Steal My Scotland Trip Planning Process

Hiya, I’m Gemma, and I’m a serial travel planner!

Here’s my foolproof 7-step Scotland planning process.

You may also like my Welcome to Scotland Mini-Course: 6 free lessons. Join here.

How to Plan a Trip to Scotland

1. Inspiration Stage

Where do you get your inspiration from?

For me, it is social media, websites, YouTube, books, TV, movies, and word of mouth. 

I also enjoy fishing around Google Maps and zooming in to see images attached to destinations.

Using the save function, I store ideas on Google Maps in categories such as “Inverness”, “wild swim locations”, or “next trip.”

2. Mapping 

I then start plotting locations to see if there is a logical route and note the driving times between places. 

This helps me form ideas for overnight stops and accommodation.

3. Refine Destinations List

This is the first stage of being brutally honest: removing destinations that don’t make sense for this trip and creating a priority list of places I can’t miss. 

Thinking about events and other things that demand a specific date or time is also helpful; read my guide on the best time to visit Scotland for more information on this.

Pro tip: Consider the seasons when planning a trip to Scotland; summer is busy but provides very late nights. It’s 22:10 in July, and it’s just getting dark outside my office window. 

Winter is crowd-free (outside of Edinburgh) and cosy, but it also means dark mornings and evenings, which can limit driving times. Some attractions and businesses are closed during the winter season. Snow! 

4. Calendar Plan 

Now it’s time to start getting down to the nitty-gritty.

Print off a calendar or draw a template on a whiteboard (shout out to my friend KK for the board idea!); pencil in locations, and you’ll start to see a picture of your Scotland road trip forming. What absolute joy!

Does it look anything like mine?

5. Make Reservations

The joy might be dampened a little at this stage as now we need to check the availability of:

• Accommodation
• Car rental
• Long-distance train journeys  
• Ferries if island hopping 

Plus, any restaurants and tours on the “must-do” list, especially if you visit from May to September.

Also, take a look at my guide to the National Trust of Scotland and Historic Scotland passes to see if they save you money.

If there is no availability, you will need to play about with the first draft of your itinerary.

A word of encouragement: I had to delay my trip to Skye by one day, but it all worked out great in the end!

Note: Before you visit Scotland, you might need to complete the ETA application.

6. Day by Day Planning

Create a loose day-by-day itinerary by plotting accommodations, attractions, and tours on Google Maps.

Be mindful of how long it takes to reach each stop; for example, it took me around 1 hour and 45 minutes to hike the Old Man of Storr early in the evening, when it was pretty much crowd-free, and there were no waiting times for parking.

Also, note, but don’t entirely believe, driving times between places and add on time during busy seasons to accommodate traffic. 

Book any restaurants you’d love to dine at and tours you want to do. 

7. Spreadsheet It

Congrats! You’ve made it to the final step in the Scotland itinerary-building process.

Pull up a Google Sheet or create a table in a Google Document if you prefer, and add:

• Day and Dates
• How many nights
• Driving times/miles
• Activities
• Attractions and how long required
• Accommodation details
• Restaurants – booked?
• Links to maps (daily, full road trip, etc)
• Any other helpful information

You can add as much detail as you like at this stage.

Pro tip: Make the document available offline so you can access it when you lose signal.

Finally, if all of this sounds truly horrendous, let me do it for you!

My trip-planning calendar is now open; you can read about my consultation services here.

Any questions? Just hit reply or ask in the Scotland Tips – Plan Your Trip (by Hiya Scotland) Facebook group.