Ideas for an Easter trip to Scotland with DS10

[Mistyglade]

I’m thinking of a little trip up to Scotland during Easter hols with DS10. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never really been aside from Edinburgh for the millennium but would love to see the glorious natural sights. No long treks or anything that’s massively difficult to navigate as I’m not in the fittest health but would like appealing excursions to keep DS happy.

Can anyone suggest where we might start, nice places to stay and so on.

Thank you!

@Mistyglade

Where are you travelling from (and are you in a car on not)?
How long are you there for?

Ahead of all that, a really obvious place is Aviemore. Town has a few shops, cafes, brewery, things to do on a wet day, steam train, swimming pool etc.
Outside town the area from Aviemore up to the ski area is packed with walks, outdoor things to do such as clay pigeon shooting or quad treks, bike hire etc. Loch Morlich, Avielochan, An Lochan Uaine and some of the rives are just stunning. Lots of marked walks and easy to follow trails.
The ski resport is a great view, and if the railway is open you can head up one of the biggest mountains in the UK.
I can easily spend a week in this valley / these woods, and not get bored of the place.

Outside of Aviemore but locally are more walks, the Highland Wildlife Park, Highland Life Museum, Grantown is a lovely spot for a visit.

Further afield you can head down Speyside from Grantown, into whisky country and amazing views. Keep on down Speyside and you can end up at nice town of Forres and Findhorn for a lovely beach and great food.
Back inland you can head in to real 'high mountains' area, with a nice day out Fort William and the Great Glen (Loch Ness).
Inverness is a good spot on a damp day - town is fairly typical city centre, but the river is great, the botanic gardens are superb, Leakeys bookshop an experience, and 10 miles away you can watch dolphins at Chanonry Point.

Stirling is fairly central. The castle has activities for children. Wallaces monument is near as are the Ochil Hills. They arent as high or dramatic as the highlands but doable. There are a number of nice restaurants and cafes. It's not far from Blair Drummond safari park. Falkirk wheel is 8 miles away. The highlands are within travelling but so is Glasgow. It depends what you fancy doing.

We’re travelling from London on the train.

Will you have rental car, or just public transport?
How long for?

Have you booked the train yet as well?

No nothing booked yet.

Train: you can easily get LNER London-Inverness on one train without changes - look out for the "Highland Chieftain". Same in reverse, and of course you can easily change at Edinburgh from usual LNER to Scotrail services. East coast LNER in my experience is much more reliable than West Coast and Avanti. I do this journey every month....

Without a car you need to think carefully - rural Scotland is not easy to get around without a car.

On the main line north you have places like Stirling, Pitlochry, Aviemore and Inverness. All well served daily by trains and Ember buses on the A9 / mainline route.
If you have a week you could consider something like:

• Day 1 - London - Aviemore train
• Day 2 & 3 - around Aviemore, use local bus to get to ski centre and Rothiemuircus for walks and visit An Lochan Uaine
• Day 3 evening - down to Pitlochry on train or Ember bus.
• Day 4 - Pitlochry town, the dam and local walks.
• Day 4 - Evening train or Ember bus to Stirling.
• Day 5 - Stirling castle, then onto Stirling - London train home.

Extra days = stay a few more days in Pitlochry and Stirling

@outdooryone
this is fantastic thank you. I think a hire car when we get there might be in order.

Thank you this is really helpful too.

but would love to see the glorious natural sights

Scotland, as a whole Country has SO much natural beauty, with stunning drives, walks, boat trips and the like, but I think you will find it difficult to reach most of it without transport once you are there.
It seems a long, long way to travel to then not be able to access much of the 'glorious natural sites' you are aiming for.

Perhaps with a lot of forward planning there might be coach trips and bus trips you could book, but remember public transport isn't like public transport you are used to in London.

In which case, come to Stirling to hire a car. Then you can go up A9 and I can suggest other places to go....Europecar will meet you at Stirling station, or you can get an uber/taxi there and it is less than a mile to their site. Or Arnold Clark across the road from Europecar.

I was in Scotland today and saw this advertised which seems like a brilliant deal

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/tickets/family-pass