Planning Scotland Trip and Need INFO!

**AcuteEnigma** · 7th January 08, 06:07 PM

Last summer we went to Scotland via London. Few into London Heathrow arriving in the afternoon. Spent the night near airport.
Took taxi to that other London airport.
Took RyanAir (or BMI?) flight up to Inverness. Rented car at Inverness.

The flight from London to Inverness was about the same cost as the train.

(Flew into London cuz I had a REALLY cool lunch date with a REALLY cool Scot.)

My advice is to choose the top 3 or 4 sites you want to see and plan from there. For us, there was no way we would not go to Caithness, home of Clan Sinclair.

Hope this helps!

Julie

**Phil** · 8th January 08, 09:08 AM

I hope you have a great visit and won't be overwhelmed by everything there is to see. You could spend a few weeks in London alone and not see the half of what is there. If you want to see spectacular scenery then you want to concentrate on the west coast from around Inverary northwards through Glencoe and the Great Glen to Inverness taking in Culloden when you get there. They have just opened a great new visitor centre. You can then head back south to Stirling. If you want castles and old buildings then Stirling is a great place to start then head north east towards Aberdeenshire stopping at places like Glamis on the way. Sadly you won't manage either of these in a day but you will find plenty of B&B's on your way. There is a Travelodge at Bannockburn near Stirling which does cheaper accommodation and you will also find ones in Edinburgh and Glasgow. If you want museums and art galleries then Edinburgh and Glasgow are the way to go and you can reach either from Stirling and back in a day. Parking in either city is more of a problem though and I really wouldn't recommend even trying it in Edinburgh. Glasgow used to have parking at the art gallery in Kelvingrove but I don't know if it still does. If you want to mix sightseeing with a bit of golf then head east to Fife from Stirling and take the coast road via Culross (pronounced Koo-ross) which is well worth a visit then on via all the picturesque coastal villages to St. Andrews. Go somewhere else for the golf though. The other courses in Fife are all good if not so famous and you won't have to fight your way through Japanese and American tourists!
You can get direct flights to Glasgow and Edinburgh from the States nowadays so you don't have to go via London unless you really want to. All the London airports are miles away from the London train stations so you will have quite a trek just to get a train to Scotland.