Scotland is an ideal place for a road trip, as it boasts sublime scenery. Among the tips I used to plan my trip to Scotland in 2018, several had already been shared by Flytrippers at the time! They’re still relevant today and mostly apply to the majority of destinations.
This trip to the land of my ancestors represented for me a return to my roots on the occasion of my 40th birthday. When I travel, I tend to rather let time and events take their course, but for this trip, I organized everything. Or, as my partner likes to say, I over-organized everything.
Endless reading of blogs, watching YouTube videos, photos on Instagram, travel books, etc. I’ve read and seen everything that’s been said about Scotland in the year before leaving.
Let’s see what tips and tricks I used to plan our trip to Scotland, as well as some of my favorites at this gorgeous destination.
Tips to get to Scotland
I used 7 tips shared by Flytrippers to get to Scotland:
- Travel rewards
- VIP airport lounges
- Self-transfer
- Separate one-ways
- Open-jaw tickets
- Ultra low-cost carriers (ULCCs)
- Full rows of seats
Travel rewards
I booked my airplane tickets using points from my TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card, one of the credit cards you’ll find in Flytrippers’ travel rewards section.
Having earned a lot of Aeroplan points in the year leading up to my trip, I was able to book 2 roundtrips to London from Montreal.
VIP airport lounges
What’s more, we were able to take advantage of the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, because this card offered a few free passes before the complete overhaul of the Aeroplan program in 2020. This benefit has since been replaced by the free checked bags benefit (access to Air Canada lounges is now reserved for premium-level Aeroplan cards).
Self-transfers
We chose London because it was more advantageous, even though we were going to Scotland. We bought separate flights from London to Scotland.
It’s the self-transfer tip that almost always allows you to save on airplane tickets to Europe.
It also works for airplane tickets paid for with rewards of the more simple type or with cash: Flytrippers often spots deals to London in the $349 roundtrip range, but not so often to Scotland.
Separate one-ways
Then, for the flights between London and Scotland, we opted for separate one-way flights and not a roundtrip, as Flytrippers often recommends to do for short-distance flights.
This gave us more flexibility and saved us money.
Open-jaw tickets
We chose not to fly out of the same city we flew into: we booked London-Edinburgh and Glasgow-London. That’s the open-jaw ticket tip.
This enabled us to visit several destinations without having to return to the point of departure just to catch a flight home.
Ultra low-cost carriers (ULCCs)
To reduce transport costs, we compared airplane ticket prices and opted for an ultra low-cost carrier (ULCC) for our domestic flights.
We chose Ryanair for the 2 flights between London and Scotland at very low prices. No problems to report.
Full rows of seats
Finally, I also used another tip shared by Flytrippers: how to get a full row of seats. When selecting our seats for long flights, we chose the window and aisle, on the outbound and return.
Chances are pretty good that there won’t be a passenger caught between the 2 of us, leaving us more room for comfort. It didn’t work out on the outbound journey, as the airplane was full, but we were still able to ask the passenger sitting in the middle to switch seats.
Itinerary for travel in Scotland (and a few of my favorites)
In the planning stage, here’s the itinerary we’d drawn up (details on Google Maps). These are the broad outlines, not including all the little detours we were going to make along the way.
It was almost adhered to. Unfortunately, a closed highway forced us to take a detour of over 2 hours… but that’s the beauty of adventure, right?
Here’s a brief list of some of the highlights of our trip (with my favorite accommodation being in the lodging section below).
Best activity: Glasgow food tour with The Wee Food Tour
Castle that surprised us the most: Dunvegan Castle
Castle that taught us the most about Scottish history: Stirling Castle
Most surprising food: Fried pizza (yes, yes, you read that right…)
Best view: At the Neist Point lighthouse
I’ll let you judge for yourself the breathtaking views there.
The only warning about this place: the highway to get there is an adventure in itself!
Transport tips for travel in Scotland
You may have noticed on the itinerary above that some segments on our route were by ferry. To avoid unpleasant surprises, we decided to buy our ferry tickets in advance. That’s part of what made our trip a little less flexible, but at least we didn’t have to worry about unexpected delays during our stay.
After making the trip, I can assure you that it was the best thing we did, as we witnessed on more than one occasion that cars couldn’t board due to lack of space.
Lastly, on the subject of transport, we rented a car when leaving Edinburgh and dropped it off on arrival in Glasgow. To do this, we applied the basic tip of using the comparison tool recommended by Flytrippers, and it helped us get the best price. And believe me, I made several comparisons.
Accommodation tips for travel in Scotland
Because our itinerary took us out of the big cities, the points programs of major hotel chains like Marriott Bonvoy weren’t very useful to us.
(Since then, the Moxy Glasgow SEC hotel opened! It’s as low as 11,200 points per night — 56,000 points for 5 nights with the Marriott “Stay for 5, Pay for 4” benefit! The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card gives you 53,000 points!)
However, we were able to use our free nights previously earned with the best rewards program for non-chain hotels, the tip recommended by Flytrippers: Hotels.com Rewards, and its simple 10% back on all stays.
We also decided to use Hotels.com to book the other nights to earn rewards for a future booking, one of the best tips for saving on accommodation.
Our favorite accommodation during the trip was the Morar Bed & Breakfast in Armadale, on the Isle of Skye.
Other miscellaneous tips for travel in Scotland
Finally, here are a few other useful quick tips:
- Scotland now requires an electronic visa for Canadian travelers as of January 2025: the United Kingdom Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).
- Your phone in GPS mode will be your best friend. Make sure you have a data plan for your needs (not your roaming plan if you want to save money), or at least save Google Maps for offline use.
- Driving on the left quickly becomes a habit. Don’t worry.
- Credit cards are accepted almost everywhere, with just some exceptions.
- Not all tourist attractions are suitable for children (many trails are not well organized).
- The level of detail varies from one tourist attraction to another (some don’t even have descriptive signs).
- Some roads will take you past sheep, cattle, and oncoming traffic.
- A raincoat is a must in your luggage (although we only had one day of rain during our entire trip).
- Scotland is a constituent “country” of the United Kingdom. You can read about the background of this territory, which is distinct from the rest of the country.
My best recommendation is that you visit Scotland on a future trip… it’s so much more beautiful in real life.
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Summary
These several tips for a trip to Scotland mostly apply to any destination. It’s a beautiful place that’s fairly accessible and where you can have a great road trip.
What would you like to know about these travel tips for Scotland? Tell us in the comments below.
See the flight deals we spot: Cheap flights
Discover free travel with rewards: Travel rewards
Explore awesome destinations: Travel inspiration
Learn pro tricks: Travel tips
Featured image: Old Man of Storr, Portree, United Kingdom (photo credit: Nuno Antunes)
Original publication date: July 30, 2018
