Blog Travel

The Scottish Highlands have two separate travel components.   One includes castles and distilleries and other touristy sites.   We found these were best enjoyed on a Scottish Highlands road trip.   The second is the natural beauty of the Scottish Highlands.   This second aspect of the Highlands is best enjoyed slowly.   We found that the best way to enjoy the Scottish Highlands was on an active holiday on a Scotland cruise.   We joined a seven-day Caledonian Canal cruise with Caledonian Discovery, a company that runs barge cruises along the Caledonian Canal and through the lochs of the Scottish Highlands, including the famous Loch Ness.  The cruise is kind of like a Scotland river cruise, except you travel through lochs and canals instead of a river.  The following are some of the things we did and saw on our Scotland cruise to give an idea of what it’s like to explore the Scottish Highlands on a barge cruise. Our barge cruise along ...

Scotland has thousands of castles, so it’s impossible to see all of Scotland’s castles in one road trip.  However, it also means that no matter what route you choose, there are sure to be a number of castles along it to visit.  Our Scotland road trip itinerary took us from Edinburgh and north through the Highlands through Stirling, Perth, Cairngorms National Park, and Elgin.   Part of this route is through Aberdeenshire, which has the most castles per acre than anywhere else in the United Kingdom, and is even home to Scotland’s Castle Trail.  These are 10 of the best castles in Scotland we included in our road trip itinerary. Edinburgh Castle A road trip through Scotland will probably start in one of Scotland’s big cities, and ours started in Edinburgh.  Edinburgh Castle is one of the most popular sites in Edinburgh.  Edinburgh is built next to a volcano and Edinburgh Castle is built on one of the volcano’s vents, so it is perched hig...

When traveling to Scotland, it is a must to include Edinburgh on the itinerary.  However, we wanted to explore more of Scotland, especially the beautiful Highlands, rather than spending our entire vacation in the city.  Luckily, even though there are many things to do in Edinburgh, Scotland’s Old Town is compact so travelers can easily see much of Edinburgh in three days or less.  Tour a Medieval Castle The Old Town of Edinburgh stretches along approximately one mile; to be specific, the Royal Mile.  At the west end of the Royal Mile is Edinburgh Castle.  A ticket includes the option of joining a 30-minute guided tour of Edinburgh Castle, which we found was the best way to learn about the castle’s history.  After the tour, we were free to explore the various rooms and sights at the castle. Robert the Bruce captured Edinburgh Castle in 1314 when 30 Scots overpowered the castle guard in the middle of the night.  Since he wouldn’...