My Scotland road trip - help me plan it

[KrunkFu]

Hello all. After years of faffing about I'm finally getting around to visiting Scotland. The basics of my plan are as follows...

1. Rent something outrageous to drive
2. Day 1 - Drive from London to Edinburgh. Check into a hotel. See a list of sights in and around then area then spend the evening out in the city.
3. Day 2 - Drive to John O'Groats.
4. Day 3 - Spend as much time in the country before a late night drive back home.

As you can see, there is a lot of time still available on my itinerary and I'd be grateful for any suggestions of things to do/places to see. I'm after some stunning scenery which shouldn't be too hard to find, but mainly just want a great few days away from the carnage of London. I thought one of the whiskey distilleries would be worth a stop? I've had a look on sites like TripAdvisor etc but they cause information overload and I'd much rather have some personal suggestions.

Thanks everyone and I may well see you soon

[S2red]

Er dare I say it lot of driving not much time for sightseeing

London - Edinburgh 7hrs+ depending on stops & traffic

Edinburgh - John o groats 6hrs+ depending on stops & traffic

So 13 or so back

[Rockatansky]

With all due respect to John O' Groats, unless you *really* want to go there I'd suggest you don't.

Head north from Edin and split off to the west (Applecross, Torridon, Ullapool, Tongue etc).

Roads and scenery are nicer that way IMHO.

[ian2144]

Rockatansky said:

With all due respect to John O' Groats, unless you *really* want to go there I'd suggest you don't.

Head north from Edin and split off to the west (Applecross, Torridon, Ullapool, Tongue etc).

Roads and scenery are nicer that way IMHO.

I concur..

[robinh20mrv]

+1 much nicer!

[Size Nine Elm]

I'd also suggest you fly up (volcanos permitting) and hire a car locally. Better than wasting 800 miles (and 16 hours) of something fun to drive on the A1/M1/M6 or whatever.

And forget JOG - much better to head to the north-west.

So revised itinerary:

Day 1 - Fly to Edin/Glasgow and pick up nice car. Drive to Oban/Fort William
Day 2 - Drive from Fort William up to Ullapool, then back to Inverness.
Day 3 - Inverness back to Glasgow/Edin via a meandering route through the Grampians. Fly back.

[S2red]

Or speak to these folk and see what they could hire you

http://www.cccedinburgh.co.uk/contact.html

[More Steam]

ian2144 said:

Rockatansky said:

With all due respect to John O' Groats, unless you *really* want to go there I'd suggest you don't.

Head north from Edin and split off to the west (Applecross, Torridon, Ullapool, Tongue etc).

Roads and scenery are nicer that way IMHO.

I concur..

+1

Even better is to head over to Oban, then Ft. William on the way north. Take a rain coat for Ft. William though.

[scotty_d]

As above what they have said but for more ideas i like this write up on a S2k fourm take our pick from some of this.

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=733...

[sherman]

Read this its the only touring route you need
http://www.stevecarter.com/bestuk.htm

[alfa pint]

If you're coming up to Edinburgh first then come off the A1 just past Morpeth onto the A697 for one of the best roads in the country. Keep an eye out for the rozzers on the long straights, but there's no speed cameras until you get across the border (first one just outside Coldstream). The road then joins the A68 and takes you up to Edinburgh from there.

[naetype]

Don't trust that Mr Carter, I'm sure he gets up to some Photoshop malarky sometimes



See, there's no daft road markings at all on this road

However there are other roads up Shieldaig way like this:



Which are pretty nice. I like Gairloch:



And if you book into the Myrtle Bank Hotel you get this view from your bedroom window:



Which is quite nice. Especially in the morning as you can see over to Skye:



And there's also this little VeeDub oddity parked outside:



Then on the way home you can get views like this:





Yup, this was my excuse to post pretty pictures of my drive to work this week...
and seeing as they were done on my tiny handheld compact I think they came out quite good really

Edited by naetype on Thursday 22 April 22:45

[M1KEY]

Rockatansky said:

With all due respect to John O' Groats, unless you *really* want to go there I'd suggest you don't.

Head north from Edin and split off to the west (Applecross, Torridon, Ullapool, Tongue etc).

Roads and scenery are nicer that way IMHO.

Yep, I agree and the original schedule does sound a bit optimistic. Flying up and hiring something up here sounds like a better plan.