Road Trips: Not just for Route 66

Stunning vistas on the road in Scotland

Road trips are not just for Route 66

If you are planning a holiday to Scotland, are short on time, but still want to see as much as you can, the answer might just be a road trip. Road trips aren’t just about long, straight, American highways, or car journeys from hell to cries of ‘are we there yet?’ Scotland is the perfect place to drive, because, quite simply, it isn’t huge, so you can see quite a lot of this beautiful country in a short time. And because you don’t need to cover huge expanses point to point, and the passing landscape is stunning, you and your fellow travellers are likely to have a better time. Here are our suggestions for a successful road trip, and one route for you too.

Start and finish rested: It’s good to plan a road trip from a comfortable base, like one of our properties, for example! Rather than pick up your hire car from the airport and hit the road, it’s worth your while starting rested, after a night or two in a good bed. It helps also to plan the same for the end of your holiday too. Hand back the hire car and give yourself at least a day to wind down from driving and get your cases back in order before the flight or journey home.

Single track roads and obstacles like cattle grids can slow journey times

Applecross Peninsula, Wester Ross. Single track roads and obstacles like cattle grids can slow journey times

Plan your route: Start from somewhere central if you can (we’d suggest Stirling, of course) so that you have a number of options, and can change plans if you need to.  To make an educated guess about journey times, note the class of roads you plan to drive on. In Scotland, ‘A-roads’ provide efficient two-way driving, where you can get up to speeds of 60 miles/96 km per hour. ‘B-roads’, on the other hand, may offer no more than a single track with passing places at points, you may encounter livestock on the road, and winding roads can double or triple expected journey times.

Break up your journey: Build in time to pull off the road for something to eat, loo breaks, viewpoints and spontaneity. Planning your journey around good places to stop for lunch, and allowing time for an unplanned ‘let’s stop here a minute’ will be far more rewarding than pushing on to a must-see tourist spot – and you are more likely to get a better feel for Scotland too.

Pitlochry aerial view

Pitlochry aerial view

Pitlochry to Aberfeldy (Perthshire, B8019/B846/A827): Here’s one suggestion for a manageable and rewarding road trip, as described by matadornetwork.com.Drive west from Pitlochry to Loch Tummel. Stop at Queens View to take in the view favoured by Queen Victoria. At Tummel Bridge, continue west to Loch Rannoch and on to Rannoch Station, the most remote railway station in the UK. Return along the unmarked road on the south side of the loch, then turn right over the hill. Take a detour right to Fortingall and down to Fearnan on the banks of Loch Tay. Turn left along the loch to Kenmore at its head, then on to Aberfeldy following the banks of the River Tay, Scotland’s most famous salmon river.

For more information on road trips in Scotland, see:

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