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UK travel

Welcome to our UK travel forum where you can get advice on everything from holidays to exotic destinations, to tips on London travel.

Original poster

Recommendations for my Scotland trip.

44 replies

TrueBlueBabyILoveYou · 01/03/2021 20:12

I’ve just finished booking my 2-week trip to Scotland in July. Anyone familiar with any of these areas care to give me some tips, hidden gems or recommendations of things to do as a family (teen DC). We are really looking forward to getting away.

Our trip stops over in Edinburgh, Oban, Isle of Lewis and Pitlochry.

OP posts:
Fivemoreminutes1 · 02/03/2021 04:29

Can help you out with Edinburgh. I'd recommend going on a Cadies and Witcheries tour, Camera Obscura and the Real Mary King.
I'd also allow a couple of hours for Arthur's Seat. If you’ve got time, then I’d do the Edinburgh Dungeon and the zoo (which has a pair of giant pandas).
Definitely eat at Coro the chocolate cafe. It has an incredible (and endless) menu of both sweet and savoury crepes, pancakes and waffles. Or you can make your own from a massive list of toppings and sauces. They also do some epic chocolate fondues. The prices are excellent; it cost me less than £5 for a brie, spinach and tomato crepe with side salad.
Cosmo is a good place to take kids for a treat. Its a all-you-can-eat buffet with a bit of style. It's got a bottomless ice cream bar and a chocolate fountain! Perfect for ravenous teens.
Badger and Co is a fun restaurant loosely on Wind in the Willows www.badgerandco.com

Fedupofballs · 02/03/2021 06:21

Just planning our Scotland trip too. One thing I’ve picked up is to book ferries as soon as you know when you want them as they can quickly get full in the summer. We booked ours yesterday!

Florabella · 02/03/2021 06:57

How long are you staying in each place? I'd recommend a day trip to Mull when you are in Oban. West coast of Lewis has the best beaches. A trip to Queens View and Blair Castle maybe when in Pitlochry. Edinburgh seems to have been pretty well covered by pp.

Parkandride · 02/03/2021 06:59

If you're on Lewis on a Sunday plan ahead, ensure you can get meals where you're staying or you've stocked up if self catering. Even things like play areas can be shut - not relevant for your kids but interesting to be somewhere that's so strict on tbe sabbath

I always enjoy a stop off at house of bruar near Pitlochry, I window shop for my imaginary highland home and take a walk up up the waterfalls behind to work up at appetite for the excellent food hall.

All I can remember from Pitlochry is a fish ladder and poking around an interesting old hotel, just looked and think it was Atholl Palace and there's a museum within it.

FoxgloveBee · 02/03/2021 07:43

I'm sure lots of people can advise on Edinburgh but for Oban I spent a two week holiday there cycling a decade ago and it was still one of my favourite holidays (not for the town but the base) to visit islands on the ferries:

Kerrera
Lismore
Isle of Mull
Coll
Seil

That's as much as I can remember but apart from Mull they were all quiet (on Kerrera we were the only people on there for the whole day and on Lismore, there were one or two other families, it was so peaceful!).

Oban has some nice seafood offerings and in my pre-child days, we bought a couple of bottles of wine and went up to McCaig's tower for sunset.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Original poster
TrueBlueBabyILoveYou · 02/03/2021 08:42

Wow, I am reading this and my excitement has just shot through the roof. Thanks so much.

I reread my post and thought, what a lazy person, go do your own research. Ha!

I lived overseas for a very long time and have done a lot of travelling. One thing I have learned about the UK is that if you can dig out hidden gems and put a bit of planning into your holiday, they actually turn out to be a better trip than most places in the world.

Thanks so much. I will look into all of these suggestions.

OP posts:
Original poster
TrueBlueBabyILoveYou · 02/03/2021 08:43

Sorry, forgot to add.

Edinburgh 2 nights
Oban 5 nights
Isle of Lewis 4 nights
Pitlochry 2 nights

OP posts:
OneBigMother · 02/03/2021 08:58

Edinburgh is a great city for just walking around if the weather is nice. On The Royal Mile, have a look down the closes (passageways that lead off the Main Street), so of them are full of bins, but others lead to gardens or interesting courtyards.

Pitlochry is lovely, so green in summer. Blair Atholl castle is worth a visit. Are you taking bikes? It's fun to drive out to Loch Rannoch, park in the village and cycle round the loch. It's quite far, but absolutely stunning.

shouldistop · 02/03/2021 09:01

Hopefully we're not still locked down in July!

DenisetheMenace · 02/03/2021 09:02

The A500 route along the Northwest Coast, ending at Applecross, is spectacular.

Original poster
TrueBlueBabyILoveYou · 02/03/2021 09:12

Well, hopefully not locked down since the rest of the UK is fully opening on 21 June.

OP posts:
FelicityPike · 02/03/2021 09:14

@TrueBlueBabyILoveYou

Well, hopefully not locked down since the rest of the UK is fully opening on 21 June.
Yes but that hasn’t been announced for Scotland yet. We’ve been told to be wary of booking summer breaks still.
MrsMoastyToasty · 02/03/2021 09:18

The Royal Yacht Britannia at Leith.
Scottish crown jewels at Edinburgh castle
If you go to Mull you can then go to Iona and to Staffa.

Weepingwillows12 · 02/03/2021 09:19

The day trips I most enjoyed from Oban was a day trip to Staffa and Iona. Staffa is the Island that has the same rock formation as the Giants Causeway and amazing. I also did a day trip to go on a boat ride to Corryvreckan, the whirlpool. Now, a word of warning on that one. We had to be up super early to match the tide and it was cold and wet and the boat went so fast it felt like the rain was needles on your skin but it was also amazing to play in a whirlpool. We also saw seals and sea eagles. I thoroughly loved that trip!

shouldistop · 02/03/2021 09:19

Well, hopefully not locked down since the rest of the UK is fully opening on 21 June.

England is, not the UK. Unfortunately.

shouldistop · 02/03/2021 09:21

We're going back into levels at the end of April. Central belt likely to be going into level 3 at the best, more likely level 4.

FelicityPike · 02/03/2021 09:26

Level 4 is basically still lockdown. @TrueBlueBabyILoveYou I genuinely don’t mean this nastily, but I really wouldn’t be holding your breath for you trip this year!
Even if the Islands go to level 2/3 like they were before, they’re likely to not want tourists. I’m sorry but I think you’re going to need to consider this. Level 4 is highly probable for the central belt and that is still basically lockdown. I’m sorry.

ohwaitthatwasme · 02/03/2021 09:31

@TrueBlueBabyILoveYou

Well, hopefully not locked down since the rest of the UK is fully opening on 21 June.

England is not the rest of the UK Confused

Anyway I would be ultra cautious here. I live in Scotland and the rules re travel are set to be quite strict, even when coming out of this latest lockdown we are set to go back into a restrictive level system so I suspect free travel will be a while away.

celtiethree · 02/03/2021 09:32

As you have a Tween I’d recommend driving via Stirling and stopping at the Bannockburn heritage centre and playing the battle game - it’s v good. Though will of course depend on it being open. Stirling castle is also v good.

ohwaitthatwasme · 02/03/2021 09:32

Actually I have to say, I would not be so sure about the 21st June thing either. Not only have the government been clear it isn't a certainty but they talk a lot of shit anyway. Remember not so long ago Boris told the whole of England one Sunday evening the schools were safe to return to and by Monday they were closing them!

longhaulstress · 02/03/2021 09:33

I love Oban and had a couple of trips there in the last couple of years. McCaigs tower is lovely especially on a clear day. Plenty of seal/whale watching tours sail from the harbour too. There's some lovely fish and chip shops and a great chocolate cafe. The local leisure centre (Antlantis?) offers bouldering as well which my dc enjoyed and was only about £4 each for an hour.

From Oban it's only about a 45 minute drive south to the town of Inveraray where you can visit Inveraray Castle (also featured in the highlands episode of Downton Abbey) and Inveraray Jail. My early teen dc enjoyed that day out.

Glencoe is also an hours drive north with absolutely stunning views. You can do a big circular route there and back from Oban one side of which takes a bit longer but absolutely worth it for the views.
We stopped at the ruined Dunstaffnage Castle en route. The Glencoe visitors centre is a great base to do some walks from and has a couple of good exhibits about the history in the area.

We have been to Pitlochry and there's some beautiful walks and scenery (queens view, faskally forest) and the town itself is pretty just don't bother with the dam and fish ladder it's become a family joke in our house with how utterly boring it was. We use it as a rating to how good of an attraction is with the Pitlochry fish ladder as the worst Grin

treeeeemendous · 02/03/2021 09:35

We're hoping to go to Scotland too but I've been wary of booking as I'm not convinced they will let us in! NS understandably seems very keen on keeping borders closed.

BingBongToTheMoon · 02/03/2021 09:55

21st of July THIS year?
You’ll be lucky!

OneBigMother · 02/03/2021 10:04

Ah, just noticed it was this year.

My family are up north, the area was flooded with tourists when lockdown eased last time. Local people were not happy about it at all.
There are allot of second homes up there that people went to when they were not allowed. It caused allot of problems.

I think if restrictions are in place here but eased in England, you will not be popular if you decided to take your trip anyway.

But vaccines are going well and numbers dropping, so all may be okay. I hope so.

slidingdrawers · 02/03/2021 10:08

Skin So Soft for the midges. July is peak season.