The PERFECT Scotland Itinerary

Emily in your travels - cozy, festive and blustery for my ideal winter holiday

Hi All - 

So many of you have been asking me about the incredible trip I took to Scotland and for all my recs so I wanted to put it in one easy place for you. I hear from women all the time who want to solo travel or travel with girlfriends and I have a ton of great spots and itineraries all over the world so we will be doing a lot more of that kind of content on here for paid subscribers. 

In my opinion, this is a perfect itinerary for a winter wonderland Scotland trip.  Please note in the Summer you’ll have more crowds to deal with, but better weather (if you like that sort of thing).  It rained or snowed (depending on my elevation) every day I was in Scotland, and at one point I got stuck in a random town because all the roads were shut down by snow.  For me, this isn’t a problem, but if you are not an adventurous traveler make sure to bake in that driving in Scotland is not for the faint of heart.

Note: the hotels.com links in this message are affiliate, but this trip was all just me spending money/points/redeeming credit for a previously canceled trip. Thanks for supporting my work if you decide to book! 

Here’s the itinerary I’d chose to hit the highlights as a nature-lover:

• Edinburgh

• Isle of Skye

• Highlands

• Glencoe

• Cairngorms

MY ITINERARY WITH LINKS AND PICS:

Stirling Castle

I flew into Edinburgh and spent a few nights there seeing museums and the Christmas markets. I stayed at a normalish hotel (Ten Hill Place Hotel) about a 15 minute walk from old town in the student area of the city, I was happy with my choice as it was quiet, there was some good non-touristy food options, and the walk in and out of the city was nice. If you want to splurge, I’d vote for the Kimpton - it looked phenomenal. I also loved the Stockbridge neighborhood to walk around and shop in. The best food I ate was Dishoom, but truly if you are going to Scotland it’s not a foodie tour. I went to The Spence, the Gleneagles Townhouse restaurant. The food was mediocre but the ambiance spectacular, go for a drink or a lookey-loo and skip the meal.

I don’t enjoy struggling to get my luggage into a city train station, so I then took an uber 1 hour west to Stirling and spent one night there (at Hotel Colessio, great location for seeing the castle, acceptable otherwise), I wanted to see one of the more intact castles Scotland has to offer and got to take in a show in the evening.  I was then able to walk easily to the train station early in the morning and take a train directly to Inverness. 

Originally I had planned to stay 1 night in Inverness, but I realized it was getting darker later than I had thought and could skip it entirely (I was going to stay at Royal Highland hotel due to its location next to the train station).  I picked up my rental car from the Arnold Clark near the train station and drove straight to the Isle of Skye.  

A few notes, (1) you can have the car rental place pick you up at the train station, I recommend doing that as its not walkable and finding a cab was a challenge in the small city, (2) I always rent an automatic vehicle when needing to drive on the other side of the road, (3) driving in Scotland is *not* like America, the lanes are smol (SMOL) and often it’s 1 lane for two way traffic. I feel totally comfortable doing this drive, but I specifically start in a smaller city like Inverness.  If you rent a car in Edinburgh you have to navigate tons of traffic and highways while getting used to driving on the other side of the road. 

Kinloch Lodge

You could go to either Isle of Sky or someplace in the Highlands first, it’s interchangeable for the purposes of the itinerary. There’s a reason everyone says Isle of Sky is a bucket list place, the natural beauty is phenomenal.  It rained a LOT while I was there, so if you want to get in some hikes make sure to allocate enough days. I stayed at Eilean Iarmain in a beautiful room with a blue canopy - this hotel is old school and a bit like staying at your old money grandmas house. The guests were mainly British, not American. A lot there for fishing.  The hotel on all the chic people’s list is Kinloch Lodge, it’s just up the road for Eilean Iarmain and I stopped by, it looks gorgeous. Other hotels that looked good were:  Ullinish House, The Flodigarry Hotel and Skeabost House Hotel. 

Eilean Donan

On the way out of Isle of Sky I drove down to see Eilean Donan castle, which I do think is worth the stop but I will also say, the vibes were dark IMO.  I could feel the spirits plotting murders in the walls. But, a neat place to see if nothing more than taking a picture from the parking lot. 

The Torridon

I went up to The Torridon, I stayed *before* the festive season began. “Festive season” in Scottish hotels parlance is Christmas - New Years (Hogmanay), where the fancy hotels all have 3 night packages you must book. These get booked up early and are an added price as they are all inclusive of food/drink/activities. The Torridon has a loyal festive following, and I can see why. The Torridon is an old hunting lodge picturesquely on the water, surrounded by hills and mountains and incredible scenery. It has a fancy restaurant though I ate all my dinners in the bar, it’s lovely to hang out around the fire.  The isolated locations means that guests are often milling about together in the evenings and I struck up a lot of conversations.  There’s a more affordable option down the road, Shieldaig lodge.  While there I paid for two activities: clay pigeon shooting and a guided walk, both were great and worth it. 

From here you could go farther north.  One day I did a drive up to Ardessie Falls and down back in a loop, the views are incredibly, ridiculously beautiful.  There’s an invented tourist attraction called the North Coast 500, which is a route around the north of Scotland. I’d love to stay at Lundies House or the Forss House Hotel, as well as to go east and stay at Glenmorangie House (particularly good for whiskey lovers). 

From the Highlands I drove straight south to Glencoe.  There are lots of options for stops along the way, including Loch Ness (good looking hotels there include Foyers Lodge and The Highland Club).  I had originally wanted to stop at Inverlochy Castle Hotel for one night, in particular the option to have a seated group dinner seemed incredible, but it wasn’t available when I booked.  I stayed at the KingsHouse hotel for a Christmas package.  It’s a lovely hotel if you want to hike the gorgeous area of Glencoe, which I imagine is spectacular in spring. The hotel had lots of families and dogs and we were taken on some lovely guided walks. It was not fancy but the staff was clearly working hard and giving up their holiday to give us the best christmas possible. I heard from others that the Glencoe Hotel is very nice and fancy (private butler type of fancy) if you are looking for that. Sounds like a great honeymoon hotel!

rain.

From Glencoe I intended to drive directly east/ northeast to go to Cairngorms National Park.  To drive direct you have to go up through a ski area on narrow roads, a snowstorm hit and I got locked in a town and then had to drive the long way around to get there. If you are driving in winter make sure to look up road conditions on Twitter and *call* the hotel.  (You won’t be getting a proactive email from them). 

I stayed at The Fife Arms for a hogmanay package.  Fife Arms is often listed on top hotels of the world lists, people go crazy for it. It’s a nice hotel, I enjoyed my time, and I *particularly* enjoyed that they have single person rooms that are cheaper, but I wouldn’t blow my budget for this hotel. There were celebrities staying there and we did mix and mingle, which was fun. They really put on a full events package and there were elegant touches. The owners were there with their family and it was quite homey. My main criticism was that the guests were tiered into two groups, those who were ‘with the family’ and those who weren’t. Luckily I got together with a crew of people and we had a great time, but it was *a very british lesson.* If you are into this hotel's aesthetic, you have to go - it’s executed flawlessly. 

From The Fife Arms I drove down south to Fife (the county). I stayed a few nights in The DunDonald which is a beautiful guesthouse in a town best known for its role in Outlander. (One thing about being an American woman visiting Scotland is … everyone assumes you are there for Outlander-core). Then I stayed in a tiny house on Brucefield Estate which was super quaint and I enjoyed being able to drive around to the various towns on the shore. I particularly liked Elie and, of course, St. Andrews. 

I did drive to a falconry/owl experience for my birthday that was pretty fantastic (if you like that sort of thing).  

Whether you stay at one hotel and do day trips or go from hotel-to-hotel is of course dependent on what type of vacation you are looking for - but if I could do it again I wouldn’t stay in fife (the county) for long and move from place to place a bit more.  There are quite a few hotels I’d like to visit that I didn’t get to, I’ll put those here: 

Gleneagles - this is the ‘top hotel’ in Scotland. I visited and it’s not for me, it’s very large. I’d say stop and get a coffee and walk around the property. Only stay here if you are willing to blow out the budget on activities, then it would be great!

Cromlix - I’m dying to do a festive season at Cromlix, the country house owned by Tennis star Andy Murray, recently refurbished. Nearish to Edinburgh. 

Glenapp - Also dying to do a festive season at Glenapp Castle, which to me is very much giving the closest I can get to living a Downton Abby dream. South west Scotland.

In the Borders: Abbotsford the home of Sir Walter Scott has a rental that looks incredible, though I imagine pricey. Cringletie Estate looks nice, I enjoyed the town of Peebles. 

The Cross Keys, on the way to Loch Lomand, looks lovely

On the west coast, there’s a bunch of hotels that I saved for another trip: Inver Restaurant and Rooms, Kilmartin Castle, the town of Rothesay (in general), Auchrannie Resort, and Glenegedale House.