a swimming pool! I had a bad choice of jackets - my one packing regret.

It too got cold at night in our B&B (Sept 17th). The heat was not on in the evening and our room got cold quickly. We did have great thick comforters - I could definitely relate to that part of your story.

Maybe try Scotland again - it really is a beautiful country and there are so many lovely Castles. I know Edinburgh and Stirling are the main attractions, but there are so many lovely villages and castles to visit. The best way to see Scotland is to take a week and drive when you have the longest daylight hours and a chance for better weather.

Margaret

Great to see another report from you! Did England-Scotland with my husband and friends in 2009. We had amazingly good weather for an April trip. We did Edinburgh, West Highland Way, Isle of Skye, and Inverness. I have to say I totally loved Edinburgh and wanted to move there (of course I am from Seattle, so it has some weather similarities). In fact, Scotland more than surpassed my expectations--the people, food, music, and landscape completely captivated me. You did many of the same activities that we did in Edinburgh--cemeteries, St Giles, castle, palace, Old Town, Calton Hill, Royal Mile, and Arthur's Seat. But the torrential rainfall, bad luck finding something to eat, still not socially welcoming hostel situation, and pack weight certainly "weighed down" your experience. At the same time, I still have to hand it to you that you are doing all this solo and figuring things out, rolling with events, and managing expectations. I don't think at 20 I would have handled the stresses, disappointments, or curve balls as well. Have a great time in Paris--who knows what kind of experience will await you there! My fondest memories (from 2004!) are Jardin de Luxembourg, the top of the Eiffel Tower, Shakespeare and Co book store, walking along the Seine and the architecture of the different bridges, and pain au chocolat.

@christa - Yeah, it's pretty weird how Edinburgh has a drought of restaurants compared to other places that I had visited, but sounds like you made the best of your situation and hope you had a great trip!

@Mardee - I heard May was the best season to visit. Unfortunately, my study abroad program is only for the fall semester. If it had stretched into spring, I would've gone to Edinburgh then, but perhaps I'll give Scotland another shot in the future. Glad to hear you had a great time though!

@Margaret - Thanks for your comments! Wish I had gotten a bit of warm weather instead of the gloom, but I'm happy to hear that your trip this September went well and that you had lucked out with the rain (though not the cold weather unfortunately). I'll definitely think about trying Scotland again in the future, though, since the landscapes are just so lush and green, and I have grown a liking towards castles.

@Pete - Once again, thank you for your always uplifting comments. The trip you, your husband, and your friends took sounded lovely, (I looked up some photos of the places you visited, and they're so beautiful), and I'm glad you loved Edinburgh. Rolling with some of these challenges was frustrating at times (especially the rain as a Californian), but I somehow was able to go and explore every place that I had wanted to in Edinburgh, so I'd consider that a win. Thanks for the well-wishes for Paris, and your brief description of Paris is just making me even more excited to explore the city!

Thank you for the reports. I'm enjoying your descriptions.
For Paris, you might enjoy a Seine river cruise as a way to decide where you want to go back and take more pictures. And maybe climbing to the dome at Sacre Couer if you like pictures out across the city. You also get some interesting views of the roof and spires as you get close to the top. The entrance to the climb is to the side (and down some stairs) compared to the main church doors.

@PlannerMom - Thanks for your comments and suggestions for Paris! River cruise down the Seine sounds like something that I think my family would enjoy, so I'll save that for later, but the climb to the dome at Sacre Couer sounds pretty cool and something that I'll definitely be interested in doing.

The other place to get great views of Paris is from the top of the Tour de Montparnasse.
That’s the big grey office block type building sticking up high over the city.
You can buy a ticket at the bottom, and there’s an outside deck all the way round at the top.
Also a cafe at the top.
You can then see the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coueur from up there on a clear day.
When I went, the ticket office phoned up to the top to make sure it was clear up there for great views before selling me a ticket!

https://www.tourmontparnasse56.com/en/

@S J - Thanks for the suggestion! I'll bookmark it and look into it more since I'm about to leave for Paris.