The Highlands are one day away.
Edinburgh’s closes and vaults, Glencoe and Loch Ness in a single run, three days out to Skye, and the distilleries in between. What each day is like, what it costs, where to book.
Seven days that carry a first trip.
These are the days that end up in the photographs: the run down the A82 through Glencoe, an hour on Loch Ness with Urquhart Castle on the shore, and the vaults under South Bridge once it is properly dark.
Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands, Glencoe and Pitlochry Tour
One day from Edinburgh to Loch Ness, Glencoe, and Pitlochry, with optional cruise or whisky tasting on a comfy air-conditioned coach.
From $67 per person
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The A82 does the heavy lifting.
Out of Edinburgh before eight, across Rannoch Moor by mid-morning, then down through Glencoe with the Three Sisters on your right and north to Loch Ness for the boat. Twelve hours and the best road in the country running through the middle of it.
How far north can you get?
Everything past Perth costs road time, and the right answer changes with how many days you have. Three ways to take it on: pick the one that matches your dates.
One long day
All of it in one day
12 hours (approx.) · from $84 · 6,022 reviews
Leave Edinburgh or Glasgow at dawn and you can still have Glencoe, Loch Ness and an hour on the water before dark. Most of it passes through the window, but you see the country at its widest. Best from May to September, when the light holds past nine.
Look at the one-day runs →
Two or three days
Go as far as Skye
12 hours (approx.) · from $58 · 2,039 reviews
Skye is too far to see properly and be back the same night. The two- and three-day runs sleep in Portree or Kyle, which buys you the Quiraing in first light and the Old Man of Storr without a coach park. Book the accommodation-included options early for summer.
Look at the Skye runs →
Start further north
Base yourself in Inverness
9 hours (approx.) · 1,384 reviews
Take the train or fly to Inverness and the driving halves. Loch Ness is twenty minutes out, Culloden and the Clava Cairns fill a morning, and Skye becomes a comfortable day return. The obvious move if the Highlands are the point of the trip.
Tours out of Inverness →
The Old Town keeps its history downstairs.
The vaults under South Bridge were built in 1788 and abandoned inside thirty years. Greyfriars is a working graveyard with a locked corner. Both open at night, both only with a guide, and both are colder than you expect.
Whisky is a working industry here.
The distilleries that open their doors do it properly: mash tun, wash backs, the copper stills, then a tasting sitting down. Speyside for the classic malts, Islay for the peat, and a handful in Edinburgh and Glasgow you can reach on foot.
The filming sites are real places.
Doune Castle was a Stewart stronghold centuries before a camera crew arrived. Culross is a sixteenth-century burgh people still live in, and the Glenfinnan viaduct carries a working railway. The better tours give you both stories.
A thousand castles, a dozen worth a day.
Edinburgh on its plug of volcanic rock. Stirling at the neck of the country, where the crossings were. Eilean Donan where three sea lochs meet, and Kilchurn falling slowly into Loch Awe. Entry is often extra, so check what the ticket covers.
Six regions, six different trips.
Edinburgh for the closes and the castle rock. Glasgow for the architecture and the music. The Great Glen for Loch Ness. Glencoe for the road itself, Skye for the ridge lines, and Stirling for the ground it was all fought over.
Two hours, or two weeks.
Twelve ways in. Some are two hours on foot with a guide who knows the closes; some are a week on the road with the ferries booked.
Most of the country is a day return.
From Edinburgh or Glasgow the good days out run north and west: Loch Ness and Glencoe on the long one, Stirling and Loch Lomond on the short, St Andrews and the Fife fishing villages east along the coast.
If you only get three days.
Nobody sees Scotland in three days, but you can see three very different parts of it. This is the order that works from an Edinburgh base, with the driving day in the middle.
Day 1
The city on the rock
The castle at opening, the Royal Mile downhill with someone who knows which closes to turn into, and the vaults under South Bridge once it goes dark. Nothing on it is more than ten minutes from the last thing.
Plan day one →
Day 2
The long road north
The early coach across Rannoch Moor and down through Glencoe, an hour on Loch Ness with Urquhart Castle on the far shore, then back down the A9 in the dark. The day people remember.
Plan day two →
Day 3
West to Stirling and the loch
Stirling Castle in the morning, the Wallace Monument if the legs are willing, then Loch Lomond and the Kelpies on the way back. Half the driving of yesterday, and you are home by six.
Plan day three →
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