As every eager explorer, what keeps me going through daily routine is the thought of my upcoming holidays 🙂 This year, we are going to do a road trip in Scotland! Who would have said I move to Spain to then spend my holidays back in Scotland…but the thing is, we love Scotland, and its people, and its pubs, and the wild landscapes it offers, and this is gonna be a special trip, because for the first time we are going to visit the Outer Hebrides ❤
To say I am excited is a massive understatement! When we had our wee Clio back in Edinburgh, we did explore quite a lot, and wished to go out there, but never made it, as we needed sun, so we spent our holidays mostly in continental Europe or any other place where it rained less (not that hard to find hahaha).
We are going to arrive in Edinburgh around lunch time on a Saturday and start our road trip straight away, making our first stop in Pitlochry, where we booked a private room in the Pitlochry Youth Hostel. I love staying at hostels and we normally book high-rated ones, which often are even more expensive than staying at a Guest House or an AirBnB, where you may have your own private room, or free breakfast. BUT, I will always prefer them to other accommodation, because you get to know amazing people, with amazing stories, and you can also cook your own dinner, or have your bottle of wine in the garden if you want, so it works out cheaper at the end. Don’t get me wrong, we almost never cook when on holidays, but having that option is good. When we were in San Diego, we did buy some Mexican cheese, avocado, cherry tomatoes, bread and craft beers and spent a third of what we would have spent outside, combined with the fact that we also met the most amazing travellers, so overall that was not only a cheaper evening, but also a much more enriching experience 🙂
So a big part of our trip is made up of hostels. We will only spend a night in Pitlochry, and leave to Ullapool the day after, where we also booked a hostel, which is right on the water front 🙂 That’s it as well, hostels have the best locations! So it is worth to pay that extra bit if you want to feel part of the buzz without spending too much.
When in Lewis and Harris, we will stay in Stornoway, the largest town in the Hebrides, and this time we are staying in a house, where we booked a room on Booking.com. It’s called ‘Room by the Beach’, and it is a couple of miles away from the town center, but the reviews are super nice and it was a real deal, so we opted for it.
Then, when back in Edinburgh for the last two nights, we are staying in another amazing hostel, the Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel, bang in the center, between the popular and trendy neighbourhood of Leith and the very touristic Princes Street. While we would have loved to stay with friends, we feel like having our own space will make it easier to chill when we need to and go at our own rhythm, which is always a plus 🙂 Friends will definitely be seen at the pub anyway :)!
I can’t wait to share more about our trip there.
What are your favourite places to stay at when on a road trip? 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Tales from a Red Suitcase 