Report on my Trip to Scotland

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

First let me tell you how I like to Holiday in Europe. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th most important thing is location, location, and location. The Resorts are in the top 10 but the most important thing is the warm, friendly, and helpful people of Europe. When we timeshare we will travel up to 2 1/2 hours one way to see the sights.

We departed from Chicago at about 5:00 PM and arrived the next morning in Glasgow. Go with the local time and stay up until 9:00 PM or later. Do not take a nap if at all possible. We had placed a mid size Ford with automatic on hold for our car rental. But they gave us a new (10 miles) Rover 75 . It had leather, automatic, and all the things you could ever want on your own car.

http://www.mg-rover.com/rover_GB_en/.../rover_75.html

The drive to Kilconquhar was between 2 and 3 hours.

Kilconquhar Castle Estate and Country Club

http://www.kilconquharcastle.co.uk/index-2.html


Kilconquhar Castle Estate & Country Club, spectacularly located on the East Coast of Scotland and just a couple of miles from the charming village of Elie in the ancient Kingdom of Fife, is the most idyllic resort imaginable. The castle itself dates back to the 13th century and was the ancestral home of Adam of Kilconquhar, Earl of Carrick, whose son was the great Robert the Bruce, restorer of Scottish Liberty, who spent much of his life in residence.

We had a 3 bedroom on the 3rd floor in the Castle. After check in we got our luggage out of the car. Would you believe that when the Timeshare salesman saw that we needed to take our luggage up to the 3rd floor, he helped us do so? Warm, friendly and helpful. The main reason I would pick Kilconquhar over Melfort Village is staying in the Castle that Robert the Bruce lived.

We did the Scotish Night at Kilconquhar. I was great fun. Everybody knows the illustrious name of Scotland’s greatest poet, Robbie Burns. But how many have heard of William Topaz McGonagall -- the worst poet that Bonnie Scotland ever threw up, and arguably the worst poet ever to massacre the English language?

You might want to study the poem "The Tay Bridge Disaster." You just may have to read part of the poem to everyone after a few Drams (How much is a Dram?) of Whisky. I was told I read it like a American TV Newsman. No Passion at all. With a few Drams of Whisky, I was just happy to talk at all.

http://www.durham.net/~neilmac/great.htm

The History of the Kilt was very interesting. Someone even gets a chance to wear the infomal Kilt.

http://www.kiltedlife.com/

And don't forget, now is your chance to eat Haggis. Try it you might like it. I did.

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/scottish/haggis.html




The following are some of the things we saw and did. They were all worth seeing.

Anstruther, Crail, and other towns of East Neuk: Anstuther: A great town with the best Fish and Chips.

http://www.eastneukwide.co.uk/tourist/anstruther.html

http://www.visitscotland.com/library/eastneuk

St Andrews: The Golf, shopping, and the Castle:

http://www.saint-andrews.co.uk/staindex.html

http://www.standrews.com/

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...andrewscastle/

Edinburgh: You don’t want to drive and park in Edinburgh. We took the Tour from Kilconquhar. We also did a Ghost walk. I liked the walk but it is not a must thing to do. The Castle is a must.


http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/tour/edintour.html


Falkland Palace: Wandering around the palace and gardens at Falkland, it’s poignant to reflect that Mary, Queen of Scots spent some of the happiest days of her life here, ‘playing the country girl in the woods and parks’. The magnificent Royal Palace of Falkland was built by James IV and James V between 1450 and 1541 as their country residence.

If you are going to see more than one of the National Trust of Scotland site, join the National Trust of Scotland.


http://www.nts.org.uk/web/site/home/home.asp?


http://www.nts.org.uk/web/site/home/...036&NavId=5116

The oldest Tennis court still standing is that at Falkland Palace which was built in 1539. Being a Tennis Nut, I found Falkland Palace a very special place.

http://www.falkland-tennis.net/

We drove to Sterling on our way to Melfort Village.

Sterling Castle: See it, if at all possible. A site as important as the castle rock at Stirling, guarding as it does the lowest crossing point of the River Forth, would have been of strategic interest to anyone wanting to control central Scotland.



http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...tirlingcastle/


We drove to Inveraray Argyll and stayed the night. The present Town of Inveraray dates from the second half of the 18th century. It is one of the earliest and best preserved planned towns in Scotland. In 1743 when the 3rd Duke of Argyll inherited the Argyll Estate he embarked on one of the most ambitious rebuilding schemes ever undertaken in the Western Highlands.

http://www.inveraray-argyll.com/

We also saw the Inveraray Castle before moving on to Milfort Village.
Inveraray Castle is a remarkable and unique piece of architecture incorporating Baroque, Palladian and Gothic.

Featuring four imposing French influenced conical spires surmounting the stone castelated towers, this unmistakably Scottish Castle was the first of its size and type to be built (at the time of construction) in an extremely remote part of Scotland.


http://www.inveraray-castle.com/Pages/content.asp


Melfort Village: Your going to love the one lane road to Melfort Village. The one lane roads work because who ever gets to the turn out first, waits until the other cars passes.

http://www.melfortvillage.co.uk/

The resort is low key with a good restaurant. Again the staff was warm, friendly, and helpful. It is a 20 to 30 minute drive to Oban.

OBAN: "Little Bay" in Gaelic - Scotland's ancient Celtic language

http://www.oban.org.uk/

Even if you don’t like whisky, (that’s Whisky without the “e” in Scotland) it is worth seeing the Oban Distillery or some other distillery

http://www.whisky-distilleries.info/Oban_EN.shtml

http://www.malts.com/Default.htm?Lan...HEHINT%3dGuest


Isle of Iona: One of Scotland's most historic and venerated sites, lona Abbey is a celebrated Christian centre and the burial place of early Scottish kings. If you go to Oban, you should see the Isle of Iona.


http://www.isle-of-iona.com/

Isle of Skye: we drove to the Isle of Skye. Great views. We didn’t go on the Isle because of lack of time. I would do it next time. We also saw Eilean Donan Castle. We eat there but didn’t tour the Castle.

http://www.skye.co.uk/

http://www.eileandonancastle.com/

LOCH NESS: Guess what I saw? Right. A Lake with tour boats.

http://www.nessie.co.uk/

Glencoe: The welcome center is worth seeing. The History of Glencoe worth knowing about.


http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/areaglen/

I hope this helps. I will be setting up a picture web site in the future. For now if you have a high speed Internet connection (Large files) and want to see my pictures at a Kodak site, email and I will share the pictures will you (416 pictures of all that I wrote about)

Walt I think I may need a Whisky too.

PS i will be adding to this. If you have questions please ask them.

[Keitht Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Keitht]

Great report but with one definite error!

Whiskey with an 'e' is the pretend stuff made anywhere in the world apart from Scotland. Scotch Whisky has no 'e'.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Great report but with one definite error!

Whiskey with an 'e' is the pretend stuff made anywhere in the world apart from Scotland. Scotch Whisky has no 'e'.

If you drink enough of it, I don't think you will notice the e even if you are holding the bottle and trying to read it. I recall possably being in this condition once or twice, Like last night,



Great report Walt

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Thank you for this great report.....this will be a trip we will make for my son's graduation from Law School - in 2009!

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

Great report but with one definite error!

Whiskey with an 'e' is the pretend stuff made anywhere in the world apart from Scotland. Scotch Whisky has no 'e'.

It must have been the bottle of Jameson that I was drinking from that caused the mistake.

Walt

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Yes, what a wonderful report and can't wait to see your pictures too.

My BH booked through the National Trust when we took a trip through England and Wales. They have hotels and B&Bs too. We stayed at some nice places, I remember but mainly at the countryside where there were old castles.

We knew nothing about timesharing then so that makes it a long time ago. I only wished I could make him want to visit the rest of Europe but I can't get him interested. He doesn't like big cities and I do. He doesn't even want to go to London.

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

We love the small town better than the large cities

Yes, what a wonderful report and can't wait to see your pictures too.

My BH booked through the National Trust when we took a trip through England and Wales. They have hotels and B&Bs too. We stayed at some nice places, I remember but mainly at the countryside where there were old castles.

We knew nothing about timesharing then so that makes it a long time ago. I only wished I could make him want to visit the rest of Europe but I can't get him interested. He doesn't like big cities and I do. He doesn't even want to go to London.

We love the small town better than the large Cities. Most of the timeshare places are in or near smaller towns. So get him there and then talk him into going to some large cities like London for a day trip.

Walt

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

As much as I've traveled I've never been to Europe. If you guys don't stop it I'll have to go!! Enjoyed your report. shaggy

[Dancingfish Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dancingfish]

Thanks

Just wanted to jump in and say thank you for your great review... hubby and I were talking about booking a vacation... I was thinking sun and beach and out of the blue he said SCOTLAND!!
I checked out the resorts and had picked the castle you stayed at-- so I will be trying to book soon!
How long were you there?? Just a week? Looks like you did ALOT!! and got alot of siteseeing done. Did you do the planning yourself or did the resort help you?
TIA!

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

Thank you thank you thank you for taking the time to share this great trip with us....so much info I have to print this out! Thanks again!

[Carol C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carol C]

Personally I think you should have skipped the meal and toured the Eilean Donan Castle. It is wonderful. I also visited Sterling Castle and the Edinburgh of course, and another one named Blair I think. That one I remember the long walk from the train depot. I had a Scottish railpass and milked it for what it was worth. Went to the end of the line in all directions with Aviemore as my base (Scandinavian Village timeshare resort is walking distance from the Aviemore train station). I was traveling solo thus didn't want to rent a car and do lots of driving on the left by myself.

P.S. Forgot to say I piggybacked a full week in London. So much to see and experience in London that I think a day trip from Scotland would be kinda crazy.

[tennisWalt Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tennisWalt]

We were at each Resort for one week.

Just wanted to jump in and say thank you for your great review... hubby and I were talking about booking a vacation... I was thinking sun and beach and out of the blue he said SCOTLAND!!
I checked out the resorts and had picked the castle you stayed at-- so I will be trying to book soon!
How long were you there?? Just a week? Looks like you did ALOT!! and got alot of siteseeing done. Did you do the planning yourself or did the resort help you?
TIA!

We were at each Resort for one week. We did the planning ourselves with the help of several guide books,TV and DVD's. I really like the Guide Books, DVD, and TV shows of Rick Steves and Rudy Maxa.

http://www.ricksteves.com/

http://www.rudymaxa.com/

If you have a high speed hook up and want to see my pictures just email and I'll invite you to see them on the Kodak Galley Web site.

I like the sun and beaches too. But everyone should see Scotland at least once. And, Scotland has the sun and beaches too.

Walt

[Danny Titus Member Find all posts View Profile Close Danny Titus]

Great Review! We tayed at Kilconquar in a 2bdrm in the Castle. First time we ever had a tanning bed in the unit. Really enjoyed the resort and Scotland.

[Dancingfish Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dancingfish]

I got Kilconquhar on hold

Ok so I got Kilconquhar on hold last night as hubby said he wanted to go to scotland... now hes waffling on me... not sure thats the "right" place to stay... says it looks too far out of the way!! UGHHH I have tried to assure him that it got great reviews (thank you walt for sharing)-- So now my question would be if we rent a car is there enough to see and do within driving distance???

By the way they gave us a 3 bedroom (in exchange for our 1 bedroom) and we only needed a one bedroom! for the first week in Oct.. which also has him nervous could be too cold??? hmmm

This is our first exchange so I guess hes just nervous!

[Laurie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Laurie]

I haven't been to Kilconquhar (yet), and at first it looked too far out of the way for me too. But on further investigation, it's near a beautiful coastal path which is right up our alley, since we like to walk in scenic and historic areas. So, I changed my mind about that, thanks to nice bulletin board people like Walt, and others from TUG, and some online research. It's also near St. Andrews. Does your husband like to golf??

If it's of any importance to you to stay in the old castle as opposed to a newer lodge (or vice versa), check the unit #... many of the 3-bedrooms are lodge units. RCI, or whoever you're using, can tell you whether or not it's a castle unit you've got on hold.