Well, you can see the Scottish Highlands without going all the way to Orkney. Having said that, I gotta tell you that I myself would love to see Orkney.
Will you be renting a car or ferry or train or combination?
When we went north, we drove along the northwest coast, from Mailaig (sp?) up to Ullapool, which was as far north as we got. The Applecross Peninusla had breathtaking views (as does Glen Coe, much further south.) We are from Colorado so are used to mountain driving, but the roads, while well kept, are much narrower and are not exactly filled with guardrails. We loved it!
Try to see Stirling. I much preferred its castle to the one in Edinburgh.
Fort William was touristy but fun, ditto Inverness (of the two, I’d pick Fort William.) Ullapool was not touristy at all.
On the western coast we saw two places we really enjoyed:[url=‘http://www.treasuresofbritain.org/InvereweGarden.htm’]Inverewe Garden[/url]
and
The charming, tiny harbor town of [url=‘http://www.plockton.com/’]Plockton[/url]
Inverewe Garden is incredible. The North Atlantic Drift keeps temps mild on the western coast there, and there are palm trees and other subtropical plants. Even Plockton has a few spindly palm trees in its sheltered harbor. Highland cattle roamed main street.
One thing you might want to consider, but I would not blame you for deciding against it: Rather than going all the way north, go east after a certain point, and see some of the Whisky Trail. We really enjoyed meandering through that area.
However, there are distilleries on both Mull and Skye.
Some people might tell you to pick one island and spend two days on it. It really is preferable to spend more than one night in a place.
And some folks might tell you to skip Glasgow because of its rougher ways, but I won’t. It is a worthwhile visit.
You might get some rain. The Scots are friendly people.
The countryside is beautiful.

Cil,

Thanks so much for all that info. It really is greatly appreciated. Here’s a rough idea of how I’m thinking about this trip –

Land in London, and fly to Edinburgh on Ryanair.

Spend 2 days in Edinburgh, and use city public transport.

Train to Glasgow. Spend a day in Glasgow and use city transport.

Rent a car, and drive along the west coast, stopping at Glencoe, Mallaig and Fort William on our way to Isle of Skye.

Spend two nights on the Isle of Skye.

Drive along the coast again, stopping at the Applecross Peninsula, and Plockton on our way to Ullapool.

Spend the night in Ullapool, and a few hours the next morning.

Drive up to Thurso/Scrabster . From there, I can’t decide if I should ferry the car with us, or find a place to park in Scrabster, and leave it there for two days. I need to find out what the local transportation is like, in Orkney. Depending on that, I’ll make the decision. What I do know though, is that it’ll cost us $169 for the car, and $56 per person for the roundtrip from Scrabster to Stromness, the port at Orkney. This alone makes me want to leave the car in Scrabster

Either way, we’ll spend two nights in Orkney.

Get back to Scrabster, and drive first to John O’ Groats (20 minute drive, says mapquest.com) and then to Inverness.
I can’t decide if we should spend one or two nights there. I’m leaning toward two nights.

Drive to Glasgow, detouring to the Pass of Killiecrankie, and St. Andrews. We’ll return the car there, and fly to London from there.

So, if you’ve managed to read through all the ramblin’, whatdaya think?

Oh, and also, dyu remember how much car rental cost you when you’d gone? And, just for confirmation, did they accept your American Driver’s License?

Can’t help you with the drivers licence question, but I had a giggle to myself reading your request, I too hired a car from Edinburgh, I had free flights and half price rental car, but I arrived late in the evening, and when I got my car, I didn’t even know how to turn the lights on, didn’t know had to find reverse, but I found my hotel using the ‘dim lights’ I was used to driving my old BOMB back home, and not used to modern cars, but back to the original question, I only had the first nite booked and then just played everything by ear, I covered alot in my 5 days driving, but no set plan, cause things can change, especially travelling with other people, but you have allowed yourself plenty of time to drive around

hey Jennifer&Chester. dyu remember where you rented from?

I can’t really add anything to the wonderful replies you’ve gotten so far (I’ve only been to Aberdeen and Edinburgh for short visits)… but just be aware that Ryanair do not fly to Edinburgh from London. In fact, currently they only fly to Edinburgh from Shannon and Dublin. Ryanair do fly to Prestwick, which if I understand correctly, is closer to Glasgow, but Glasgow and Edinburgh aren’t too far apart. Let us know on the flights forum if you need help sorting that out.

Thanks for that valuable piece of info, Don. Thankfully, they do fly to Glasgow from London, so I’ll just make that a roundtrip, and visit Edinburgh at the end of my journey. But thanks again for that. Also, is Aberdeen worth a visit?

I think it was Alamho (sorry about the spelling), it was part of United Airmile, a few years ago, very straight forward booking, I arrived at the airport about 9pm and literally was in the car about 20 minutes later

Given the itinerary you described, and with only 11 days, I don’t think I’d add Aberdeen to this trip—unless you wanted to base yourself there for a night after sampling the Whisky Trail. It’s a pleasant enough town, but I’d rather get to Glasgow and Inverness next time I’m in Scotland.

A rental car is a great way to visit Scotland.

quote: but I arrived late in the evening, and when I got my car, I didn’t even know how to turn the lights on, didn’t know had to find reverse,

Such memories. I think it took me the better part of a week to consistantly get the MGB convertible (obviously a VERY long time ago) I rented into reverse on the first try. I washed the windshield every time I tried to signal a turn — and then did the same thing in my own car after I got back home.

I rented a car (as a walk-in) at the Edinburgh train station with just my US drivers license in 2000. I don’t think you’ll need the international driving permit, but you should be able to check by reading the fine print at expedia or orbitz.

thanks for all the info, folks!

more comments are, of course, very welcome.

Sounds like a wonderful trip. Wish I was going!
I can’t remember anything about our car rental,sorry. We did book it ahead of time. I don’t think we had an international driver’s license.
Happy planning.

thanks for all the help, Cil!