On June 10th Sandy and Lauren are going to the UK to visit Scotland for 10 days. Our itinerary calls for stops in four cities, where we plan to mix historic sights with the natural beauty of the area. We will first go to Aviemore, which is adjacent to Cairngorms National Park and the Scottish Highlands. We hope to do some hiking while we are there. The next stop is Stirling, which has a historic castle and old town. After this we plan to visit Fort William, which is the largest town in the highlands of Scotland. There are many beautiful rivers, lakes and mountains to explore and we hope to take several day trips in the surrounding area. Our last stop will be Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland and home to a famous castle and the Royal Mile.
The map below shows our stops:
Our rooms have already been booked and are a combination of hotels and bed and breakfasts. After selecting the destinations to make a loop around the country, I did research using the Internet and guidebooks to find the best accommodations for our budget of 80 to 100 GBP / 125 to 160 USD a night. Our transportation around Scotland will be by rail, so our hotels needed to be a close distance to the city centers. We purchased eight consecutive day BritPasses for standard class train travel and since Lauren is under 26, her pass was obtained at a discount, compared to the full adult fare.
We are both looking forward to the trip, as Lauren has never been to Scotland and I have only been to Edinburgh. During our time away we plan to send emails to be posted on the website, as well as real-time Twitter and Facebook communication, so stay tuned for our updates from the road!
