That's exactly the trip I'm going on in early June. Driving around most of the country for 8 days in a rental car. Some of the highlights will be Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, Inverness, Aberdeen, Highland games, St. Andrews, Eilean Donan, etc.

Edinburgh is where we are planning to start everything at. Probably stay 2 days there and then go to Glasgow and work our way out from there.

My daughter goes to the University of Edinburgh and I find any excuse to visit and tool around. Lovely city.

I was only in Glasgow for a few hours so I can't help you much there. We didn't have time, but I wish I would have seen the Scottish Highlands. Hopefully someone can give you some suggestions for that.

We only spent 4 days in Scotland, and about 2 weeks in Ireland. Getting out into the countryside was the best part. We did rent a room in Dollarbeg Castle just North of Edinburgh. That was pretty cool.

That’s pretty cool. We are planning on staying a week to 10 days and spending 3 of those days in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Told the wife I wanted to go see Loch Ness and see the highlands & country side. Don’t want to stay in big city’s every day.

Think I’m more interested and seeing how the people there live. Idk I may be weird.

I'm the same way, which is why I enjoyed Ireland so much more. In Ireland we rented houses and were out in the countryside drinking in the small town pubs with the locals. Since we were only in Scotland for 4 days we spent most of it in the city and never got out into the country. I would like to get back there and see the highlands. Loch Ness would be cool too.

If it happening while you are there, don't miss the Military Tatoo at Edinburgh Castle.

That's what we typically do. We drove around the Netherlands like that. We went on a search for Hunebedden (or Dolmen, megalithic tombs) and saw more of the non-touristy areas. It was beautiful and the people were very nice. Those little villages...  

We, of course, saw all the important stuff in Amsterdam too.

I forgot about St. Andrews.  Very cool place.

Nothing?  OK...

The Isle of Skye.


Dunvegan Castle

We landed in Glasgow about 7:00 AM. First time left side of road driving. Saw some stuff in town then headed north. I took a one hour power nap in a rest area but was still burned out by Fort William and found a guest house for us there. I've since learned to have a good breakfast upon arriving which helps reset your clock especially mentally

When driving, use your turn signals in roundabouts and trust the signals you see from other drivers. It's what makes the roundabouts work efficiently and you piss off other drivers or worse (accident) if you don't.

Left hand stick shift isn't hard, but it takes a while each trip to get used to looking up and left for your inside rearview mirror.

If you venture onto single tracks, learn to watch for upcoming laybys so you can anticipate if you see oncoming cars.

Edinburgh Castle has three military museums within the walls:  The National War Museum, and two regimental museums - The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Edinburgh and Stirling Castles are probably two of the most popular, especially for the tourists.  But they're really worth seeing.  Not far from Stirling, is Doune Castle.  It's worth seeing, especially if you're Monty Python fan.  It's the location where most of the castle scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed.  The recently late Terry Jones narrates the audio tour, and it goes back and forth from the history of the castle to filming locations.  I understand that scenes from Outlander were filmed there as well.  Dirleton Castle and Tantallon Castle are to the east of Edinburgh and in my opinion, worth the trip.  South into the Scottish Borders, you will find the ruins of several medieval abbeys:  Melrose, Jedburgh, Dryburgh and Kelso Abbeys are the most prominent.  Melrose is probably the most interesting, in my opinion.  It's where the heart of Robert the Bruce is said to have been buried and there's a stone to mark the location.  Jedburgh is very interesting as well.  Nearby in Jedburgh, is the Mary Queen of Scots House.  It's a 15th Century T-plan tower house where Mary once stayed.  (Hint:  many places in Scotland are associated with either Mary or Bonnie Prince Charlie.  Some are associated with both.  It's their version of "George Washington once slept here.")  At Dryburgh Abbey, in the graveyard you will find the resting places of Sir Walter Scott and Field Marshal Douglas Haig.

For a scenic drive in the highlands, I recommend the A82 east from Glencoe.  Probably one of the most beautiful drives in Scotland.  The Isle of Skye is also worth a visit as well.

A few little tips I learned during several trips there...
- rent a car from a local rental agency, not one of the big chains like Hertz, etc. The chains all rent out easily spotted "tourist-mobiles." So you cannot blend in.
- eat dinners in the pub instead of restaurants. The locals will talk with you.
- avoid politics & football. If asked what team you support I always answered Dallas Cowboys or Green Bay Packers because they're well known & it will get a laugh. Football (soccer) is serious business.
- buying a round of drinks tends to trigger an escalating round-buying contest. It's great fun while it lasts but oh the next morning!
- visit the Islands: Skye or Lewis and Harris (that's 1 island with 2 names), etc. if you want to go where the road signs are in Gaelic (pronounced "gallic") & life is mostly unchanged from 100 years ago.
- Americans are usually well liked in Scotland. During the off season someone is always trying to buy you a drink.

They do call it "the pissing rain" - it seems like a pretty accurate description, like a thousand streams pouring down on you all at once.

The Kelvingrove is well worth a visit.

I have been to Scotland several times, trips ranging from 4 days to 4 1/2 weeks.

Visit Glencoe. Hike up into the "hidden valley"

Drive up to Kilmartin then on to the Isle of Skye, but stop off at Eilean Donan castle along the way.
Visit Dunvegan castle, the Old Man of Storr, Kilt Rock, the Quirang, then take the car ferry from Uig to Lewis and Harris.
Visit the Callanish Standing Stones, Carloway Broch.

Immediately after Fort William on the A82 is Spean Bridge site of the Commando Memorial. Continue north to Inverness stopping at Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. Culloden battlefield is east of Inverness.

haven’t been to Scotland in like 30 years (save a quick foray across the border from Cumberland ten years ago just to say I've been there) but I've done a load of road trips in the England, and spent several days in Wales.

My main recommendation would be get a guide book (Lonely Planet is my general favorite), browse around and see what interests you.  Put that into your itinerary and just drive there.

Northern Scotland - Inverness and further - is beautiful country.   It's fairly wet and cold IIRC, though, in the summer.

I haven't hired a car (aka rented) anywhere besides England (Carlise and Heathrow), and Enterprise RAC to boot, but Enterprise doesn't have any manual transmission vehicles.  Honestly, even if manual vehicles were more common, a rental agency would be crazy to buy them simply due to the lowest common demoninator factor.   I'm pretty sure you could get an auto trans car in any situation, and honestly would recommend that.

I'm fairly used to driving on the left; after a first day of really thinking about it I get totally used to it by the 3rd day or so.   Just remember the driver is always closest to the center lane!!!!! *. IIRC in the UK the turn signals and wipers are on opposite sides, so for the first 1-2 days I switch to the UK or back to the US I turn on my wipers all the time.  (Oddly, IIRC Japan keeps wipers and turn signals the same way as the US)

This is good advice.  Especially the bit about pubs.

One thing: not all pubs have meal service all the time, though I think in more touristed areas they do.  (and conversely, if you find that places don't serve food you know you're off the beaten path.  You probably also won't understand their speech.  :D )

24 hour super tescos can be your friend in such situations.

* Don't know how I'd do driving a left hand vehicle on a right hand road.   Honestly, last time I was in England we were driving in Bristol/SE coast and we saw a sign for a ferry to France.  We were tempted to do a day trip to France, but a) there was plenty of cool random shit to see - that day we literlaly drive by and stopped at an old cathedral and a hill forts where a Roman-Celt battle took place b) I was worried my mind would get totally fucked up driving on the right again in a left hand vehicle . Kind of regret it; we could have spent a day trip at Cherbourg, driven through a woodsy national park and seen the Bayeux tapestry.  But people do it; at a Roman dig we stopped at we saw a Frenchman with his French licensed car.  )

I've rented from Enterprise in the UK on 5 trips now, and had a manual transmission vehicle every time but one.  The one time I paid extra for an automatic, because it was my first time driving on the left, and I didn't want to get overly confused.  UK (and European car rentals) are not like rentals in the US.  In many cases the automatic transmission vehicle is 50-100% more per day than the manual transmission vehicle over there.

hmm.  good to know.

But again, enterprise does not offer the option. i guess they fleeced me.  . but then, I happen driven a manual vehicle since I was at drivers ed at 15

They can get rather annoying.  Got a couple of the on my FB feed, seems like they are always whining about government benefits or American politics.

I will say that Scots are the nicest people in the pub.  Course, it could be that they want to see how hungover you can get.  They are almost as bad as Indians.

They are to the left of Britain, which tells you something.

The highlands is where you want to be. Wouldn’t bother spend to much time in Glasgow Edinburgh is very pretty but very expensive. If you are more for an outdoor vacation, then Isle of Skye is what you seek, and the Outer Hebrides are just a hour away via ferry.

Sorry, I'll move the politics to the Brexit thread.

Scotland: Welfare Capital of the UK

I used to live there in Glasgow.

I loved Glasgow, its  a bit gritty but I found the people quite friendly and they loved my Southern accent.

Ayrshire and Glasgow are where a number of my ancestors lived (as well as the Highlands).

Glen Coe is out in the country/Highlands and its absolutely wonderful.  Go a bit further north to near Fort William and you may see men in tweed with shotguns over their shoulder hunting.  Edinburgh is beautiful but the people aren't as welcoming but that's really because its a tourist trap. Likewise, Inverness I thought was decent.

I've been all over Scotland but the West Coast I found to be my spiritual home of sorts.

Nothing to do with the topic. And Glasgow ain’t Scotland the same way NYC doesn’t represent Upstate NY.

I charge you with taking a good camera and getting shit-tons of pictures, then posting them here. It is a MORAL IMPERATIVE.

Never been, but I dated a Scot one of the times I lived in Bahrain. She was fucking crazy.

I was gonna say, Dunoon and area are awesome!  I was on a Boomer out of Holy Loch...first thing after arriving was fish n chips at Anselmos, the get drunk at the Victoria Bar.  My nostalgia meter is off the fucking charts right now!  Thank you!

There's plenty to do in Edinburgh too...my favorite town there!  There's a bagpiper on every other corner!

ILP is right Skye, Western Isles, Highlands are the best part of Scotland .

#Clan MacLeod

Looks like Miami Vice in Scotland in the third pic.

I want to go here.

There's a Grand Tour or Top Gear where they did part of the loop. They went on and on about how great it was.

Lol, beat.

Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh is a good hike.

Right above you.

If I wasn't one finger typing tonight, I'd have beaten you :)