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I'm driving with the family to Scotland the at the beginning of September. My wife is asking me what we should do, and since I've been there before she expects me to be an expert. However, my trips there were long, long ago and as a child. I need help or I'll be forever branded as a useless husband!
Can anyone help? We'll be driving and have a 5- and a 1-year old so museums and galleries are probably not good.
Posts: 270 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Well if I went to Scotland I'd never forgive myself if I didn't at least look into an excursion to Loch Ness.
Beyond that, they have some really good Scotch, I hear. I'd suggest a distillery tour, but the little ones probably wouldn't like that so much. Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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If you haven't already, check out Scotland.com They claim to answer email inquiries personally. Send them a note telling them your basic itinerary and asking them for kid-friendly points of interest convenient to the area you plan to visit.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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If you're going to get some Scotch, make sure you get a single-malt and not a blended Scotch. If you're going for authentic, then you gotta have the single malt.
Oh, and, as a warning, blended Scotch was invented to be much milder than single-malt. Muhaha!
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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The Isle of Skye is a popular tourist area - very scenic.
I took a three day trip with a tour company to Skye and Loch Ness which is highly overrated, but still fun to say you've been.
I have to admit, until you've seen the sky and surrounding mountains copied perfectly in a shimmering lake, I don't think you've seen Scotland. It was breath-taking.
And ya never realize how high you've gone until the tour guide stops and tells you to look around.
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Here's my favorrrite route thrrew the highlands and islands ...
Check out central Edinburgh, if you lucky the original Fringe Festival (street theater for thinking radicals) will still be on. Walk around Princess Street checking out the buskers and pubs (kids present generally ok).
Drive north toward and over the highlands toward the North Sea. This will take you across a fjord with what used to be one of the largest train bridges in the world (probably still is). The Scots have produced a lot of talented structural engineers.
--If you dig trains, btw, dip South to the city of York in England and check out the national railway museum. It's just chock full of some of the world's first 'rolling stock' (train engines and cars). Very kid friendly. York was also an old Viking settlement and the most northern Roman city (they were too scared of the tribes in Scotland to maintain legions further north). You can still see a Roman pillar (old) next to the 12th century Yorkminster Cathederal (relatively new)--
Anyway, drive north over the highlands (highway is quite good) and head for Inverness at one end of Loch Ness. Along the way, stop and picnic along the gentle flowing rivers and fly fish if you're so inclined. If you come upon a distillery, sampling can be fun. Pubs too.
Spend the night in Inverness, and then drive or catch the old steam train due west to Kyle of Lochalsh, just across the water from the Isle of Skye. Here you can teach your wee ones to sing some the nursery rhyme "O'er the Sea to Skye", as you ferry across over the sea to Skye (not far): The Skye Boat Song.
The island of Skye is where the Scots tried to hide their leader, Charles, after the clan forces were finally decimated by the English at Culloden in 1746.
From there you can travel down the west coast checking out islands (like Mull) and coastal places until you reach Glasgow, and then back to Edinburgh (depending on where you started out). Whatever route you take, enjoy.
P.S. Watch out for the sheep. The Brits effectively exiled the highland Scots to Canada (my ilk) and elsewhere, and replaced them with sheep (The Clearances). Then as now, invasions were mainly about acquiring and redistributing material resources.
[ August 11, 2004, 09:30 PM: Message edited by: mister boy ]
Posts: 85 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Thanks so much for the input. I was already looking at Inverness, and York is a great reminder as we need an overnight stop on the way north (we live near London). I'm especially glad you included the train ideas as my boy is about as into trains as you can be. We've only got 5 days because we've got to get back for the start of the school year, so Skye may be too far. I hope we can make it all the way over / up there.
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Glad to help. Brought back good travel memories. Incidently, there used to be an overnight train from Perth to Edinburgh to London. It can be a good way to make more efficient use of limited time. Gotta sleep somewhere anyway. This way you get to do it on---wait for it---a train! Posts: 85 | Registered: Aug 2004
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