The good news: Mr. Piffka says we CAN go to the UK this September.
The bad news: He can only be gone for one week plus two weekends.
My job is to plan a fabulous, fun-packed vacation. My first thought is to fly straight to Edinburgh for the first weekend, enjoy a week in the Highlands, fly back to London for the ending weekend. Dates will likely be September 18-29th. We spent two weeks in Scotland in 2001, so maybe I should be looking somewhere else... but where? I am wondering if I should be looking at Ayrshire, Fife or The North instead of the Highlands. Obviously we can't do them all. Maybe we should go to Ireland or the Lake District or someplace I haven't even considered.
We happily use trains but will likely rent a car for touring.
Because of the time constraints, I don't want to spend a lot of time traveling about. I'd love to stay in some wonderful spot and enjoy a bit of day-tripping. We are casual folk who like to walk, visit historical museums, gardens, and national trust sites, the older the better. We're not interested in shopping, clubbing or fancy restaurants. We do like pubs & single malt.
Help! I need to make some decisions about what to do, where to stay. Do you have any grand ideas? Please tell me!