Thank you for all those info! :D Looking forward to visiting Scotland!

Well done and thank you to Visit Scotland for including gems from Dumfries and Galloway on their list!! We are so very often forgotten as being part of Scotland which frustrates locals as there are so many beautiful places to see, and very friendly residents waiting to welcome tourists with much enthusiasm. Please remember Dumfries and Galloway are a must see during your trip to Scotland!

These places are really beautifully but their is alot and I mean alot more places to visit glenco thruso many more list goes on which are not mentioned in this which should be.

Hi James, yes indeed, keeping this list to just 27 was no easy task - we're certainly spoiled for beautiful spots in Scotland!

Planning on a 3 week vacation to Scotland in August, 2021 so this information is perfect for me as I plan the trip. As a McIntosh, I have to see Scotland, especially Inverness area.

Inverness is lovley but their are much much more beautiful places in scotland.

One day we will meet, added to my bucket list,

Thank you for the recommendations!! They are one more amazing than another!

I have visited Scotland three times, and can't imagine NOT going back! I have left my heart in Glasgow. Plan to return 2019, planning for two weeks in Glasgow, with some day trips.

I know exactly how you feel, Chris! I came to Scotland 13 years ago for a gap year, and am proud to call this country my home ever since. Glasgow is a fabulous city, not only for its great shopping and night scene, but also arts, culture - a heaven for foodies too! See you back soon :) -Aldona

Can imagine Chris. Discover Arran too! << Scotland in one island.

You're right, Jack - Arran is beautiful :) -Aldona

My first trip is coming up in June and I cannot wait.

Hi Lou Ann. That's fantastic! :) Hope you have brilliant time on your holiday. -Aldona

Someone say Scotland and I am ready to go. I absolutely love the country as a whole. I would live there if they would have me. To me, Edinburg is one of the great cities of the world. It is different certainly from London or Paris, but it has its own unique charm. Spend days there at least. You will not run out of things to do. I was warmly treated by everyone in Scotland. There culture is so different from American. We stayed at a bed and breakfast. Parking was along the side of the townhouse buildings along the street and were mainly a private residence. You could have taken a ruler and the exact parking in the middle of each spot would not have been off by very much!

Is there a map, so i can sort it out

I want to move to Southwestern Scotland as I am quite certain that's where some of my Ancestors lived.

We have recently moved to Carlisle from Sussex. The opportunity to visit the legendary land of Scotland from our new vantage point is right at the top of our list of must dos and do often.
Your resume is very helpful and it truely is a beautiful land. Our son is very keen on steam railways and we'll be searching those out too.

It would be very helpfull to have a map to locate the place for each one of these suggestions.

Hi Steve, unfortunately we can't provide maps with our blog articles. However Google Maps is a fantastic tool, or you could also pick some of your favourites and then use our destinations and maps page to find other things to do in those areas while you're there. Hope that helps! https://www.visitscotland.c...

Was surprised to not see Luskentyre Beach in the mix, and some of the other amazing sites in the Outer Hebrides. STILL I want to visit ALL these places!

When you are in Inverness don’t forget to take the train to Kyle of Lochalsh, it’ s onze of the most stunning traintrips in Europe. Afterwords you van take the bus to the wonderfull Ilse of Skye.

If you are naar Inverness don’t forget to take the train to Kyle of Lochalsh.
It is onze of the most stunning traintrips of Europe. Afterwords you van take the bus to the Ilse of Skye.

I read most of the comments particularly with regards to driving. We spent 18 days in Scotland and Ireland last year and I confess that I never got comfortable with driving on the left side of the road. Scotland seemed worse to me because it was first, the roads were narrower and we had a Volvo SUV rental car and I am used to a small car. We had an overall great time, but I am curious if there are any recommendations for a non-driving trip. We are not really interested in the large tour bus experience nor having a private driver, but trains, occasional taxies and perhaps even smaller tour groups would be fine. Recommendations?

We had an excellent time just taking the train and (twice) buses. Fly in to Heathrow, train to London, catch train north--First to Glasgow, then north of Ft. William (w/a short bus trip to a castle hotel on a loch), back to Ft. William, across to Mallaig on the coast (over the famous viaduct at Glenfinnan--take the steam train if after May 15th or so), back through Glasgow to Stirling (our only taxi...$3!), to Edinburgh, then train and bus to St. Andrews, back to Edinburgh, then south to London for other sights. A day or two at each location, ALL with public transportation. The train north of Glasgow hugs the a high ridge overlooking farms (sheep and Highland cows) and a loch; absolutely stunning. If you take the train, get the multiday passes and 1st class upgrade--it's worth the couple of hundred more; some of the trains, we were the only one in the 1st class compartment. From the big cities like Edinburgh, you can catch a tour bus to lots of places in the rural areas.
We didn't drive in Scotland, but we did drive in Ireland because their public transportation isn't as good as Scotland's. Ireland has the same problems---too narrow roads, more suited to scooters than cars and certainly not suited to SUVs. I think I adjusted to left hand drive rather quickly, but never adjusted to those high stone or solid hedge walls that were right on the edge of the road in many places. Sounds similar to your experience in Scotland.

My husband and I have planned three trips to Scotland using VisitScotland as our tour guide book. Our first trip was a 10 day drive starting in Edinburgh, then off to Stirling, up to Inverness, down to Fort William, over to Skye, crossing at Mallaig to Oban and ending in Glasgow. It was a wondrous trip. Our second trip focused more closely in a few places to assimilate with local villages and we stayed for three weeks. Our first week was in Inverness, day tripping north/south/east down to Cairngorms and east to Fraserburgh. Our second week was in Orkney to discover the amazing Mesolithic and Neolithic history of those glorious islands. Our third week was set in Oban, again Day tripping and island hopping, Mull, Iona, and Staffa my ultimate favorite little islands. We have now planned our third visit for next Spring for three weeks again. We will be focusing our time in John OGroats and Orkney, then down to Oban for a week stay on Islay. At the end of our trip, we will stay in Edinburgh for a couple of days walking this glorious city again to experience all the close we can find. We truly have Scotland in our heart and it permeates my soul. We can’t wait to visit the friends we have made. We always stay in B& Bs in the inner city/village so we can walk, eat, shop and drink with the local inhabitants. Your website is such a valuable resource to travelers. Thank you

Thanks for sharing, Linda! So pleased you are finding our website and resources useful :) Enjoy your third trip up north and enjoy a dram or two on Islay! Happy travels - Annierose

I would love love love to to the isle hoping from Oban. Never done it and I’m from Glasgow! Always went abroad Europe and Mexico but this year we are doing holidays at home. Stayed in Loch Ness in April, doing Skye in July and isle of Aaran in Aug. Will try the isle hoping next year! Up the north of Scotland is great for your soul 😃

Must add Edinburgh ghost tours! Very well done , hugely interesting and we may have gotten pictures of spirits, orbs floating along the ceiling in the underground of Edinburgh or so I like to think!

Thanks for the suggestion, Sherrill :) Sounds spooky! - Annierose

Myself and 4 of my BFF's were in Scotland 3 weeks ago for 10 days (Our 50th year bucket list trip). Starting in Edinburgh and then self drove around only part of this beautiful country before catching the ferry to Ireland. We have all left our hearts in Scotland and will be back! !! Driving was easy for us, as coming from Australia, we also drive on the left hand side. We first went straight North, as far as the road would take us, then across to Inverness, upto John O'Groats and then over to the Isle of Skye, in search of the Scottish Oyster among other things . The whole trip was just breathtaking! We loved every minute of it, even the wet and windy weather of the Highlands. Still receiving these emails from visitscotland so we can work out where to go and what to see on our next Scottish Adventure.

Oh, that sounds fantastic, Kerry - thanks for sharing! It's great to hear that you had a great time in Scotland with your friends. Haste ya back! :-) Aldona

am heading over to the UK in April, wondering whether to hire a car near London and drive up to Scotland or hire a car in a specific part of the country, then catch the train further north and hire another car, any thoughts and who did you use as your hire company? thanks

Hi Colette. It really comes down to your personal preference. We are unable to recommend specific car hire companies but you can read more about car hire in Scotland on our site here: https://www.visitscotland.c...
Have a great trip - Sarah.

This was perfect! Thank you! My husband and I will be traveling to Scotland in September ----and as a result of your hidden gem list --our itinerary is coming together nicely!! So very excited! Can't wait to discover Scotland and meet the people and feel the magic. Any other suggestions for walkable / tourable caves in Scotland?

Hi Gail. Ohh, that's lovely to hear this :) Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa in the Inner Hebrides is definitely worth a visit - you can visit it on a boat tour. It's an uninhabited sea cave known for its amazing natural acoustics and the island’s distinctive columns of rock are formed from basalt, the same as the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland - it's basically the other end of it. A truly fascinating place to see! More info here: https://www.visitscotland.c... Another great site to visit is St Ninian's Cave near Whithorn in Dumfries & Galloway - you would need to take a short hike down to the coastline to get there as it's also a sea cave. It's said to be a place of retreat and prayer for Scotland's first saint, St Ninian. But there are plenty more great caves to explore in Scotland - have a wee look here for more inspirations: https://bit.ly/2qql4Uw Hope this helps with your trip planning, and I hope you have a wonderful time when the time comes. Don't forget to share your pictures with us using #ScotlandIsNow :) -Aldona

I have once visited a very beautiful cemetery on the westcoast. very small, almost deserted old cemetery on a high hilltop directly by the sea, on top of a cliff more. Anyone can help me where that could have been? I have forgotten and would love to go back there one time.|
Remco Iwema, netherlands

Hi Remco. Hmm, you're not really giving us much to go by - this could be anywhere on the west coast :) Can you remember anything else, like a name of a nearby town or a village, or how far you drove to that place from the nearest place you can remember the name of? Try posting this question on our iKnow Scotland community page https://community.visitscot... and see if anyone can help? There is a website called Find a grave in Scotland http://www.findagraveinscot... which has a map that features various churchyards, cementeries and burial grounds - it could be a good starting point maybe. Also, if you've got an image of that cemetery, Google allows you to upload your image and will return results of similar-looking sites, but this can vary in accuracy, depending on the clarity of the image and how good a representation of the site it is. You can also have a look at Alamy website (image bank) for Scotland cemeteries http://www.alamy.com/stock-.... I hope this helps to some extend, and I hope that you find this place. Good luck! :) -Aldona

We love it some much we are going to live there ........ next month !! YAY.

Yay, that sounds super exciting, Cheryl! I hope your move has gone smoothly and you're settling in okay. Maybe see you around haha :) -Aldona

Surprised you've not mentioned any 'secret places' on Mull! Beautiful island that I keep returning to. Heading back to Oban for Easter. So looking forward to it

It's true, Kerry - Oban, Mull and the whole of Scotland is beautiful and packed with awesome hidden gems. This list could go on endlessly! Hope you have fabulous Easter break, and don't forget to share with us #scotspirit :) -Aldona

It would be useful to have a map on your 'Gems of Scotland' page showing the locations of the various places so that we can see which ones are near to where we'll be staying. Probably on other pages too. Only been to Scotland to ski since my other visits in 1949 and 1951 so not too familiar with the geography.

Happytohelp, this is a brilliant suggestion - I will see what can be done about the map :) -Aldona

So excited for my first trip (husband's second trip) for our anniversary this June. We've planned a glorious 2 week trip and are very much looking forward to it. I keep coming to the website to see all the beautiful photos. Thank you & we'll see you soon!

Ohh, that's wonderful, Brandie - I'm quite excited for you! I hope that you love your trip, and pop in to one of our iCentres https://bit.ly/2J7KePd to say 'hi' and to get some information and more ideas for what to do, when and where in Scotland :) -Aldona

Hi Brandie! Good decision to celebrate your anniversary in Scotland. We might see you during our 5th trip from Holland to Scotland!

Scotland is a place that you can return to over and over again and still have an experience that's just as amazing, just as surprising, just as fulfilling as the first time! Enjoy your next visit, Jack! :) -Aldona

in 2016 my husband and I rented a RV and toured Scotland, went to places that my ancestors came from Coldingham Berwickshire what a beautiful place on the ocean i didnt want to leave then over to Glasgow we camped met lots of new family also toured England the RV was the best stock up on food and drive seen many castles Dumbfries Galloway went to lots of cemeteries and churchs, cant wait to go back im thinking 2 months in 2019

That's the beauty of caravaning - you can go anywhere, whenever you want to. The world is, almost literally, your oyster. Looking forward to seeing you in Scotland again soon, Lois :) -Aldona