Quote Originally Posted by ThistleDown View Post
I'm a bit late to this, but my wife and I love to travel. We have a home near Tomatin in Inverness-shire, but as often as we can we go elsewhere in Scotland for new experiences and exploring. These are some suggestions from our years and years of doing just that.

Look to spending as little time as possible in the cities. Find a TripAdvisor-recommended B&B in Edinburgh for three nights and perhaps in Glasgow, Stirling or Aberdeen for a few more. Then...

...look to self-catering. Usually these are Saturday to Saturday, so plan around that and find your perfect centralised lodging points week-by-week. Choose the most important areas for each of your weeks, such as Caithness and Sutherland a week, Argyll and the West Highlands a week, Aberdeenshire/Angus a week, The Borders a week, the Western Isles a week, and so on. Travel between regions on Saturdays and settle into your new home around four in the afternoon.

Look to day-tripping from your adopted Scottish homes. Distances are not great; you can drive from one side of the country to the other in a day if you really have to. Find a perfect mix of relaxation and busy-ness each day and travel only as far afield as you wish on that day -- and remember that you have to come home, too.

Look to varied foods and meal-taking. Do your own big fry-up whenever you feel that need, and have a yoghurt out of your own refrigerator when you don't. Or have those fry-ups in your early B&Bs (check that they offer them). Have a meal in your local pub, or sit in your garden with your own creation from local produce. Visit the local grocer, butcher, fishmonger (or the big supers Tesco or Sainsburys or the Coop if you must) and pick up an inexpensive styrofoam cooler and freezer packs to carry your surpluses between your various 'homes'.

Concentrate on each other.
That is a great idea for the day-tripping. We were looking into self-catering since my fiancée is vegan and doing our own cooking is the easiest way for her to avoid foods that will make her ill. Having a "home base" would probably make things easier and centralize that trip by breaking it down into regions.