Scotland Road Trip: Loch Ness, Inverness, and the Road Back to Edinburgh

05/16/2025globegazers Leave a comment

In the summer of 2024, we took a trip to Scotland with our two children, ages six and three. After a longer than expected journey getting there, and two nights in Edinburgh, we rented a car and took a road trip through the Highlands. Our trip started with Stirling and Oban, then continued through Glencoe, Glenfinnan, and the Isle of Skye.

The last leg of the road trip took us past Loch Ness to the city of Inverness, the unofficial capital of the Highlands. After some time there, we drove most of the way back to Edinburgh, stopping at a few attractions along the way.

Loch Ness

The drive from Broadford on the Isle of Skye to our next nightly destination of Inverness took us right by the famous Loch Ness, so we planned our visit to the attractions we were interested in by the Loch to be done on the drive.

After our included “Wee Breakfast” at the hostel in Broadford, we got back in the car and hit the road. Getting off the Isle of Skye was easier than our journey on the ferry onto the isle, as on that part of the island there is the large Skye Bridge to the mainland. This drive had some nice scenery along the way and wasn’t too hard.

Driving back to the mainland on the Skye Bridge

Our first stop in the Loch Ness area was Urquhart Castle. The visit to this historic site was included in our Explorer Pass, so we were able to visit for free. We had made a timed entry reservation ahead of time.

To start our visit, we watched a nice film giving the history of the site, and then we went out to explore the castle itself. The castle was an important location throughout Scottish history and changed hands many times. The last occupants destroyed the castle to keep it from falling into the opposition’s hands, so currently the castle is just ruins. Still, the site right next to Loch Ness made for great views out over the water, and there was plenty of historic interpretation to understand what we were seeing. Also, there was a scavenger hunt for the kids to try and find different items.

Our next stop was just down the road at the Loch Ness Centre, a museum that explores the myths about the Loch Ness monster and the attempts to find “Nessie.” We weren’t sure what to expect but actually found the museum to be well done – visitors are guided through different rooms that are decorated to make you feel like you are actually experiencing what they are discussing in videos that are played when you enter. The museum presented the different evidence and findings but let you draw your own conclusions. Of course, it did have a huge gift shop at the end too!

Inverness

After a 30 minute drive (including some scary roundabouts in the city), we made it to the Inverness Youth Hostel, our destination for the next two nights. This was again one of the Hosteling Scotland properties. It was much bigger than the others we had stayed in up to this point. We got a private room, but did have to use a shared bathroom down the hall.

The view from our room. We added the time (10:44 PM) to show how light is still is late at night in the northern part of Scotland

From the hostel we walked through a nice residential neighborhood into the main part of Inverness. We strolled down a pedestrianized street to the main square where we read about some historic buildings in the Rick Steves guide.

Walk through a cute residential neighborhood

We took a break for dinner, but it was a little difficult to find a place open and available on a Sunday. Our first choice, the Victorian Market food hall, was closed. Another restaurant had a large group coming so couldn’t accommodate us. We ended up trying out a restaurant called Scotch & Rye which worked out well. The adults got to enjoy a whiskey flight, and the kids enjoyed their juice that came in a beaker and the ice cream that was included as dessert.

After dinner we continued our walk through Inverness, passing by some more historic buildings and walking through the graveyard of the Old High Church. We walked on the bouncy pedestrian bridge over the River Ness and then headed back to the hostel for the evening.

This building, built in 1668 as a hospital, now contains a pancake shop

The next morning was again rainy, so after our “Wee Breakfast” we decided to skip sightseeing and instead head to the Inverness Leisure Centre. Here they had a huge indoor pool with lots of different attractions: a toddler splash area, wave pool, lazy river, and a big water slide (that our older kid was brave enough to try). Even though it was a Monday, it was quite popular, and we had to get out (based on a timed entry band) earlier than we might have otherwise.

Culloden and Clava Cairns

From there we drove out to Culloden battlefield, a site which should be very familiar to Outlander fans. This is the site of the climatic battle of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, featured in the books and the show. It is a very important site for understanding the conflict, so we were looking forward to the visit.

Before the visit, we ate lunch in the attached cafe which had some good warm options, plus a nice beer brewed specifically for that location.

The museum itself was well done, describing the events of the 1745 Jacobite Rising that led to the battle. We especially liked one hall where one side described the events from the perspective of the Scottish Jacobites, and the other side described them from the perspective of the British troops. The kids had a little scavenger hunt they could do, but they still didn’t let let us fully read the displays.

After the museum we went out onto the battlefield itself. There are red flags marking the line of the British troops and blue flags marking the line of the Jacobites. We made it out as far as the large memorial cairn and the nearby cairn for Clan Fraser, which is now roped off after being disturbed by all of the Outlander fans trying to take a picture with it. We would have liked to explore more, but both kids were complaining about having to do the walking, so we cut our visit a little short.

We drove to the nearby Clava Cairns, a Neolithic set of burial chambers and standing stones evocative of those described in Outlander (given the proximity to Culloden, this area was one of the inspirations for the Craig Na Dunh stones that Claire interacts with). The stones aren’t as big as those shown in Outlander, but it was still fun to pretend that we were going to travel through them. We were also interested to look at the burial chambers which seemed quite sophisticated for how old they are.

We were not whisked away to the 18th centrury, so we returned to our hostel in Inverness and relaxed for the afternoon. We walked back into Inverness downtown for dinner. The restaurants in the food hall were closed again! We went to a Thai place instead and had some nice noodles for dinner.

Inverness to Perth

As mentioned previously in the series, our original itinerary had us spending three nights in Inverness, but after our flight delays cost us a day in Edinburgh we decided to cut our Inverness time short and add time in Edinburgh at the end. We were not able to book an extra night in Edinburgh, but we were able to switch our last night at the hostel in Inverness to a hostel in the city of Perth which is most of the way back to Edinburgh. We were able to find a few places to stop along the way of this journey.

Our first stop was the beach town of Nairn, which we had considered as a day trip option from Inverness. It was a little bit out of the way on the path to Perth, but we thought the kids would be excited to see a beach. Unfortunately the weather was not conducive to playing in the water, but the kids still had fun playing in the sand. They had even more fun playing on the playground that was just on the other side of the small dunes.

From Nairn we drove south on a long stretch of single track road and eventually reconnected with a highway. We next stopped at the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore. After a lunch in the cafe, we explored this open-air site with buildings and interpretive displays from different periods in the Highlands. The most interesting was a village set up to look like one from the 18th century. Here we learned about how to live, work, build houses, and dress like a Highlander. In a different part of the site there were structures from the early 20th century including a schoolhouse. The kids also enjoyed a small playground.

The Perth Youth Hostel that we had booked a night in was interesting because it was actually located in student housing from a local university, so our private room was actually a multi-bedroom apartment suite! We got a unit with three single rooms and one double room, all with their own bathrooms, plus a large kitchen and common area. Compared to our previous hostel rooms this was a huge amount of space! We just bought some easy meals at a grocery store for dinner in our large accommodations. The kids each got their own rooms which felt nice after a few nights of sharing small rooms.

One of the kids enjoying their single bedroom

The next morning we drove the final hour back to Edinburgh, and then spent some time there as described in one of our earlier blogs. It was a bit of a bummer to not get to spend the extra day in Inverness, but ultimately we were able to see almost all of what we had hoped to in the area, and enjoyed what we did see!

Scotland Road Trip: Glencoe, Glenfinnan, and the Isle of Skye

02/22/2025enjean2013 2 Comments

Glencoe

After checking out of the hostel in Oban, we drove north along the coast. Our next stop was Glencoe (also written as Glen Coe), a beautiful valley in the Scottish Highlands. If you have watched Outlander, you have seen this beautiful area in the opening credits. There is a highway that provides for a scenic drive through the valley and a number of hiking opportunities along the way.

We stopped at the Visitor Centre to get more information about the area and what hikes would be best to do with kids. They also had a reconstruction of a 17th-century turf house showing what life was like in that era.

Nice views of Glencoe from the turf house

The rain seemed to have cleared slightly, so we next did the nearby Signal Rock hike. It involved some mild up and down through a (planted) conifer forest. There was lots of mud and some puddles we had to help the kids get around. The rock itself is now surrounded by trees, so you don’t get the visibility you would have had when it was supposedly used to signal the start of the Glencoe Massacre. It did start raining again on our walk back so we tried to move quickly.

For lunch, we stopped at the recommended restaurant of the nearby Clachaig Inn. We were impressed that even with a number of other visitors our food came quickly. We were also excited to hear that the music that they were playing matched many of the songs on our road trip soundtrack.

After the welcome chance to dry off and warm up, we got back in the car, cranked up the Outlander theme song, and drove the scenic road through Glencoe. The views did not disappoint!

We stopped at the Three Sisters Viewpoint where there are great views across at the Three Sisters mountains, plus up and down the valley.

We stopped one other place where Rick Steves had recommended a hike, but it seemed too windy to be enjoyable. We did get some great views from the parking area though.

Once we got to an area called Rannoch Moor, the hills flattened out. We turned around and drove back through Glencoe, getting to see the beautiful valley coming from the opposite direction.

We stopped at one more overlook, but had to take turns getting out because our younger kid had fallen asleep.

Glenfinnan

After driving back through Glencoe, we got back on the bigger coastal highway and continued north through the town of Fort William (and its many roundabouts). Our next destination was the Glenfinnan Monument. This is again another location of particular significance to fans of Outlander. The monument marks the spot where Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”) landed in Scotland in 1745 to start the 1745 Jacobite Rising – the conflict featured in the novel and show.

Before checking out the monument, we walked over to see the attraction that perhaps draws even more visitors to the area: the Glenfinnan Viaduct. This expansive railway viaduct was popularized when it was used as a filming location in the Harry Potter films as part of the tracks that the train to Hogwarts takes. There is a steam train for tourists that makes a few trips daily over the viaduct, and it has become a very popular destination for fans looking to get a picture. We debated trying to see it, but we would have either had to cut our time in Glencoe short or arrive late to our hotel in the evening, and we ultimately decided it wasn’t worth fighting the crowds anyway.

Next, we learned more about the monument in the small visitor centre, and then walked across the road to walk around the monument. The Highlander soldier at the top seems especially evocative.

To wrap up our time, we took a short trail up to a viewpoint with good views of both of these attractions.

Arisaig

When we were putting together our road trip itinerary, the toughest puzzle was figuring out where to stay between Oban and Skye. We thought about staying near Glenfinnan itself, but there aren’t any budget options near there. Ultimately we had the revelation that it might be good to stay as close to Skye as possible so that we could spend as much time as possible there the next day. With that goal in mind, we looked near the port of Mallaig where we could catch the ferry the next morning. We found a reasonably priced hotel in the town of Arisaig.

The drive from Glenfinnan to Arisaig along the “Road to the Isles” was quite scenic. The sun came out and made for nice views over the water. We could see the train tracks for most of the way too, and we even briefly saw the steam “Harry Potter” train when we went under it on a bridge – too quickly for pictures unfortunately.

We stayed in the Arisaig Hotel in one of the family rooms with bunk beds for the kids (booked directly with them). We had a nice dinner at the attached restaurant (making sure to make reservations ahead of time because it was quite popular). Probably our favorite feature came the next morning: our room rate included a full Scottish breakfast! The adults really enjoyed getting to try some of the specialties including blood sausage.

Over the Sea to Skye

Merry of soul s/he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.

The line above is from both the Outlander theme song and the poem/song it is based on, the Skye Boat Song. It is describing Bonnie Prince Charlie escaping on a boat over to the Isle of Skye after the defeat of the Jacobite Rising. It was interesting for us to make the same journey just a day after seeing the monument to the beginning of the Rising.

We had pre-booked the ferry to Skye out of Mallaig for the 9:00 sailing. The breakfast at the Arisaig Hotel would only be served starting at 7:45, so we made sure to be all packed up and at the breakfast area right at the beginning. From there it was only a ten minute drive to the ferry terminal, and we ended up making it on time.

The ferry was run by the same company we had seen in Oban, Caledonian MacBrayne. We drove our car onto the ferry, then got out and headed up to the observation area. The sun came out so we spent most of the ride out on the deck, watching mainland Scotland recede just as Bonnie Prince Charlie had.

Skye: Portree

The ferry from Mallaig goes to the town of Armadale on the Isle of Skye. Here we drove off of the ferry and then drove up the large island to its largest town, Portree. This scenic drive took about an hour and a half.

In Portree we parked in a public lot in the main square and then got out and explored the town. We explored some souvenir shops and walked up to a viewpoint to get a nice view of the harbor and the colorful houses lining it. On the way back we stopped at a cafe for a hot drink and some snacks. The kids also had fun chatting with a talkative local.

Skye: Trotternish Peninsula

We got back in the car and started our trip around the scenic Trotternish peninsula north of Portree. We used the Rick Steves guide to help us figure out which of the places along the loop to get out of the car and see.

Unfortunately, the weather was not very cooperative, so we didn’t linger at many of the stops. We didn’t get out at the trailhead for the Old Man of Storr (rock formation) because we couldn’t even see it. We made brief stops at the overlooks for Lealt Falls and Kilt Rock.

The Old Man of Storr is back there somewhere

We drove on a smaller road off of the main path to get to An Corran beach. We had been interested to come here because there are dinosaur footprints you can supposedly see when the tide is right. A sign on the beach confirmed that they were there, but did not give great directions as to how to find them. The adults scrambled over the slippery rocks to try their best to spot them, but the kids were more than happy to just play in the black sand. The rain let up a bit as well so we ended up spending a while here.

The rain returned as we got back to the car, so we decided to eat our lunch (of picnic supplies purchased in Portree) in the car.

Our next stop was The Quirang, a series of rock formations in the center of the isle, accessible via a somewhat steep single-track road. We had been looking forward to viewing and maybe even hiking in this area that looks so scenic on the cover of the Rick Steves guide, but blowing clouds and rain in huge winds meant that we didn’t want to do much more than get out for a few pictures.

It took us a while to drive down from the area – this was the incident we mentioned in the Driving in Scotland discussion where someone coming up ignored the rules of the single-track road and never pulled over. A car coming down had to keep backing up in front of them something like half a mile until we and some others helped work the puzzle for how to squeeze them into a passing place.

We continued on around the peninsula loop. Due to the weather we didn’t think it was worth it to get out, so we just enjoyed the views from the mostly single-track road.

Single-track road, Trotternish peninsula. Note that we shouldn’t use the closest passing place because it is on the right!

Skye: Broadford

When searching on our own, we had a hard time finding any place reasonable to stay on Skye. Thankfully, the staff at Hostelling Scotland was able to book us a room at their hostel in Broadford on the island. We had a private room with two bunk beds. One downside was that we did not have an ensuite bathroom, so we had to walk down the hall for toilets or showers. However, the kids did fine with this and overall we enjoyed our short one night stay.

For dinner, we took a short walk into town to Cafe Sia. We all enjoyed the pizza, and the kids also appreciated that theirs came with ice cream.

This was a nice way to wrap up our two days traveling along the coast, both on the mainland and the Isle of Skye. The next morning we would head back to the mainland to Loch Ness and Inverness!

Scotland Road Trip: Stirling and Oban

02/12/2025globegazers 2 Comments

After picking up our car in Edinburgh as described in our previous post, our next destination was Stirling Castle. It was a little intimidating for Della to have get familiar with driving a new car on a different side of the road while in the city, but she was able to figure it out as Eric navigated. There were also a lot of roundabouts which we also don’t see a lot of in the US. Eventually we got on a larger highway which was refreshingly straightforward.

We got to drive by “The Kelpies”: large steel horse-head sculptures

Stirling Castle

Our destination was Stirling Castle, located on a big hill in the city of Stirling. It took us about an hour to get there from Edinburgh. One feature of our car we didn’t talk about in the previous post was a fancy navigation system where you could plug in an address and get turn-by-turn directions. (Yes, we know that this is probably a standard these days, but our car at home is from 2013). That helped us navigate there… although it took us on a back way up the back of the hill that the castle is on using some pretty narrow roads.

We were planning to park in the main parking lot for the castle, but when we got there it was blocked off because it was full! That meant we had to keep driving back down the hill into the main part of Stirling. We eventually found a city parking lot to park in (but only valid for two hours). We had reserved a timed entry into the castle, so we then had to race-walk back up the hill to make it in time for our reservation.

Stirling Castle is included in the Explorer Pass, so we were able to book our visit through that. We had pre-booked a time just to make sure we could get in. To tour the castle, we used, you guessed it, a self-guided tour from the Rick Steves guidebook. Stirling Castle actually felt bigger than Edinburgh Castle, so there was plenty to see. We enjoyed the gardens and 360-degree views from the battlements, plus some nice areas about life in the castle that were aimed towards kids. Also in the royal apartments there were some actors who were able to provide some historical context to what we were seeing.

Made it to the main gate just in time for our timed entry!

We rushed through the end of the castle tour to make sure to get back to our car before our two hour parking was over. It was easier heading back down the hill than it had been coming up! After adding time to our parking, we went to eat lunch in town. We found a Thai restaurant called Sida Thai which had some good lunch specials.

Oban

We then hit the road west to the town of Oban, our destination for the night. This route was one that really introduced us to what we talked about in “Driving in Scotland,” with many roads that were “highways” with 60 MPH speed limits, but with blind curves and narrow lanes. After 2.5 hours, we were definitely happy to get to Oban!

There were some nice views along the way

In Oban, we were staying in the first of the Hosteling Scotland hostels we had previously discussed. Here we were able to get a private room with its own ensuite bathroom, which was a nice way to ease in to hostel life. The hostel itself is located in a nice older building right by the bay.

Oban Youth Hostel. Our room was the one on the second floor to the right side

After settling in, we walked along the shore into the main part of town. The kids were interested in touching the water, so we found a staircase and walked down. The tide was low so we ended up walking on slippery ocean rocks. We continued on to the North Pier where we took in the sights of the city and the bay. We had dinner at the Piazza Italian restaurant there – good but smaller portions. We headed back to the hostel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Trip to the Isle of Mull

Our itinerary had us spend two nights in Oban, so we had another full day to use. We had originally hoped to take a tour to the Isles of Mull and Iona. However, the weather forecast was showing constant rain, so we didn’t think it would be particularly enjoyable to be out all day in inclement weather. Instead, we decided just to ride the ferry to Mull and back on our own for something to do.

Before catching the ferry, we had time to get the “Wee Breakfast” at the hostel, the continental breakfast that was included in our booking. It had a nice assortment of cereals and toast.

We then walked back into town and caught the 9:55 ferry. The car reservations had filled up far in advance, but there were plenty of spots available for passengers on foot. The kids enjoyed saying the name of the ferry company: “Caledonian MacBrayne.”

The weather was cloudy but not raining, so we started out on the outside observation deck. We had nice views of Oban as we exited the bay. Once we were out in open water we started to feel cold and wet, so we headed into the inside observation area for the rest of the 45 minute journey to Craignure on Mull.

Once we arrived at Craignure, we didn’t have a lot of time because we wanted to ride the same ferry back to Oban. We had just enough time to get off, check out a gift shop by the tiny ferry terminal, and then get back on. We did find it fascinating to watch the cars load off and then on to the ferry. They actually raise up the nose of the ship to allow for access.

Watching the cars come off the ferry with its nose lifted. Note that the ferry is also named *Isle of Mull* because this is its main service

The ride back was pretty straightforward since we followed the same path, so we mostly stayed inside. We did go back outside for the final stretch into Oban.

We could see the hostel again as we came back into Oban

Rainy Afternoon in Oban

After disembarking, we grabbed lunch at a little cafe in the ferry terminal called Argyll at the Pier. The warm soup was nice on the damp day! As we left the terminal, we did get a little bit of sun. We grabbed some groceries at a Tesco supermarket and walked back (in the rain) to the hostel.

We spent some time in our room relaxing and drying off. We then tried to decide what to do with our afternoon that the kids would enjoy (not the Oban Distillery unfortunately). We ended up heading to Atlantis Leisure, Oban’s version of what we would call in the US a recreation center. They had a big soft play area for the kids that they enjoyed playing around in for quite some time.

For our dinner, we kept it easy and used the hostel kitchen to heat up a few different items we had gotten at the supermarket.

The next morning, we had the Wee Breakfast again and hit the road for our next destination, Glencoe. Of course, this morning there was a little bit of a blue sky! It was a little bit of a frustrating reminder that we hadn’t gotten to experience everything we wanted to in Oban due to the weather, but still provided a nice vista as we said goodbye to the pleasant town.

Sun over Oban Bay on the day of departure

Summer Trip to Scotland: Road Trip through the Highlands Overview

01/21/202501/21/2025globegazers 4 Comments

Itinerary

We mostly based our itinerary on what Rick Steves recommends here, with some modifications for what we thought would be most interesting for our family. Along the way, we almost exclusively stayed in hostels run by Hostelling Scotland, which were nice, affordable options for our family of four. We also found it easy to work with them to book all of our stops ahead of time.

Day 1: Pick up car and drive to Stirling. Visit Stirling Castle. Drive to Oban and spend two nights there.
Day 2: Sightseeing in Oban. If the weather cooperates, consider a trip to the islands of Mull and Iona.
Day 3: Drive from Oban to Glencoe. Explore the scenic valley and do some hiking. Drive on to Glenfinnan and visit the monument (and maybe see the steam train on the viaduct). Spend the night in Arisaig (to be near the ferry port of Mallaig).
Day 4: Catch a ferry from Mallaig to the Isle of Skye. Drive to Portree, then around the Trotternish peninsula, stopping at scenic spots along the way. Spend the night on the island in Broadford.
Day 5: Drive off the Isle of Skye on the Skye Bridge, headed towards Inverness. Stop at Loch Ness attractions including Urquhart Castle. Arrive in Inverness. Spend two nights there.
Day 6: Explore Inverness and the surrounding area, including Culloden Battlefield.
Day 7: Leave Inverness. Head first to Nairn and play on the beach. Drive south to Newtonmore and visit the Highland Folk Museum. Spend the night in Perth.
Day 8: Drive from Perth to Edinburgh in the morning, leaving enough time to explore the city in the afternoon.

As we mentioned in previous posts, this was not exactly the original plan. We had originally planned on spending three nights in Inverness, and then on Day 8 we would have driven from Inverness all the way to Edinburgh (stopping in Newtonmore), only arriving in the afternoon/evening. Since we wanted to have more time in Edinburgh, we asked Hostelling Scotland if we could shift that last night. They didn’t have space in Edinburgh for an extra night there, but they did have a room at the hostel in Perth. Perth is only an hour away from Edinburgh, so that was our best option for spending most of the day in Edinburgh.

Driving in Scotland

We rented our car from Budget, using the location that ended up being walking distance from our Edinburgh Airbnb. We were happy to see that it was the same price (and maybe a little bit cheaper) to rent in town versus having to return to the airport.

One thing to note for travelers from the US like us is that the car selections are generally smaller than in the US. You don’t find many options for large SUVs like you might be used to! We chose a Compact SUV which we thought would be fine for our family of four (and hopefully big enough in the back for the younger kid’s car seat), plus maybe a little more able to handle any rugged roads we went on. We ended up being assigned a Nissan Juke. It felt a bit more “compact” than “SUV,” but it worked fine for what we needed.

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed in one of the pictures above that the car had a manual transmission. That is another thing that travelers from the US may need to be aware of: in many cases it is easier and cheaper to get manual transmission instead of automatic. Fortunately for us, Della learned to drive a manual transmission growing up and still remembers well enough to feel confident enough to do it on this trip. Another thing to consider is that in Scotland the driver sits on the right side of the car, so they have to shift with their left hand. We did have some experience driving this way on our self-drive safari so we were pretty confident we could figure it out. Unfortunately, the UK is a little more restrictive than the US in terms of allowing multiple drivers of the car. We could have added Eric as a secondary driver, but it would have added a lot to the cost, so Della said she would do all the driving.

One big decision we had to make as traveling parents was what to do about seating for the kids. Back in the US, we hadn’t felt like our six-year old was big enough to ride in a booster, so he was still in a big car seat (and obviously the three-year old was as well). You can rent car seats from the car rental company or from local services, but the cost for eight days felt like enough to buy a brand-new nice seat! We didn’t want to bring our big seats from home, so we thought about bringing along some lightweight seats we have. Still, that wasn’t a great fit because we knew at the end of the trip we would be using the London Underground and we didn’t want to lug two seats around on that no matter how lightweight they were. Finally, we came up with a hybrid plan:

For the three-year old, we would bring a lightweight car seat that was very close to reaching its expiration date, so at the end of the road trip we could just dispose of it in Edinburgh and not have to have it in London
For the six-year old, we decided to purchase the RideSafer Travel Vest, a small harness that allows the child to be securely strapped into a regular seat. This packs down very compactly, so we thought it would be great for this trip and future ones as well

When stopping for a quick photo-op, it was easier to leave the vest on rather than take it all the way off

Yet another thing for drivers from the US to consider about driving in Scotland is that the highways may be much more narrow than you are used to, especially if you live in the western US like us and are used to wide-open spaces. Scotland does have some roads that are as big as interstates, but many of what were listed as highways were much smaller two-lane roads that we were used to. They also had in many places narrow shoulders with not much room for error, tight and blind curves, and large trucks coming from the opposite direction. Yet they still had a speed limit of 60 MPH! Not to mention the fact that we were driving on the opposite side of the road that we were used to, so we missed the intrinsic feel of where to put ourselves in our lane. All that probably combined to make the locals frustrated at us not feeling comfortable driving as fast as we could be.

Tried to capture a feel for what the highways were like

If you are planning to go to the Isle of Skye or another smaller location, you need to familiarize yourself with the rules for single-track roads. These are roads where there is only one paved line which is expected to be used by drivers going both directions! You should study how to use the marked “passing places” to yield to drivers coming from the other direction, and what the rules are for which driver yields. We saw someone (almost certainly a tourist) ignore these rules on Skye and cause a huge mess for everyone else, so they are definitely important to understand.

If someone were coming from the other direction, we could have pulled into this passing place on the left to allow them to go by. Never pull into a passing place on the right!

One final thing to think about is what you want to listen to! We thought it would be fun to put together a playlist of songs from Scotland to match the beautiful scenery we were seeing – including plenty of songs from the Outlander tv show!

We hope this overview post helped to set the scene for our Scottish Highlands road trip! Next up, we will describe the different stops along the way in more detail.

Summer Trip to Scotland: Edinburgh

01/12/202501/11/2025globegazers 6 Comments

In the summer of 2024, we took a trip to Scotland with our two children, ages six and three. Our trip started and ended in the country’s biggest tourist draw, the city of Edinburgh.

We originally planned to spend three nights there at the beginning of the trip and one night at the end (with a road trip in between), but our travel troubles getting there meant we missed out on our first night. We ended up adjusting our road trip itinerary some to give us extra time in Edinburgh on that final night.

Arrival and Settling In

As mentioned in the post about getting there, we took the tram from the Edinburgh airport to the flat we had booked through Airbnb, located just to the northeast of the city center. We loved the location, which was right off a road with grocery stores and bus lines to help us get around. It was definitely nice to have multiple bedrooms for the first nights as we were fighting jetlag.

Nice sitting area overlooking the city street

After getting settled, we decided we needed to get out and enjoy the sunshine to try and help adjust. We caught our first of many double-decker buses, which the kids really enjoyed.

We rode the bus to the middle of the Royal Mile, the main tourist and historic road which runs through the city center. From here we walked downhill, using the second half of the Rick Steves’ self-guided walking tour to help describe what we were seeing. Some of the highlights were Canongate Kirk, Dunbars Close garden, and an alley where some scenes from Outlander had been filmed. The kids did not have a lot of patience for sightseeing though, so we were a little more rushed than we would have liked to be. We ended at the bottom of the Royal Mile by looking through the gates of Holyrood House palace.

From this point, we decided it was actually just as easy to walk back to our flat. On the way, we stopped at a grocery store and got some breakfast supplies and some prepared food for a simple dinner. We watched the movie Brave, then all crashed pretty early!

Exploring Edinburgh

After a good night of sleep, we were mostly rested and ready to explore Edinburgh on the only full day we would have in the city.

Our first destination was Edinburgh Castle, which sits at the top of the Royal Mile. To get there, we took the bus again and got off by the National Museum, then walked up the hill to the castle, passing by scenic Victoria Street in the process.

We had followed the advice and booked our tour online ahead of time, which turned out to be a good idea because the tickets had been sold out by the morning of. Instead of just buying entrance to the castle, we had gone ahead and purchased Explorer Passes, which are good for 14 days and would allow us entrance to many of the historical sites we were planning to visit.

To tour the castle grounds, we again followed Rick Steves’ self-guided walking tour to provide a route and context. The castle staff also gave us a kids activity guide that provided some information for their age range. We enjoyed touring the grounds, which provided great views over the city. The kids especially liked climbing on the cannons. We did stand in line for some of the interiors of the buildings as well.

After the castle, we headed down the Royal Mile. Almost immediately we decided to stop at an attraction called Camera Obscura and World of Illusions. We had wondered if it was a tourist trap, but it ended up being an enjoyable visit. We got to travel through different floors filled with many interactive optical illusions. On the top floor is a 19th century device called a camera obscura which uses lenses and mirrors to project images from outside onto a table, looking almost like a video feed.

We took a break from the Royal Mile and went back to Victoria Street for lunch at Bertie’s Fish and Chips. Eric got the fish and chips, and Della tried her first haggis of the trip (fried this time).

We returned to the Royal Mile and did the first half of Rick Steves’ self-guided walk, taking us past more scenic older buildings and atmospheric closes (alleys). It had gotten a little damp so we did pause for a bit in St Giles Cathedral. We made it back to the middle of the Mile and caught the bus back to our flat for some nap / quiet time.

Then, for dinner we went to a food hall called Edinburgh Street Food. Here we met up with our friend Christine from Denver along with her niece, who were coincidentally visiting Edinburgh at the same time! We were able to order an eclectic mix of food: plant-based tacos for Della, bao buns for Eric, and pizza for the kids. The kids also got some interesting flavors of soft-serve ice cream for dessert.

Before heading to bed, we decided to try one other amenity of our flat: a chest full of dress-up clothes to allow us to dress like Scotsmen!

The next morning, we had to check out of our flat and go pick up our rental car for the Highlands road trip. Stay tuned for a future post about that!

Return to Edinburgh

After a fun trip in the Highlands (foreshadowing!), we returned to Edinburgh for one night. Since we had missed some of our sightseeing time at the beginning of the trip, we made some changes to the road trip itinerary to allow us to get back to Edinburgh in the morning so we could have most of the last day to explore as well. We were able to drop off our luggage at our accommodations for the evening (more on that in a bit), and then headed out into the city to explore.

We caught a bus (double-decker!) back to the National Museum area. We first got lunch at MUMS Great Comfort Food, a homey diner serving some traditional Scottish food. Eric got the haggis tower which came with mash (mashed potatoes) and turnips. Della got two different types of sausage with mash.

From there, we walked through the nearby Greyfriars Kirkyard to find some of the headstones with names that appear in Harry Potter, like Thomas Riddle.

We then visited the National Museum itself. It is free which was a nice perk, although that did mean it was crowded. We once again used the Rick Steves self-guided tour to help us chart a path through the varied exhibits. We walked through the technology section to a separate wing with different eras of Scottish history on different floors. The floors were ordered chronologically, but we found ourselves a little frustrated that within each floor there was not a well-defined path to follow for a good story of the era. We had to just poke around randomly on each floor, looking at items that interested us. After finishing on a nice rooftop terrace, we went back into the main wing and explored some of the exhibits on animals. We paused to rest our legs, and then decided to head back to the hostel to relax.

We were staying at the Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel, part of a network of hostels across the country called Hostelling Scotland. We had stayed at a number of these hostels on our road trip (more foreshadowing), so we knew what to expect. The Edinburgh Central hostel was definitely the fanciest one we stayed at! We got a private room with an ensuite bathroom, so it was basically the same as a hotel room, except that the beds were bunk beds. The kids’ favorite feature of the room was that our window looked out on a major road where they could watch the trams and buses go by.

For dinner we walked to Vittoria Italian restaurant (the “on the Walk” location). We had seen this on lists of good restaurants for families in Edinburgh so we thought it would be a good stop for our final meal out in Scotland. Both the adults and kids found some good things to eat, including some nice ice cream for dessert.

After dinner, we debated taking advantage of the late light of Scottish summer evenings and doing one last Rick Steves walk in New Town, but we could tell the kids would probably rather just go back and relax in the room, so we listened to our parenting side over our traveler side and called it a night.

The next morning, we got the breakfast at the hostel which was included in our rooming package – called the “Wee Breakfast,” it was your standard continental breakfast of cereals and breads with some fruit. Each hostel did it slightly differently. The main difference at Edinburgh Central was that we had to fight through swarms of other travelers trying to eat at the same time – it’s a big and popular hostel. After fueling up, we caught the tram to Waverley Station, where we caught a high-speed train to London. We would spend the night there and then catch our flight back to the US the next day!

Summer Trip to Scotland: Getting There

01/05/2025enjean2013 6 Comments

Before we had kids, when we were planning our summer trips, we would come up with a short list of candidate destinations, and often Scotland was very high on the list. It’s always been one of Della’s goals to travel through the Highlands that she read so much about in the Outlander series. Scotland never became our final choice, but it has always been on our mind.

When we had kids, we put big European vacations on hold for a bit, but in the summer of 2024, now that they were six and three, we decided that it was maybe the right time to go. We thought Scotland might be a great place to go with kids, especially since we were planning on renting a car and doing a roadtrip which would allow for a little flexibility.

Flying Four to Scotland for $22

As with past trips, one goal was to use miles to book our plane flights. Now that we have to pay for four tickets instead of just two, it requires a lot more miles. Eventually we decided that the best strategy would be to use United Airlines to fly one direction directly to or from Edinburgh, and American Airlines to fly the other direction via London (no direct flights to or from Scotland). Based on the available flights and our schedule, we chose to fly into Edinburgh on United, then out of London on American.

Since we have a United Airlines credit card, there was a little more availability of flights at the cheaper rate of 40,000 miles per person. In the end we chose the flight with a layover in Washington, D.C, and were able to get all four for 160,000 miles and $22.40 in fees.

Smoothly at the Start

The first part of our journey went exactly as planned. We rode the train to the Denver airport, and had enough time to eat lunch before flying to DC. In DC, we took advantage of the three hour layover and had dinner, then walked up and down the entire length of the terminal for exercise.

Here Come the Delays

As we were wrapping up our walk through the terminal at 8:30, we got a text from United that our flight had been delayed until 11:00 PM – our inbound airplane was arriving late due to lightning in Newark. We weren’t too worried yet…

But we watched through the United app as our inbound airplane still never left Newark. The delays kept trickling in.

At 9:30 PM, the flight was delayed until 11:27 PM
At 10:00 PM, the flight was delayed until 12:27 AM
At 10:45 PM (past our original departure time), the flight was delayed until 1:27 AM
At 11:OO PM, the flight was delayed until 2:15 AM

Through all this we had to try various things to keep the kids entertained. Even though it was late (even for our bodies on Denver time), they didn’t show much interest in sleeping.

At 11:55 PM, the flight was delayed until 3:00 AM.

At 12:05, there was a moment of optimism, as we could see that the Newark flight had left its gate. The delay was updated to be only 2:15 AM again.

At this point, with it being after midnight, and not looking like we would leave for two more hours, we got one kid to sleep, but the other still refused.

The flight from Newark was in the air, and we were feeling tired but confident.

At 1:25 AM, the flight was cancelled.

There was then a big scramble to figure out what to do. Agents passed out cards with a QR code to connect with a virtual booking service, but we tried and nothing would connect. Our gate became chaos as United had reassigned it to a flight that was heading back to Newark. Eric eventually realized United agents were setting up at nearby empty gates and lingered enough to get in the front of one of those lines.

Talking with an agent, the best they could do for the four of us was to get us on the flight from DC to Edinburgh on Monday night – two days later than the original flight. This was not ideal, but it seemed like the only option.

We chose a voucher for a hotel through a link United sent us. Unfortunately, there was some sort of bug and the options seemed to be assuming we were at the other DC airport (Reagan National). There was no way to fix this, so we just chose the one that said it was closest but was actually more than 30 miles away in Alexandria.

We did have one car seat along, but the other travel harness was in our checked bag. Because it was so late, the United agents said there was no way we could get our checked luggage because there was no one to bring it out. We asked multiple times, but never got a better answer.

The best they could do was give us a voucher for the taxi service, which supposedly had car seats available. We lugged two very tired kids through the empty airport and out to the taxi, where we did find one with a seat. (Thank goodness for the stroller wagon we had purchased a few months before!) We took a very late taxi ride, got checked into our hotel, and crashed.

Unexpected Adventure in DC

We tried to sleep in the next morning, but it was hard to: we were still in our dirty clothes, and thinking about how much time we were losing in Scotland with the 2 day delay.

Eric had the idea to call the rebooking line again, hoping that it would work better during more normal hours. Thankfully it did, and that rebooking agent was able to find seats for us on the flight to Edinburgh from DC that night, so only a 1 day delay. We accepted that and then made a plan for the day.

We spent much of the morning lounging in the hotel room, which actually was pretty nice. We also used meal vouchers to eat lunch at the hotel restaurant.

Note that we are all wearing the same clothes as the day before

It was very hot in the DC area – they were under a heat advisory, and we didn’t want to spend another day and overnight flight in our same clothes. So, we had the idea to go buy some new outfits with shorts. We found a Ross nearby, and rode the free local bus there and bought a shirt and shorts each. (Side note: does this count as visiting the state of Virginia for the kids?) We changed into the shorts at the hotel (keeping the clean shirts in reserve for the flight), then rode the metro to the Mall for a little sightseeing.

It was too hot to do much walking around the Mall, so we just walked through the middle and over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, which we explored until closing time.

We had time for dinner at Hill Country Barbecue, then rode the (long) metro back out to Dulles airport.

Let’s Try This Again

Back at IAD, we got checked back in and to our gate in plenty of time. Thankfully, this time the inbound airplane had arrived earlier in the afternoon, and was already sitting at the gate. We got on board and breathed a sigh of relief as we headed to Edinburgh a day later than intended!

Our flight to Edinburgh went fairly smoothly. There was some weather in the area which meant that we spent some extra time on the tarmac before taking off, and in-flight service was delayed after takeoff. The kids fell asleep quickly, but the adults were unable to sleep well. It didn’t help that they still did a full meal service once the flight attendants were able to get up and move around.

Getting from the Edinburgh Airport into Town

We made it to Edinburgh roughly on time. The adults were very tired, while the kids were mostly in good spirits. We were definitely glad to see that our checked bags had made it to Edinburgh as well!

It’s actually very convenient to get from the Edinburgh airport to the city center. We were staying in an Airbnb just east of the main part of town, so we took the tram, which was well-labeled and easy to find.

After a 15 minute walk, we made it to our Airbnb flat. We were all tired, but still wanted to make the most of our (even more limited than expected) time in Edinburgh!

Mexico City: Getting from the airport to La Condesa by bus

12/11/2022enjean2013 Leave a comment

In the summer of 2022, we decided we were feeling up to taking our first international trip with our family of four (and our first trip by plane since the beginning of the pandemic)! We chose to go to Mexico City, since it seemed like an easy international destination to get to from Denver with lots of interesting things to do. We’ll talk more about what we did there in later posts; the purpose of this post is to describe how we got from the Mexico City airport to our accommodations in the La Condesa neighborhood by bus, since it was not easy or well-documented.

The Different Transportation Options

If you read other resources about getting from the Mexico City airport to La Condesa, most will recommend taking a rideshare or taxi. However, we were traveling with a four year old and a one year old, and we didn’t want to bring car seats (since we planned to use Mexico City’s excellent public transportation system to get around for the rest of our trip) and didn’t want to try to ride without the car seats, so these weren’t an option for us.

The Mexico City Metro (train system) does run to the airport with a station outside of one of the terminals. However, this also wasn’t an option for us because the Metro regulations state that you are not allowed to carry large luggage onto the trains, and we were traveling with a big bag. We even saw large bollards preventing you from doing this at the airport station – although we also saw someone lift their luggage over this and do it anyway.

The option we chose was the Mexico City Metrobús, which also runs to the airport and does allow large luggage. This would require a number of different transfers to get all the way to La Condesa though.

Step Zero: Be Prepared

Make sure you are ready to look up information on your phone about transit. We sometimes used the standard Google Maps to get information. But, we got a tip to also try the Citymapper app, and found that it often had more up-to-date and helpful information about the different modes of mass transit in Mexico City.

Step One: Buy Your Ticket

Before you get on the Metrobús, you need to buy a ticket. The easiest way to do this is to buy one of the smartcards and load some value on it. The nice thing about these smartcards is that they can be used on the Metrobús, the Metro, the Trolleybus, and other systems around the city.

There is an easy to use machine where you can purchase the card in the airport terminal right by the door you will go out to catch the bus. We landed in Terminal 1, so for us this was Door (Puerta) 7. We had to break the larger bills we had gotten from the ATM in order to be able to use the machine (since you can’t load too much on the card). We just asked one of the money exchange booths nearby and they did this for us. The system is incredibly cheap so you don’t actually need to load too much onto the card (but do enough for multiple trips just to give yourself a cushion).

Step Two: Catch the Line 4 Bus

Just outside Door (Puerta) 7 was a sign indicating that this was a Metrobús stop.

The artistic MB in the red square is the Metrobús logo. The sign also indicates that we were at the right place for Line 4, which is color-coded with orange

The 4 Line bus supposedly came every five minutes, but it felt like we had to wait longer than that. You do need to be careful to catch the 4 Line Metrobús, as you will note that the inter-terminal bus also stops at this same stop (and is also a red bus).

Eventually, the Line 4 bus did come. It has a special area to put our luggage and was not too crowded. Unfortunately, after picking us up, it had to go to Terminal 2, where there was a lot of traffic, so this first part took a long time even though we didn’t get very far.

Step Three: Get Off at San Lázaro!

We weren’t very prepared for this step ourselves. Some of the documentation of Line 4 makes it seem like you can ride from the airport all the way to the end of Line 4. However, if you look at the route through a transit app, it does show that you have to transfer from one Line 4 bus to another at the San Lázaro station. We weren’t completely sure about this and were caught a bit unaware.

When the bus got to San Lázaro (the next stop after Terminal 2), it stopped briefly and everyone else got off. We didn’t move quickly enough and then panicked when the bus started turning back around! Luckily we were able to get them to stop and let us off (somewhat in the middle of the street). We scampered out with all of our items and scurried over to the bus stop. Definitely not the smoothest transition.

Step Four: Catch the Line 4 Metrobús (Again) Towards Buenavista

Since the airport version of Line 4 ended at San Lázaro, we had to catch the “regular” version of Line 4 to get where we were intending to head. We wanted to head in the direction of Buenavista. There are actually two versions of this Line 4 route: Norte (North) and Sur (South). We chose the Norte since it seemed to have less stops. The bus came within a matter of minutes.

This bus was a little bit more crowded, but one of the locals offered our four year old a seat.

Step Five: Get Off at México Tenochtitlan and Walk to Metrobus Line 1

Our next goal was to catch the Metrobús Line 1 headed south. Looking at the map, the best stop to get off on for this from Line 4 was at the México Tenochtitlan stop. Note that this stop used to be called “Puente de Alvorado” in case you are looking at old documentation.

From here, it was just a two block walk to Avenida Insurgentes, where the Revolución stop on Metrobús Line 1 is found. The stop is a large, well-signed shelter. You have to pay (using the same smartcard) to enter the stop.

Waiting at the Revolución stop. Feeling a little worn out already!

Step Six: Ride Metrobús Line 1 to Sonora

Even though the Metrobús Line 1 buses are large, articulated buses, this bus was very crowded. We ended up somewhat accidentally in the female-only section (but no one seemed mad at Eric – maybe the stroller helped), and even that was crammed standing-room only. Luckily we were all able to squeeze in with all our belongings.

We rode this bus (in its dedicated BRT lane) down to the Sonora stop, which is the closest to the Roma and La Condesa neighborhoods.

Step Seven: Walk to La Condesa

From here, we got to take a very pleasant walk to get to our accommodations in La Condesa. After all of the different transfers, stress of keeping up with our stuff, and the last crowded bus, it was very nice to get out and move again. This neighborhood is very picturesque, and our route took us through the lovely, tree-filled Parque México and the equally lovely, tree-filled Parque España (both of which we would later visit multiple times), so it was a refreshing end to our journey.

Conclusions

Taking the Metrobús from the Mexico City airport to La Condesa is possible, and not too hard. However, just make sure you allocate yourself plenty of time (and patience): overall, it took us about two hours! Eric’s mom did the same journey by Uber the next day and it took her less than 30 minutes, so if that works for you it is probably the better bet. But, if you are traveling with kids or big luggage, and you don’t mind a little extra time and work, consider the Metrobús!

A Night in New Hampshire

05/26/2020enjean2013 2 Comments

As we were wrapping up our 2 week road trip of New England and Canada, we decided to mark one more state off our list: New Hampshire. As a reminder, previously on the trip, we rented a car in Boston, explored Maine, then headed into Canada where we spent some fun days along the Bay of Fundy, relaxed in Prince Edward Island (PEI) and enjoyed a Hot Day in Halifax. We adjusted our route back to Boston to add in one night in New Hampshire.

With just one night to spend, we decided to base ourselves in the tourist-focused town of North Conway in the White Mountains. We dropped our stuff off at our hotel, the Schoolhouse Inn (where we were pleasantly surprised to be upgraded to a standalone cabin with its own screened-in porch), and then went out to do a little exploration of the area before it got dark.

We first drove up a very steep road to Cathedral Ledge, where we peered off the edge back into the valley below. The view was a little sullied by a large amount of haze. Kiddo seemed to enjoy climbing around even more than the view!

We then went to the nearby Diana’s Baths, where a short hike took us to the series of pools. We let Kiddo wade around a little bit, but the water was too cold to want to leave him in there for long.

We had dinner at a restaurant within walking distance of our hotel called Abenaki Trail. One feature that drew us to it was that they were clearly family friendly, advertising that they had toys and books for kids to play with while waiting for food to come. The food was pretty standard fare, but we did enjoy our massive poutine appetizer.

The next morning we headed towards Boston along the scenic Kancamagus Highway. Using some brochures we had picked up along the way, we chose a few different places along the road to stop and take in further.

Our first stop was at Rocky Gorge, where we did a one mile loop around a pond.

The gorge itself

Kiddo enjoyed some hiking on his own

Kiddo fell asleep in the car, but we still decided to stop and take a short walk to see Sabbaday Falls. (Of course he woke up as soon as we put him in the carrier).

We drove through a number of scenic overlooks, stopping at one at the top of the pass to get some nice pictures (although still with some of the haze).

A little hard to get everyone looking at the camera…

After stopping in the town of Lincoln at the other end of the highway for lunch at a Thai restaurant, we drove through steady rain back to Boston. We were sad to be wrapping up our two-week roadtrip, but happy that it had gone pretty successfully!

Traveling with Kiddo (Lessons Learned)

Our upgrade to the standalone cabin with porch worked out well, especially because it gave us a space to hang out and read after putting him to bed. Our room came with two beds, so we put his kilofly on top of the bed (with some borders around if we snuck out). He seemed to sleep quite well in this arrangement.

As mentioned above, the restaurant for dinner maybe wasn’t our first choice for food, but it worked out well to choose a place that had some extra kid-specific distractions to help the meal experience go more smoothly.

At this point of the trip, we were starting to feel pretty frazzled trying to keep up with all of Kiddo’s accessories. When we woke up in the morning, we realized we couldn’t find one of the lids to his bottles, which was kind of important since we hadn’t packed very many. We called the restaurant from the night before but they didn’t have it. When Eric went out for breakfast supplies, he tried to find an easy replacement in multiple stores, but was unable to do so. We were able to make do, but it still left a bit of a bitter taste in our mouth, feeling like we weren’t on top of things. We’d like to say we learned a system to never lose items again, but as I bet you can guess, we still have misplaced items since then – especially those pesky small kid things!

Overall, looking back at our roadtrip with Kiddo, we have fond memories of this first big trip as a nuclear family. We think we were able to navigate parenting while traveling fairly well. He won’t remember any of it, but the two of us definitely will.

As we write this post at the beginning of the summer of 2020, it makes us nostalgic and also a little sad that it seems like we probably won’t be able to do a big trip this summer. Hopefully we will feel comfortable taking another trip like this soon!

A Hot Day in Halifax

11/22/2019globegazers 2 Comments

We visited Halifax during our 2 week road trip of New England and Canada. We rented a car in Boston, explored Maine, spent some fun days along the Bay of Fundy, and relaxed in Prince Edward Island (PEI) before heading to Halifax.

We knew that it was a bit out of our way and that it was a long way to go for a short visit, but we were still excited to get into Nova Scotia and to explore the harbor town of Halifax.

We arrived in town by around 1 pm and got set up in our room at Homewood Suites (booked for free with points earned from a Hilton credit card signup bonus). Then we headed out to explore. It was a very hot day!

What We Did

We grabbed a quick lunch in the food court of Scotia Square which was only a few blocks from our hotel. It was a big food court with lots of options. Eric got Indian food and Della a shawarma plate. We hadn’t brought our highchair so Kiddo had to sit in his stroller and consequently didn’t eat much. We were in a bit of a rush though, so it didn’t matter too much.

We roughly used this self-guided walking tour to follow throughout our day. Our first stop was City Hall and St. Paul’s Church, the oldest still-standing Anglican church in Canada. We then headed down to the waterfront. Our first destination was the Maritime Museum…. err.. rather, the maritime themed playground outside of it. In an ideal trip, we would have spent some time poring over the 30,000 artifacts here, but we knew Kiddo was a bit too young and we were definitely pressed for time. As mentioned above, it was a HOT day and playing around the playground got us all a bit red-faced! So, we did the most natural thing – we got some icecream at Cows and relaxed in the shade while we ate it.

City Hall

Looking up at the clock tower of the Citadel

maritime playground

The waterfront

Our next stop was the Farmer’s Market. We had intended to do a quick stroll through and at least get to the Pier 21 Immigration Museum, but as soon as we saw the market was indoors, we decided we would spend a little more time there. By this point, we also knew for sure that, to our disappointment, we were likely not going to make it into the museum. Kiddo didn’t seem likely to relax or take a second nap. Unfortunately, while the Farmer’s Market was indoors – it did not have air conditioning! We also were arriving late in the day so many of the market stalls were closing up. However, we stopped a the Ursan Mead stand which was offering free tastings. We tasted several different kinds including spritzer-like fruity meads and, the most unique, a baklava flavored mead. This was a fun stop and we purchased a few bottles! (It was also a good short celebration because we had just found out that Della’s sister had gotten engaged!)

We walked by a couple more buildings on the tour we were following, but didn’t really stop until we reached the Public Gardens. Holy cow! These Victorian era gardens are beautiful! You can easily imagine people wearing lovely dresses and top hats strolling through them. We enjoyed a leisurely walk ourselves, stopping for a Kiddo snack.

Our final stop was the Citadel. Getting up this fortified hill was a bit of a hike, but it was, at least, on the way back towards our hotel. We were all hot and tired at this point and Kiddo actually did end up falling asleep in his stroller. For that reason, and because the Citadel itself was closing quite soon, we didn’t go in. Instead we just enjoyed the views of the city before heading back down.

We took advantage of the fact that Kiddo was still napping and stopped for a beer at a brewery called 2 Crows which was right next to the hotel. It was actually the most perfect timing. It had lovely air conditioning and Kiddo slept long enough for both his parents to enjoy a semi-leisurely pint.

Kiddo was a bit grumpy when we woke up so we decided to stay in for dinner. Eric headed out to grab a local specialty donair which was actually quite a bit like a gyro.

We really wish we had more time to spend in Halifax. While it was quite a drive ultimately out of our way, we are glad we went!

Traveling With Kiddo (Lessons Learned)

Most parents know that traveling with snacks and drinks is a must. We try to mostly keep Kiddo on a schedule where he eats regular snacks and meals, but sometimes a well-timed snack can save an afternoon! On this trip, we found one of the best snacks was little Clementine oranges. You can carry them un-refrigerated in your bag all day, they have a good amount of juice to keep you hydrated on really hot days, and Kiddo LOVES them.

We’ve mentioned in other posts how important the right stroller can be!

We’ve also mentioned how our baby tent helped us out quite a bit. In Halifax, we used cushions from the couch in the room to set him up in the kitchen area of our room. That meant we had a little more distance between us and him after he went down and we didn’t worry about our reading lights disturbing him nearly as much.

mde

Kindred Spirits in Prince Edward Island

09/13/201909/09/2019globegazers 3 Comments

We visited Prince Edward Island (PEI) during our 2 week road trip of New England and Canada. We rented a car in Boston, explored Maine, and then spend some fun days along the Bay of Fundy before arriving in PEI.

We arrived in PEI after a long day exploring Fundy National Park. We were all hungry and tired so as soon as we crossed the Confederation Bridge and arrived in the town of Borden-Carleton we pulled off to eat. We had been excited to try Cows Ice Cream because we had heard so much about it so we just ended up eating Subway because they were in the same building. We arrived in our accommodations in Summerside in the later evening and pretty much went right to bed.

Della was so excited to be driving into PEI that she took a screenshot on the long bridge

Subway-Cows dinner combination

What We Did

Explore Summerside

Summerside is a cute town! We drove to town center and headed into the visitor center which was right on the harbor. There was a harbor walk and a lot of shops, but it was pretty early and it was dead while we were there. We had seen online that there was a newly founded historic walk that went through town starting at the Lefurgey House. It was strange that the visitor center didn’t actually have the walking tour brochure, but once we made our way to the Lefurgy House we were able to get a brochure and some good information. The house belonged to John E. Lefurgey who was a leading Summerside shipbuilder, produce dealer and politician. It was sold by one of his sons, but then repurchased by his granddaughter Wanda Wyatt who helped turn it into a sort of cultural center. The tour brochure let us to several historic buildings and monuments in the town. It was a nice way to spend an hour and a half in the morning before Kiddo’s morning nap.

Summerside marina

Lefurgey House

Monument to the local soldiers in WWI

Charlottetown

We started our day in Charlottetown, the capital and largest city of PEI, at the Founder’s Court Visitor Center where we got some information on walking routes to see the best parts of the city.

We explored Charlottetown using a combination of a Heritage Walk and a scavenger hunt for Eckhart the Mouse. Sprinkled throughout town, there are 9 statues of Eckhart the mouse who is, apparently, a beloved storybook character. They are in historic or culturally significant places and the tour gives you a little info at each one. We enjoyed searching for the little statues and could see that Kiddo would have loved this way to see the city if he was a bit older. There was also another kid-friendly scavenger hunt type tour of the city where you find different animal statues that starts at the Visitor Center.

Can you spot the Eckhart statue on the windowsill?

Our tour included Founders Hall which is where the delegates of the Charlottetown Conference arrived in Charlottetown in 1864. The conference was pretty important in the history of Canada because it would eventually lead to the Confederation of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and the Province of Canada (which contained what became Ontario and Quebec) into the Federation of Canada. We visited the Province House where many meetings of the delegates took place. We also visited St. Dunstan’s Basilica which is one of the largest buildings of its kind in Eastern Canada.

We did a brief break in the middle of the day for Kiddo to play in the park. He’s getting really good at climbing!

We ended the day walking along the waterfront where we stopped at another Cows to pick up ice cream and raspberry cordial!

Anne of Green Gables House

This was the reason we came to PEI! Della had been a fan of Anne of Green Gables as a child, both the books and the CBC TV movie. We’re a little embarrassed because we initially kind of misunderstood what the Green Gables House was. Della had thought it was the location where they did some of the filming for the movie and she was very pumped to see it. (Again, she has wanted to visit PEI since she was a kid specifically because of that film!) However, that it not really what the Green Gables house on PEI is at all.

Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, lived on PEI near the town of Cavendish. Her parents died/left when she was young, so she grew up with her grandparents. Her grandparents’ cousins lived in a house with green gables that inspired her to write the Anne of Green Gables series. There were other things there that inspired the locations in Anne’s adventures like the the Haunted Woods Trail and Lover’s Lane. There is also a real lake that becomes “The Lake of Shining Waters” in the stories. So, we figured this out – a little sheepishly – and then thoroughly enjoyed our time. The whole area is now a national historic site. When we entered there was a very short but enjoyable museum about Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life.

Then we toured the inside of “Green Gables.” They have set it up as if it were from the book so there is a room dedicated to Anne and then one for Matthew and one for Marilla.

That’s Anne in the background!

After exploring there, and taking a picture with Anne herself, we headed off to walk the Haunted Woods Trail. We didn’t find it very scary, and Kiddo walked almost the whole thing himself. This, of course, made it go quite slowly.

We then eventually got him to calm down and take a bit of a nap in his stroller while we did the Lovers Lane trail and then watched another short video about the life of the author.

Near the Green Gables House, they have set up a representation of the fictional town of Avonlea (from the books) which was mostly a tourist trap. We intended to visit later in the day, but ended up running out of time.

Cavendish Beach

After thoroughly exploring the Green Gables House, we decided to head to the coast near Cavendish which inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery to write many poems. We entered PEI National Park along the northern shore. We stopped briefly at an overlook where we could see the gorgeous red sand cliffs.

We had been planning on visiting Cavendish Beach and we saw that we could walk there from the overlook. It said it was a short walk and we knew it would be beautiful, so we set off. Upon reflection, we really wish we had better prepared for this. We didn’t bring the stroller OR the carrier, so we ended up just carrying Kiddo. It was too far for that to be comfortable. The walk was lovely- taking us through the dunes, near the coast, and across the Lake of Shining Waters.

We hadn’t expected Cavendish Beach to be so crowded! In our head, we thought, why would anyone swim? The water is so cold! However, we were sorely mistaken. We made our way down to the beach and sat for a little bit. Kiddo really enjoyed digging in the sand… and getting it ALL OVER himself- like into every nook and cranny. We also let him put his toes in the water. However, we weren’t really prepared to swim so we had to cut the trip short. We wanted to change him completely before the semi long drive back to Summerside and it was getting late. Eric ran back to get the car while Della tried to give Kiddo a shower and get him changed without getting too wet herself.

Scenic Drives

Throughout our 2 days in PEI, we ended up doing most of the Central Coastal Drive. We did the southern Red Sands Shore on our way back from Charlottetown to Summerside and did some of the Green Gables Shore on our day exploring Cavendish. There are lots of scenic drives throughout the island because the entire place is gorgeous!

Where We Ate

Our best meal by far was near Cavendish. We went out to North Rustico for a late lunch at Blue Mussel. We shared a seafood chowder poutine, Della got a lobster roll, and Eric got a bubbly seafood bake. The setting was lovely and the restaurant quite pleasant!

Traveling with Kiddo (Lessons Learned)

In one of our prior posts, we shared our strategy for eating out so much with a toddler. That strategy worked pretty well for *most* of the trip. However, at the halfway point, in PEI, he had started getting sick of it. There were one or two difficult meals where he was pretty antsy and grumpy. So, in PEI we made the choice to order in to our hotel a couple of times. This meant that Kiddo could run around the room and play with his books and toys while we ate.

Swimming with a toddler is a much more difficult proposition that we were anticipating. He doesn’t really understand the concept of “just putting your toes in.” If you’re swimming in the ocean with a toddler, ideally, you do not have to get there in the car and you have multiple people to help with the showering/cleaning up afterwards. The idea of putting a wet toddler in a car seat you need to use again soon with sand caking the inside of his diaper is very unappealing.

Kiddo was at a stage where he really wanted to do a lot of walking himself. However, that makes the hikes go very very slowly. We struggled to keep him moving forward and not stopping to check out every single rock and leaf. That was until we figured out that he was super excited about trying to run with help. He couldn’t really run by himself yet, but we we both held his hands and said “run run run” he would move forward at the quickest pace he could!

We have never visited so many playgrounds than we did on this trip. There were often times when Kiddo just needed a chance to run around and enjoy himself. We downloaded a playground app called Playground Buddy which seems to be a crowdsourced app to give information about playgrounds near you. It worked OK, but it needs more people! Join and give info about your playgrounds. (If you happen to know another app that you use for this purpose, please share!) We also just ended up googling to find the nearest places. Kiddo was much happier even if we just took a break to play for 15-20 min. We even found one near our hotel in Summerside so he could play before our long drive to Halifax.