A complete guide to Scotland with kids
This past August, my family and I spent 2.5 glorious weeks exploring Scotland. Are you planning (or dreaming!) of a trip? Let me help you! In this post, I'll be sharing:
- Our full itinerary
- My best travel tips
- Links to our AirBnBs (like the apartment inside of an old Abbey we stayed in on the shores of Loch Ness)
- Slow family travel advice for all of your travels with kiddos
But before we get into all of that, you might be wondering: what exactly is "slow family travel?" And why do I love using this phrase?
First things first, a little introduction to who I am. Hi - and welcome! I'm Eileen and last summer, my family and I uprooted our lives and moved from Greenville, SC to a small city in central France for an expat assignment with my husband's job. We have three kids, all girls: 8 year old twins and their five year old little sister. My husband and I have always loved travel, and one of the main factors we considered when choosing to move to France was accessibility for trips to the rest of Europe. We were thrilled to be able to expose our children to different cultures, lifestyles, and world travel as well!
Now that we live in France, we travel a lot. And let me tell you: traveling Europe with kids takes planning and intentionality - and I'm not just talking about packing lists! This is where the concept of slow family travel comes into play. So what is it, exactly? I like to define it as: traveling with an intention of savoring family time and the beauty of your surroundings, while moving at the unique pace of your own family in order to minimize stress and preserve the joy of the experience.
So, what does slow family travel look like, in practice? It can look different for every family, but for us it looks like slow sunset picnic dinners in a local park while the kids run around, spending the morning at local swimming holes, moving at a restful pace with plenty of time to recover between excursions, and being okay with not "seeing all the things." One of the benefits of this kind of travel is that you really do get to experience what life might be like in a particular region, instead of feeling like a tourist.
If that sounds good to you, there is a section on each stop with details on how this concept played out during our trip!
A couple of important notes before we get to the detailed itinerary!
To go along with the blog post, I have created a story highlight for our Scotland trip on my instagram (@eileenandco_). The story highlight will follow the blog post with more pictures and details for each spot we visited.
I have also created a google map (click the map below to be taken to link) with all our of favorite locations pinned. Hopefully this helps you plan your trip! Almost every place I mention throughout the post is pinned on the map.
We also love using the All Trails to search whatever area we are in and find good hikes. Highly recommend.
disclaimer. I am not affiliated with anything on the google map, airbnb or vrbo and can’t vouch for the current state of anything. When we went in summer 2022 these were our favorite places but I recommend doing your own up to date research!
Day 1-5 of our Scotland family road trip, Welcome to Glencoe Valley!
We drove up from London to Glencoe because the first part of our trip was a weekend in London, but if you are coming straight to Scotland I recommend flying into Edinburgh or Inverness, renting a car and driving the 3 or so hours to the valley.
If you arrive from Edinburgh, spend a few days exploring the city and then head to the highlands! In Edinburgh don’t miss all the Harry Potter gems, like the place that JK Rowling based Diagon Alley off of, Victory Street. Armchair books in Edinburgh is a national treasures as well.
On the 3 hour drive from Edinburgh to Glencoe, consider adding in a drive around and stop in beautiful Loch Lomond. It adds around 20 minutes to the drive and is 100% worth it in my opinion. Bonus points if you sing the famous Loch Lomond song as you drive around, Alastair McDonald has my favorite version. Hit up the adorable town of Luss for lunch at my favorite spot, the Coach House Coffee for the best cozy warm soups and delicious scones and cream. We wandered Luss the first time we came to Scotland in 2019 and went back in 2022 because the scones were so good. Luss is a car free town so you pay to park a little outside of the cute village and then walk in. Seeing the old stone houses that make up the village along the loch are worth the trip alone as they are overflowing with vines and flowers just exploding from window boxes.
The Valley rundown:
The valley itself is set up as a driving destination, and when you first pull in and see those mountains, wowwwww. There are lots of pull offs on the side of the 2 lane highway to park, jump out, admire the view and wander the many trails that make their way through the valley.
We spent most of our days just pulling off at different spots and exploring all the different trails.
(TIP!) Glencoe Valley is known as one of the most stunning vistas Scotland has to offer, but the winding valley has limited parking and gets very busy during the summer! You may want to plan around this by getting up and out early. We tried to be at the parking trails no later than 9 am and had the trails almost to ourselves, but by lunch time the parking lots were full (this was in high season in August).
Are you a Harry Potter fan? The spot where they filmed Hagrid's hut is located here on the Signal Rock, Ann Torr and Hagrids hut (here’s the alltrails link) walking trail. I have the spot pinned on the map as well. You don’t have to do the whole trail to get to the spot but its a gorgeous walk so I recommend it! The set is no longer there, but it's still recognizable from the movies! Rock cakes from Hagrid not included.
Another Harry Potter must see is the Glenfinnan Viaduct, made famous by Hogwarts Express and the HP films. It’s an hour drive from Glencoe but so fun to see. You can google the times the steam train comes by and get a shot just like the movies. The parking lot fills up when the train is coming by so get there early to nab a spot!
Castle Stalker is a great gem to see. A castle out on an island in a bay. You can park and walk for a great view of it, or a boat tour as well.
The valley itself doesn’t have much to do except hike and enjoy the scenery, and after you get your fill of that… may I recommend you head to the cute village of Ballachulish right outside the valley entrance.
Looking for the BEST scones and cream, as well as a cute little gift shop? Try Crafts and Things, right outside the valley entrance (shown above and linked on the map!).
Cuil Bay is a gorgeous rocky beach and it’s the perfect spot for kiddos (and adults!) to explore.
For the best Scottish dinner, try Hollytree Hotel and Restaurant. This dinner spot was recommend to us by our local Airbnb host when we first came to Scotland back in 2019 and when we came in 2022 we went back and enjoyed it just as much! I recommend the steak frites, and Luke recommends the fish and chips. It has great food and gorgeous lake views! Pro tip: call and make a reservation, because they reserve tables for their hotel guests and run out of open tables for non guests of the hotel.
Grab all the groceries you need at the little local Coop in Ballachulish. This store is small, but mighty! We shopped there for our whole five days in the valley and had everything we needed.
The lodging:
Click here for the VRBO Glencoe link
I searched high and low for our VRBO in Glencoe, and finding this cozy little place felt like a unicorn find! A lot of places when I was looking for our family of 5 were expensive or required a 7 night stay. This one checked all my boxes and was around $100 a night! (As of summer 2022)
This find is so cozy with its two bedrooms and well-stocked kitchen. The views are amazing and it is a two minute drive from the beach, an eight minute drive from Glencoe Valley.
A quick lodging tip: if you're looking to stay somewhere with more of a city vibe, Fort William is the main city in this area! It's about a 25 minute drive from the valley and will have everything you need. It's totally doable to explore Glencoe from here, just plan on a further drive to get there! We drove through it on the way to our next stop in the Cairngorms, and hit up some charity shops looking for vintage treasures downtown Fort William (shops we went to are marked on the google map).
Slow Family Travel Rhythms in Glencoe:
Glencoe Valley is one of my favorite places in the world. The beauty of the valley is unmatched in my opinion, with the weeping mountains, craggy cliffs, and a new vista around every corner. Our main goal in Glencoe was just to take our time exploring the valley, letting our kids move at their pace and just soak in the beauty around us. To do this, we spent our mornings slowing hiking all the different trails in the valley, and then headed back to our VRBO for a fresh lunch we picked up from the little grocery store, naps for the littlest (and mom), and then afternoons spent exploring a craggy beach and collecting sea glass. We did slow cafe stops with all the cream we could eat and took the girls to a special dinner at the HollyTree. We watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and then visited the exact spot the filmed Hagrid’s Hut in that movie. Our 5 days were up too soon!
Day 6-9 of our Scotland family road trip, The Cairgorms
After 5 days in Glencoe we headed about 2 hours away to the Cairgorms National Park (where the famous Balmoral Estate is, favorite of Queen Elizabeth and where she had her final days). We didn’t make it to Balmoral as we mainly stayed on the other side of the huge park, but its easy to see why this National Park is known as the most beautiful forest in the UK.
The Cairgorms Rundown
We picked an Airbnb close to the cute town of Aviemore, which I had read is a great base to explore the forest. We wholeheartedly agree! It’s an adorable town full of great little shops and restaurants. Spend an afternoon wandering here for sure!
Hit up Smiffy’s on the main shopping street for some good fish and chips (all pinned on the map!)
We took our horse loving 8 year old twins on an hour long pony trek through the gorgeous countryside and it was the highlight of their week! We used Highland Horse Fun and they were great.
There are so many ways to explore the forest around here, from walking with its reindeer herds, water sports during the summer and skiing during the winter. So much to do, so little time!
We spent one day at the famous Rothiemurchus Estate hiking around the lake to see the Loch an Eilein Castle. It’s floating on an island in the middle of a gorgeous lake and a stunning walk.
Make sure to hit up the Rothiemurchus Farm Shop and Cafe. Both famous in the area. We LOVED grabbing local goodies like fresh strawberries, local butter, steak pie and veggies to cook at home in our cozy airbnb.
Cairgorms Lodging
Click here for our Cairngorms Airbnb Link
Our cutie Airbnb was a located in a stone attached cottage, originally build in the 1800’s as an infirmary. It’s was attached to a couple other houses but felt completely private with a great yard just for us with a trampoline! Our girlies were in heaven! The hot water took us a little bit to figure out with an electric heater just for it, but since our next airbnb in the north of Scotland had the same electric shower, we had the hang of it by then!
Slow Family Travel Rhythm’s in the Cairgorms:
We really enjoyed our time in the Cairgorms. It was on our list to see this gorgeous forest and it was a great 2 day stop. I don’t know if I would spend a lot more time than that here, with my love of the mountains and beaches I was missing the epic views. Luke is a big forest lover so he loved our time here and would have easily spent more time hiking and exploring. One of the highlights of this spot for us were the slow hike we did around the castle of Loch en Eilein and the Farm Shop of Rothiemurchus. I LOVE trying local homemade meals so being able to have a slow afternoon at the Airbnb while the kids jumped on the trampoline and we heated up a local steak pie with fresh strawberries and scones for dinner, heaven!
Days 9-15, Welcome to the top of the world!
Did you know that you can get this Caribbean blue water color in Scotland?? After the Cairgorms, we headed up to the tippy top of Scotland, Durness! This area had long been on our to-see list, and the views did not disappoint. We drove through Inverness on our way up and stopped for some shopping before heading the 3 hours up to the top of the world.
Wanna actually feel like you are on top of the world away from everything? North Scotland is your PLACE. We had done research and I still was surprised at how remote it was up north. I knew there were towns and so just naively assumed they were large towns with little villages scattered around. Well I was wrong. Durness is one of the biggest towns we learned in the north of Scotland and there was 1 restaurant and one tiny grocery clustered around homes. But wowwwwwwww the beaches and views. We couldn’t take it all in, it was so stunning.
Durness Rundown
If you want to be truly disconnected and just have slow mornings wandering on yet another gorgeous beach with crystal clear water, have the weather turn from gorgeous to rain to wind to gorgeous again in 10 minutes, eat delicious cheese toasties from the local food truck every day, find lots of sea glass, meet locals on a walk who will talk you through the history of the area, dodge the sheep constantly walking in the road, and read books and nap, this is YOUR place.
We loved our time here. We wanted to truly disconnect and just soak up this area, and this was the perfect spot for it.
Don’t miss Snoo Cave, it really is gorgeous.
Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil is a famous little shop with amazing hot chocolate, don’t miss it!
Durness is located on the very popular NC500, a driving route that follows the upper coast in Scotland and begins and ends in Inverness. We saw loads of campers every day as they made the scenic trek or were parked and wild camping in one of the beautiful spots that popped up around every corner. If you are a road trip person and camping and views are your thing, check out the NC500!
Durness Lodging
Click here for the Durness Airbnb link
The lodging in Durness was a true fisherman’s cottage perched up on a cliff with views that made their way down to a gorgeous crystal clear bay with the ocean stretching out behind. I booked this place in January 2022 for our August trip 2022 and I got one of the last weeks available for the whole summer if that tells you anything! Incredible view and cozy house. We loved.
Slow Family Travel Rhythm’s in Durness
Our whole time in Durness was the definition of remote relaxation. My husband was in complete heaven. It was a little too remote for me to spend almost a whole week there. I loved our time and the area had been on my bucket list for such a long time so I’m so glad we went, but I don’t think I would need 5 nights there again. I might do a shorter time and do more time on the NC500 seeing more of the coast with lodging more spread out. But my husband wants to go back to Durness for a month so I think it depends on what your individual goals are!
Day 16-19, Loch Ness and the most magical Airbnb EVER.
We drove back down through Inverness and headed down the gorgeous drive that follows the curve of the famous Loch Ness. I was so thrilled about this part of the trip, mainly because of the Airbnb I found. Housed in an old Abbey and now a private club of apartments, this airbnb was set within old stone walls with endless charm and « wow I’m staying in a castle vibes! » The private club of apartments is right on the lake and has a fancy indoor pool and sauna, life sized chess board and old cloisters to explore. It was truly the highlight stay of the trip. We also LOVED the little village the Abbey is located in and I can’t recommend a stop here enough! We are going to be back one day!
(The grounds of the Abbey the Airbnb is located in)
Loch Ness Rundown
Loch Ness is obviously very famous and I didn’t know what to expect, would it be too touristy and not enjoyable? Spoiler alert, it was one of our favorite stops of our trip. The little villages surrounding the lake were charming and the views were stunning. Our kids were enthralled with the legend of Nessie and we had fun at the Loch Ness Center and Exhibition learning more about the legend and all the searches done for the monster.
The village of Fort Augustus (where the Abbey airbnb is located), is delightful! Cute little shops dot the side of canal and lock system where the boats come through to travel down the Caledonian Canal- a canal that travels the width of Scotland, from Inverness to Fort William. We stayed a whole morning watching the boats come up and down, and they drew quite a crowd! You can rent boats and do the whole canal (3 day trip each way) and we saw lots of families doing it. Looked like so much fun for a week trip down the gorgeous loch’s of Scotland! It’s now on our list of things to do!
Don’t miss the adorable shop The Wee Little Highland Shop in Fort Augustus, it as one of my favorite shops of the trip! (Don’t forget to check the google map, so much of all my favorites are saved there!)
We loved eating at the restaurant on the Highland Club grounds, the Boathouse. Delish!
Don’t miss the cute village of Drumnadrochit, where the Loch Ness Center is. We loved the Courtyard Cafe for a soup and sandwich. Don’t forget the dessert case!
We could have done a few more days in Loch Ness, we didn’t make it to the famous Urquhart Castle on the loch. Tip, you have to book tickets ahead of time to get a parking spot, spots are very limited!
Another way to see the Loch is a boat tour up the lake, they leave from Fort Augustus and around Drumnadrochit as well. Great way to see the loch! Pack your rain gear!
Lodging
Click here for our Loch Ness Airbnb Link
I know I know just get to the link for the Abbey already Eileen. The indoor pool was a huge hit with the family, the whole place inside and out feels like staying in an old castle and the pool room will make your most royal dreams come true. We were SO SAD to leave!
Slow Family Travel Rhythm’s in Loch Ness.
We were finishing up our time in Scotland as we wrapped up Loch Ness and were so sad to leave this magical place. Scotland is a place that gets into your bones and stays forever. Our time in Loch Ness was the most splurge stay of our trip to Scotland, and we got our money’s worth by how much time we soaked put the Airbnb and the grounds. We wandered around the Loch, played the life sized chess set, swam in the indoor pool and ate at the restaurant on site. We wandered Fort Augustus and loved watching the boats go through the locks in the center of town (which is right outside the abbey gates!). We spent a morning going through the Loch Ness Centre and the girls looked for Nessie, we had slow lunches at local cafes with fresh traditional Scottish breakfast’s and watched local Coo’s out the cafe windows. Our time here is my definition of why I love slow family travel and it was such sweet family time.
We headed back down to London after 4 nights in Loch Ness with such full hearts from our time in this special country. « We will be back soon » we say as we cross the border into England!
Weather Tips and Packing for Scotland
Scotland is a magical place, filled with glens and lochs, magical views around every corner and WEATHER. Lots of weather. You will go from rain to sun to mist to wind and back within 10 minutes. We found the best way to enjoy the land no matter the weather was to be prepared for anything.
Layers are your best friend, even in summer!
Up in the highlands we found the highs in August (in 2022) were pretty normal for the region and mid 60’s during the day, down in the 50’s at night. We never wore shorts and always had layers with us.
Here was my packing strategy.
Leggings for hiking, a tee and lightweight knit sweater, puffer, rain jacket, wool socks and hiking boots. I then mixed and matched each day depending on weather with maybe just wearing a knit sweater and rain jacket or a puffer and rain jacket or just a puffer or just the sweater. But those layers gave me everything I needed.
You will need a GOOD RAIN JACKET. I’m talking actually 100% impermeable which a lot of rain jackets are NOT. We found that out the hard way when we moved to Europe and were walking everywhere.
I swear by the Rains Jackets for adults (see above) and Helly Hansen for kids. Rains is a Danish company so they know rain. I take my normal size and its roomy enough to layer a lightweight puffer under but also fine to wear on its own. Helly Hansen is a Norwegian brand and their kids jackets are amazing. It’s all our kids wear and they hold up beautiful for rainy day hikes and all the mud a kid can throw at them.
Guys.Whew. A+ to you if you made it through all that! Let me know if you have any questions, drop them below in the comments or email me.
Make sure to follow along on instagram, I’m active on there sharing up to date travel plans and what life in France looks like for these expats. Thanks for being here!
Xoxo
Eileen