travel planning

[winterbadger]

So, I need to nail down my schedule (both so I can make bookings and fill out paperwork in the office). So I've roughed out a plan.

Sunday: Arrive in Glasgow, stow bags at hotel, touring (Tenement House, Provand's Lordship, Lighthouse, maybe the People's Palace), check in, get dinner, collapse.

Monday: More touring (Burrell Collection & Pollok House, Kelvingrove and Hunterian museums).

Tuesday: Rent car, drive up to Skye, maybe take one of the walks from my book.

Wednesday: Hiking/walking around the south coast. Concert on Raasay?

Thursday: See Dunvegan Castle, hiking/walking on Trotternish peninsula. Concert at Sabhal Mor Ostaig.

Friday: Drive south, tour and spend the night in either Dumbarton (I've still never seen Dumbarton Castle) or Balloch/Luss (near Loch Lomond).

Saturday: Return car, fly back to US.

Hopefully Wednesday/Thursday can also include one of the several museums of island life and history, a trip to the Talkiser distillery, and/or a sea tour (since we didn't manage one last time) for an hour or two.

I could stay at one place on Skye and jsut travel around, but I'm thinking of doing one night each at different places. Mostly because the concert on Raasay starts at 7.30, and the last boat back to Skye is at 6.15. :-) So I think one needs to spend the night. And the concert is at Raasay House itself, so why not stay there? In which case, staying at teh same place the night before and the night after scarcely makes sense. So I'm thinking to stay in Carbost or Elgol Tuesday, Raasay Wednesday, and Broadford or Armadale Thursday.

At this rate it's going to take another 3-4 trisp jsut to see the rest of the Highlands (the small isles & the Outher Hebridies, the north coast/Orkney/Shetland, the east coast), let alone Ayr, Galloway, and the Borders. Plus hiking in the Cairngorms... *sigh* Gie's a lottery winner, someone!

Comments

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

And don't forget us here in the south, either! You have an open invitation. It is beautiful here in a totally different way than it is in the Highlands.

And speaking of the Highlands, I really need to do some traveling myself. Maybe since I am now here and settled, we can plan to see you the *next* time you are either here or in Scotland.

[winterbadger]

I would love to come and visit you guys, either in situ or share a trip to Alba with you.

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

That looks good to me. I like the idea of focusing on just a few places (Glasgow, Skye) rather than flitting all over. But given the size of Skye and the slowness of the roads (I gather), stopping at different places might make sense. Beats driving at night on unfamiliar one-lane road.

As I recall, there was a B&B called the Ptarmidgon (sp?) in Broadford that looked good. Or was that Portree?

If it were me, I'd leave Friday open. If you want to see more of Skye, you can spend half the day there before heading back south. If there were things you didn't have time for in Glasgow, head straight back there.

One of the best things about traveling alone, in my opinion, is the flexibility. Don't lock in anything more than you have to.

[winterbadger]

[don't lock things down] Agreed. Mostly I just want to know what I *could* do and make sure that I have places to stay booked. :-)

The roads are better on Skye than they used to be (most of the main roads are at least one lane each way now, and the highway from Armadale to Portree is multilane!) But with going to ceilidhs most nights, one doesn't want to be driving far, if at all, after...

I still have your notes from 2002, and I think I remember the Ptarmigan in Broadford among them.

Thank you for commenting! :-)

(BTW, one of my dreams is still to rent a self-catering cottage in the Highlands with some friends and just walk and climb and relax...)