Dear people in the know,
I am planning a week away for my husband and me. The plan is to discover Scotland properly.
We'll begin in Glasgow to stop in on some friends. After that first night, we'd love your help in planning a tour of the west coast in all its scraggly bits - if it can be done in a kind of loop that ends back in Glasgow, so much the better. In all we will have seven nights in Scotland.
We would like to venture quite far north, and definitely visit an island - maybe Skye, or Harris and Lewis. We will be driving but don't know if it's advisable to bring the car on the ferry to the islands during peak tourist season - will they not be clogged up with traffic?
We'd like to take in as many of the country's natural gems and places of interest as possible, but also to savour what we see, rather than rushing from one night here to one night there. Maybe two nights at each hotel/bed and breakfast place is the way to go? Or maybe some destinations only warrant one night?
The more articles and travelogs I read the more confused I am getting. It seems we'd really need a few months to do it properly, so I am looking for help to boil our wishlist down to the essentials.
Our main interests are wildlife, scenery... and hiking - my husband especially, though I have RA so can't go as far and as fast as he can - but I still love a gentle hike. We love good food and comfortable, scenic accommodation. Two things we are not particularly interested in, but that keep popping up, are distilleries and golf courses.
Budget wise, we're pushing the boat out a bit as it's to mark my husband's retirement, so are expecting to pay on average 300 GBP per night, more if it secures a real treat. Conversely we'd also be very happy if a little-known guesthouse comes in under that projected spend, of course!