Our 14-day road trip itinerary across Scotland
I discovered Scotland about 5 years ago. When the airline I was working for started flying there. It would probably have never ended up on my bucket list if I hadn’t flown there for work.
I felt right at home the first time I landed there. It had never felt that way about anywhere I had previously been. I fell in love with Scotland! Somehow, I convinced my boyfriend to go there for my 30th birthday! We decided an epic road trip was in order! So we rented a camper van for 14 days and off we were!
If you are planning a road trip to Scotland and are looking for some inspiration, you are at the right place to find the perfect itinerary for you! Just scroll down a bit and you’ll find what you are looking for!
Little note on the side, every restaurant we went to eat on our Scotland road trip itinerary had some amazing food and was very delicious! I highly recommend them but always check the menu before going in to make sure it is to your liking! We ate about once a day at a restaurant for the whole trip. We had breakfast every morning in the van and had either lunch or dinner at a restaurant.
Arriving into Edinburgh
After flying into Edinburgh on our red-eye flight, we took the bus from the airport directly to the city center. Since we didn’t have our camper van yet, we had all our luggage with us. However, we were able to leave it to the Edinburgh Backpackers hostel. We paid a fee and were able to walk around Edinburgh without our backpacks with us.
To start the day off, we went for breakfast at The filling Station directly on The Royal Mile. Our first day was mostly getting settled with everything we needed for the trip. So we found a store to buy a SIM card on Prince Street so we could have some data and use our phone for the duration of the trip.
From there, we walked to The Royal Observatory and walked around the site. It gives you great views of the city all around. On the way down, there were a couple of really cool cemeteries to visit.
We also took some time to walk around the Scott Monument.
Then was the time to pick up our camper van for the rest of the trip! We took a taxi from the Hostel we left our backpacks and they drove us to Bunk Campers.
Once everything was settled and they had explained how everything worked inside the camper van, we stopped at a small grocery store around the area to buy ourselves dinner for the night. We then drove to Limwater Caravan Park for the night. And our Scotland road trip itinerary began!
Edinburgh to St-Andrew’s
On our first day after arriving in Scotland, we hit the road from Edinburgh and made our way towards St-Andrew’s. Before heading out, we stopped at a bigger grocery store to stock up for a couple of days on food. After that, we drove to Andrew’s.
We found our spot for the night at Holiday park St-Andrew’s and there was a path going directly to the city from the campground. So we walked to the city where we explored the St-Andrew’s cathedral and castle. We ate at The Central pub directly on the main street of St-Andrew’s.
This city has a University vibe and is very laid back. We enjoyed the sunset over the ocean while looking at all the surfers in the North sea, mid-October I must say!
St-Andrew’s to Aberdeen
We kept going towards Aberdeen with a couple of stops along the way. We decided to camp at the Woodleisure Deeside Holiday park just outside the city center. On our way to Aberdeen, we made a pit stop in Arbroath where we visited the cathedral. We were able to go up about three stories at this cathedral. It is scary sometimes because you go up a tiny winding staircase and half the cathedral has fallen down! It was absolutely stunning to visit.
From there, we drove for the Aberdeenshire to visit Dunnotar Castle. It stands tall on top of cliffs I would rather not fall off! We spent some time visiting every nook we were allowed to. There are many buildings on the premises.
From Dunnotar Castle, we made our way to Aberdeen where we had a quick lunch. We found it difficult to find a parking spot in the city of Aberdeen for the camper van. There are many parking spots but most of them have height limits.
Aberdeen to Lossiemouth
The next morning, we made our way to Lossiemouth, the northernmost of Scotland we have been on this trip. Our first stop was in Cruden Bay where we visited Slains castle. This was my absolute favorite! Since it is an abandoned castle, there is no one in sight because most people don’t even know about this place.
You have to be careful though because there are no barriers on the cliffs! Make sure to look in front of you as you go out of the castle! The drop could be quite high! It was amazing to go through every crook of this castle and explore freely. Of course, we are always super conscious as to not misplace anything and make sure to leave it as we found it.
After the visit to Slains castle, we drove, winding one-way roads all the way to Pennan. It was quite the experience for us as we are so used to 4 lane highways and large streets! But the views are breathtaking!
Once in Pennan, we walked around the 10-15 houses block and just enjoyed the view of this little bay, at the bottom of the cliffs.
We had lunch in Banff and ate from a little food truck. It happened to be right beside a small grocery store. So we stocked up a bit on food again.
We stayed at the Silver Sands Holiday Park in Lossiemouth. This was probably the campground with the nicest view. Just a 5-minute walk from our campsite, there was a beautiful beach to walk on with a couple of little caves to explore.
Lossiemouth to Inverness
From Lossiemouth, we drove to Elgin where we visited the cathedral. This was probably the cathedral that was standing the most in all of our visits! We were able to climb both towers and enjoy the view of the city and the rest of the cathedral.
After the cathedral, we made our way to Pluscarden Abbey. Still used to this day. The abbey was recommended to us by an employee of the St-Andrew’s castle. It was really beautiful but because it is used today, we couldn’t visit much. Every door was locked. We had a glimpse through a window at the inside of the cathedral but that was it. It wasn’t my favorite but we had a great spot to have lunch before getting back on track on our Scotland road trip itinerary.
We then made our way to Nairn where we visited Cawdor castle. The gardens of these places are beautiful! We were there in October! I can’t even imagine how it must look in the summertime when all the flowers are blooming!
To finish our day, we walked the Culloden battlefields. The history there is impressive! We spent some time just walking around the battlefields.
We stayed at the Ardtower caravan park just outside Inverness. This campground had the cleanest, beautiful bathroom on this whole trip! They even had sparkly tiles in the shower and the music on! We decided to have dinner in the city center of Inverness. We took a taxi from the campground to Inverness and chose to eat at Johnny Foxes restaurant.
Inverness to Dornie
The next day, we drove from Inverness to Dornie with only one stop to the Loch Ness and Urquhart castle. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot Nessie!
Urquhart Castle was busier than our previous visits on this road trip. More of a touristy spot for sure! It was a beautiful castle but because it was so busy it was harder to visit thoroughly every single spot to visit. Some areas were so crowded that you had to wait to access that area.
We stayed at Shellbridge caravan park. This was the only campground still open at this time of the year in the area. We didn’t have any issue anywhere else though. We always had a couple of options for campgrounds.
Dornie to Portree
On day 6, we crossed over to Isle of Skye where we spent the night in Portree at the Torvaig caravan park. We stopped to visit Eilean Donan castle, before going over the bridge. This castle has probably the most picturesque spot I’ve ever seen. With the loch, the mountains, and the curved bridge to access the castle. It blew me away! Before visiting the castle, we took a small walk on the main street of Dornie. It is a very small main street but the houses are beautiful.
Before heading over to Isle of Skye, we had lunch in the city of Kyle of Lochalsh. We ate at Cafe Hectors Bhothy. There was a bigger grocery store here, so we bought some food for a couple of days since we were heading to the Isle of Skye next.
Driving around Isle of Skye
The following day, we left Portree to tour the island. We started off with a quick stop to the Old Man of Storr. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t on our side that morning so we were not able to hike to see it. We had a brief glimpse through the fog but that’s about it.
So we kept driving to the kilt rock viewpoint. We got out to see the view even if it was raining quite badly! We were soaked the moment we stepped out of the van!
We continued to Dunvegan castle where we took a tour. I have to say, it was an expensive castle to visit and there wasn’t much to see… It was probably my least favorite thing on the trip.
To finish the day, we made our way to Glenbrittle to hike the Fairy Pools. It’s a very easy hike. You could easily do it with your kids! We were lucky, we got there once the rain had cleared. The path was quite muddy but still accessible. I have never seen water this kind of blue! It was beautiful!
From there, we made our way back to the entrance of Isle of Skye to sleep at Skye campground.
Isle of Skye to Fort William
On our next morning, we crossed back to the mainland again. It was one of those days when nothing seems to work as planned. We made it to Glenfinnan to see the famous Harry Potter bridge to end up not being able to find a parking spot anywhere in town. It is a very small village!
We turned around and made our way through Cairngorn National Park, more precisely to Aviemore. With our camper van, it was quite big to navigate and the road wasn’t very friendly to us. Again, we turned around and made our way towards a sleeping spot. We slept at the Glen Nevis caravan park. We decided to go to the Ben Nevis distillery. At least the day didn’t all go to waste!
Fort William to Glasgow
The next step of our Scotland road trip itinerary, we drove to Glencoe. Crossed Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and camped outside of Glasgow. The scenery is quite magnificent going through Glencoe and Loch Lomond.
In Glasgow, there are not many campgrounds around. We stayed at Strathclyde Caravan Park. We took the train for about 45 minutes to downtown. As it started raining a lot again, we took it easy and didn’t visit that much. We went to the Glasgow cathedral. Since it was raining a lot, we did some shopping indoors instead. It was fine with us because it wasn’t our favorite city anyway.
We had supper at TGI Fridays. It was more of a fast-food type of restaurant but the food and drinks were very good.
Glasgow to Edinburgh
From Glasgow, we stopped in Falkirk to see the Kelpies. To finish off our road trip, we spent the last four days in Edinburgh. We had planned for all of this to fit in our 14-day road trip itinerary around Scotland but it took us less time than planned. So we parked the van and took the bus every day to visit most of Edinburgh. Which in a way was good because we were able to do everything in Edinburgh without rushing to see them.
Once settled at our campsite, the Mortonhall Caravan park, we took the bus to the city center and walked over to Dean Village. Edinburgh has so many great restaurants that you can just walk around and you’ll definitely find something to your liking. We had supper on Rose Street that night and had an amazing dinner at Element.
The next day, we went to Craigmillar castle. It is impressive how everything you visit, the history completes itself. From one castle to another, the same story continues. After that, we visited Holyrood Palace and Abbey to see the Royal residences. We decided to have dinner at Makars gourmet mash bar near Edinburgh Castle. The food was amazing and the decor was really cool!
For this day, we decided to visit Edinburgh castle. THE most crowded one we have visited on this trip! It was even worse than Urquhart Castle in Inverness. It is nice to see but there are so many people that you are not able to really appreciate it.
We then went to the National Museum of Scotland to see a couple of exhibits. Right beside the museum, we went to see Tom Riddle’s grave at the Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery! (Any Harry Potter fans out there?)
Last morning on the road trip. This morning, we are returning the van and staying in a hostel before flying home the next day. We just spent it wandering around the Royal Mile and taking it easy as we had to pack everything away in our backpacks. We tried out Brewhemia close to our hostel for drinks. The ambiance is great!
For dinner, we decided to try out an Italian restaurant on the Royal Mile for our last dinner before the departure back home. We tried out Bella Italia. The food was great! Definitely worth a stop!
I found we had a great itinerary. It wasn’t too packed with visits and driving. Every morning, we were able to wake up early (we are early risers anyway) and sip our coffee before hitting the road or visiting something.
Our Scotland road trip itinerary was an amazing way to visit this part of the United- Kingdom. We were able to stop wherever and whenever we wanted.
Scotland also has a wild camping rule. As long as you leave the space as you found it and that you respect the environment, you can camp anywhere as long as there is no ‘’no camping’’ sign.
What was amazing about this trip, because it was off-season, we had all the places mostly to ourselves! The only thing I wish we had done, and especially because we had some spare time, would’ve been to drive the North 500. I guess another Scotland road trip is in order!
On our Scotland road trip itinerary, we drove a total of 1 608km, we visited 9 castles and 6 abbeys over 16 days total on our trip. We took 5 different flights from Quebec to Edinburgh and back for a total of 15 472km flown and 21h of flight time.
What was your favorite road trip? Or where would you go?
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