Schotland sightseeing/roadtrip plan: please advise me
Discussion
Hello,
I'm from Belgium and new to this board.
I'm planning a roadtrip to schotland this summer ( probably september ) with my recently bought BMW M3 E46.
It's not a pure driving holiday, I want to visit stuff too.
As I have no idea about the condition of the roads in Schotland and how fast we will drive from point to point I was wondering if you could advise me a bit.
I visited some sites and made some kind of my own route:
Day 1: From Calais to Folkestone, using the Eurotunnel. Then From Folkestone to Edinburgh (someone told me to visit this city)
Day 2: From EdinBurgh to Blairgowrie to Cairngorms National Park (part of the old military road) and the day end in Aviemore
Day 3: From Aviemore to Skye
Day 4: Isle of SKye and neigborhoud tour: Coral Beach, Isle Of Harris, Quiraing, Neist Point
Day 5: Isle of Sky to Loch Ness
Day 6: Loch Ness to Loch Lomond (visiting Fort William), through to the A82.
Day 7: Loch Lomond to Conic Hill , GlenFinnan, Ben A'am
Day 8: All the way back home, to folkestone
Can You advise me?
Am I making huge mistakes here? Is my schedule realistic or complete madness? Things like that
Thanks in advance guys
Kind regards
Matthew
I'm from Belgium and new to this board.
I'm planning a roadtrip to schotland this summer ( probably september ) with my recently bought BMW M3 E46.
It's not a pure driving holiday, I want to visit stuff too.
As I have no idea about the condition of the roads in Schotland and how fast we will drive from point to point I was wondering if you could advise me a bit.
I visited some sites and made some kind of my own route:
Day 1: From Calais to Folkestone, using the Eurotunnel. Then From Folkestone to Edinburgh (someone told me to visit this city)
Day 2: From EdinBurgh to Blairgowrie to Cairngorms National Park (part of the old military road) and the day end in Aviemore
Day 3: From Aviemore to Skye
Day 4: Isle of SKye and neigborhoud tour: Coral Beach, Isle Of Harris, Quiraing, Neist Point
Day 5: Isle of Sky to Loch Ness
Day 6: Loch Ness to Loch Lomond (visiting Fort William), through to the A82.
Day 7: Loch Lomond to Conic Hill , GlenFinnan, Ben A'am
Day 8: All the way back home, to folkestone
Can You advise me?
Am I making huge mistakes here? Is my schedule realistic or complete madness? Things like that
Thanks in advance guys
Kind regards
Matthew
Mr MXT said:
Get the ferry to Newcastle and start your trip from there.
Folks time to Edinburgh will be a major trek.
Why would you do that? What advantage does it have ? newcastle Ireland, you mean ?Folks time to Edinburgh will be a major trek.
The eurotunnel saves me a lot of time in comparison with any ferry. Not mentioning the fact that I will have to drive to IJmuiden, Netherlands, to take a ferry to Newcastle Ireland, which takes me another 2 hours.
Thank you for the quick response already !
Edited by rabbit1986 on Tuesday 20th January 21:19
Edited by rabbit1986 on Tuesday 20th January 21:20
Janluke said:
Think about staying on the outskirts of Edinburgh, the centre isnt great for car parking and the public transport links from the outskirts are quite good, tram, trains, park and ride etc.
Assuming Blairgowrie to Aviemore is via Glenshee, Braemar Tomintoul etc rather than back onto A9
Yes, it is via Brudge of calli, Glenshee ski centre,...Assuming Blairgowrie to Aviemore is via Glenshee, Braemar Tomintoul etc rather than back onto A9
ianrb said:
Newcastle Upon Tyne, it's on the east coast on England, about 80Km south of the Scottish border.
It means you can avoid the drive up from the south of England, which regardless of the route you take will be tedious.
From Newcastle you can get on to interesting roads north, e.g. A68.
Damn, I already investigated that option. There was a ferry from ijmuiden (nl) to newcastle. But as the websites never mentioned 'upon thyne', I thought we would arrive in Ireland. If it really is upon thyne, that would be bloody great ! It means you can avoid the drive up from the south of England, which regardless of the route you take will be tedious.
From Newcastle you can get on to interesting roads north, e.g. A68.
As for the other reactions, thanks a lot ! I will read them tomorrow and reroute where needed. Did not have too much time this evening.
You guys are a great help!
I'm planning day 2, but it's getting too long, as I still have to get the ferry in Glenelsh 
Anyone has better suggestions? Or points that I can safely avoid?
https://www.google.be/maps/dir/Aviemore,+Highland+...
Anyone has better suggestions? Or points that I can safely avoid?
https://www.google.be/maps/dir/Aviemore,+Highland+...
s2kjock said:
This is too long a day for you - the route from Janluke above is a much better suggestion.
Also, there is no road down from Poolewe to the North East side of Loch Maree, nor any ferry onto the islands in the middle!
You have to remember that a fair bit of the more interesting roads in the Scottish Highlands are twisty, single track with passing places, sometimes poor quality - quite a low average speed really, especially if you get held up behind other traffic. Other A roads vary in quality - some are very good and fast, but are all still single track.
I think you will find the scenery very impressive - if you want to stop and enjoy it, take photos, have nice leisurely lunches in various places, visit tourist type places, you may need to be less ambitious with your planned daily mileage.
I have done many group car tours in the Scottish Highlands, and generally doing 190 to 220 miles a day, c 7 hours on Google map routing is more than enough and that is us leaving c 9.30, stop half an hour for coffee in morning and afternoon, 1 to 1.5 hour lunch, but with the rest of the time "enjoying" driving the roads (ie not taking our time) and not stopping to look at the lovely scenery much.
It's a long time since I have been to Culloden, but it would not be on my list of places to visit if I had to do a 10 day tour of Scotland really - nothing special. Better to spend time on day 2 at say Eilean Donan Castle.
Also, the accommodation choices in Glenelg are limited - the Inn certainly didn't used to be up to much - what sort of nightly accommodation budget do you have?
Our nightly budget isn't that great.Also, there is no road down from Poolewe to the North East side of Loch Maree, nor any ferry onto the islands in the middle!
You have to remember that a fair bit of the more interesting roads in the Scottish Highlands are twisty, single track with passing places, sometimes poor quality - quite a low average speed really, especially if you get held up behind other traffic. Other A roads vary in quality - some are very good and fast, but are all still single track.
I think you will find the scenery very impressive - if you want to stop and enjoy it, take photos, have nice leisurely lunches in various places, visit tourist type places, you may need to be less ambitious with your planned daily mileage.
I have done many group car tours in the Scottish Highlands, and generally doing 190 to 220 miles a day, c 7 hours on Google map routing is more than enough and that is us leaving c 9.30, stop half an hour for coffee in morning and afternoon, 1 to 1.5 hour lunch, but with the rest of the time "enjoying" driving the roads (ie not taking our time) and not stopping to look at the lovely scenery much.
It's a long time since I have been to Culloden, but it would not be on my list of places to visit if I had to do a 10 day tour of Scotland really - nothing special. Better to spend time on day 2 at say Eilean Donan Castle.
Also, the accommodation choices in Glenelg are limited - the Inn certainly didn't used to be up to much - what sort of nightly accommodation budget do you have?
Edited by s2kjock on Saturday 24th January 12:45
We are looking to spend about 100 - 130 euros/ night/ 2 persons.
So we're looking for cheap hotels/hostels...
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