Scotland has many treasures crammed into its compact territory – big skies, ancient architecture, spectacular wildlife, superb seafood and hospitable, down-to-earth people, alongside plenty of opportunities for outdoor adventures, golfing and whisky-drinking.
Once you’ve decided on the best time for your visit, you need to narrow down the top things to do while you’re there. Here are some of Scotland’s best places to go, to help you do just that.
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Follow the trails of the West Highland Way and Ben Nevis
Best place for hiking
The best way to really get inside Scotland’s landscapes is to walk them. Despite the wind, midges and drizzle, walking here is a pleasure, with numerous short- and long-distance trails, hills and mountains begging to be tramped. Top of the wish-list for many hikers is the 96-mile West Highland Way from Milngavie (near Glasgow) to Fort William, a challenging weeklong walk through some of the country’s finest scenery, finishing in the shadow of its highest peak, Ben Nevis.
The summit is within reach of anyone who’s reasonably fit. Treat Ben Nevis with respect and your reward (weather permitting) will be a truly magnificent view and a great sense of achievement. It’s possible to do just a day’s hike along part of the trail – for example you could walk the section from Rowardennan to Inversnaid, returning to your starting point using the Loch Lomond waterbus.
Isle of Skye is packed with beautiful landscapes
Best place for photographers
In a country famous for stunning scenery, the Isle of Skye takes top prize. From the craggy peaks of the Cuillins and the bizarre pinnacles of the Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing to the spectacular sea cliffs of Neist Point, there’s a photo opportunity awaiting you at almost every turn.
Walkers can share the landscape with red deer and golden eagles, and refuel at the end of the day in convivial pubs and top seafood restaurants. Skye is one of Scotland’s top tourist destinations. The crowds tend to stick to Portree, Dunvegan and Trotternish – it’s almost always possible to find peace and quiet in the island’s further-flung corners. Come prepared for changeable weather: when it’s fine it’s very fine indeed, but all too often it isn’t.
Edinburgh is perfect for a short break
Best place for year-round entertainment
Scotland’s capital may be famous for its festivals, but there’s much more to the city than that. Edinburgh is a place of many moods: visit out of season to see the Old Town silhouetted against a blue spring sky and a yellow haze of daffodils, or on a chill December morning with the fog snagging the spires of the Royal Mile, rain on the cobblestones, and a warm glow beckoning from the window of a pub. Start your visit with a climb up Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano, with panoramic views over the city. With a modern art gallery, spooky historic sites and the majestic 12th-century castle, there’s plenty to keep you entertained whatever the season.
Loch Lomond is the perfect day trip from Glasgow
Best place for a lakeside walk
Despite being less than an hour’s drive from the bustle and sprawl of Glasgow, the bonnie banks and braes of Loch Lomond – immortalized in the words of one of Scotland’s best-known songs – comprise one of the most scenic parts of the country. At the heart of Scotland’s first national park, the loch begins as a broad, island-peppered lake in the south, its shores clothed in bluebell woods, narrowing in the north to a fjord-like trench ringed by 900m-high (2952ft) mountains. Ben Lomond (924m/3031ft) is a popular climb – follow the well-maintained path for a 7-mile round-trip on the Tourist Route (allow around 5 hours).
St Andrews is the spiritual home of golf
Best place for golfers
Scotland invented the game of golf and is still revered as its spiritual home by hackers and champions alike. Links courses are the classic experience here – bumpy coastal affairs where the rough is heather and machair and the main enemy is the wind, which can make a disaster of a promising round in an instant. St Andrews, the historic Fife university town, is golf’s headquarters, and an irresistible destination for anyone who loves the sport. And if you’re not so keen on it, well, the city has impressive medieval ruins, stately university buildings, idyllic white sands, and excellent guesthouses and restaurants.
Glasgow has a great pub culture
Best place for live music
Scotland’s biggest city lacks Edinburgh’s classical beauty, but it more than makes up for it with a barrelful of things to do and a warmth and energy that leave every visitor impressed. Edgy and contemporary, it’s a great spot to browse art galleries and museums, and to discover the works of local hero Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Together with what is perhaps Britain’s best pub culture and one of the world’s greatest live-music scenes (big bands play at iconic venues, and a number of lower-key pubs have excellent regular gigs too), Glasgow has a vitality that is gloriously infectious.
Stirling has a lovely atmospheric Old Town
Best place for castles
With an impregnable position atop a mighty wooded crag (the plug of an extinct volcano), Stirling‘s beautifully preserved Old Town is a treasure trove of historic buildings and cobbled streets winding up to the ramparts of its castle. Now, Scotland has plenty of castles, and most have a story (or 10) to tell of plots, intrigues, imprisonments and treachery, but the majestic stronghold of Stirling Castle towering over the historic town, is more atmospheric than most. The location, architecture, historical significance and commanding views combine to make it a grand and memorable sight. It’s best to visit in the afternoon; many tourists come on day trips, so you may have the castle almost to yourself by about 4pm.
Drive the unforgettable Northwest Highlands Coastal Road
Best place for a scenic road trip
The Highlands abound in breathtaking views, but the far northwest is where things become truly awe-inspiring. The coastal road that runs between Durness and Kyle of Lochalsh offers jaw-dropping scenes at every turn: the rugged mountains of Assynt, the desolate beauty of Torridon and the remote cliffs of Cape Wrath. These and the nooks of warm Highland hospitality found in the region’s classic rural pubs make this an unforgettable corner of the country.
Skara Brae, Orkney, is a prehistoric wonder
Best for lovers of ancient history
When visiting ancient sites it can be difficult to bridge the gulf of years or sense a connection with the people that built them, but Scotland’s superb prehistoric remains have an immediate impact. Few places offer a better glimpse of everyday Stone Age life than Skara Brae in Orkney, with its carefully constructed fireplaces, beds, cupboards and water cisterns. Buried in coastal sand dunes for centuries, it can feel as though the inhabitants have just slipped out to go fishing and could return at any moment.
Walk through the dramatic scenery of Glen Coe
Best place for clan history
Scotland’s most famous glen combines those two essential qualities of the Highlands landscape: dramatic scenery and deep history. The peace and beauty of this valley today belie the fact that it was the scene of a ruthless 17th-century massacre, when the local MacDonalds were murdered by soldiers of the Campbell clan. Some of the glen’s finest walks – to the Lost Valley, for example – follow the routes used by clanspeople trying to flee their attackers, and where many perished in the snow. Start at Glencoe Visitor Centre for more information on this beautiful place and its tragic history.
Perthshire is the heart of Scotland
Best place to enjoy nature’s bounty
Blue-grey lochs shimmer, reflecting the changing moods of the weather; venerable trees, centuries-old, tower amid riverside forests; majestic glens scythe their way into remote wildernesses; and salmon leap upriver to the place of their birth. In Perthshire, the heart of Scotland, picturesque towns bloom with flowers, distilleries emit tempting malty odors and sheep graze in impossibly green meadows. There’s a feeling of the bounty of nature that no other place in Scotland can replicate.
The Shetland Islands are a Unesco geopark
Best place for birdwatching
Close enough to Norway geographically and historically to make nationality an ambiguous concept, the Shetland Islands are Britain’s most northerly outpost. The stirringly bleak setting – it’s a Unesco geopark – still feels uniquely Scottish, though, with deep, naked glens flanked by steep hills, twinkling, sky-blue lochs and, of course, sheep on the roads. It’s the birdlife that really draws visitors here. From their first arrival in late spring to the raucous feeding frenzies of high summer, the vast colonies of gannets, guillemots, puffins and kittiwakes at Hermaness, Noss and Sumburgh Head provide one of British birdwatching’s most impressive experiences.
Follow the River Spey on a Speyside whisky tour
Best place for whisky tasting
Scotland’s national drink is whisky – from the Gaelic uisge beatha, meaning “water of life” – and has been distilled here for more than 500 years. More than 50 distilleries are in operation in Speyside, Scotland’s most famous whisky area. Dufftown lies at the heart of the region and is host to the biannual Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival. Ask at the Whisky Museum about the Malt Whisky Trail, a self-guided tour around the local distilleries.