MINESSAA: Scotland Itinerary (with full map)

Visiting Scotland was Fabio's father's dream for many many years, so we decided that the Easter break in 2018 was an amazing opportunity to make this dream come true, since I already had a touristic visa for UK. We decided to explore the Highlands region for a while with a rental car and in this post, I wanted to share our itinerary!

From the Edinburgh airport, we rented a car and hit the road!

Read more: Scottish Highlands Highlights

One of the nicest scenes around was the Forth Bridge along the highway. There are also alternative bridges that you can pass through to see the Forth bridge itself a bit better, but obviously you cannot stop to make photos.

Our first stop is Stirling Castle. Here, you can also visit the town Stirling but we decided to pass. Stirling Castle requires an entrance fee that you can purchase in the castle, or at the entrance of the parking lot, where there are much less people.

Perth: Spending the morning in the castle, it's time for lunch. The castle is located to the city called Stirling, but we drove another half an hour to stop in Perth. It was a cute little town with a river, so it is cute to have a little walk as well.

We only have the morning to spend here in the Cairngorms National Park, even though there are thousands of activities and places to see. Our reception lady suggested us to visit Loch Morlich, because it has a parking lot next to it and it is respectively hidden compared to other attractions, so there are less people.

Inverness: After our amazing morning hike, we drove up to Inverness, which I heard was an amazing cute town. It was nice and sweet to have a walk for about 2 hours, but that was kinda enough. We parked our car near the TKMaxx and started to walk around the city.

Loch Ness Boat Tour: The real reason that we decided to drove all the way to the North was to visit the lake Ness and investigate about the monster, which could be possible only with a nice boat tour, obviously. We started our humble investigation from the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre and booked a boat tour with a small group of other visitors. The tour takes 1 hour and the transportation from the centre takes about 5 minutes by shuttle buses.

Morlea BB is our hotel for the night and we all fell in love! The rooms were incredibly cute and the perfect definition of a bed and breakfast!

Urquhart Castle: This destroyed but amazing castle is open for visitors and tourists to discover, so we went there to check it out on our way. But, I must say that we changed our minds instantly, when we learned that the entrance costs about 8£ and realized we have a long day ahead of us. Nevertheless, we took some cool photos with Loch Ness in the background from the car park, so that's something.

Allt na Criche: there is the cutest brick bridge and best view of Loch Ness behind the long trees. This is the best place for hiking or riding some bike as well, but we hurry up to reach Fort Augustus.

Fort Augustus: This is a small town, so there are some restaurants, bars or gift shops around here and there. The artificial Caledonian canal connects many lakes in the region to each other for transporting the boats between different lakes and gives a unique look to this little town.

Invergarry Castle: Exploring the region from google maps, we discover this destroyed castle, which looked the same as the castle in Game of Thrones (SPOILER: in which the sister of Ned Stark gave birth to Jon Snow) so we felt like we definitely had to go! Unfortunately, it was so much destroyed that going inside or even going close to the castle was forbidden. Still, it was worth!

Fort William: On the way to Fort William, we found this cute farm along the way finally to see the famous Scottish cows! I literally waited for about 10 minutes to capture their face ready to shoot with my camera, but they never stopped eating, not even for a second. Well, cows will be cows, I am happy to learn this detail about Scottish cows, they are hungry!

We stopped in Fort William for another lunch/coffee break and a quick visit.

Glenfinnan Viaduct: We drive for about 40 minutes to reach this glorious viaduct, which is famous since Harry Potter movie.

Glencoe: The rest of the day passed by driving around the Glencoe valley to find different car parks to stop and shoot some photos and look around. And maybe take some selfies here and there. We don't have much time for hiking and we are with family, who are not up to hiking, this is why we just follow the photo points here and there to appreciate the area.

Unfortunately, we had to drive until we reach our accommodation, Corrie Bank BB.

Kilchurn Castle: Since we spent the night around Loch Awe the previous night, we decided to stop in the Kilchurn Castle car park to take a little glance from around. Unfortunately, we couldn't reach there since there was a locked gate between us, but this castle is actually on the cover of an old version of LonelyPlanet guide book, so it was worth.

Falls of Falloch: We dedicated our morning to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, even if it could have been much longer. Our first stop in the park is the Falls of Falloch. It requires some easy walking to reach the falls and it was worth. You can also find the metal cage that was made as a part of the woven sound experiment. While receiving the strange airplane like sound instead of the waterfall sound due to the metal structure, you can also get the best view to capture the waterfall.

Loch Lomond: To visit the Loch Lomond, we made a couple of stops, but the best of all is for sure the Inveruglas Pyramid. Again, if you have time or energy, this place is amazing for hiking or other activities.

Melrose Abbey: After an intense natural 3 days, we decided to take the advantage of having a car and visit also Melrose Abbey before we handed the car. The city Melrose is more under the British effect and I actually like to see how it was different than other little towns we visited in the north. When it comes to the abbey, it was destroyed but has an amazing sensation. One of the most preserved towers is open for visitors to climb and observe the panaromic view.

Edinburgh: We have one day to walk around the capital, visit Edinburgh castle, walk on the Royal Mile and many more.