# Need help with Scotland plans for 2009



## DebBrown (Jul 3, 2008)

It's almost time to book airline tickets and I could use some help in planning.  We have two exchange weeks reserved.  One at MacDonald Forest Hills at Aberfoyle and the second at MacDonald Lochanhully at Carrbridge.

Forest Hills looks closer to Glasgow than Edinburgh so perhaps that is the better choice for flights?  The return would be best out of Inverness but AA doesn't seem to fly or partner there.  Any suggestions?

We'd like to fit in a few days in Edinburgh but its unlikely that most of my family can extend beyond the two weeks.  Is Edinburgh close enough to Aberfoyle for a day trip?  I'm not too crazy about driving in bigger cities.  Would it make sense to take a train to Edinburgh for the day?

Any other ideas for wonderful things to do on this trip?  I'm excited to begin planning. 

Deb


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## Conan (Jul 3, 2008)

We flew into Glasgow for a week at Cameron House  - - a nice, convenient airport, and if you have an early morning departure on the return there's an inexpensive hotel (Holiday Inn?) that's walking distance to the departure gate.

You should be able to day trip from the timeshare back to Glasgow (it has an excellent art museum and some interesting architecture) but Edinburgh is too far.  Plan to stay a night or two in an Edinburgh hotel or bed and breakfast.  Driving to Edinburgh isn't bad although we took many wrong turns before finding the hotel.


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## 3kids4me (Jul 3, 2008)

We used AA frequent flyer miles to fly from Glasgow to JFK.  They partner with BA for flights within the UK, so we flew BA to London and then AA from London to JFK.  Hope that helps....


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## glenn1000 (Jul 4, 2008)

We took day trips from Forest Hills every day, including to Edinburgh and Glasgow, with our three kids. We also spent another week in Ballater. Driving is the way to go. It's convenient, you can get around the towns and the scenery is beautiful. Plus you might stop at some wonderful place on the way. If you PM your e-mail address I can send our Ofoto album that shows all we did (with captions) since it may give you ideas. We recently talked about our favorite vacation of all time and every member of the family said it was the Scotland trip! :whoopie:


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## Conan (Jul 4, 2008)

rklein001 said:


> Edinburgh is too far....



Revisiting my comment - - I checked and it's about 1.5 hours drive each way, so if you just want the highlights of Edinburgh, namely the Castle and the Royal Mile, you could do it.


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## Jimster (Jul 4, 2008)

*AA*

As mentioned above, you can get ff tickets using AA teaming with BA through London.   It is probably better to call rather than try and book on line.


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## DebBrown (Jul 4, 2008)

Jimster said:


> As mentioned above, you can get ff tickets using AA teaming with BA through London.   It is probably better to call rather than try and book on line.



Yes...I would definitely call for this routing.  I was hoping to fly home from Inverness but the routing would be crazy so we'll have to fly out of another airport.  Any suggestions?  Would it be closer to drive to Aberdeen then to try to get down to Glasgow or Edinburgh?

Thanks everyone else for your tips about the day trips.  I'll have to give this some thought.  

If anyone has any favorite places to visit or eat by either resort, please let me know!

Deb


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## Conan (Jul 4, 2008)

DebBrown said:


> Would it be closer to drive to Aberdeen then to try to get down to Glasgow or Edinburgh?



Aberdeen is great for the Highlands - - we used it for a week at Craigendarroch, near Ballater.  We sacrificed comfort and saved money by flying Aer Lingus to Dublin and, if I remember right, Ryanair from Dublin to Aberdeen.  [The Dublin Airport is a zoo, unfortunately.]

But it looks pretty far on the map from Aberdeen to Edinburgh or Glasgow.


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## catwgirl (Jul 4, 2008)

We flew back to London from Inverness on Easyjet and got a great price, but this was a few years ago.


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## DebBrown (Jul 4, 2008)

rklein001 said:


> Aberdeen is great for the Highlands - - we used it for a week at Craigendarroch, near Ballater.  We sacrificed comfort and saved money by flying Aer Lingus to Dublin and, if I remember right, Ryanair from Dublin to Aberdeen.  [The Dublin Airport is a zoo, unfortunately.]
> 
> But it looks pretty far on the map from Aberdeen to Edinburgh or Glasgow.



But we'd be coming from the Inverness area.  Aberdeen looks alot CLOSER on my map than Glasgow or Edinburgh.  Still, it would be nice to spend a couple of days in Edinburgh at the end of the trip so it may work out to fly out of there.

So many decisions and only a few weeks until I can start to look for ff tickets!

Deb


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## Passepartout (Jul 4, 2008)

My teenie-tiny tidbit from  our last Scotland trip... The mileages are short, but travel times aren't. There is a darn handy hotel (seems like Holiday Inn) right at ticket and baggage level at Glasgow, and IcelandAir flies pretty cheap there from the US and you can stopover in Reykjavik for free. Probably no help but there it is. What a wonderful country to visit! We got married there outdoors at a castle with a piper on the edge of the Highlands!  

There's a hop-on-hop-off double decker bus in Edinburgh, and Rosslyn Chapel, mentioned at some length in Dan Brown's _da Vinci Code_ that you might find interesting a short distance outside Edinburgh.

Jim Ricks


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## nerodog (Jul 7, 2008)

*suggestion for trip*

We loved the Isle of Mull from Oban and the Isle of Skye... we also enjoyed walking around St Andrews and going into the golf shop... those were  highlights for us.. the train is great to ride and just view the scenery . Maybe  a train  pass might be the way to go on some day trips .. you would have to check the cost for a family.  I found the driving doable but liked the days when I was riding the train ..less stress for me.


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## Chrisky (Jul 7, 2008)

As far as driving and determining distances and travel time, go to www.theaa.com. At this site you can get a small map and excellent travel instructions to any destination. All you have to do is put in a start destination, if you have an address or postal code that's even better, and put in your final destination. You can then print up the small map with the instructions. We did have a regular map for our trip but these instructions from AA were invaluable. They also give you the distance for your trip and the length of time to drive it. The times they gave were very accurate.


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