NOVEMBER 1, 2018 / TRAVELS, UNITED KINGDOM

SCOTLAND LAND OF BEAUTY VOL. II

I can go on and on to list the reasons why I love Scotland, and why you should visit it. But, I think I have done enough of that in my two previous posts, that you can read here and here. Scotland is a big country so you can’t possible see everything in one short trip even two. This time I was traveling the lower parts of the Scottish Highlands and the central part.

The best way to discover Scotland is definitely by car, since there are so many places and there aren’t organized tours for the less popular places/attractions. It’s a type of road trip that you won’t be able to take off your eyes from the beautiful nature and breathtaking landscapes.

Just an hour away from Edinburgh is the Hermitage, a national trust with an amazing scenery. There is a short trail that leads to a stone bridge and a small river, it’s truly breathtaking especially now since there were leafs everywhere and the colors of the trees were just stunning.

Driving up north, we were headed for Glencoe, the place where some scenes from Skyfall were filmed, since me and my father are huge Bond fans we couldn’t miss this spot. Honestly, it was worth that extra 30 minute drive, the nature was so beautiful. The landscapes, small rivers, waterfalls…simply breathtaking.

Oban, a small coastal town was next, we spent the night here at the wonderful Alexandra Muthu Hotel which has a great view of the Loch. The town is very small, I reccomend Cuan Mor for lunch or dinner and Angelina’s cafe for breakfast (try the scones they are delicious). At Oban we visited the Oban whiskey distillery, we skipped the tour part and went straight to the tasting.

Next was Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, driving by the shore of the loch was amazing, we were lucky that we had excellent weather to enjoy it to the fullest. Apart from Loch Lomond we visited, Loch Awe and Loch Earn, but Lomond was my favorite. It is much bigger that the rest of the Lochs I’ve seen and the scenery was stunning. We stopped at a small village called Luss, where we had lunch at , I highly recommend this place.

We decided to make a quick stop to Glasgow, honestly there wasn’t much to see in Glasgow there were mainly streets with shops. We saw the Glasgow Cathedral which has some beautiful murals and the Necropolis which I found to be a very bizarre tourist land mark.

Next on our itinerary was Stirling, a medieval small town, which I found very cute. Located in Stirling is also the Stirling Castle, very similar architecture and concept as Edinburgh Castle as well as the Wallance Monument (for both sights you need to purchase tickets). Just outside of Stirling we stayed at Broomhall Castle, which was an interesting experience spending the night in a medieval castle.

On our last day we visited the Kelpies, very unique architecture if you have time definitely go for it.

Scotland is for sure one of my favorite destinations and I cannot wait to be back.