Destinations

Places worth your days

• Edinburgh

  Lowlands

  Closes and crags, and the best eating in the country.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Glasgow

  Lowlands

  Scotland's funniest, friendliest city, and its best music.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Loch Lomond

  Trossachs

  The first proper gulp of Highland air, forty minutes from Glasgow.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Stirling

  Central

  The hinge of Scottish history, and a very good castle.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• St Andrews

  Fife

  Ruins, a vast beach and the best chips in Fife.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Pitlochry

  Perthshire

  Big trees, small distilleries, and a very civilised pace.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Glencoe

  West Highlands

  The one that makes people go quiet in the car.

  Needs at least 1 night · car recommended

• Fort William

  Lochaber

  Ben Nevis, the Jacobite steam train, and a lot of weather.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Isle of Skye

  Inner Hebrides

  Worth the drive. Not worth a day trip.

  Needs at least 2 nights · car recommended

• Oban

  Argyll

  Seafood shack on the pier. That's the whole pitch, and it works.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Isle of Mull

  Inner Hebrides

  Eagles, painted houses at Tobermory, and single-track patience.

  Needs at least 2 nights · car recommended

• Loch Ness

  Great Glen

  Famous. Long. Mostly trees.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Inverness

  Highland capital

  Small, useful, and the doorway to everything north.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Cairngorms

  Cairngorms

  Ancient pinewood, reindeer, and the mountains people forget.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Speyside

  Moray

  Fifty distilleries in one river valley. Choose two.

  Needs at least 1 night · car recommended

• Assynt & the North Coast

  North Highlands

  Empty roads, white beaches, and mountains that look invented.

  Needs at least 2 nights · car recommended

• Aberdeenshire Coast

  North East

  Granite towns, cliff-edge castles and puffins in season.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car

• Isle of Arran

  Firth of Clyde

  Scotland in miniature, an hour's ferry from Glasgow.

  Needs at least 1 night · reachable without a car