7 Days in Scotland: Edinburgh, Loch Lomond & the Highlands

Fly into Edinburgh, fly home from Inverness (or Edinburgh). In between: Edinburgh (2 nights) → Loch Lomond (1 night) → Inverness (3 nights), with a long drive through Glencoe on day four. This 7 day Scotland itinerary runs north in one line: a city, a castle, a loch, a glen and the Highland capital. It does not include the Isle of Skye, the Outer Hebrides or the north coast. Those need more days, because the roads are slow and the distances are longer than they look on a map.

Edinburgh is built on a ridge of volcanic rock, with the Castle at the top of the Royal Mile and the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom. Day one is the Castle, which holds the Scottish crown jewels, and the Old Town closes (the narrow lanes off the Royal Mile). Mary, Queen of Scots lived at Holyroodhouse in the 1560s, and you can see the room where her secretary Rizzio was killed.

Day two covers the rest. Climb Arthur's Seat, the extinct volcano in the city park, if the weather is good (about 45 minutes up, a little more with photos). Then walk the Georgian New Town, laid out from the 1760s, and visit the National Museum of Scotland, which is free. A guide helps most in the Old Town, where the history sits under the streets.

Stirling is about an hour from Edinburgh and sits at the narrowest point of the Forth valley, which is why so many Scottish battles were fought here. Stirling Castle was a favourite royal residence, and the Wallace Monument, a Victorian tower on a nearby crag, looks over the site of the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge.

From Stirling it is about 45 minutes to Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area. Stay on the western shore, near Luss or Tarbet, with a view across the water. It is the first Highland landscape on the route, and a good place for a walk or a boat trip before the long drive north.

Day four is the big driving day. From Loch Lomond the A82 runs north over Rannoch Moor and into Glencoe, a glacial valley with steep walls on both sides. The Three Sisters ridge is the view most people photograph. Glencoe is also where, in February 1692, soldiers of the Campbell clan killed 38 members of the MacDonald clan who had been hosting them. The visitor centre explains it well.

Continue to Fort William, below Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain at 1,345 metres, then follow the Great Glen along the Caledonian Canal to Inverness. Allow a full day with stops. Do not try to cut it short: the A82 is a single carriageway for much of the way and summer traffic is slow.

Inverness is the Highland capital, a compact city on the River Ness. Three nights lets you do three different days from one hotel with no packing. On day five, visit Culloden Battlefield, where the 1746 Jacobite defeat was the last pitched battle on British soil, and cross to the Black Isle, where bottlenose dolphins feed in the Moray Firth, often from the shore at Chanonry Point.

Day six is Loch Ness. The loch is about 36 km long and more than 220 metres deep, and holds more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales together. Visit Urquhart Castle, a ruin on the shore, then take the quieter south shore road, with a stop at the Falls of Foyers. A monster sighting is not guaranteed.

On day seven there is time for the Victorian market and the river walk before the transfer. If you have the morning, the Cairngorms National Park, the largest in the UK, is about an hour south-east.

Edinburgh: the Old Town or New Town, both walkable to the Castle and the Mile. Loch Lomond: a lochside hotel near Luss or Tarbet. Inverness: the city centre or the river bank, with restaurants within a short walk. Rooms in the Highlands in July and August often book out months ahead, so reserve early. A private vehicle is the easiest way to run this route, as buses between the Highland stops are infrequent.

May, June and September are the best months: long light, fewer people than July and August, and fewer midges (biting insects) than the summer peak. Midges are worst from late May to early September, especially on still, damp evenings. August is the busiest, and Edinburgh is very crowded during the Festival Fringe. April and October work, with shorter days and some attractions on reduced hours. From November to March, daylight in the Highlands is short, and some roads and sights close.

With 8 days, swap one Inverness night for a night on the Isle of Skye. This is the shape of our 8-day Highlands and Skye tour. With 9 days, add the whisky distilleries of Speyside and more castles on the way. With 5 days, stay in Edinburgh and add Stirling and Loch Lomond as day trips. Fly in to Glasgow instead of Edinburgh if the flights suit you better, and begin at Loch Lomond.

If you want a quieter day four, break the drive at Fort William and spend the afternoon on the Glenfinnan viaduct and the Jacobite steam train, which runs in summer and needs booking well ahead. The train crosses the viaduct made famous by the Harry Potter films, and the walk to the viewpoint takes about 20 minutes. It adds an hour to the journey, so do it only if the weather is good.

If rain sets in, each base has an indoor plan: the National Museum of Scotland and the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh, the Stirling Castle exhibitions, and the Loch Ness Centre at Drumnadrochit.

We book the hotels, a driver, and guides in Edinburgh and at Culloden. We also keep a wet-weather option for each day. A real person on our team is your contact from the first email to the flight home.