Scotland
- Anna
- May 25
- 3 min read
May 13th - May 22nd, 2025
Okay, hands down, if you are visiting the UK, Scotland is that girl, a must-visit! So gorgeous. In between my house sits, I had this perfect little 10-day gap that early on I had decided was perfect to road trip through Scotland during.
My journey started with visiting/touring Edinburgh and stopping by Lisa's old stomping grounds, where she stayed when she was studying abroad years ago. I loved touring Edinburgh, such a beautiful city with gorgeous architecture and green space. I have said it before, and I will say it again, do the lame hop-on-hop-off tour bus. It gets you all over the city quickly, and you get to learn the history along the way!
The next leg of my journey was driving from Edinburgh all the way up to the top of Scotland for the Orkney Islands. This drive led me through Cairngorms National Park where I was able to enjoy some lovely hikes! But truthfully, the highlight was the drive, with twisty roads through mountains and gorgeous valleys. I really loved this day!
Once at the tippy top of Scotland, I enjoyed visiting the coastal cliffs and some short hikes before hopping on my ferry over to the Orkney Islands. Oh, I forgot to mention that during this road trip through Scotland, I have been sleeping in my itty bitty car at night to save some money, so arriving in Orkney was exciting for a lot of reasons, including sleeping in a bed again! My Airbnb was at the bottom of the island and had cliffs right outside my door to enjoy, it was great! While on the island, I went on four dives in the Scapa Flow to explore some sunken WWI and WWII ships while also obtaining my dry-suit certification. Very gorgeous underwater ecosystems and totally different than my last dives in CR. Beyond my dives, I also loved exploring the islands by land and taking some very beautiful hikes.
Of course, along with everyone visiting Scotland, the Isle of Skye was at the top of my list! So after leaving Orkney, I took the long drive to the Isle of Skye, again, another absolutely breathtaking drive, the whole time I was wanting to pull over and film or photograph the scenery. Once on the Isle of Skye, it was immediately clear why this place is so hyped up, with beautiful mountains, cliff faces, water features, and quaint villages. I checked off some beautiful hikes my first day, then on my second day, I explored the Isle some more along with participating in a Puffin boat tour :) They are just so cute and adorable, I had to make sure to go out of my way to see some!
My last day of really exploring, as my last full day in Scotland would mostly be spent driving, was in Glenfinnan and Fort William visiting the Viaduct and hiking Ben Nevis. I will say, of everything I did in Scotland, waiting for the train to pass on the Viaduct was probably the only anticlimactic thing I saw. The viaduct itself was gorgeous and still worth seeing, but waiting for the train was just not worth it. However, climbing Ben Nevis was 100% worth it! The hardest hike of my Scotland journey, but the views were amazing and it was fun to complete such a challenging hike!
Now I am back in England, staying near the Birmingham area until the 1st when I will be heading out to travel to Norway! I will say it again, Scotland is amazing and if anyone wants to go back, I am totally in, even if you want to see all these same sights again. I got to see a lot of gorgeous sights and honestly catch up on my reading goal a bit as I listened to a lot of audiobooks on the road and during my hikes. Alrighty then, TTYL!
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