Hello Luke,

You’re welcome!
Yes, it looks like a good deal on the rental car.

Yes, there’s a special kind of mosquito in Scotland called “midges”. There are a lot of them in some places (especially in the Highlands) and their bites are very itchy (some people can be allergic too).

The Scots advise buying a repellent called “Smidge”. You can find it everywhere in Scotland.
And some people also opt for a net to wear over their head and protect the rest of their body with long, light-coloured clothes.

There is even a website where you can see where they are most common. Here is the link: Midge Forecast.

Have a nice day,

Thanks for that. For some reason I didn’t get an email notification of your reply. I got the same thing from rental cars.com but I managed to find cars for £550 from some remote locations of Arnold Clark near Glasgow. Of course getting to them will be a bit more of a challenge than booking it from the airport, but being 1/3rd the price is worth it.

I read that there are ticks and biting insects in the Highlands – is that a big concern? Should we wear insect repellent?

Regards,
Luke

Hello Luke,

First of all, congratulations!

For your itinerary in Scotland, if you want to be careful with the prices since you already paid quite expensive plane tickets, you should compare the costs between the car rental and the tour with guide/driver you are interested in.
I have just looked and on Booking.com Cars., and for the 2nd of July to the 16th, the cheapest car for rent is already at 1400€…
And I can assure you that it will only go up, as most cars are probably already booked.

Of course, you also have to add the price of accommodation before comparing to the organized tour, and it probably won’t be cheap either.

About Edinburgh, there are many places to visit, so I think you can spend 4 or 5 days there on your own and not get bored.
You can read this article for more info about the city: The 20 best things to do in Edinburgh.

For the rest of your stay, you can then maybe opt for a tour to visit the Highlands and the Isle of Skye over 8 days (or do it by yourself, if it ends up being a lot cheaper)

In any case, enjoy your trip to Scotland!

We’d like a bit of advice. We’re planning our honeymoon in Scotland. So far we’ve booked flights into and out of Edinburgh from 2-16 July. We’re quite interested in the Highlands but are trying to decide between a guided multi-day tour or renting a car and doing it alone. What do you think?

I like the idea of a tour where I just relax instead of having to drive, but many tours only cover 5-8 days leaving us with about a week to kill in Edinburgh. And we’re trying to keep costs reasonably low since already the Ryanair flights from our home country Malta cost €1350 for the two of us (and are currently available for €1050 on the same dates – goes to show that early booking might work against you these days!)