Scotland Travel Choices

"Hello!

We love your blog and videos and are planning a trip to scotland in early May. We were mostly wondering about whether to "hire" a car or try to catch buses to each place (we'd like to see Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Skye, and possibly Loch Lomond and Ben Nevis.) Also if there's any particular advice you'd like to impart we'd be grateful for it :)

Thanks so much!"

Your trip sounds very similar to what Krystin and I did in Scotland so we can tell you what worked for us.

We took a train from London to Edinburgh, and I'm pretty sure it was a train up to Inverness.  Edinburgh and Glasgow are such large cities, there will be plenty of trains back and forth between those areas.  Once we reached Inverness we took one of those day tours that drops you off at a couple castles and takes you out on a boat on Loch Ness in search of Nessie.  The tour company was Jacobite and must have been affordable otherwise we wouldn't have done it. 

After Inverness there was a bus that goes out to the Isle of Skye, which has amazing scenery on the way there.  The larger coach type bus dropped us off in Portree, and a commuter bus makes a large circle around the island to hop on and off.  We even hitch hiked a couple times around the island when we got bored of waiting for the bus.  Skye is one of the most beautiful places on earth!!!!

So to answer the question if a car is "necessary"?  You can get around most of the UK by public transportation and see most of the things on your list.  Krystin and I only hired a car twice when we lived in England.  Once was for a day to get us from Bath to Oxford, and we wanted to stop at Stonehenge and Avebury, which us driving was cheaper than the tour bus.  The convenience is also great to stop in the small villages along the way and we also wouldn't have been able to walk in a crop circle if we didn't have the car.

The other trip was to the Lake District and it was very nice to have since we were camping and had a ton of gear.  We could also get to those random hiking trails the normal tour bus or commuter bus can't get to.  Also the convenience of stopping and taking a photo as often as you want.

Both have their ups and downs and it might come down to budget.  If it were me I'd probably get between the bigger cities like Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness by train.  Then if you want to have the convenience of a car, pick one up in Inverness to see all your Lochs and the Isle of Skye.  Drop it back off in Inverness after a few days and head out by train back to the big city airport.  Remember that a one way ride in a car adds a big fee, gas is about $10 a gallon (granted the cars are small and will most likely get 30-40 mpg), most cars are manual transmission, and insurance is extra.  I paid the extra 15 pounds a day and used it on my one way journey - when dropping the car off in Oxford, I was looking for the return lot more than at the road and crushed a curb with the wheel 100 yards from the parking lot.  I told the guy when I returned the car, he looked at the paper, said I bought the insurance and not to worry about the rim I demolished.