Deciding where to go on your Scotland adventure is a big deal! There’s so much to see and it can be difficult to know where to start. Even breaking down the country into different areas to see what there is to do in each place isn’t as simple as you might think. There are a lot of different ways to do it!
These are some of the major cities and regions if you have no idea where to start, but you can also browse posts about the countryside or towns & cities.
Edinburgh: Scotland’s capital city with the UNESCO World Heritage Old Town & New Town areas.
Glasgow: The biggest city in Scotland, known for its arts and music scene.
Inverness: Capital of the Highlands and ideal as a base for exploring the region.
Aberdeen: Known as the “Granite City” thanks to its glittering grey stone buildings. Located on the east coast and ideal for exploring the rest of Aberdeenshire, including the Cairngorm National Park.
The Highlands: Traditionally encompassing the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, including many mountain ranges and the islands off the west of Scotland.
The Lowlands: Referring to the parts of Scotland that are not part of the Highlands. However, this is usually further divided into two areas, the Central Belt, where most people in Scotland live. This encompasses Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire, Falkirk, Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife. Below that is the Southern Uplands, mostly made up of the Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway.
Western Isles: Islands stretching the length of the west coast, which are sometimes divided into the Inner and Outer Hebrides.
Orkney & Shetland: Two island groups off the north of mainland Scotland
To really help with your planning, we wanted to break things down into smaller areas, since we know how many amazing things there are to do across Scotland. You can click on the names below to take you to information about each, including what you can expect there and the best things to do.
Here are the regions in alphabetical order.
