How to Plan a Scotland Itinerary that’s Jam-packed but Not Rushed

Planning a trip to Scotland and don’t know where to start with your itinerary? Here are my top travel tips for how to plan a Scotland itinerary that is jam-packed and fun, but also feasible and won’t make you feel like you’re rushing your entire trip.

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I have been offering Scotland trip-planning services since 2018 and since then, I’ve planned over 200 bespoke itineraries for my clients. I’ve helped even more people when you consider those who have bought one of my ready-made Scotland itineraries or used the free resources on my website to plan their own trips.

Over that time, I have met many people who are completely overwhelmed by all the options for a trip to Scotland. I have helped guide them to make choices that are right for them and gained experience in planning itineraries that are good fun and make the most of their time in the country.

So in this post, I want to share eight travel tips that will help you plan a jam-packed Scotland itinerary, but one that isn’t so jam-packed that you’re not actually enjoying your time here.

How far can you go?

First, let’s talk about what’s a feasible distance to cover in a day when you’re in Scotland.

The 100-Mile Rule

If you’re driving, whether it’s your own car or a hired vehicle, I recommend you stick to 100 miles a day as your maximum distance for each day of travelling.

That allows you enough time to make many stops along the way, visit sites, go for hikes and take photographs, but it also means you won’t spend the entire day on the road and in your car.

Of course, there need to be adjustments if you travel during the off-season, in the winter months, for example, when the days are a lot shorter, but that’s roughly the guideline I use for my itineraries.

What about Public Transport?

If you travel on public transport, the equivalent is something like spending half the day of a “travel day” in transit, whether that’s on the train, on the bus or on a ferry. It’s important though, that don’t make every day of your trip a “travel day” where you move on to another location.

Exceptions

Of course, there are some exceptions – for example:

• When you have a longer travel day, or a longer journey between two destinations where you each spend a few days in. So, having two regions that are maybe a bit further apart, I think that’s okay to have a longer journey on those days.
• You may be taking a single journey on a train or a bus or a ferry, which does take up a full day to get you from A to B. But then as long as you have a few days in that destination, I think that’s totally fine.
• You may also just want to do a road trip and spend the majority of your trip on the road in the car. Who am I to tell you that that’s not something you can do if that’s your primary reason to travel to Scotland fair dues – do what you want to do.

But if you don’t want to spend the majority of your time in the car, then the 100-mile rule, or half-day in transit rule, I think, really applies to any itinerary.

Example Itinerary: North Coast 500

For example, when I did the North Coast 500 for the first time a few years ago, we had a long travel day to get to and from Inverness at the start and the end of our trip. So those were the longer travel journeys that went over the 100-mile mark.

But then for the rest of the route, we actually only travelled between 30 and 50 miles a day, which meant we had lots of time to go on hikes, visit gardens, go on boat trips, go see kayaking, walk to beaches, see wildlife, and do all the things along the route.

And we’d never felt like we were just spending all day in the car looking at the landscape rather than being really immersed in it. I have since been back multiple times, focussing on individual sections of the route, like the Flow Country, and making even less mileage per day.

Choosing Where to go in Scotland

Another thing to consider is how many regions you want to visit while you’re here in Scotland, and how to combine which regions you’re going to visit on your trip.

The 3-2-1 Rule

When I plan a bespoke itinerary that lasts one week, I usually stick to up to three regions, and then have my clients stay in each of them for around two nights, plus maybe a day at the start or at the end, where they have to be near the airport.

That gives you a rough idea of what’s feasible and how many regions are feasible within your given time frame.

Picking Regions

Now, when it comes to picking regions and picking how to combine them. I think there are a few different things you want to consider:

• There’s the practical stuff: how far are they apart from each other, and how easy/complicated it is to get from A to B? For example, if you want to see the Isle of Skye and Edinburgh, you need to look into transport options for a realistic estimate of how much time you need to combine these regions.

• You might also want to think about what’s on your travel wish list and your priorities. What are the things you really want to see and experience in Scotland? Which different regions can cover a wide basis of what you want to do? For example, if you want to see the coast and climb a mountain, you may have to think about which two regions you can visit to do both of those things. Many destinations will not be able to do absolutely everything on your travel wish list

• Finally, think about the variety that different regions offer you, and make sure that you’re not visiting three regions that all offer more or less the same type of landscape, the same kind of experience, or that are all super popular and will be more crowded than others.

It’s really about building in a variety of different places to visit.

You might also like: An Overview of Scottish Regions & what they offer

Handling Crowds

Most people come to Scotland to see the beautiful landscapes. If you’ve been inspired by pictures on social media, Pinterest or YouTube, then you often see those landscapes at their best and usually “deserted”. No crowds in sight!

The problem is that the reality often looks a little bit different. Especially popular areas you might not be able to see just by yourself. There will be other people around – sometimes many – and it might be tricky to find a parking spot.

There is a chance that you will be disappointed by that, because it doesn’t look like in the pictures. That’s why it is important to think about how you’re going to handle crowds. There are two ways to do this.

Anticipate crowds & adjust your expectations

One strategy is to adjust your expectations. That’s particularly true when you want to visit popular places at particularly busy times of the year, like Edinburgh in August or the Isle of Skye at the height of summer.

You have to anticipate these places will be crowded and adjust your expectations. You will probably not get these locations to yourselves.

Avoiding crowds in three ways

The other option is to avoid crowds altogether. Here are three different strategies to do that:

• Avoid the busiest times of the day and visit those popular locations, like the Old Man or Storr or the Fairy Pools in Skye at a time when other people are still asleep, sitting down for lunch/dinner or have already left, especially if they’re day trippers. Some of these locations get a lot of traffic from tour busses that only visit during the day, but they will leave at some point in the late afternoon to go back to Edinburgh or Inverness, for example.

• Visit popular places during the off- or shoulder-season, from the mid-October until the end of March/mid-April. The main tourist season runs from May to September, and those months can get busy. When you can travel during shoulder- or off-months, you can avoid the crowds that are here during the summer months.

• Leave those popular places to the masses and visit the lesser-known regions of Scotland. There are so many lesser-known places that get less attention on social media, but are just absolutely beautiful and have a lot to offer.

Take time to play with your itinerary

My next tip for how to plan a Scotland itinerary is to allow plenty of time to play with your itinerary before you book every last detail and set it all in stone.

By “playing with your itinerary”, I mean that you put together an outline and an order of destinations, and then you start moving around individual elements. For example, flip it on its head and look at what the itinerary would look like in reverse. Swap one destination for another and look at places you could visit there. Change the order in which you visit the destinations and look at transport options.

Taking time to play with your itinerary, allows you to look at accommodation and see what’s available when. Maybe there are different places available when you change the order of places you visit. Maybe the prices are better, because now all of a sudden, you visit the popular destination on a weekday rather than the weekend.

This process helps you come up with the best combination of regions and the best order of stops.

Respect your own energy levels

When you plan a Scotland itinerary (or any other trip), you have to be honest with yourself about your personal energy levels when you travel.

When I go on a trip, I’m very energetic at the start. I don’t mind having more complicated journeys at the start of my trip. I’ll schedule lots of activities and visit places where I want to see many different sites or locations. But then towards the end of my trip, I like to slow down a little – have that long journey where I just sit on the train or in the car for hours; spend a few nights in the same destination; and not plan an activity every day.

What are your energy levels like when you travel? Make sure to plan an itinerary that works in your favour.

The best place to start: Setting Anchor Points

When you start planning your Scotland itinerary from scratch, it can be really overwhelming. There are so many options and unless you hire me to help you through the process, there is no one to tell you what are the best or right options for you.

One of the ways to overcome this overwhelm is by setting anchor points. If you don’t know where to start with your Scotland itinerary – this is is!

Two types of anchor points

Anchor points are immovable or non-negotiable elements of your Scotland itinerary. I consider two types of anchor points:

• One is anything on your must-see or must-do Scotland bucket list. When you think about all the things you want to see and experience in Scotland, try and identify those that would make you really sad if you came home and you didn’t see/do them. Everything else can be “nice to have”, or “if I have the time, it would be great to fit this in”. Identify those must-sees and must-have experiences that will make your Scotland trip unforgettable for you.

• The other type of anchor point is anything that needs to be booked in advance and/or has limited availability. For example, ferry journeys that only run on certain days, guided experiences that have to be booked in advance, or a specific hotel that has limited availability. It could also be a festival with set dates, a certain cultural event or wildlife that can only be seen at certain times of the year.

Both types make for excellent anchor points to help you start planning a Scotland itinerary and building the rest around it.

You might also like: My Guide for Wildlife Watching in Scotland – incl. when & where to see puffins!

Don’t forget Scotland’s People

Scotland is a really beautiful place in terms of its landscape and nature and environment, and that draws a lot of people here. But I don’t think Scotland would be Scotland without it’s people and culture. The people and communities you’ll meet on your trip are arguably Scotland’s greatest asset!

While it’s important to consider the you want to visit, when you plan your Scotland itinerary, it’s equally important to make time for activities and learning experiences that allow you to connect with local people.

This could be a guided hike, a history walking tour, a workshop with an artist or craftsperson,or a haggis cooking class – any activity where you are guided by a passionate local person. Such activities allow you to make a genuine connection with someone who lives in Scotland, is from Scotland, and can share that passion with you.

It’s a good idea to reach out to those people early, especially when it’s a tailored experience and/or weather-dependent. Scottish activity providers often work with a small team and have limited availability. It’s useful to reach out early and find out about timeframes, availability and duration of offered experiences, especially if it’s something from your Scotland bucket list.

Who knows, maybe that experience can even become an anchor point for your Scotland itinerary!

You might also like: 100 Places & Experiences to add to your Scotland Bucket List

How to stay spontaneous and flexible?

Slow travel is being in a place long enough to experience it with a. About having a strict itinerary. It isn’t about seeing everything, but experiencing the soul of the place. (Instagram wisdom)

Unfortunately, not following an itinerary is not really an option in Scotland. Regardless of the time of the year you visit, you have to book your accommodations in advance. And with that, you are committing to a fixed or a strict itinerary, in a way.

If you don’t book in advance, expect to spend the majority of your days here on the phone, looking for available options, paying premium prices and possibly having to drive miles out your way. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend that.

However, there are still ways that you can build flexibility and spontaneity into your trip, and have that “no itinerary feeling” of a slow traveller. Here are my recommended strategies:

• Do your research and know several options that are available to you. That way, if something is closed, if the weather is not great, or if something else happens to plan A, you can quickly pivot to plan B, C or D. That way you won’t dwell on or feel disappointed by something not working out. Doing your research also allows you to pick and choose from a list of options, depending on how you feel on the day.

• Strike a balance between activities you need to book in advance and schedule-free time when you can be more flexible. That way you won’t have a rigid structure every day and you will feel more spontaneous.

• My favourite way to make space for spontaneity when you plan your Scotland itinerary is to build in buffer days. Buffer days are times when you stay in the same location the night before and after, and you’re free from planned activities. You don’t have any scheduled experiences and you don’t have to drive anywhere unless you want to. On buffer days, you can take a day off, ask locals for recommendations, go on a drive without a set destination or visit a site that you didn’t have time for on previous days. Scotland is your oyster!

Building in buffer days will allow you to be spontaneous and flexible, even though you booked your accommodation in advance. You won’t feel like you’re tied into a rigid schedule the entire time.

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These are my top travel tips for planning an itinerary to Scotland that is jam-packed, but not too jam-packed. I hope you enjoyed my tips and find them useful for planning your own Scotland adventure!