re: Scotland trip.

Sounds like a great time. Yeah every tour I’ve looked at on viator or get your guide seem to be missing one key spot that I feel like I don’t wanna miss. I know some of the stops I’ll be cool to just hope out and take some pic /hang for 15-20 mins. I realize I’ll have to not settle too long at any one place if I want to see it all. I wish I had another day for Isle of Skye but it is what it is. Private tours only cost a couple more hundred bucks vs the small group ones I’ve looked at so I’m debating between a private tour or just driving it myself.

Haven't been yet. But have had several friends go that time of year.

And to paraphrase what they'd told me previously:

If you’re heading to Scotland in the summer, just be aware of the midges — they’re mostly an issue on the west coast, the Highlands, and places like the Isle of Skye on still, cloudy days. The good news is that the cities and coastal areas you’ll be in — Edinburgh, St Andrews, Aberdeen, and even Inverness itself — don’t really have problems with them, and the golf courses stay breezy enough that players barely notice anything. If you do head into the Highlands or over to Skye, just bring a little Smidge spray and try to go when there’s at least a light wind. It’s totally manageable, just something worth knowing ahead of time.

Here’s a note I’ve had saved on my phone from our trip in 2024. We went for the Open. Spent a few days in Edinburgh then moved over to Glasgow. Kingsbarn is a beautiful course, highly recommend it.

Edinburgh restaurants

Old Town
-Arcade Haggis & Whiskey Bar (great pub food, whisky flights)
-Luckenbooths - inside Cheval Old Town chambers; we had Bfast here every day
-Worlds End Pub - had lunch here on Royal Mile (ok nothing special)

New Town
-Dishoom: Indian (great atmosphere, sat downstairs)
-Fishers In The City: seafood
-The Dome: drinks
-Bramble Bar (didn’t go here but travel agent recommended)
-Rose Street has a lot of pubs


Stockbridge
-Scran & Scallie: upscale pub food
-The Raeburn: we had drinks outside

To do:
-Edinburgh Castle- try to get morning tickets; less crowded
-Palace of Holyrood House - favorite
-Victoria Street (Diagon alley)
-Deans Village
-St Giles Cathedral
-Grassmarket in Old Town- lots of pubs and great view of castle at the end of the square
-day trip to Stirling Castle, Doune Castle - look into Explorer Pass if doing 2 or more castles
-Loch Lomand & Trossachs National Park
-day trip to St Andrews
-Deanston distillery warehouse experience - we did this after Stirling castle, in the area

Driving isn’t bad after a day or so. It’s easier than you think and very convenient.

Ditto Soccer, the cathedral is very cool

hey! mine is facing the other way.. Yours you can see St. Andrews Castle, or what's left of it.

I'm here now so I'll update as I go. Currently at Woodlands Glencoe. Definitely worth looking into: nice and relaxing after the chaos of Edinburgh. I'll say Edinburgh was probably the coolest large European city I've been to, but trying to fit everything in 4 days exhausted me and the break is nice

I just got back this week and finished reading through the other posts here. Fun fact for St. Andrews- on Sundays you can walk on the course like a park. Dogs playing fetch, people having picnics, you can get pictures on the Swilcan Bridge. It was surreal for me, couldn't believe it when we were there. We had lunch at the Claret which overlooks the Old Course and the Sea, beautiful view and I would recommend going there. Others have given plenty of Ideas for Edinburgh, all look good. I would recommend Holyrood Palace, it was beautiful. Victoria street is right off of Grassmarket and is really a great stop if you guys are Harry Potter fans, its the inspiration for Diagon Alley.

Glencoe is amazing, like another planet. I would really try to fit this into your trip. If you can, really enjoy your drive there and stop off whenever you can to soak in the views, and climb some of the trails. We had lunch at a great place (the restaurant at the falls of Dochart Inn) in the town of Killin that overlooked the Falls of Dochart. Beautiful views, especially if you can reserve the table in the window. They have a smokehouse behind the building where they smoke their own salmon, it was great. ETA: The Silly Goose restaurant in Fort William was excellent. Each dish we had was great (Duck, Beef, and Fish), along with the most memorable dessert I've had in years, the Chocolate. Silly Goose

Isle of Skye was great, I would specifically recommend you to stop off for a quick seafood snack at the Shellfish Shack in Broadford. Shellfish Shack Instagram. I got oysters there and can not speak highly enough about them. The best I've ever had. Amazingly briney and salty. It's a quick stop and literally a shack behind another restaurant, but if/ when I go back this will be the highest priority stop for me to revisit. This is the highest praise I can give and can not recommend this enough. We did the face dunk at the Sligachan Old Bridge, and now have eternal youth... so I've got that going for me, which is nice. It was actually pretty funny and all of us enjoyed doing it. Stay under for 7 seconds and let your faces drip dry. We skipped the fairy pools and instead did the fairy glen at the suggestion of our driver. There had not been much rain the weeks leading to our trip so he said they would not be as impressive. The glen was really interesting. Amazing how they formed naturally, it looks man made.

We stayed in the village of Plockton at the Plockton Inn and did day trips to Skye, which I really loved. It was quiet and had a great small town feel. Another bonus is this is significantly less expensive than staying on the Isle itself. It was beautiful and has a great harbor with incredible views. This was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

Those are the highlights that come to mind, but please feel free to follow up with any questions.

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We only have one day for isle of Skye and I wish it was more. I’m gonna try to do a TON in that one day. I really wanna see Neist Lighthoise , Old man of storr, Quirang, and Eilean Donan castle all in one day.

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We just hit all of these today except the lighthouse in a 12 hour group tour (10-15 people) from Inverness so I'd say it's doable. We also made a couple smaller quick stops along the way and spent some time in Portree for lunch, plus a group tour requires more frequent restroom stops. Now we didn't get to spend a ton of time at any one spot but it was sufficient. If you wanted to actually do the 3 hour Quirang hike you'd have to probably spend a 2nd day regardless. And the view from the base of the trail is incredible anyway.

I will say it's a one lane road going up there and we did see someone go off the asphalt and get stuck so if you drive yourself be careful to stay on the road when letting cars pass. The ground is soft and there are trenches just along the side that you'll get stuck in. And we were fortunate to not have any rain so I'd imagine it only gets worse