Travelling around Scotland

[WelshMoth]

Has anyone ever taken 4-5 days to travel around Scotland? DH and Inthinking of taking the train to Glasgow (from Cardiff), then hiring a small car to travel parts of Scotland, staying overnight in B&B's along the way.

Is this a romantic notion that's a bit unfeasible? Has anyone ever done this? I'd welcome any advice!

Sounds like a great idea and definitely possible. A car would be the best bet but some lovely places are on a train line such as Oban. West highland route up to Mallaig is very pretty (where they filmed Harry Potter).
Beautiful countryside and very romantic.
Best to plan/book beforehand, but regardless of the weather (wrap up even in summer) I’m sure you’ll have a great time, I certainly did.

No. Its huge. 4/5 days is a city break or one island.

You could do it in 4-5 days but it would mean you'd spend most of your days driving so wouldn't be able to enjoy much time in any places

Sounds a great idea. You won't get a huge part of the country covered but if you set a route you could take in a good view places in that time frame

Thanks both.
I don't expect to cover the whole country - we aren't youngsters and are more likely to plod as opposed to power it around the place.

Love the idea of seeing one of the islands though.

Sorry - in the snail pace time it took to type, I didn't see the other replies.

Yeah - fair point. Can anyone suggest a corner that we should focus on and explore?

I’d say around Inveraray, Loch Lomond and Oban. You can get the ferry over to Mull and Tobermory is pretty.

If you're starting in Glasgow stay around there. Loch Lomond is beautiful and you can do a wee loop around some castles and such in the area.

The west coast I beautiful (biased) Arran is Scotland in Miniature

Around St Andrew's and the wee coastal Fife villages are lovely - and no midgies 😁

Some kind of rail rover ticket? Train journeys are epic up there. Oban, Mallaig, Inverness, Edinburgh via the Forth bridge etc

The West coast is gorgeous. Go to Glasgow. Drive up past Loch Lomond and through Glencoe which is spectacular. From there head up to the Skye bridge and over to Skye. From Glasgow it will take you most of the day to get to Portree .
I would stay there overnight . From Portree you could go to the Quirang and the Faerie Pools. You will see the outline of the Coullins in Skye. If you do a boat trip in Portree you can see sea eagles , seals and dolphins.
An alternative (not quite so good) is to drive from Glasgow through Inveraray to Oban and go on the ferry to Mull . If on Mull I wouldn’t miss a trip to Iona and the cathedral.
Remember on the Islands that many of the roads are single track . Because of this it takes longer than you expect to get around , and the Islands are much bigger than you expect .

And don’t just stay around Loch Lomond. You need to get further North to get proper scenery.
Fife is lovely - very pretty . And lots of great restaurants etc. The West coast is rugged and beautiful rather than pretty.
Another lovely place to visit if you head up towards Skye is Plockton
https://www.visitscotland.com/info/towns-villages/plockton-p244001 www.visitscotland.com/info/towns-villages/plockton-p244001]]]]

If you are taking the train, I suggest you pick up your hire car the following day. You need to be savvy about the trains to get a good price and the best prices are from around 11am (from Euston), which means you don't get into Glasgow til about 4.30 and there could be delays. You can have a nice evening in Glasgow then setoff the next day.

I would suggest to Balloch then up the side of Loch Lomond, calling in at Oban, then up to Glenfinnan and then cross country to come down via Pitlochry Dunkeld, the Kelpies.

The great news is you can explore a corner this time then come back again and again to explore different parts!

Aberdeenshire is great for castles, stunning coastline and, if your lucky, puffins. Fife has lots of lovely quaint fishing villages. Loch Lomond. Glencoe. Mallaig (and the Glenfinnan viaduct if you're Harry Potter fans). All the island, inner and outer Hebrides. Shetland. Orkney. Cities. I could go on!

I haven't been on a Calmac ferry for a long time. They have had a lot of bad press over recent years for being unreliable. Not 100% sure if the situation but, if you plan to go to the Hebrides, check it out before you book a ferry if you have tight turnaround times/you need to get home for something.

This is amazing!
Thanks everyone.

See if you can fit a paddle steamer journey in
https://waverleyexcursions.co.uk
Scotland from the water.

It sounds brilliant (room for one in the back seat?!)

East Neuk and Edinburgh. The East Coast is midgie free!