Photograph: Hidden Scotland
Tours from Edinburgh or Glasgow · Run by Timberbush Tours
Inveraray · Glencoe · Glenfinnan Viaduct · Commando Memorial
Two days from Edinburgh or Glasgow, with a night in Fort William and Eilean Donan in the morning.
Two days gives you time to see the West Highlands without rushing. The first day goes up Loch Lomond and over the Rest and Be Thankful to Inveraray for lunch, then through Glencoe to the Glenfinnan Viaduct and the night in Fort William. On the second morning you drive out to Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, then come back along Loch Ness with lunch at Fort Augustus and a stop at the Commando Memorial. Rooms aren't included, but the tour can book them for you. You can start in Edinburgh or Glasgow.
Day by day, the places it stops at and the roads between. Routes can change with the weather and the traffic.
Day one
Where it starts
Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2EW
Leaves at 8.30am
Seen from the coach
Britain's largest inland stretch of water, with more than thirty islands and the Highland Boundary Fault across its middle.
More about Loch Lomond
A break
A conservation village of stone cottages on Loch Lomond, rebuilt by the Colquhouns for their slate workers, with a pier and a beach.
More about Luss
Seen from the coach
The pass at the head of Glen Croe, 803 feet up, where travellers have stopped to rest since the military road of 1749.
More about Rest and Be Thankful
Lunch
The Gothic Revival home of the Dukes of Argyll on Loch Fyne, with the tallest ceiling in Scotland over its Armoury Hall.
Castle entry optional
More about Inveraray
A photo stop
A deep Highland glen walled in by the Three Sisters and the Aonach Eagach, cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, with a visitor centre off the A82.
More about Glencoe
A photo stop
A curve of 21 concrete arches, 380 metres long, carrying the West Highland Line over the River Finnan since 1901.
Jacobite steam train possible in summer
More about Glenfinnan Viaduct
The night
The town under Ben Nevis at the head of Loch Linnhe, where the West Highland Way ends and the Jacobite leaves.
More about Fort WilliamDay two
A photo stop
A stop
The castle on an island where three sea lochs meet, bombarded in 1719, rebuilt between 1912 and 1932 and reached by an arched stone bridge.
Entry optional
More about Eilean Donan Castle
Lunch
The village at the southern end of Loch Ness, cut in two by the Caledonian Canal and its flight of locks, named after a fort built after 1715.
More about Fort Augustus, Loch Ness
A photo stop
Three bronze commandos above Spean Bridge, looking south to Ben Nevis over the country where they trained, with a car park off the B8004.
More about Commando MemorialA break
Seen from the coach
Photographs: Timberbush Tours
Castle Terrace, outside the NCP car park
Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2EW
Leaves at 8.30am. Opens 15 minutes before departure and closes 5 minutes before.
what3words: ///casino.cove.works
Rooms are not in the price. Timberbush Tours can book them for you, paid on arrival; roughly:
Book your own and it is £10 less.
Children aged 4 to 16 pay less; their price shows when you book.
Run by
Timberbush Tours has been taking visitors round Scotland since 1998. June and Gary Voy, a husband and wife team, started it with a single coach, and it now runs its own fleet, with driver-guides who have been with the company for years. Their tours leave every day from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness, and from Portree on Skye, and you book with them directly.
Timberbush Tours answer them, and you book with them directly.
2 days from Edinburgh, from £125 an adult.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before a day tour, and up to 7 days before a tour of several days, by Timberbush’s own terms.
Booked with Timberbush Tours, or call them on +44 (0)131 226 6066
From Edinburgh12½ hoursBack 8.30pm
Glencoe · Fort William · Urquhart Castle · Clansman Hotel
The big one: Glencoe, Fort William and Loch Ness in a single day from Edinburgh, if you don't mind a long time on the coach.
About 9½ hours of it on the roadUp to 53 on a coach
From £56 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
From Glasgow11½ hoursBack 7.30pm
Glencoe · Fort William · Fort Augustus
Loch Lomond, Glencoe and Loch Ness in a day from Glasgow, an hour shorter than the same day from Edinburgh.
About 9 hours of it on the roadUp to 53 on a coach
From £67 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
From Edinburgh or Glasgow2 days
Glencoe · Fort William · Commando Memorial · Blair Athol Distillery
Two days from Edinburgh or Glasgow: Glencoe and Loch Ness, then Culloden and the Cairngorms.
About 11 hours on the road in allUp to 37 on a coach
From £125 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
