I love to travel but unfortunately, I can’t really claim to be a savvy, well seasoned, traveler.  Even with the host of wonderful travel experiences I have chalked up, I have to admit that in the past, I’ve been more of a passenger, than a true explorer.

Having a lot of miles under my belt and a remote familiarity with Scotland is how I imagine I underestimated how truly naive I am.  This is a big year for me and my husband Gary, in June we will celebrate 25 years of marriage.  My husband and I have never been big on exchanging gifts.  I guess we were, early in our marriage, but soon we realized that it was better for us to each just buy ourselves what we wanted instead of relying on our spouse to magically read our minds and get us something we would be thrilled with.  Instead, we began the tradition of saving our money for a nice vacations.  We both work very hard and having time away from our home and jobs was a welcome relief.

So as I said,  being married to the same guy for 25 years is an epic achievement in this day and age.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure I would even live this long, let alone be married for 25 years.  Since Gary and I aren’t really party people, it seemed that a milestone of this magnitude deserved an epic vacation.

We love cruises and had been stuck on them for a great many years.  I was anxious to do something else, despite the fact that I know my husband does much better when we are in a bit of a structured environment.  He can’t make a decision to save his life, so my coping mechanism to deal with this annoying flaw was to go on cruises where we have a set dinner time, a set table and I  book all our shore excursions ahead of time so he couldn’t flake out on me with an indecisive moment.

We’d cruised to Hawaii before and talked about going back so I thought that maybe a week or two at nice Hawaiian resort in January would be just the ticket.  Unfortunately,  when I presented my plan to him he didn’t seem excited at all, so I went back to the drawing board.  I’d spent 2 years in Scotland back in the 80’s and I was dying to go back, but I thought it might be a bit out of our budget,  so I began to do a bit of research and it seemed like we could do everything I wanted to do within our budget so I presented my plan to my hubby.  Unfortunately, he didn’t seem all that excited about this plan either,  but he didn’t completely hate the idea, so I was decided I would begin working on warming him up to the idea.

I guess he eventually said yes, because I did a lot of research and ended up booking everything as a package deal through Expedia, flight, hotel and car which saves a significant amount of money and I would highly recommend it to anyone who plans on doing a vacation of this magnitude.  You do have to be prepared to pay for everything ahead of time, but I feel a bit of relaxation when I pay off my vacation before I even go on it.

Picking hotels on the internet is a bit of a challenge, they all seem lovely on the sites, but there are so many things that affect your stay.  I recommend reading reviews like they are going out of style, just reading one or two is worthless because some people are hypercritical of everything and some people are all happy with everything across the board which seems to me to be a complete fantasy to me.   Expedia has reviews on it’s site, but you can also go to Trip Advisor which I found quite helpful for a wide variety of information.

Since a car was part of my package I was not keen on the idea of staying in downtown Edinburgh and paying for parking.  We live in the quiet of the country so I that is what I was looking for.  I checked hotel locations on google maps so that I could ensure that we ended up in the country, where we feel the most comfortable.

The other part of being comfortable is your room.  Gary and I are both tall and have been sleeping in a king sized bed since I was pregnant with my son.  If you are traveling to Europe and are used to sleeping in a king sized bed, know that they are in short supply across the pond.  I had my eye on a lovely bed and breakfast that boasted king sized beds and fluffy down comforters.  Unfortunately, my husband’s indecisiveness caused us to miss out on that little gem, it was booked up by late winter.

I became intrigued by the allure of Melville Castle.  Located on secluded acreage outside Edinburgh, it had many features I was looking for, and best of all…it was a freakin castle!

The bad news, no king sized beds.  But they did offer, what they call a “family room” which has a double bed and a twin, so whomever was flopping around and kicking their spouse during the night could be banished to the twin, and we could both get our sleep.

I excitedly told Gary about my find but still there was waffling.  Ladies, this is what I have learned after 25 years of marriage.  Got an indecisive husband?  Got a credit card?  Just book it!  As soon as I knew he had the vacation time arranged, I booked it.  Sorry honey, but you know exactly how you are sometimes.  In a matter of weeks he had warmed up to the idea and was actually getting excited about our upcoming trip.

The flights were tolerable, that’s really all I can say on that subject.  We arrived at Edinburgh airport around 3:30 pm their time, after about 20 hours of being in planes and airports with only little catnaps to get us through.   If you are renting a car, the car rental center is about a three minute walk from the main terminal, unless you’ve selected a rental agency off the premises.  I chose to go with the smallest economy car and pay the slight upgrade to use Hertz which makes their home on the premises, much easier to get in and out of the airport if you end up crunched for time.

Expedia will allow you to upgrade the car for a fee, if you chose.  I chose to stick with the manual transmission Corsa they had reserved for me.   If you can’t drive a stick of course you will need to upgrade.  I probably should have also, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20.  I reasoned that I was already proficient with a manual transmission, but had forgotten about the small detail that in Great Britain, the gear shift is on the left hand side.  Just a note, I am not ambidextrous by any means, so it took quite a bit of practice for me to master the subtle difference between 1st gear and reverse.

I read up on driving regulations in Great Britain but believe me nothing prepares a person for driving on a crowed round-a-bout going clockwise which seems totally wrong until you’ve been there about a week.   Also relying on google maps or some of the navigation programs out there can be a little fruitless.  Many of the highways in Scotland are limited access for safety, so sometimes what looks like an exit to get on and off the highway is merely an overpass, which can be a bit frustrating.

As for our accommodations, we loved Melville Castle!  I went ahead and made reservations in their restaurant “The Brasserie” for that first night, since I was sure I wouldn’t feel like driving into Edinburgh after our long travel day.  I usually avoid hotel restaurants because they tend to be just okay as far as food quality and are often extremely overpriced.  This was not the case at Melville Castle.  We had a wonderful meal and felt the price was quite fair, the service was great and we even went back to the restaurant a second time later in our stay, which I believe, is a first for us.

Melville Castle is beautiful inside and out, our room was clean and comfortable and the staff was very friendly and helpful.  My only complaint would be that the beds were very hard, but I realize that is a matter of personal taste.  The grounds were expansive and beautifully landscaped and it was very quiet.

If you decide not to drive into Edinburgh, which I decided quite quickly, the bus stop is a short walk down Melville gate road to Gilmerton Road. The buses run every ten minutes and for just one pound you can be downtown in less than fifteen minutes.  You can also buy passes if you plan on using the bus frequently.  Buses in Scotland are double decker and so unlike any public transportation I have been on in the states.  It was an actual pleasure to take the bus, and much cheaper and easier than trying to drive and park downtown.

Everyplace else we went, we took the car and once you get the hang of driving on the opposite side of the road you can go just about anywhere.  The highways are very easy to navigate and the country roads are quite narrow, but fun to drive once you get the hang of it. We even made a day trip to Berwick Upon Tweed in England.  When you live in a state as big as Montana it’s funny to be in an entirely different country in less time than it takes to travel to Bozeman.

When you get to Scotland there are definitely some things you must see!  Edinburgh Castle was so epic we actually spent two days there. One day touring the inside, the second touring the grounds around it and exploring the royal mile.

Our first full day in Scotland I didn’t want to go far, as I was still adjusting to driving an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar place and Gary, God love him, was not being as supportive as I would have liked.  Instead of offering me encouragement, he was basically being a bit of a drama queen!  So anyway, we decided to drive to Rosslyn chapel, which was just a short drive from Dalkeith.  If you’re a fan of the DaVinci Code like Gary, this is a must see.  Though the locals there were not happy with the way the chapel was portrayed in the movie, too much focus on Tom Hanks, not enough camera time for their lovely chapel.  I must say I agree, though I have become a huge fan of medieval architecture since my visit.

Scotland is home to many, many castles, the question is, which ones should you see?  I suggest you do as much research as you can ahead of time so you can map out your trips so that you can see as many as possible.  Glamis castle was number one on my list, mainly because a great number of my ancestors had been employed their in the past and I had the good fortune to be able to stay the night there back in the 80’s when I was a St. Andrews University student.

We also toured Floors castle which is near Kelso in the Scottish boarders area and we visited Inverness castle which is now a city hall of sorts.  Of course, if you make the trek to Inverness you must see Loch Ness.  We wanted to take a boat tour of it, but the weather didn’t really cooperate.

If you want a stunning view of the highlands I highly recommend the Jacobite train.  This train will take you from Fort William to the charming, but quite tiny town of Mallaig. You’ll have to reserve it online or by phone ahead of time because it fills up fast, but it is truly worth it.  This train is the steam engine shown in the Harry Potter movies, you’ll probably remember the classic scene as the train crosses the Glenfinnan viaduct.

I have heard others say you can take in many of the same views if you drive the comparable route, but I love to stare at the vistas and take lots of photos, which is not possible, if you are the actual driver.  If you reserve the train go with first class, the first class car is much nicer if you can get it and they will make you feel like a king or queen.

If you have the itch to do some international travel Scotland is a great place to get your feet wet.  It is a friendly, safe country to travel in and there is plenty to see and do for just about anyone.  If you don’t want to drive, the cities have plenty of public transportation options and many tour companies offer tours to outlying areas of one or more days.  You won’t have to contend with a foreign language, Scots speak their own brand of the Queen’s English and though it takes some getting used to, I promise you won’t be completely lost.  Happy travels!

Guest Blogger-Jean Marie Stanberry

Author of Laying Low In Hollywood, One World United, The Illusion Of Order, Blood, Sweat and Fears and Heartless-A Star is Dead

jeanstanberry.com  @jeanstanberry