Tour Full Scotland & The Hebrides Islands (11 days)

DAY 1: Historical Day; Abbeys and Scottish villages!

Regions: The Kingdom of Fife & Perthshire!

First day, let’s go!. Today we are going to visit mainly the regions of the Kingdom of Fife (one of the ancient Pictish kingdoms) and Perthshire, in addition to the impressive views from under the three bridges of Edinburgh over the Firth of Forth, truly impressive engineering works that are among the largest in the world within their characteristics and one of them named a World Heritage Site, we will stop to admire them in the picturesque village of South Queensferry where kings used to disembark from the Kingdom of Fife. We then visit Dunfermline Abbey, a city twinned with Logroño, capital of La Rioja in Spain. It is known for being the resting place for King “Robert The Bruce” who achieved Scottish Sovereignty against the invasion of English troops led by Edward II of England. Here his body is buried, separated from his heart which is said to be in another abbey of the Scottish Borders, Melrose Abbey, to avoid in those years, being completely located and suffering the same fate as the also national hero William Wallace at the hands of Edward I. We will also walk through St. Andrews, one of the oldest and most famous cities in Scotland that gives its name to its flag (St. Andrew’s Cross) and where the relics of the saint himself are said to have arrived. This small city possesses the third most important university in all of the United Kingdom, as well as the remains of its cathedral which was the largest in Scotland and residence of the most important Bishops. We also see the ruins of its castle and the huge beach where the movie “Chariots of Fire” was filmed. St. Andrews is the “Cradle of Golf” and Mecca for lovers of this sport. We also cross the small city of Dundee known for its medical research centers, university and where the first computer in the world is said to have been manufactured. There are still more wonders today to see for example: the impressive Glamis Castle and its gardens, where Princess Margaret of England was born, we explore it in search of the mischievous ghosts that inhabit it. In addition, we are going to see the old and beautiful village of Dunkeld to then reach Pitlochry, the Victorian Scottish village par excellence where we will finish our beautiful and historical day enjoying a good dinner by the hearth of some typical Scottish pub and we will rest from this intense and enlightening day!

DAY 2: Castles and Whisky Distilleries!

Regions: Cairngorms National Park & Royal Deeside!

Good and Beautiful morning! An incredible and wonderful second day awaits us today. In full nature and Cairngorms National Park, the largest Nature Reserve in all of Scotland. We will not be able to stop giving credit today to so much wild and natural beauty!. We begin the day taking a breath and visiting one of the largest whisky distilleries in the country and that is because we are in the country of the “Water of Life” as the ancient Pictish Celts of Alba already called it!, we learn about its natural production process and we taste it if we feel like it and after this interesting visit we launch into adventure and exploration. We are going to visit either the gardens of Balmoral Castle if we do it from April to July, as in August it is the resting place of the British Royal Family, or the Castle of the bucolic and typical Scottish town of Braemar if we do it on other dates. Beautiful village this one in the middle of the cold National Park that will leave us surprised. But…. we haven’t finished surprising you today, we are going to “storm” a Castle Citadel that you have probably seen in many images of beautiful Scotland, the beautiful Dunnottar Castle on the edge of a cliff appearing over a small peninsula to the brave and cold North Sea and to put the final touch to this varied and beautiful day full of film images, we will dine and rest in the Granite City or European Capital of Oil: Aberdeen!

DAY 3: Picturesque, varied and active day!

Regions: Aberdeenshire & Moray Firth!

Well well; a jewel of a day, designed with such devotion for the impressive mix of landscapes and colors that it is one of our favorites and that is how we are going to make you feel it! We head today towards the Northeast coast of the Moray Firth, we go along this beautiful route towards what was the largest Pictish Celtic fort of Alba! Over an impressive elevation that breaks into the North Sea we visit this settlement that transports us to past times and it is that Scotland is a modern country but full of incredible and rugged history and legends and that is how it is preserved, as if time had not passed through it and that is how it will make us feel! Since, as we have mentioned, we are in the country of Whisky, we are also going to take you to perhaps the most famous distillery in the whole world, the one that produces “Chivas Regal” whisky among other brands. The distillery itself is a beautiful Scottish villa as we are going to see. Well, we have so much left to see and enjoy that the day is going to be very short although in reality it is full of brilliant content! We visit the gardens and the enchanted forest of Cawdor Castle and it is in this beautiful castle in connection with Shakespeare’s work; “Macbeth” its wild and natural forest is more famous with its characteristic Redwoods than the beautiful castle itself, we explore it!. We hope you are enjoying this beautiful day, but we still have to see an impressive beach with its colored houses, the largest Pictish Dolmen in all of Scotland, the military fortress strategically built watching over the Moray Firth and the largest in all of UK and we explore the prehistoric dolmens that transport the protagonists of the famous series “Outlander” to the 18th century in the middle of the Jacobite wars, where sadly the most painful battle in the history of Scotland did take place, we see the battlefield where the events happened; “Culloden Battlefield”. To end this wonderful and picturesque day we head to the Capital of the Highlands without known limits; Inverness; where we will dine and rest comfortably near the river that crosses it; the River Ness!

DAY 4: Amazing day; Loch Ness, Palaces & Cliffs!

Regions: Loch Ness and the Far North; Caithness & Sutherland!

Amazing day today as well and it is that in each one we surpass the previous one! This is what it’s about, this is what we deal with at ScotlandTrips, to surpass everything and everyone, also ourselves for you, to make you enjoy as much as possible in each of our programs and Scotland offers itself to it, it offers its great secrets of the past for us to discover them, it doesn’t hide them, you just have to have true devotion for them to find them and know how to enjoy them like one more native of this beautiful land, understanding in each of our visits and feeling what this incredible country has been, its extraordinary beauty and its hard and complex past, you just have to listen to it, let it get inside you and it really does, it leaves no one who visits it indifferent, we are going to show it to you today as well. Let’s go, we launch ourselves into the huge and mysterious Loch Ness, literally but by boat of course, the water is too cold to swim ☺ we take a beautiful boat and sail for an hour in the second deepest waters of the country after those of Loch Morar and it is that this huge Glacial tongue that flows into the cold North Sea and with its more than 36 km in length and more than 230 meters deep is the lake that contains more fresh water in the entire United Kingdom, even more than all the lakes in England and Wales combined, we don’t know if its inhabitant Nessie will be there waiting for us or not, what we do know is that this majestic lake has many hidden secrets and well it can have them, one of them is the ancient Urquhart Castle whose oldest rocks according to the Carbon 14 test date from the year 600, 7th century, we are going to “storm” it by disembarking at it. Well, we have much more adventure for today and magical places to discover, among others the ruins and cliff of the ancient Castle of Wick, name of Viking origin of this important Scottish town where a good dinner and rest will comfort us today, not without first visiting the picturesque town of Dornoch and the grand French-style Palace and gardens of Dunrobin!, incredible sea views and beautiful battlements!.

DAY 5: To the conquest of the far North Coast!

Regions: Caithness & Sutherland!

Have we woken up well and with strength?, We are going to need them, we have to have a good Scottish breakfast, we are going to the sparsely populated lands of the North Coast! We set off towards the northeast corner of Scotland, where we find some impressive rock needles emerging from the North Sea at the foot of some huge cliffs over which a gigantic lighthouse is found, we visit “Duncansby Head” in John O’Groats and enjoy its overwhelming views. We will first visit other huge and challenging cliffs over which the ruins of the ancient Sinclair Castle are found and it certainly was impregnable. Well, we are not going to give you a rest, not because we know you are enjoying it so much that Scotland lets itself be loved and makes itself respected too, so it has more secrets to offer us like our visit to the Castle of Mey, bought and renovated by the Queen Mother of England in 1952 and where she spent many of her summers. We also visit the northernmost lighthouse of the Scottish mainland: “Dunnet Head” and its impressive cliff among many other incredible points, but this is not all on this day of natural beauty in its pure state. We continue our route of discovery to, after crossing Thurso, the northernmost Scottish town on the mainland, we show you “Smoo Cave”, a large grotto watered by an internal river in Durness next to its wonderful white sand beach, yes, already on the Atlantic Ocean, a coast dotted with wonderful white beaches and huge sea inlets that we cross by very long bridges like the one we cross in Tongue. Impressive images that we will spot along our route like the beautiful views from Ardvreck Castle on Loch Assynt until reaching rest at one of the jewels of the jagged and wild Northwest coast. In Ullapool with its white little houses we will rest and enjoy our night today!

DAY 6: Day of Excursions and Sailing!

Regions: The Wild Northwest Coast!

Incredible and bucolic day today! How to explain to you the beautiful day of nature that awaits us today in which we are going to visit the points that are unforgivable to overlook in the region of Wester Ross, known as the most beautiful, jagged and wild coast of all Scotland, it cannot be explained, let’s live it and feel it for ourselves!. Today is going to be unforgettable in terms of landscapes and nature. Starting from the beautiful village of Ullapool we launch into a three-hour cruise through the summer islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and yes, that’s what they are called: “Summer Isles”. We will see curious seals watching us and perhaps some mischievous dolphin or whale. Magnificent expedition this morning, you are going to love it!. After disembarking we set course for another beautiful little village with also all its white-painted houses; Plockton “The Jewel of the Highlands” as it is known, we will see tropical trees decorating its bay in the middle of the Scottish climate. On our route to Plockton we will see the impressive Corrieshalloch Gorge waterfall, Loch Ewe together with its village, the Inverewe Gardens with its great diversity of plants and birds, the village of Gairloch and the impressive views over the white beach of Red Point. Another bucolic Scottish village we visit is Shieldaig, seeing from its fishing bay its small and quiet island in the center of it. In addition to the typical Highland cows, this day with a bit of luck we will even see perhaps we can pet stags in the Torridon microsystem near its beautiful lake and we will not overlook one of the largest and most wonderful lakes of Alba; “Loch Maree” with its inland islands is a delight for the eyes and the senses. We enjoy our great dinner, rest and perhaps the pleasant night chatting with some of the friendly Scots of Plockton and their live Folk music!

DAY 7: Cliffs and Incredible Landscapes!

Regions: The Beautiful Isle of Skye!

Wake up! Up! We already know you don’t believe the beauty of the places you have visited until today, but today, on our seventh day we are going to see even more natural beauty; we travel to the Island “Loved by the Camera”, the Island of Cinema as the beautiful Isle of Skye is known!. Numerous film directors such as Steven Spielberg have chosen this beautiful island for its beauty to film their exteriors and surpassing places as beautiful as Norway, The Faroe Islands or Sweden and it is that the Isle of Skye has absolutely everything you can expect from Scotland, it is a natural paradise and famous movies such as: “Prometheus”, “Snow White and the Huntsman”, “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”, “Transformers: The Last Knight”, “The BFG”, “Highlander”, “Macbeth”. As you see, it is not only us who admire the beauty of Skye, but half the world through cinema movies like these and the Fairies, yes, the fairies in the valley that bears their name; “Fairy Glen” so …… we launch into exploring it in depth!. Today we visit its most important “secrets” like; the incredible landscapes of “Quiraing”, the overwhelming views of “Neist Point”, cliffs and lighthouse to which we will make a small walking excursion if you feel like it or the weather allows us, “Kilt Rock” the most famous of the island’s cliffs for having a similar resemblance to the folds of a Kilt or Scottish skirt, we will pass by Dunvegan Castle as another more impressive one awaits us to visit the next day, the cottages where the locals lived long ago; “Skye Museum of Island Life” or the imposing “Old Man of Storr” to reach its capital with its bay and colored houses Portree, where we will have a short break to arrive later at Kyleakin; where we dine and spend this comforting night at the foot of the enormous Skye Bridge! Day of amazing beauty!, Incredible but true as you will be able to see!

DAY 8: Elevated valleys and overwhelming mountains!

Regions: Highlands; Lochaber, Glen Shiel & Glen Coe!

Day 8; a dream come true what we have shown you and you have lived until today and we continue seeing the same natural beauties during the rest of the program. We have already mentioned to you that Scotland has been chosen, in the prestigious “Rough Guide”, by tourists and travelers “The most beautiful country in the world in 2017” and we believe you have already lived first-hand why. It is not only the effect it causes to the sight of anyone who visits it, but the incredible sensations and emotions it produces within oneself, ALBA makes anyone who enjoys a few days in these lands of legend find themselves and their deepest desires and yearnings and you will be feeling it during this wonderful program of Vacations and exploration. Well, get ready because if we haven’t seen enough natural beauty we are going to enter the most romantic Castle in all of Scotland, we leave the Isle of Skye and return to the mainland of Scotland, we will cross the immense bridge that joins this island with the main land of Scotland and we visit “Eilean Donan Castle”. With its only access on foot through an ancient medieval bridge, this castle is located between three lakes with access to the sea and nestled in a truly strategic location. Occupied by Spanish soldiers in the context of the Jacobite wars of the 18th century, it has a long history to tell us. Well, on this day we are also enjoying a continuity of mountains, lakes and valleys like that of “Glen Shiel” that will not allow us to distract our attention for a minute. We visit among many other wonderful views the huge and beautiful lakes of; “Loch Garry”, “Loch Loyne” or “Loch Lochy” to reach going down the Caledonian Canal the Glenfinnan Viaduct and Loch Shiel, better known for the famous Harry Potter sagas. Here we stop to enjoy the historical area where the prince “Bonnie Charles Edward Stuart” landed. We will see later the locks of the Caledonian Canal that crossing all of Scotland join the North Sea with the Atlantic Ocean and we reach the foot of the highest mountain in all of the United Kingdom; “Ben Nevis”, here, in the outdoor sports capital of UK; Fort William, we will take a comforting coffee to continue because no, we haven’t finished seeing jewels of this wonderful and bucolic country but even more, we enter the valley categorized as the most beautiful of ALBA as this wonderful land was called in its original language; Scottish Gaelic, we enter the overwhelming “Valley of Tears” or Glen Coe, we will tell you why it’s named so. Impressive views like the huge “Three Sisters” mountains or “Loch Tulla” await us, scenes from movies like “Braveheart”, “007 Skyfall”, “Harry Potter” or “Rob Roy” to name a few examples, will let us recognize some of the overwhelming views we cross. We don’t give you a rest today, we cannot pass by jewels like the famous postcard view of the ruins of Kilchurn Castle entering Loch Awe and not a single minute is wasted on our trip to Oban, name of Viking origin of this beautiful town that forms a bucolic bay, it is the gateway in the West to the Hebrides islands, here we rest in this beautiful village to embark on an impressive ferry the next morning!

DAY 9: Islands and Sailing day!

Regions: Islands of Mull and Iona!

Good morning! Very good morning and they are going to be incredibly beautiful too, among other things because of the two hours we are going to spend sailing with our vehicle in an impressive multi-story ferry and another smaller one later in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. We are going to enjoy some incredible views of the Hebrides Islands and the typical plays of light of the Scottish sky. We depart from Oban first thing in the morning for it; we embark with our vehicle early and launch into the adventure and exploration of the islands!. We will disembark on the Isle of Mull and we see in passing the filmed Duart Castle for example in the movie “Entrapment” with the proud-to-be-Scottish Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones, the incredible views of the narrow roads of the Isle of Mull!. We head to the mystical Isle of Iona to visit its abbey. The Iona Abbey and Island is one of the most visited historical points in these latitudes since it is one of the oldest religious points in all of Western Europe and where the Irish religious Columba of Iona began the expansion of Christianity through Scotland in the 6th century, year 563! There he founded the Iona Abbey, where many Scottish, Irish, Norwegian and French Kings are buried, up to a total of about 48 graves of European monarchs! The abbey became a Benedictine monastery in the 13th century! Incredible European “Mecca” that we visit!. Our day does not end here, we return to the Isle of Mull which we are going to travel completely until reaching its beautiful capital with its Bay surrounded by colored houses; Tobermory. Idyllic and Bucolic day with some touches of a pleasant melancholy. In this way and with the beautiful feelings provoked by these landscapes out of a fairytale that we did not believe could exist but that does exist and is called ALBA or SCOTLAND, we embark again on the majestic Ferry that takes us through these beautiful and wild waters of the Atlantic Ocean to, on a journey and rest of an hour in which the hungry seagulls will surely accompany us, stay forever in love with the lights and islands we see along the way until disembarking in Oban, the Viking bay where we will remember tonight with a certain melancholy already and joy in turn, the beautiful places and lights we have visited today! We rest here again, in the beautiful bay of Oban!

DAY 10: Historical Day; Lakes and Castles!

Regions: Argyll, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park and Stirlingshire!

Well, let’s go! We take our full Scottish breakfast and go for the magnificent last but no less truly impressive day before reaching Edinburgh. Today we are also going to visit some of the most important and historical jewels of Scotland and as you are experiencing it is a country that has no end, it hides a beautiful treasure for us behind every mountain, curve or lake!. We will prepare to enjoy this bucolic and at the same time historical penultimate day. We are going to miss Scotland. We will go down through the county of “Argyll and Bute” to its main town Lochgilphead, administrative center of the area and decorated with its pretty painted houses facing Loch Gilp, which like most in Scotland is an extensive firth, an arm of the sea, but first, we will show you some Prehistoric Dolmens in Kilmartin such as “Stone Rings” or “Nether Largie”. We arrive today at the no less picturesque village of Inveraray, an ancient burgh with its beautiful castle home of the Duke of Argyll; Inveraray Castle and Gardens, we are going to explore them, we enter to visit it!. We continue our trip going down next to the impressive Loch Lomond, the most extensive lake in the entire United Kingdom on the shores of which we will make a stop to walk through Luss, its beautiful and bucolic little village which we show you. We have not finished our adventure for today no, we are still going to enjoy more Scottish treasures. Our journey continues towards Stirling, one of the most important cities in the history of Scotland. Here Mary Stuart or “Queen of Scots” was crowned while it served as headquarters for King Robert The Bruce in the wars for Scottish sovereignty in defense of the attack of Edward II, in 1314, with his English troops. We have therefore that two of the most beloved monarchs in this historical country have had an important part of their lives in this castle. We enter therefore to visit Stirling Castle and spot from this impressive fortress the William Wallace Monument. Stirling was the ancient capital of Scotland and around its castle practically a twin to Edinburgh’s, two of the most decisive battles of Scotland took place, that of “Bannockburn” in which the Scottish King Robert Bruce defeated the English troops recovering the Sovereignty of Scotland and that of the “Stirling Bridges” (1297), in which years before the famous patriot William Wallace along with his troops of Highlanders also defeated for the first time a superior English army commanded by King Edward I of England. Impressive day today as well, but we still have another treasure on the way to the Capital Edinburgh. We make a small stop to see the impressive mass that was Linlithgow Palace with its beautiful lake. This Palace was the home of the Stuart dynasty of Scotland and where Mary Stuart, the queen “Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots”, was born. Now finally, with some sadness but feeling like one more Scotsman or Scotswoman and having known Alba in depth, we head to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland and World Heritage Site, where we will have a well-deserved dinner and sleep peacefully. We will experience the Victorian Capital of Scotland the next day and we will enter among many other emblematic places its majestic Castle – Fortress and the “Real Mary King’s Close” or the underground city. We will have time together the next day in a pleasant dinner to recapitulate and remember this beautiful country that is ALBA – SCOTLAND forever.

DAY 11: “The Athens of the North”, World Heritage Site!

Regions: The beautiful and Victorian city of Edinburgh, Capital of Scotland!

On our last day until you decide to return to enjoy this beautiful country again with us, and after our incredible movie trip through the land of dreams, today we are going to of course visit Edinburgh world heritage site and capital of this wonderful country called Scotland or Alba in Gaelic, its original language. Edinburgh is settled on 7 volcanic hills, two good examples of this that we will see are the two volcanic hills that are at the two ends of the famous “Royal Mile”; the rock on which Edinburgh Castle is built and the mountain “Arthur’s Seat”. In addition to visiting the castle we will also visit the remains of the ancient city today underground (The Closes). We will walk through the Old and New Towns seeing incredible Victorian Buildings for which Edinburgh is a World Heritage Site, the writers’ museum since this is a city with a very great university and literary tradition with writers such as Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy), Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Robert Louis Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde) the famous poet Robert Burns and the tallest monument to a writer in the world: Sir Walter Scott Monument! Among others. We will walk the Royal Mile to see the exteriors of the Royal Palace or Holyrood Palace. But, in case we haven’t had enough surprises and visits yet, this is only half of this surprising day. We will enjoy the views of the capital from the mountain of Calton Hill, two impressive cathedrals and the “darkest” corners of medieval Edinburgh on the ghost bus Tour in addition to the overwhelming and famous Greyfriars Cemetery. Incredible, we will end the day with a great friendship dinner in one of the city’s most emblematic restaurants. We do not say goodbye, after this wonderful trip we hope to see you again here, in Scotland, the dream Celtic land!