Don't Do This In Scotland! Mistakes When You Travel To The Scottish Highlands
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- Опубліковано 14 лис 2019
- Don't Do This In Scotland! Mistakes When You Travel To The Scottish Highlands
Thanks for watching our Scotland travel guide. We hope it is helpful as you are looking for Scotland road trip ideas. We also have a Scottish Highlands tour and Scotland road trip itinerary online.
Summer is the best time to visit Scotland, but make sure you book your rooms early! The biggest of our Scotland travel tips is that rooms can sell out a year in advance. In our Scotland travel vlog and Scotland road trip guide you can see where we stayed, a pod near Eilean Donan Castle.
We visited Isle of Skye Scotland and Glencoe Scotland on our trip.
Thanks for watching our Scotland travel diary.
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9:51 Particularly in the Highlands, Brits have a work/life balance which is biased to life rather than work.
12:57 Eat a relaxed meal in late afternoon/early evening and enjoy the gloaming and sunsets.
13:15 Given that sunset in the summer is close 11:00 p.m. - go eat then wander round. The sunsets are fantastic...
I found placing a sticker in the form of an arrow, pointing left on the windscreen, to be a very effective reminder of which side of the road to be on. It only takes a moment of confusion for instinct to cut in which could be potentially disastrous
WONDERFUL tips, guys!
My biggest piece of advice is that the most important thing you can pack is patience. You’ll be so much more relaxed if you let other harried, busy groups go in front of you and let the locals get on with their day. You are vacationing and giving others space gives you times to soak it up in peace.
Just taking your time on those roads and carefully moving out of the others ways is important. Pay attention to your laybys so you can backup if necessary.
Thanks for your tips!
I'm scottish from the Highlands and like to say there are plenty passing places, you say cutouts, on single roads! The car that arrives first goes into the passing to let the other car pass by! Tourists who don't know this etiquette or not brought up to this are the dangerous ones!
Yeah, and passing places aren't parking spaces either. They're not there for tourists to park up and fly their noisy drones to the chagrin of locals.
For just as importantly I would hold that one does not know also in Scotland that uphill has right of way. Anyone who has ever been in the Alps or Dolomites, has to know that.
The advance booking is actually advisable for all areas that are developed for tourism. Especially in Great Britain, France or Italy, the locals themselves travel through their country on weekends. There is little chance to find spontaneous accommodation.
Your comments, punctuated with exclamation marks, are not helpful, Brian MacDonald.
All of these ideas were fantastic! Thank you so much. So glad we watched this before traveling.
Glad it was helpful!
Sat nav is our friend when navigating roundabouts. On the one lane roads there are cutouts regularly. The polite way is for the vehicle closest to the cutout gives way to the oncoming car. Always acknowledge each other. Thx for all these pointers. We’re going back to UK in October from Australia. 🇦🇺 This vid adds to the excited anticipation. 👋🏻
I'm watching a lot of these videos and realising I'm not going to have much trouble in Scotland because all its quirks we have in New Zealand once you get out of the city hahaha
Thank youuuuu!!
Thanks for heads up 🥹
This is reeeeally good information. I was really surprised to hear about the restaurants! This is very helpful info especially for day trip planning purposes. Now I Know we have to Stop early enough to get a decent meal in the evening --- or for sure to make sure we have food we can cook at the airnb. Thank you.
Glad I've stumbled on this one. I want to visit Scotland soon and Eilean Donan is on my list.
Single track roads are fine when you get used to them.. There is almost never a coming together - a lot of it comes down to timing. Don't stress too much though we can usually spot the tourists and we will cut you a little slack - unless we are having a really bad day.
(We also have a big list where we write down the names of everyone who pronounces Edinburgh as EdinBURG or EdinBRO it is pronounced EdinBRAH so watch out!)
Glad you have a good time.
That list is added to the don't say you are in England when you are with us list.
And when you come to California, don’t pronounce San Jose as “San Josey”- it’s San Hoe-Zey, or pronounce La Jolla as “La JOLLA,” it’s “La HOYA”
@@frednorman1 exactly. Ppl never keep that same energy when they're the tourist.
🙈 the edinBURG people. Some of the other tough gaelic and nordic names may be forgivable… LOL
You guys have endearing personalities. Thanks for the tips!
Great vid, thx...planning a Scotland vacation now (btw, the cc around 8:27 cracked me up)
Thank you so much for all the useful advice. We plan to visit the Isle of Skye in September. I was surprised to find that many hotels were already fully booked, even though I booked a hotel four months in advance. Glad we booked early. We also have to be careful about procuring food. The only good thing is that we are Japanese, so we are used to driving on the left side. Thank you.
1. Book accommodation well in advance
2. Book an automatic car if you're not comfortable with manuals + get insurance (there are a lot of 1 way roads)
3. Grocery stores are cheap - pack picnics
4. Take a drone with to catch great landscape footage
5. Most places/tourist attractions get emptier in the late afternoon
Thank you those were great tips. We are heading to those areas in June
Have a great trip
Hey Guys, we love your channel. We took our first Amtrak trip in June 2021 from Chicago to LA (Southwest Chief). We loved it. haha, my wife said 'we'll know if the first 10 minutes if this was the best or worst decision of our lives'. We're planning a Scotland trip and stumbled over this video - very helpful.
Have a great time in Scotland! We just went again and took the Caledonian Sleeper from London, the video was posted a few weeks ago. It was a really cool way to get there!
In June it stays light all night, so you can site-see late and return home at 10/11pm. And few midgies/mosquitos in June compared to August. It’s smart to pack midgie gear /netted jackets, pants, and heat gear.
Watching I'm from Philippines thank you for the tips
Thank you SO much for this information!! I've been to Scotland years ago but it was on a guided tour. I'm planning a trip now and I'm trying to decide if I will drive or not. Very valuable information! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
If you drive, ask for an automatic transmission vehicle with sat nav. So helpful when navigating roundabouts.
Most Pubs (public houses) , inns and hotels will serve meals at lunch time or in the evenings.
I’ve driven over 4000 miles in Scotland as an American, and it takes several days to acclimate to the driving on right side of car on the left side of road. Parking is also a challenge when sitting on the right side of the car. It’s best to have someone sitting up front that will keep an eye out for hazards and slip ups with staying in the correct side of the road and even with speeding or doing any unsafe maneuvers. You’ll be coming into a lot of small towns where the speed is reduced greatly and there are speed traps with cameras everywhere. I have received speeding tickets from driving there before and it took about six weeks for them to come through my Hertz rental company to me when I was back home in the states. So be very aware of the speed in which you’re traveling in the speed marked on the road because they will send you a ticket in the mail.
Interesting watching this. I've never really thought about how single track roads must be for visitors, its just something I'm used to.
Yep, particularly those in the US. Our lanes are all double and very wide with large shoulders. We just have more space than you guys. And our roadways are MUCH newer in the grand scheme of things.
Highlands and Islands of Scotland are extremely beautiful. It really is a very compact area for the amount of visitors they get. I was lucky enough to fulfill a lifelong wish to visit family spots in the highlands but, didn’t have time to visit the outer Hebrides which was where my MacDonald family side emigrated to America from. Also, we went in September to avoid crowds but, most everything is closed by then.
That is where my family resides from. Who knows we may be related lol Ive been Highlands all my life.
@@martinmacdonald9238 A bheil Ghàidhlig agad?
These are great tips! It really can't be stressed enough that driving in Scotland is stressful! We made all the mistakes you mention (except for the manual transmission, I was warned about that one) and then some. We ended up turning our rental car in early and booking trains for the last half of our trip.
This is a great tips video! I've been a fair number of times and all you said is so true - I snort laughed at the sheep on the road comment! Your point on the instinct to pull over to the right when you should pull over to the left when driving is excellent, something I never thought of, thanks!
The Cheviot sheep developed their stop in the road and give the driver a dirty look joke back in the 1960s. The Dalesbreds in the Yorkshire Dales learnt it in the late 1970s. They're canny beasts are sheep.
10:34 The important phrase is "all by yourself". If you are all by yourself - fine. If not, the other people there may not appreciate the whine of your toy ruining the tranquility of the setting. If there are people there, fly high enough to be out of earshot - they will appreciate it.
Gas stations also have yummy hot & cold foods. Marks & Spencers is at BP, Tesco is at Tesco -- lovely meals. Meal deals for 5 pounds for an entree, drink and a side. M&S offers Indian, Italian, Chinese hot food, cheap prosciutto, too. Try Ribena juice - delicious, not sold in the US. Greggs also has yummy food.
I was in Fort William, drove up to Inverness, neither STB could find me accomodations. Inverness found me a spot at Tobermory on Mull, but if I drove the Ardnamurchan, I'd miss the last ferry from there to mull for the weekend, but if I took A82 and ferried halfway down the Ard, I could make the (now 2nd) ferry from there to Mull just in time! Of course then I got on Mull and found the ATM there took all but my network. I was halfway to Oban passenger ferry to hit the ATM there to come back and pay the B&B and the but they let me buy credit for them downtown on a charge card instead, and I could get the car ferry and continue on to Skye from Mull instead. One of many fun events on my 1996 trip.
This was so helpful but stressed me out about driving!
Its challenging but you can do it! 👍🏽
Thank you
You are welcome
Bicyclists are also riding on all roads, no matter how remote those roads are. You’ll come over a hill and a bike will be there. You have to just slow down and wait for the ability to pass them. Be patient. Don’t crowd them and put them in a position where they could be hit or run off the road.
We toured Scotland in June this year, but I didn't see this video until now. I didn't take my drone, I wish I had seen the video and found a spot in my luggage for my tiny drone!
We stayed almost exclusively in AirBnBs, which was great. But yes, they were booked well in advance of the trip. We were a "large" group, 9 people in two cars, so we rented houses in Conwy, Glencoe, and the Inverness area, and that aspect of the trip was awesome.
The biggest driving challenge for me as an American in Scotland was keeping the car properly centered in the lane, especially on curves on the narrow roads around Glencoe (with 60 mph speed limits - it can be intimidating to have a truck on your rear bumper and a tour bus coming at you at 60 mph that seems to be touching the lines on both sides of its lane!). After a couple of days I figured out that if I consciously looked at where I wanted the right side wheels of the car to go - the right side of the lane - all was well and I stopped hitting curbs and going off the left side of the pavement. (I figured out that I was unconsciously looking at the left side of the lane, which is how I drive here at home. 🙂)
Be aware that Scotland is about as far north as Alaska, so there is a lot of variation in the length of the day depending on the season. In June we were seeing sunrise at 4:30 AM and sunset at 10:30 PM. I can only imagine how short the days are in December!
Mid summer (longest day) approx 18/6 daylight/dark. Exact opposite mid winter. Not fully light till 9am and starting to get dark mid afternoon about 3pm.
I've been in Shetland mid summer and it didn't get fully dark during the night.
Watch the left edge of the road, keeping the oncoming cars in your peripheral vision. Turn your left side mirror down for a visual on how close you are to the edge until your brain figures it out.
I dream of visiting Scotland and this was a helpful video. I’m a new subscriber 👍🏼
Welcome;-)
With respect to eating out in rural areas, you have to appreciate some of these places are pretty remote and aren't particularly populous. So they won't necessarily have the level of trade to justify staying open later. It's just the way it is. Sure it's the same in Hicksville, Appalachia, too.
we in scotland do not drive on the wrong side of the rd by the way , an roundabouts are cheaper then bridges that's why there are a lot of em , if yi want a good rd ti drive the old A 9 up to inverness is one of the best now we have a new A 9 death trap before then though , come an enjoy our wee country , aye !
Sunset up there varies between 4:00 pm and midnight, so not really a good indicator of when things close
Right hand Driving is better for a stick shift because your good right hand is on the wheel and your left hand controls the gears.
Thanks for the great tips. How did you book your train tickets in Scotland? I tried to pre-book my tickets, but I'm having trouble downloading apps from the the UK because I'm California resident. Did you buy your train tickets at the train station?
Thought I’d add
In the winter it will be pitch black by 4pm
So the late sightseeing doesn’t work so well 😉
Very good points!
Sunset in summer is 11pm that’s very late to want to eat dinner
😂
Im getting ready to go there for my first trip,, you said you went to the castle after hours, but did you go inside it too? or just the outside? are all the castles like that? thank you for the advice, I will be driving and I am a little nervous about it all.
If it’s a place that’s popular with tourists you better be there super early in the morning. Be the first ones there. You’ll get the best pics with nobody in them. Get tickets to events and castles ahead of time to avoid the queues.
Found this video so helpful.. Even the tips about the rear view mirror being on your left.. not your right!! What about the gas/brake pedals? Do you have to use your left foot?
Gas and brake - right foot.
one-lane roads have passing place where one vehicle waits to let the ongoing vehicle pass. don't try to squeeze by
What were the names of the pods you stayed at on Skye? Going in Oct. and have liked the looks of those.
They didn't really have names, but we got them on Airbnb
What company was the pod rooms. There is nothing I could find on air b and b under pods.
Where did yku guys stay? Any recommendations on accommodation? Planning 7 days in Scotland. Thank you
We stayed in Glencoe area in a pod and also at Isle of Skye, also in a pod.
On Skye the pods at Loch Greshornish are great by the loch and have award winning toilet and showers. May - September be aware of the midges. Drone flying is not allowed in flight paths or over military exercise areas or Royal estates
@@pamelaadam9207 m
What was the castle you mentioned around 10:50
Eilean Donan.
It's pronounced "Ellan Daw-nan".
@@scotbotvideos thank you!!!
Contact your insurance company before purchasing additional coverage from a rental car company. You probably won’t need it. Remember, gasoline is expensive! 3 liters equals a gallon. Renting a car can eat up your budget.
Actually 1 US gallon equals 3.79 litres and 1 Imperial gallon equals 4.55 litres.
Agree it is an expense that should be carefully planned for. Having your own car is SUCH a joy. Just take it slow and pay attention.
Scotland is pronounced with an ow, not an Ah! Scottish single track roads should be driven with respect to the wild life (cattle/sheep) These guys in the ditch ignored common sense! Insurance - Well I was in Orlando and the hire car company wanted me to take out insurance for this and that -I told them where to go! Scotland is the most beautiful/pictures place in the world, Unfortunately we have many like yourself trying to tell us in how we should go about our business! Eating - we Scots eat before 8pm, that is what we do, Take it or leave it! Yes driving in other countries can be a bit stressful, I found it weird in turning right while the red light was showing in America! Different folk have different strokes, respect should be given, not making jokes! Haste ye back folks!
Great information. Thank you so much. I am most appreciative of the information, especially visiting the tourist attractions after 4 o’clock when the tours subside or when they are open to locals. I almost didn’t listen to your video because you were hiding behind your laptop and because you were wearing a baseball cap, which is so American. But I pleasantly enjoyed the video and admired you both as such a cute couple.
Thank you for watching, I’m glad it was helpful.
It wasn’t clear to me what you did wrong when passing the mailman (7:17) You turned right instead of left? (I’m going to Scotland this October and renting a car)
Yes, I think that was it!
We drive on the left side of the road in the UK. So if you're driving down a singletrack road and you encounter a car coming towards you, stick as far to the left as you can. If there's a passing place on your left, you go into it. If it's on your right side, then the other car would go into it; you may need to reverse slightly to make that possible.
Them's the rules.
the locals must have cringed when you said "Edinberg"
actually, that should be listed as another "don't"
Scatland 😄😄
Oh😂😂
Where’s Scartland?
A dont ken. only yankees ken. SAOR ALBA GU BRATH
scatland is near the youknited kingdum
We are so used to diving into a place on the right. We were hunting accommodations in LEEDS and a quaint little place caught my eye with a vacancy sign and as the driveway was right up ahead and I could get into it I aimed for the driveway totally forgetting people are coming the other way and I am about to kill my passenger wife impeding the travel of people going the other way. So my tip. Be very aware about not making any hasty right impulsive turns at the last minute! Lucky for us the on coming car put flat spots on their tires just for us Tourismo’s!
I am so grateful that I visited Scotland before the Conservative Party took over and privatized all the castles. Eileen Donan, Urquhurt, and many others, had no tourist centers. We could just drive up to the ruins and see it for free, no blocked view of the lakes they are on.
Buy a decent microphone, please!
If you don’t want to stand out as an American tourist I would say ditch the baseball cap. They are generally worn in the UK by the unemployed, pubescent kids, paunchy guys trying to hide their baldness.
No one cares. How pretentious are you? 😒
you are such a Pussy,,,who gives a fuk if you look like and AMERICAN,,,WE PAY THE BILLS
People are respectful of hijabs and turbans and all manners of customary dress, but get their knickers in a knot over American's dress. So strange.
Slow down .
Just back from Scotland and I've seen an American tourist on a rental car taking the motorway on the opposite direction....very dangerous, thank god we managed to warn him from our car on time.