To ask for your left side of Scotland recommendations?

[Farkinell]

We're thinking of a 10 day road trip to Scotland next month.

We've never been before and so I'm looking for people's recommendations.

We can get free accommodation in major towns/cities so would prefer day trips out from Glashow or Edinburgh.

Also happy to get a few nights accommodation elsewhere.

We like good food, and beautiful views of nature. Gentle walks, maybe couple of hours circular routes really.

Thoughts so far are
Fort William
Loch Lomond
Isle of Skye
Isle of Mull.

Please can people suggest must sees?

Thank you

Yes and look at times not distances, the same distance can be vastly different depending on what type of road you're on and what you're stuck behind.

Nobody has mentioned Ayrshire yet - best sunsets in the world at Ayr/Prestwick Troon and further down the coast to Maidens, Turnberry and Culzean (national Trust) All day-trippable from Glasgow.

Hebrides, NC500 (North Scotland), Achmelvich, Ullapool, Isle of Skye, Oban.... So many places but Hebrides (lewis and harris) were beautiful!

The area around Aviemore is beautiful - I love Loch Morlich and the Landmark Centre treetop walk is a lovely experience.

Benmore Botanical Gardens. Take the ferry across.

Achmelvich Beach and the area Northwards

Dumfries and Galloway is v underrated.

Lake of Menteith- have lunch at the hotel and then take the little boat across to the island with its historic ruins.

Don’t miss out Edinburgh. It’s just fabulous. The portrait gallery, Holyrood palace, the Botanics, soooo many things to do ❤️❤️

Puck's Glen is close to Benmore gardens too. Absolutely beautiful.

Helensburgh - Hill House is a Rennie Macintosh masterpiece. Plus the seafront is lovely and its a really nice wee town

Mine too 😭

Doesn't the left side of Scotland depend on which way you're facing?

My geography teacher heart is bleeding at this...left side😭

And mine! And it's been a long time since I was teaching geography!!

I'd go to Fife. Stop and see the Kelpies at at Falkirk, then stay in one of the fishing villages and visit St Andrews.

Pitlochry and surrounds also lovely.

The Highlands and islands are also great, but such a long drive.

Millport is nice, can get the ferry and then hire bikes and cycle round the island. A full day trip, but totally doable from Glasgow. The Kelpies are worth a visit, depending when you go, Loch Lomond can be totally gridlocked. Make sure you check traffic before you travel. If you go out of season, Luss is beautiful.

It's like that old question about which way the hands of a clock turn. Clockwise of course - unless you're the clock!

Argyll. Absolutely bloody gorgeous but really not that far from Glasgow.
work your way up slowly to Oban then over to Glencoe and down again.

You mean the west??

The Ardnamurchan Peninsula. Stunning, unspoilt heaven.

Like Aviemore, the town of Fort William is actually a bit of a shithole. Fine as a base to explore the highlands, not places to really expect much of beyond that.

Personally, I would do a loop starting in Oban and work my way up through Mull, spend a day or two in Tomermory and then get the ferry back to the mainland, before carrying on up to Skye and then to Harris/Lewis and back to the mainland again at Ullapool, and then come back south through Inverness, Fort Augustus, Fort William and back to Oban.

Doable in 4-5 days or so, and leaves time to do Edinburgh etc as well.

The road through Glencoe is beautiful, very atmospheric in any weather. And camusdarach beach, between Arisaig and Mallaig is stunning https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/camusdarach-beach-p2564531

Clyde Valley Tourist Route culminating in New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde. A reasonable day trip

Mull is a long trek from Glasgow, as its all A roads. We do it regularly to visit family on the island.
It's only accessible by ferry or ferries, ad there's no airport or bridge. Either go via Oban to Craignure or alternatively via Corran then Lochaline to Fishnish. Caledonian Macbrayne are the ferry company for all routes apart from Corran crossing, but ferries regularly get cancelled due to bad weather or to cover other routes.

This...

Travel is slow. You can't whizz round from Edinburgh to Skye and back in a day... Well you could just about, but you'd not have seen anything or experiened anything and the whole point is to take it slow, to stop multiple times, to appreciate deep rivers, amazing mountains, to get out there and feel it.

These are all fantastic but you'll not do them in a few day trips from the central belt.

WEST. West!!

My west coast faves are Ardnamurchan Peninsula, Mallaig, Ullapool.

You should drive the route known as the 500. Absolutely stunning.

Applecross