As I said in the post A trip to Scotland in search of castles , my 7 day itinerary in ontheroad scotland was the opposite of my current travels. Now we just need to do "oil and tire change" on the trolley before departure and "revision" on return.
In any case, yes, now I am much more careful also I believe there is not only one type of travel.
There are moments in life when you want something more concrete and organized, and others, instead, where you let yourself go a little more and the period of road trip in Scotland it was just one of them.
Few fixed points: flight + hostel in Glasgow + hostel in Edinburgh, and the rest?
The rest was pure on the road, so “on” that even the lunch breaks we made in the car. I still remember today the stop at a "frozen" store where we stopped to get something to eat. Well, maybe we shouldn't have underestimated the word "frozen"
Itinerary in Scotland, 7/8 days OnTheRoad
But what was our itinerary of the road trip in Scotland, let's get to the point:
- Flight from BGY to Glasgow with transfer to the city center by train
- 2 nights in Glasgow
- 2 nights in Edinburgh
- 1 night in Aberdeen
- 1 night in Inverness
- Loch Ness lake
- 1 night on the Isle of Skye
- 1 night in Glasgow
I anticipate that this is a trip made in 2007, it is part of the #AmarcordTripMoments now. Unfortunately, I will not be able to be detailed, keep in mind that this is still an excellent road itinerary to visit Scotland.
Apart from the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, which I also loved very much, our trip to Scotland involved turning it counterclockwise with one goal: to go and see the greater number of castles. And that's what we've done.
We spent the first few days in beautiful Glasgow, in this regard I recommend this interesting and complete article written by Claudia on what to see in Glasgow.
After this city we reached Edinburgh to which we dedicated three days. From Edinburgh we drove to the castles of the North.
We have seen all kinds, from those in the woods to those overlooking the sea, each with its own characteristics but all exaggeratedly beautiful. Once we left Edinburgh we headed towards one of the most famous, certainly one of the largest, namely the Stirling Castle which is located about 40 miles to the North West, about an hour by road.
I absolutely recommend you drop by, it is very impressive on the surrounding area; when you look out over the walls and look in the direction where a few hundred years ago they would have attacked the enemies, you realize how difficult it was to be able to attack such a castle.
The visit is guided and there are also audio guides that allow you to better understand everything Stirling Castle.
After this stage, map in hand, we found a series of castles to visit on the road that led to Aberdeen, a town overlooking the east coast of Scotland. And so ... between one castle and another we stopped for the night in Aberdeen.
I begin with my advice: If your previous trip to Scotland was, perhaps, in Andalucia, you may have a considerable shock. When the Spaniards dine, the Scots are already under the covers with one eye closed and the other as well.
This is to tell you what? If you were to take a road trip to Scotland know that if you want to have dinner or just eat a sandwich in a pub, you need to do it before 19pm, especially in the north. The further north you go, the sooner they eat. With this step I suppose that in Orkney (which unfortunately I have not been able to visit) they have dinner at about 4 in the afternoon. Obviously mine is an exaggeration. The gist of it is: dine early if you don't want to slip into a pizza hut or fish and chips for desperation.
Having said that I recommend the accommodation SYHA, a chain of hostels that seemed very clean to us and is quite widespread in Scotland, so much so that we also stayed at Uig on theIsle of Skye.
The itinerary in Scotland then continues with an interesting visit to one whiskey distillery to Dufftown, then other splendid castles on the way west, towards the city of Inverness where we slept. Again we used the chain of hostels I told you about earlier. There are several alternatives, one of them being guest house, that is, normal homes where they provide you with a room and also make you breakfast the next day. This is a slightly more expensive accommodation than the classic hostels but allows you to get in full contact with the Scottish reality.
Inverness is a bit of a hub. To the north go to Orkney, to the south go to the "lake" of LochNess. Virgoletto the word lake because in the end it is simply a widening of the river, it becomes an elongated "lake", precisely a Loch.
In the next stage of our itinerary in Scotland, we reached the Isle of Skye via the Skye bridge, we reached the tip to the north and slept in the town of Uig.
The Isle of Skye is a stop that you really must not miss.
To return to Glasgow we followed a path that led us to discover two truly fabulous villages, you can't get lost Fort Williams ed Oban.
Ok! I seem to have told you almost everything. except tell you about the weather factor.
Don't forget that Scotland isn't famous for sunbathing. If you go in October you will find a weather almost similar to the Spanish one, perhaps a few degrees less. But what "kills" you is the humidity, then cover up and get organized with raincoats. If you take water it becomes difficult to get rid of the cold sensation. Regarding the rain, also know that if you go out in the morning with the sun, it is very likely that the situation is completely different even after just a few hours. Time is therefore very variable, do not underestimate it.
Conclusions
This is a great itinerary to make a trip of about 7/8 days. It would be better to give him a few more days and also go to Orkney in complete tranquility. To be able to complete the tour, we have done the last 4 days a little tight. In fact, we covered about 1600 miles in 4 days, but it was worth it because it was a memorable experience, also thanks to the Scottish people who seemed much warmer and more welcoming than their English cousins.
