5 Sites to Help You Plan a Trip to Scotland

Photograph by zombizi on Flickr

As we consider a trip to Scotland, I've been visiting many websites looking for information. The ones I've found the most useful are:

1. Visit Scotland-The national tourism site has many suggestions for things to see and do.

2. Undiscovered Scotland-One of my favorite travel guides for Scotland, I like to read through all the categories, especially ancient monuments, castles, and walking.

3. The Internet Guide to Scotland-A comprehensive guide to visiting Scotland with practical details regarding sightseeing, outdoor activities, accommodations and transportation.

4. Historic Scotland- Information about the properties cared for by Historic Scotland, as well as Scotland's "listed buildings" and "scheduled ancient monuments". This site contains practical information for visiting the different properties.

5. Trip Advisor- The forum for Scotland is as friendly and helpful as one that I used extensively for our trip to Ireland. Before posting a question, be sure to search the archives. It is possible that someone else has already asked and received answers to the same question. By reading the archives, you can also find new travel ideas. I always look for off the beaten path suggestions from locals or travelers who have recently returned from the place we are going to.

Now I just need to narrow down all the options available to us and create a fantastic list of things to do. That's all. No problem. We just need to plan a two year trip.

Create your own Travel Guide at DK

In my first ever post on Rambling Traveler, I wrote about trip planning. One of the things I mentioned is getting a Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guide for your destination. After looking at all the pictures and reading all the descriptions, make a list of places you want to see, then draft an itinerary for your trip. Take that itinerary over to TripAdvisor to read what other travelers have to say about your picks. When we were planning our trip to Ireland, I posted our itinerary on the forum at TA, and I was thrilled with the extra information and help we got from the people there.

Now, Dorling Kindersley has added another resource for trip planning. Their new website, www.travel.dk.com, allows you to create your own travel guide and print it for a small fee. If you act NOW, though, it is free to download your guide through March 12th. Mmm... Intrigued, I created a Rambling Traveler account, and started playing.

Since we might be going to Scotland next year, I chose that as a destination, and narrowed it down to the Highlands. I was able to select information such as practical info, places to stay, places to eat, and places of interest, to include in my personal guide. If you have personal knowledge of a destination, there is an option to create a new section and write your own travel suggestions.

Once I was done creating my guide, I downloaded the pdf file that I can later print. I also submitted my guide to DK to share it with others visiting the site. Right now, there aren't that many destinations to choose from, but I imagine more will be added later on.

Planning a Trip

When I am hit by a desire to travel somewhere, I enjoy the planning almost as much as the trip itself. I like to read books, look at maps, search the internet and talk to people who have been there before. I get ideas from books, movies, television shows, travel magazines, articles in the newspaper and online, and friends and family.

For our trip to Ireland, I bought Dorling Kindersley's Ireland (Eyewitness Travel Guides). My favorite travel book, DK is perfect for initial trip planning. Beautiful pictures and short descriptions of highlights helped me create a list of must-sees. Once I had my list, I was able to draw up a rough itinerary.

I took the itinerary to TripAdvisor, one of my favorite travel websites. Using the search option in the Ireland forum, I read previous posts on the areas I was interested and made changes to my itinerary. I then posted it on the forum, and sat back as people who have been to Ireland before, live there, or are planning their own trips, wrote in with advice, suggestions and travel tips.

Based on the experiences of those on the forum, I revised the itinerary several times. Some of the advice included links to good Ireland travel websites. Visiting those sites, I got more ideas to add to our list. I also read trip reports from people who recently traveled to Ireland, learning from their recommendations.

Trip Advisor has information on lodging and attractions where you can read reviews of specific places. We used this feature when selecting where we stayed and where we visited. I highly recommend visiting this website while planning a trip.

After reviewing several travel books, we selected Frommer's Ireland 2006 for more detailed information than DK Ireland. We also bought an Ordnance Survey map of Ireland and a detailed map of Dublin.

Because of space constraints (we were determined to do this trip without checked baggage) we left the Frommer’s guide at home and kept only a list of places to see, restaurants to visit. This was a mistake. Frommer’s had quite a bit of information we could have used during our trip, especially in Dublin.

After several months of planning, we went to Ireland for two weeks. We didn’t follow our itinerary exactly, but enjoyed the unexpected. We also had lists of options, not rigid detailed plans, and that made our trip plans more flexible. We had a great time.

I recommend bringing a small journal on your trip to write details of your experiences each day while they are still fresh in your mind. It’s amazing how much you forget once you get home, even with all the pictures to look at.