Today’s Friday Travel Photo takes you to one of the most stunning cities in Europe: Edinburgh, Scotland.
A city filled with cozy pubs, great museums, an excellent nightlife scene, and some spectacular architecture. Edinburgh is a city you can visit for a week, and somehow find yourself there months later.
View from Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh Scotland
This photo was taken from the Edinburgh Castle. Wherever you are in Edinburgh, you stand a pretty good chance of catching a view of this imposing fortress perched on top of the volcanic Castle Rock. The castle in some form or another has dominated the Edinburgh skyline since the 12th century.
The Castle is arguably more impressive from the outside than from in. Consider saving yourself the £15 it costs to tour the castle, and instead simply take in the structure from spots around Edinburgh.
If you’re backpacking through Edinburgh on a budget, consider reading these posts as well:
Three Edinburgh Pubs You Can’t Miss – You can’t come to Edinburgh and not sample some of Scotland’s national drink. Check out these three pubs during your trip to Edinburgh.
Are you interested in having your photo featured here? Email the photo and details to matt [at] backpackingmatt [dot] com
A trip to Scotland’s West Coast should include a visit to the beautiful Isle of Mull – a peaceful island home to the Tobermory Distillery. Tobermory itself is a quaint little village situated on a fishing harbor that is lined with brightly colored buildings. It’s a terrific village where you could very easily waste away a week or more.
Tobermory, Isle of Mull
While you’re visiting the Isle of Mull, one thing you have to fit into your budget is a day trip to the Isle of Staffa. The Isle of Staffa is a small rocky island off the west coast of Mull that is home to a fascinating and comical seabird – the Puffin. These small little birds are often called sea parrots because of their vivid colors. To get to the Isle of Staffa, you’ll have to take a ferry and guided tour from the Ulva Ferry Terminal which is a scenic one our drive from Tobermory. Along the way, you’ll pass famed highland cattle and many single track roads.
Puffins
There are thousands of puffins found throughout Britain yet they are often very difficult to spot. Puffins spend much of their time off shore and only come ashore to breed in early April. From April until late July is the best time to spot the puffins while they’re feeding and taking care of their young. Puffins are not known for being the most graceful fliers. With the help of their short wings and fat bodies, they really seem to struggle when flying around. I’m no bird-watcher, yet I found it absolutely fascinating to watch the little birds flap around the island. You would never expect the wee things to be able to migrate thousands of miles each year.
Isle of Staffa – Puffins
After we arrived at Staffa and were ferried to shore on a small dingy, we clammored up to the cliff tops where the baby puffins nested. They choose to nest at the tops of steep cliffs of inaccessible islands – it’s because of this that puffins are often times so difficult to view. The Puffin will lay a lone egg and hatch one chick each year in a burrow dug into the ground and return to the same hole year after year. We were asked to not get to close to these burrows to respect the young, yet you could hear their high pitch squeaking as they were waiting for their mother to bring them their food.
Puffins: Close Up
They are fed a diet of sand eels by their parents for about six weeks. After this time, they are abandoned by their parents. Sooner or later, nature results in the baby puffins leaving their burrow out of desperate hunger in the cover or darkness where they will attempt at flying to find their own food. Needless to say, they don’t have ample time to learn how to fly or survive on their own.
Puffin on Isle of Staffa
What I found most shocking about the puffins was their tameness. They would fly to within three or four feet of where we were viewing their behavior. It was strangely therapeutic to sit in the warm sun (rare for Scotland!), feeling the breeze of the sea, and watching the fascinating and colorful little animals. The tour was operated by Turus Mara and they provided an excellent experience overall. Our captain provided heaps of information about the area’s history, puffins in general, and did a terrific job to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome. While we didn’t see any other marine wildlife, there were chances of seeing Bottlenose dolphins, whales, and seals. A tour to the Isle of Staffa lasts four hours and will cost you £25.
Today’s Friday Travel Photo takes you Loch Ness in Scotland’s Highlands. Loch Ness is 23 miles long and 755 feet deep at its deepest point – so deep, that all the water in England and Wales would still not be enough to fill it.
Loch Ness
If you’re visiting Edinburgh, consider getting out of the city on a day tour to Loch Ness.
If you’d like your travel photo featured on Backpackingmatt, send it to me at matt [at] backpackingmatt [dot] com
Today’s Friday Travel Photo takes you to Edinburgh, Scotland.
Edinburgh is a fantastic city filled with cozy pubs, excellent gardens, and some great nightlife. If you’re visiting Edinburgh, don’t miss out on these three pubs – they’re excellent places to grab a pint or a plate of Scotland’s national dish: haggis.
Today’s guest post was submitted by Nicole Graham. Nicole has a passion for Scotland that is probably unsurpassed by few.
Nicole has also written a great post about her hometown and favorite city in the world, Edinburgh – read about her perspective of Scotland’s capital here.
Many people often come to Scotland for a city break, whether it’s Glasgow, Inverness, Edinburgh, or Aberdeen. Some seem to forget about the rest of Scotland, and to me the most beautiful parts of this country are found by escaping the cities and heading out to the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Steeped in history dating back more than a thousand years, Scotland’s past is filled with stories of freedom fighters, clans and their lands, Kings, Queens, and bloody battles against the English.
Highlands
If you are planning a trip to Edinburgh and you’re short on time, think about taking a day trip out of the city and up into the most stunning scenery this country has to offer.
Haggis Adventure Tours offer one day round trip tours to Loch Ness, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The tour, the Loch Ness Hunter, heads north out of Edinburgh towards Stirling Castle, the Trossachs National Park, Rannoch Moor and the infamous Glencoe. It continues north through Fort William, home of Scotland’s highest peak Ben Nevis. You then follow the Great Glen and stop for lunch in the highland village of Fort Augustus on the banks of bonny Loch Ness. Here you have the option to take a boat trip out onto the Loch to perhaps do some monster spotting.
Loch Ness is definitely a must see sight in Scotland. Its mysterious, murky black water stretches over 24 miles up the Great Glen fault line and is 924m deep. All the water from England and Wales is still not enough to fill this monster of a Loch. Loch Ness is of course not just famous for its size and depth, it’s what’s lurking beneath that makes it probably one of the most famous bodies of water in the world – Nessie.
Loch Ness
After a couple of hours its back on the road again this time heading South down through ‘Monarch of the Glen’ country, Perthshire and a quick visit to the historic town of Dunkeld before heading back towards Edinburgh over the famous Forth Road Bridge.
This tour gives visitors a chance to see some of the most beautiful scenery Scotland has to offer in a day. It’s great for backpackers with a time schedule and a budget. Haggis Adventure Tours ensure that you learn something too – their informative guides will tell you stories of legends past and present, of Kings and Queens, and of bloody battles. They have an incredible passion for Scotland, its history, and its landscape, and they’ll leave you wanting to know and see more of this truly fascinating country.
If you are thinking of taking a day trip with Haggis Adventure Tours, here is some info to get you started:
Price: The one day tour will cost you GBP32 and includes a free packed lunch. Not bad considering it’s a full day.
Times: Tours run daily. They depart Edinburgh’s Royal Mile at 8am and return at 8pm.
If you have any additional questions about the tour, send them to matt@backpackingmatt.com and I’ll send it on to Nicole.
If you’re thinking of taxing a tour with Haggis Adventures (or their parent company, Radical Travel), do me a favor and book your trip with this link. I’ll earn a small but appreciated commission on your purchase. Cheers!
Kia Ora - I'm Matt. Adventurer, Instagrammer and New Zealand travel planning expert living in Queenstown, NZ. Founder of Planit NZ - New Zealand's largest travel planning & booking website.
Hello! I’m Matt. Thanks for checking out my blog. Be sure to follow me on Instagram for loads more New Zealand travel inspiration. Comment on one of my photos so I know you came from here!
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