Scotland

My wife and I enjoyed 'The Mull Experience'. The ferry leaves from Oban to the Isle of Mull. You see two castles, Duart (used in the Sean Conery and Katherine Zeta-Jones movie a few years ago,... Entrapment??) and Torsay which has lovely grounds. It was 18 pounds each for the ferry, bus ride to the castle and entrance fees. A good deal. You can apparently go on to Iona from Mull, which is an important historic site, but I didn't know that then, so we didn't. Here's a link:

I'd forgotten about the train. No big deal to me, but it is how you get back to the ferry, so slighly imortant! The web site for the ferry company is at the bottom of that page.

Edinburgh is of course a must. I enjoyed the Castle and Holyrood House.

If she is looking for something a little different, have a look at this:

it is a cruise along the Caledonean canal. The price includes meals and is pretty cheap for food and accomodations. We saw a lot of country from the boat, and walking along the canal. There are lots of little villages and museums to see along the way. Martin and his people are fabulous.

If hiking the highlands is something that she might enjoy, have a look at this:

They offer walking tours throughout the UK. The house we stayed at in Scotland, near Glencoe, was called Altshellach (something like that) and was beautiful. The food, again included, was top notch, and you don't appreciate how big the hills/mountains are until you are half way up one. One warning, what I would call hiking, they call walking, and 'Rovers' are older people who can't walk so well any more. The Rover tour sees lots of sights, and the people are wonderful, but definately not in the 29 years age group.

Inverary was nice. Beautiful mansion for the Duke of Argyll, and lovely little town. Loch Fyne whiskies is there too, so she could pick up your presents there!

The Culloden Battle site was interesting to me. More history.

She should be prepared for wet weather, and high humidity. Stuff doesn't dry well there without help (we laid stuff on the radiator, and used the hair dryer for the socks). It rains often, and the rain is rarely vertical (i.e. it is sideways!). A good day is when the rain stops and the sun breaks through the clouds for an hour or so!

One other thing about the money. The Bank Of Scotland prints currency too, specifically a 1 pound paper note, while the Bank Of England only has 1 pound coins. It is worth the same amount in the UK, but we were told some shops in England won't take the Bank Of Scotland 1 pound note, so be sure to spend it in Scotland. Also, when we came back, we had a few Bank of Scotland notes, and got slightly less on the exchange back in Canada. It was only a couple of cents, but still...

We enjoyed the trip very much, and I hope your daughter does too.

Doug