Only two days to go before we take off from Torp towards Prestwick ;D

I wish everyone a great summer, with only a minimum of midges and rain. We (mum, dad, 7yr old and 9yr old) are travelling in Scotland for 3,5 weeks in a rented campervan recommended on the list from this website. We don't have an exact itinerary other than a daytrip to the Orkneys, the Harry Potter train, shopping in Glasgow and a trip back to Gairloch.

We start out from Prestwick, going south through Ayr, following the coast through Wigtown, Kirkudbright, Greta Green, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth, Inverness, the A836, A838 following the northern coast, the Loch Ness area, Fort Williams, Oban and Stirling. Or maybe not...we let the weather, the midges and instict lead the way ;D We have bought the caravansitemap from the online store on this website, and it is going to be of great assistant along the way

In norwegian we say 'God sommer' which means have a nice summer

Elisabeth

Hi Elisabeth

You certainly pack a lot into your trips - hope you have a great time, good weather and not too many midges.

Jane

Thank you, Jane
We love Scotland and the scottish people, but what we don't get to see during this vacation, we will come back to see another trip. I think Scotland will be our favourite travel destination I have spoken to other norwegians who feel the same way after their first visit to your beautiful country...we feel so welcomed and relaxed. No fancyness as in France, no agressiveness as in Germany, no finicky turkish salesmen, no packed beaches as the Canary Island and best of all: freedom of camping with responsability and respect for the law.

I am now ripping the kids dvds on to their Ipods so that we avoid arguing in the back seat or in the tent whan raining. I have bought the latest book of Paulo Coelho...and if only the washingmachine could be done, I will soon have clothes to pack

I think I'm about to get travel fever

God bless

The vikings are back!
We didn't go to Scotland last summer...we wanted sun, warm weather and a beach where the water temperature invited to swim without freezing We travelled to Crete for two weeks in june, and had lots of sun, sunburns...and we were bored out of our minds after a week The last week in Crete we decided that in 2010 we would go back to our favourite country: Scotland!

We have allready booked a similar campervan we had in 2008, and we are going to travel for four weeks, starting 21.th of june. We are soooooooo looking foreward to this trip! Everyone has iPods this time, and we made an evaluation for ourselves after returning home from Scotland in 2008 that comes in handy when planning this years trip.

We haven't decided where we want to go yet. I know that I want to go back to Gairloch, i would like to travel around Isle of Skye, to see Mull and Iona, Stirling, Edinburgh and Dunfermline needs more exploring as well. Maybe we will take a trip over the border to England?

Any suggestions of must-sees? I don't mind seeing towns or landmarks we have allready seen again

The kids are older, 9 and 11, maybe we can go hiking?

About the weather...we have had an exceptional cold winter, -20 to -30 all january. In this perspective, even stormy weather with horizontal rain or a serious midget attack in Scotland seems great

Oh dear me. The Vikings are coming back. Lock up your daughters and your wives and hide your money!

Mull and Iona are wonderful places to visit (as the Vikings discovered a year or 1000 ago!!) I'd suggest you then continue further up the west coast. The more north you go, the better the scenery gets.
If you do decide to venture into England, then the city of York would be worth a visit as you'll feel quite at home there as the Vikings have already been there, and you can still see what your ancestors left behind:-)

I am inspired of the picture from Harris, and I have some questions about the Caledonian ferries to the islands...
- how does Island Hopscotch work?
- how much for this ticket?
- on the ferries, are the driver included in the price for the motorhome?

I reckon it will be cheaper for us to buy a ferry-pass instead of single tickets if we are to visit more than one island?

Myself and my girlfriend (wife now) done the Island Hopscotch a number of years ago. We done it with a car and tent and the experience was perfect. Cannot remember too much about the price albeit there are prices for cars then three different prices for campers according to the length. My old LDV Camper was going to be the dearest van price.

I also know that there is a trial pricing scheme working for a number, but not all, of the Scottish Islands. They are basically charging a fuel price to drive equivelant but it might be only for certain routes and not hopping so best bet is to have a good look through their website to find out more.

http://www.calmac.co.uk

We've finally managed to book our flights...not easy with so many airlines, airports, arrival times and departures

We fly from Rygge (90kms southeast of Oslo) to Newcastle on the 21th of june. In Newcastle we pick up a car from EasyCar and drive up north to Stirling where we meet up with a rep from Campers Scotland and receive our rented campervan. We deliver the car from EasyCar, et voilà: our vacation starts

We have four kids, but the oldest are 20 yrs and he is working through the summer. But the 16 yr old decided to travel with us for the first 9 days. We're sending him home on a plane from Edinburgh to Torp (100kms southwest of Oslo) on the 30th of june.

We deliver the campervan on the 19th of july, and the four of us takes a plane from Edinburgh to Torp on the 23rd of july, and then home:)

32 days of fun and great adventure in Scotland!

The challenge now is to browse through travel books and the internet and our own travel journals to find out what we would like to see and where we want to go Our main concearn at the moment is where we go between dropping off the campervan on the 19th and our flight home from Edinburgh on the 23rd... Without a car, we have to depend on trains, busses and b&b/hotels/hostels/apartementsrental. But where...hehe

Today's weather report from Norway: it's snowing (!) *sigh*
Oh well...it's only 48 days to our Scotland vacation

Hi! I'm Scottish but live in Belgium at the moment...but every summer I return to do a bit of camping up north for a couple of weeks before visiting my family in Edinburgh..... I visit Skye almost every year and I just love the Trotternish peninsula on the nort-east of the island. There is a beautiful little campsite near the village of Kilmuir (where there is the "Museum of Life" set up Black Houses and also the grave of Flora MacDonald in the graveyard just behind..)..the name of the campsite is "Camusmore"....I have put details and photos on www.campsitereviews.com .I often use the "Island Hopscotch"...it works out a lot cheaper! I'll be going to Harris and the Uists this year, not to mention Skye......never know,we might bump into eacother!