Planning Scotland Trip and Need INFO!

[richardljohnson]

My wife and I have been trying to plan a trip to Scotland later this year. The 'loose plan' is to fly into London, take the rail north and drive. There are many levels of thought on this (hers and mine!) but the "idea" is to house somewhere around Stirling and this would provide a chance to venture out each day from a central point.

Here are my questions:
1. How feasible would this be?
(we would love to travel up and around the entire country but we both know this would be hard in a 7 day trip)

2. Would the major sightseeing sites be easily reached (1 to 1 1/2 hours trip time) from this location?
(here in Texas this is a short commute!)

3. Does anyone know of a place (hotel, B&B or other location) that would be reasonable in cost, considering sleep and planning of the next day's journeys will be the main use.

4. Any other information, questions or insights would be helpful.

Thanks,
Richard-

[muirkirkca]

If tme is of the essence, why not fly into Glascow? They must have car rentals and it is well situated relative to the country.

[richardljohnson]

My wife wants to do a rail trip and flying into London will give us a chance to rail north and then rail back taking in the country side and then spend a few days in London before heading back.

R-

[creativeaccents]

In your planning be sure to allow for jet lag the day after you arrive and another lost day for the day you depart. Have you ever driven in England? Driving over there is not at all like driving in Texas. Virtually every few miles there is something fascinating, beautiful, or historic. Don't try to see it all in one trip, but select a few key points of interest. Too, some of the most interesting spots are away from the major highways. For ex, we found an interesting Romas Villa WAY back along a "B" road in the country. Roundabouts are a story in themselves.

[richardljohnson]

This is another reason we are looking to rail north. I may tempt Dallas traffic at 5:00pm on occasion but I understand London traffic would be totally different.

The idea is to rent a car in Scotland and drive around then drop off and catch the rail back to London and do the tourist thing for a few days before heading back.

We have see lots of 'guided' tours and thought about this for a starter but we kind of think of ourselves as 'adventurous types so the 'guided tour' would be a last resort.

Richard-

[Jock Scot]

I have spent most of my 60 odd years in the UK exploring and I should think that I would need at least double that to see most of it.Don't let that put you off,though.

Might I suggest that you plan,carefully,what you want to see and once you have decided then make a base if you want.I think on balance,though, I would drive from A to B,B to C,etc,etc,and see what you want to see on route.If you don't you will spend much of your precious time to-ing and fro-ing over much of the same ground.The other thing to bare in mind is that NOT ALL(any?) roads in rural Scotland are designed for swift passage, so add at least half an hour extra to your proposed travel time for every 80/100miles you wish to travel and that is before you make the impromtu photo stop,and there could be many of those.Have fun.

[Taliesin]

I would like to echo some of the other posters. Plan carefully.

Stirling is a nice, central location, but it'll still take a little while to drive to some of the more remote locations, etc. When we were in Ft. William we found that we missed something near Stirling. Took a couple (3?) hours to get there and a couple hours back.

Stirling Castle is definitely worth a visit, too. They were working on it when my wife and I were there in June, but it was still very much worth the visit.

I'm also with Jock, in that it's actually best to find a local area where there's a couple things you want to visit. Stay there for a day or two and see what you went to see. Then go to the next area for the next couple of days. It's nice to only have to drive for 45 minutes or so to get somewhere. As well as it's nice to not have far to get back to your hotel for rest...especially if you're hiking around the beautiful countryside. Takes it out of you. Add a couple of ales, and you'll really be ready for a nap. lol

When we went, we started in Edinburgh, then to Drymen (Loch Lomond Area), then to Kilmartin Glen, Ft. William, Skye, Inverness, and Glasgow for the return trip.

Of course, some morons rammed a truck into the Glasgow Airport a couple days before we were supposed to fly back, so we ended up flying out of Manchester instead. lol

Have fun on your trip, mate! Most amazing thing I've ever done short of getting married!

[WhoDeySchenk]

Last year on our departure (we always stay in Aberdeen "Northeast Coast") we went from Aberdeen, drove to Durham, England stayed a day there, then drove to York and spent 2 days there before heading to Manchester for our departure flight....you could always fly to Glasgow, tour Scotland....and rail south to London. Aberdeenshire has a HUGE ammount of castles within a small area. They even have a package I think it was 15 pounds for as many castles as you can cram in a 3 day pass (think it was 12 castles in all to choose from) The Bullars of Buchan is a great see as well.

[highlander_Daz]

Bear in mind that the rail service in the the UK can vary from reasonable to Shocking, you will most likely fly into Heathrow and then id recomend you hire a car and travel north, depending on what time of day it should you around 5-6 hours to reach the border at Gretna, there are a number of service staions with holiday inns etc just over the border, or find a guest house on the net and stay over, you are now around an hour and half to 2 hours from Glasgow or Edinburgh or 3 hours or so from Stirling, maybe 6 hours from Inverness

When you get to Gretna you are within an hours drive of Pour1malts estabishment so maybe thats a good stopoff point. Im sure Robertson would have plenty of advice and where to see.

I normally make my jouneys in chunks of around 2 hours then stop for the loo and a cake, bear in mind the roads around London are very busy and people amy drive on a different side of the road from wher you are,

[bjproc]

as you've only 7 days, i'd also suggest to fly into Glasgow/Edinburgh, you'll save about an 8hour+ car/taxi/rail journey, hire a car then do your travelling in scotland, you don't want to waste your precious time england