From epic hiking to Highland cows and all the Harry Potter experiences we could squeeze in, Scotland was another trip for the books! We visited this past May with my cousin Walter and his wife, Melanie. You may remember them from our we road trip around New Zealand a couple years ago. The four of us enjoy a lot of similar things… you know like stopping at just about every viewpoint for a photo. OK, that may just be Melanie and I but as our drivers WC and Walt have just learned it’s part of the journey, ha!

Anyway, looking back on our itinerary, it’s by no means perfect. But we really covered a lot of ground and saw almost everything that was on our Scotland bucket list. Here we’ve shared a quick overview of what we did each day and we’ve added little notes about some of our favorite experiences.

Our 8 Day Scotland Road Trip Itinerary At-a-Glance:

Day 1 – Edinburgh

• Arrived in Glasgow early afternoon, took Uber to Edinburgh (we’d planned to take the train, but opted for rideshare. It ended up costing about £40 more, but saved hassle and time since we’d only have one full day in Edinburgh)
• Dropped off our luggage at Destiny Scotland Market Street Apartments
• First drink of the trip at an Edinburgh beer garden (Beehive Inn) on Grassmarket
• Wandered Victoria Street and window shopped
• Scotch cocktail at Whiski Rooms (North Bank Street location)
• Dinner at Makars Mash Bar
• After-dinner walk to the top of Calton Hill
• Nightcap & live music at The Doric Tavern (just downstairs from our rental apartment)

Day 2- Edinburgh

• Breakfast at Edinburgh Larder
• Explored Greyfriars Kirkyard and looked for “Harry Potter” graves
• Visited Edinburgh Castle
• Drinks at 1820 Rooftop Bar at the Johnnie Walker Experience
• Lunch at a nearby pub (it wasn’t anything special so I didn’t note the name)
• Wandered over to Dean’s Village
• Said hello to Paddington Bear in St Andrew Square Garden
• Drank a “Butterbeer” at Elephant House (the versions at Universal Orlando + the Harry Potter Studio Tour London are honestly way tastier)
• Dinner at Scran & Scallie
• Live music and drink at Whiski Bar (High Street location)
• Live music at Whistlebinkies (read afterward the vaults under the ‘cursed’ South Bridge are supposed to be one of the most haunted spots in the world — we’d just say it was a hauntingly good time!)

Day 3 – Cairngorms National Park & Inverness

• Pick up rental car at Arnold Clark
• Quick detour to photograph The Kelpies
• Stop in Pitlochry for lunch and window shopping
• Hike and feed the reindeer herd in Cairngorms National Park (one of my top experiences in Scotland!)
• Check-in at the Koko Rooms in Inverness (though brief, we really enjoyed our stay here)
• Live music and a drink at a downtown pub (it was quite crowded standing around the bar and reservation-only for seating)
• Wine & charcuterie dinner at The Walrus & Corkscrew (serves UK meats & cheeses for their boards)
• Walk to the riverfront for a look at Inverness Castle

Day 4 – Inverness, Loch Ness, & Isle of Skye

• Grab-and-go coffee and pastries from Birch cafe
• Pulled over for photos at Loch Ness viewpoints
• Stopped at Eilean Donan Castle (we did not go inside, but you get a beautiful castle view from the parking lot)
• Lunch stop at Fisherman’s Kitchen Kyle
• Wandered the gardens at Dunvegan Castle (we bought the gardens-only ticket; for a few additional pounds per person you can go inside the castle)
• Hiked part of the Fairy Pools path (we went about a mile but not the whole way due to time constraints; this was probably the most crowded hike we did in Scotland)
• Dipped our faces in the water under Sligachan Bridge for seven seconds for “eternal beauty”
• Checked-in at House of Juniper cabins
• Dinner at Ith do leòr Restaurant (be sure to make reservations in Broadford — almost everywhere was fully booked for dinner!)

Day 5 – Isle of Skye

• Early start to hike Old Man of Storr
• Drove to Kilt Rock & Mealt Falls Viewpoint
• Searched for dinosaur prints at An Corran Beach (research where to look before you go.. it will make it much easier!)
• Brunch at The Hungry Gull (one of our fave food stops in Isle of Skye)
• Drove across the island via Quiraing Pass to hike trails at Quiraing (we went out-and-back a couple different directions; there are several paths you can choose from, or do a longer loop)
• Walked the path at Fairy Glen (be on the lookout for fairy doors)
• Wandered the town of Portree
• Take-out pizzas from Gasta in Broadford
• Ate pizza dinner & played card games at our rental cabin

Day 6 – Loch Ness & Fort William

• Slept in a little bit and picked up to-go coffee from Lean-To on the way out of town
• Drove to Fort Augustus taking in views of Loch Ness along the way
• Lunch at Highland Hideout and visited a few gift shops in town
• Drove to Glenfinnan Viaduct and walked to the viewpoint for photos of the famous bridge from Harry Potter (the train was on hiatus while we there)
• Visited Highland Soap Company
• Checked in at the Brevins Guest House, Fort William
• Wandered through downtown Fort William
• Tried local beer at Black Isle Brewery and played cards
• Dinner at Crannog at Garrison West (order the mussels and cullen skink soup!)

Day 7 – Loch Lomond

• Morning walk on the Glencoe Lochan Trail loop
• Hiked the Signal Rock trail and An Torr
• Continued the hike to the location of Hagrid’s hut filming (hut is no longer there)
• Visited the Loch Lomond Bird of Prey Centre with the Fly a Bird Experience add-on (definitely worth it!)
• Checked-in at Balloch House Innkeeper’s Collection Loch Lomond
• Cocktail at Monkey Island café bar
• Dinner and wine/dessert at Balloch House

Day 8 – Glasgow

• Dropped Walter & Melanie early at Glasgow Airport
• Afternoon tea (served all day) at The Willow Tea Rooms at MacKintosh (the savoury option offers some delicious local bites & we loved the “Willow Blend” tea)
• Pollok Country Park to see the Highland cows
• Returned the rental car to Arnold Clark
• Shuttle from Arnold Clark back to the Glasgow Airport
• Flew home to Denver via Iceland Air

Final Thoughts on our 8 Day Scotland Road Trip

And that’s how we spent our 8 day Scotland road trip! In a future post, we plan to delve more into what we did each day and what we loved the most. But, in the meantime, we hope this helps you get started on planning your Scotland adventure!

Have any questions about our itinerary? Drop them in the comments!

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