Initial research took me to the nascent North Coast 500 website. It's a tourist draw: a 500 mile loop of scenic highways through the Highlands, beginning and ending in Inverness, Scotland. My early stage planning had us driving up through Britain - routed through the Peak District and Lake District on the way North and through the North Pennines and Yorkshire Dales on the trip South. Because I frequently attempt to fit 10 pounds of potatoes into a 5 pound sack, however, I only booked our flights for a 4 day trip (three full days, two half days) - arriving Thursday at noon, leaving Monday in the early evening. Some honest conversations made me realize that the 1700 mile journey I was busy planning was just not practical. Or even desirable, considering how little of the journey between Birmingham and Scotland would actually be spent in natural splendor. So puddle jumper flights to Glasgow were booked, a rental car was scheduled, and our journey was shrunk to a much more manageable 1100 miles!
Drive planning:
While a large chunk of our journey was comprised of a large chunk of the NC500 loop, far more of it was off-track. For one, a quick Google search on the best places to drive in Scotland will include the Isle of Skye at nearly the top of every list. Obviously we couldn't miss that. Glencoe, in the west, was also frequently cited as a can't-miss. Neither of those were on the NC500 route (though Skye is darn close to it), so our northerly route didn't join up with the NC500 until Friday in Strathcarron. Additionally, we really had no firm plans besides where we'd rest our heads. My research indicated that we're not the only ones who think a driving tour of Scotland in early June would be lovely, so we weren't about to risk no vacancy signs at every B&B on the route. Rooms booked, a rental car booked, and the map up above were all the planning we (ahem, I) did.
The general shape of the trip was:
Glasgow to Lochailort on Day 1. On to Skye for Day 2, joining up with the NC 500 in Applecross, overnight in Gairloch. Day 3 cover the rest of the west coast and head around the northern tip in John O'Groats, stay in Helmsdale. Continue south past Loch Ness, through the Cairngorms, and overnight in Dunblane (about halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh) to wrap up Day 4. Day 5, take the long way back to Glasgow through the Trossachs (final taste of those sweet, curvy roads) and head back to the states.
It mostly worked out that way. Except that we detoured to Ireland and Iceland on the way home. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
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