October in Scotland

[violagirl]

We are planning a trip to Scotland in October. 

At the moment we are trying to decide if we want to stay in a different place most nights, or find a central location and do day trips. 

We are mainly going for whisky and scenery. We were thinking of staying at Arden house in Cairngorm(?) park for a few days and travelling from there. We had a long list of distilleries to visit, but decided to try to narrow it down to our favorite 3 which are mostly in the Speyside region. Am I correct in assuming after a few whisky tours we will get bored? I'm assuming it is made pretty much the same no matter where you go. 

We are flying into Edinburgh on a Sunday. Only planning to spend a day there, it is the middle of the week that we are unsure of. Thursday night we are in Oban and then drive back to Edinburgh on Friday. 

Then I was looking at pictures of Cairngorm and think the Western part of Scotland might be prettier. Plus my favorite whisky are Islay ones like Laphroiag and Lagavulin. Is it worth the trip to spend a day going to the islands? Can you only go by ferry? 

We will probably want to tour some kind of castle too. Thinking maybe we can cover that in Edinburgh. My friend wants to go to Loch Ness, but I'm trying to talk her out of it. 

We try to balance "touristy" things with just getting a feel for a place. We prefer not to go to a different hotel every night, but realize the nature of the place, we might have to move more than we like. 

So what places are MUST sees, what places are over rated and do you know of any hidden gems that most people don't see when touring around?

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

We are planning on doing something like this......likely Oct. of next year.

I went to Scotland in the mid 90s and we didn't make any plans, just meandered from area to area, staying at B&Bs long the way.  There is a castle outside of Inverness that is definitely worth checking out.  I'd have to find my stuff to get the name, but while we were at the B&B, there was a couple that was just visiting castles and said it was a "don't miss".  The story behind it was incredible, and it was very well preserved.

IMO, if your favorite malts are the Islay ones, it seems to me that it is worth a trip over to the islands, regardless of how you have to get there.

I think you need to balance what you want to see against the amount of time you will spend getting there.  Driving 150 miles, while it is not hard to do this in the states, it is a LOT more difficult in Scotland as you are going to be driving on narrow, winding roads.  So a lot more car time and less time enjoying the area.  I think that the only place we stayed 2 nights was Edinburgh (other than Glasgow....where my research meeting was).  

[Tennesseer]

Jul 4, 2014 11:41:24 GMT -5 violagirl said:

We are planning a trip to Scotland in October. 

At the moment we are trying to decide if we want to stay in a different place most nights, or find a central location and do day trips. 

We are mainly going for whisky and scenery. We were thinking of staying at Arden house in Cairngorm(?) park for a few days and travelling from there. We had a long list of distilleries to visit, but decided to try to narrow it down to our favorite 3 which are mostly in the Speyside region. Am I correct in assuming after a few whisky tours we will get bored? I'm assuming it is made pretty much the same no matter where you go. 

We are flying into Edinburgh on a Sunday. Only planning to spend a day there, it is the middle of the week that we are unsure of. Thursday night we are in Oban and then drive back to Edinburgh on Friday. 

Then I was looking at pictures of Cairngorm and think the Western part of Scotland might be prettier. Plus my favorite whisky are Islay ones like Laphroiag and Lagavulin. Is it worth the trip to spend a day going to the islands? Can you only go by ferry? 

We will probably want to tour some kind of castle too. Thinking maybe we can cover that in Edinburgh. My friend wants to go to Loch Ness, but I'm trying to talk her out of it. 

We try to balance "touristy" things with just getting a feel for a place. We prefer not to go to a different hotel every night, but realize the nature of the place, we might have to move more than we like. 

So what places are MUST sees, what places are over rated and do you know of any hidden gems that most people don't see when touring around?

Are you taking along a designated driver or will you hire one when you get there?

[Tennesseer]

While in Edinburgh, check out the Edinburgh Vaults.

Edinburgh Vaults

[Gardening Grandma]

When we went to Scotland in 2007 we enjoyed the Edinburgh Castle, the numerous pubs, and the little stone church where my husband's great, grandparents got married in 1865.

[Spellbound454]

You may be out of season for the touristy thing in October

but its very pretty at Glencoe and Loch Lomond and could be nice in the Autumn

Edinburgh is quite picturesque......there's lots of castles, battlefields and historical sites around.....and ancient stone rings

Take a good coat.

[violagirl]

We dont' really want to drive more than 3 hours in a day. Depending on how comfortable we get with the roads, we will probably not want to be driving after dark.  

We have 3 drivers, and we will take turns being the designated driver. And it would be nice to sometimes be in places where we can do some walking. We don't need to be constantly DOING things. We dont' need to be completely scheduled to death, we like some flexibility in case we see something that looks interesting. If we decide to do an Islay tour, we would probably shift our focus a bit more southwesterly.  

Our time in Edinburgh will probably be spent mostly wandering around on foot or public transportation. 

[8 Bit WWBG]

...:::"We have 3 drivers, and we will take turns being the designated driver.":::...

I was there once as a teenager, but we took the train from England.  I don't know if this is a factor in Scotland, but I heard from a friend who visited Ireland that they really gouge Americans on renting cars with automatic transmission.  Most of the rentals are manual but they know that most Americans can't drive stick.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Distillery tours & Castle tours are great.

There's actually 4 castles near Inverness - "Cawdor Castle", "Urquhart Castle", "Brodie Castle", and "Dunrobin Castle" - Dunrobin is probably the most impressive.

All are within 15-30 minutes drive from Inverness - with Dunrobin being the furthest (30 min). The gardens are beautiful - they also have a cafe/eatery.

"Camera Obscura" (Formerly known as "The Tower"), in Edinburgh is an interesting/quirky touristy thing to see too. (This link also has other attractions you can check out besides Camera Obscura)

www.visitscotland.com/en-ca/info/see-do/camera-obscura-and-world-of-illusions-p245621

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jul 4, 2014 13:40:04 GMT -5 8 Bit WWBG said:

...:::"We have 3 drivers, and we will take turns being the designated driver.":::...

I was there once as a teenager, but we took the train from England.  I don't know if this is a factor in Scotland, but I heard from a friend who visited Ireland that they really gouge Americans on renting cars with automatic transmission.  Most of the rentals are manual but they know that most Americans can't drive stick.

It's not quite so easy to get around Scotland without a car.  Inside the cities, yes.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jul 4, 2014 13:42:28 GMT -5 ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ said:

Distillery tours & Castle tours are great.

There's actually 4 castles near Inverness - "Cawdor Castle", "Urquhart Castle", "Brodie Castle", and "Dunrobin Castle" - Dunrobin is probably the most impressive.

All are within 15-30 minutes drive from Inverness - with Dunrobin being the furthest (30 min). The gardens are beautiful - they also have a cafe/eatery.

"Camera Obscura" (Formerly known as "The Tower"), in Edinburgh is an interesting/quirky touristy thing to see too. (This link also has other attractions you can check out besides Camera Obscura)

www.visitscotland.com/en-ca/info/see-do/camera-obscura-and-world-of-illusions-p245621

Cawdor Castle is the one we hit while we were in Inverness.  The castle is built around a tree and as I remember the gardens, they're quite impressive too.  The story behind it is great.

We also went hunting for Nessie.  No luck though, but when we went hunting it was a misty, overcast day and we thought she'd come up.  Some of the tourist spots around were kind of tacky, but it was still fun.

[violagirl]

Since we are paying for the flights and most hotels with various points (Airmiles etc.) we are not too worried about car rental fees. We all can drive stick, but I think it will be tiring enough just to keep the car on the left side of the road let alone shifing all opposite. I also get a discount through work for the car rental. 

I will put those castles by Inverness on my list. 

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jul 4, 2014 14:11:13 GMT -5 violagirl said:

Since we are paying for the flights and most hotels with various points (Airmiles etc.) we are not too worried about car rental fees. We all can drive stick, but I think it will be tiring enough just to keep the car on the left side of the road let alone shifing all opposite. I also get a discount through work for the car rental. 

I will put those castles by Inverness on my list. 

If you are going to spend some time in Edinburgh when you fly in or leave, I would suggest you either your car early or pick it up when you plan on leaving the city.  As I remember it, parking is difficult there and expensive.  I think we wound up getting a parking ticket in Inverness too.

You may want to rethink having 3 drivers for the rental car.  We had a surcharge and chose only one additional driver and it added quite a bit to our bill.  I'd hate to think what 2 additional drivers would cost.  We were able to get an automatic transmission and I we weren't charged extra for it.  I don't remember who we made our reservations for the car rental through though.

Oh.....and I had one more thought.  We had a 'mid sized' car and 3-4 people in our group (we lost one person in Edinburgh, when she left to go back to Israel).  It was a VERY tight fit in the car for 4 adults and our luggage - and we did not have a lot of luggage.  Cars are much smaller there.