Scotland Trip - Aug/Sep 2026 - Day 3

Today, we canceled our planned morning visit to Dean Village and Water of Leith Parkway because we had to go to the pharmacy. I made an appointment for 9am at a pharmacy that was a 15-20 min drive and left the hotel at 8:30am by Uber. I met the pharmacist and explained the situation and they were very understanding. She asked us to come back in about 10-15 min while they filled the prescription. We found a cafe that offered non-dairy milk options and walked a couple of blocks down the road to grab some coffee. They also had vegan croissants and a vegan cinnamon bun that day, so we ordered those as well.

We returned to the pharmacy, picked up the prescription and returned to the hotel by tram (cheaper than Uber). We were supposed to pick up our rental car at 10:30am, so we didn't have much time. We quickly packed up all our stuff and checked out of the room. We dragged our suitcases to the Hertz car rental place which was a 12-15 min walk but it was mostly on a road on a down incline, so it wasn't too bad.

The process to rent the car took some time as we had to pick between two cars and complete the paperwork for it. We ended up with a pretty new BYD hatchback. I took some time to mentally prepare myself to drive on the left side of the road, adjusted the mirrors and seat position, got Google Maps set up and set off. Thankfully, there wasn't too much traffic because it was a weekend, so I didn't find it too difficult.

First stop was a small village called Cramond which was about 5 miles from Edinburgh. After getting a bit lost because I selected directions to some random car park (part of some surgical practice!), we made our way to a promenade that runs along the Firth of Forth. When the tide is low (which it was when we visited), the sand is exposed and people just walk there on the sand/beach. Dogs have plenty of fun because they're let off the leash and they go absolutely crazy running around and splashing in the few pools of water!

The weather was very pleasant, so we walked for about 30-40 min and then walked back to the car to get back on the road for our next stop: Stirling Castle. Stirling Castle was about 45-50 min away and we had to get on the freeway for this. I started becoming more comfortable driving by now and we made good time. We spent about 2-3 hours in Stirling Castle which was mostly ruled by Scottish rulers as opposed to Edinburgh Castle which traded hands among English and Scottish rulers over the centuries. We didn't do a guided tour here and instead relied on some headsets that we rented. Just like Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle is on top of a hill that gives it a vantage point and natural protection from potential invaders. The height also gives us nice views of the countryside. The castle is also a bit unique in terms of having sculpted statues around the exterior walls.

After finishing up with Stirling Castle, we went to Cafe Aina (Greek restaurant with many plant-based options). We had a vegan souvlaki with potato wedges and a very unique dessert which is traditionally non-vegan but the owner's mother had created a plant-based version of it. After lunch, we walked around the Stirling town's center on cobblestone streets for about 10 min and the made our way back to our car.

We got back in the car and headed to Fort William, our base for the next day and a half. The landscape and scenery changes dramatically as we enter the Highlands area with huge hills and deep valleys and windy, up-and-down roads. We made some stops on the way to just take in the views. We reached our hotel in Fort William at 7:40pm and checked in. We skipped dinner because our lunch in Cafe Aina was quite late (around 4:30pm) and heavy.

Scotland Trip - Aug/Sep 2026 - Day 2

Our plan for today included a visit to Edinburgh Castle and St Giles Cathedral followed by some general walking around in the Old Town area. Weather was forecast to be pretty rainy through the day, so we had to be well-equipped with rain gear.

For breakfast, we went to a new place called Lovecrumbs. We were originally thinking of going to a different place but we realized at the last moment that they were closed that day. We had passed by this Lovecrumbs earlier but we had assumed that there was nothing vegan on their menu. We were so wrong! They had quite a lot of options and we chose to have slices of bread with vegan butter and jam plus....a cinnamon roll! I have a thing for cinnamon rolls and I plan to have one every day in Scotland till I get sick of it! The bread was also so fresh and chewy on the outside but so soft/fluffy in the middle.

Energized, we walked to Edinburgh Castle and reached there at around 11:20am. There was a moderately long line but by the time we reached the ticket checking point, we were told that we were too early and that we should come back around noon. So, we turned back and went to some gift shop to buy some souvenirs. Then, we walked around that area for about 15-20 min, watched some bagpipers make some really sweet music and then made our way back to the line. This time, we reached the front of the queue at exactly noon, so the girl let us through. By this time, it was raining on and off, as predicted.

We made our way to the start point of our 30-min long guided tour. After that, we were free to roam around the castle grounds on our own, exploring different areas in depth, based on our interests. Our guide was Sam and he gave us headsets through which we could hear him as he walked around, explaining the history of the castle, the stories behind it and the various places of interest in the castle grounds.

After the guided tour, we stuck around the castle area for another couple of hours and explored different parts. We rented another pair of multimedia headsets that would explain each part of the castle in detail. But, we hardly ended up using it. It's difficult to keep track of all the names of the kings and queens and princes and the people around them, especially if the names are all repeated with a roman numeral attached to the end (James 1 thru' James VI, for example)! Again, by this time our feet/hips/ankles were all hurting but we decided to continue anyway after taking some rest.

We went to St Giles Cathedral which was a short 5-min walk from the castle. We went inside and admired the architecture and the sheer size of the inside. There was a choir group led by a young conductor and they were playing contemporary songs instead of church choirs! We heard them play Star Wars and the James Bond movie theme song and a few more. Then, we headed out and started walking along the Royal Mile and exploring small side streets (called Closes) that branched off of it. The entrance to these closes would be via an arch between two buildings. Some of the closes would wind down steeply to another street and you would get some really nice views of the city through the arch.

Eventually, we took a turn at a major intersection on to another street and then took a small lane (more like a series of steps) to some other random street. At this time, we were just wandering around without a specific aim but just trying to explore the Old Town. We walked into some random museum and saw the paintings and artwork on one of their floors before heading back out. By this time, we were beginning to feel hungry and I'd already set my sights on a plant-based Mexican restaurant called Antojitos. It was a 20 min walk but we still worked up the determination to walk there. The weather was looking extremely threatening with dark clouds hanging low overhead.

We reached the place where Google Maps said that Antojitos was but all we saw was a restaurant with a different name, so we thought Google Maps got it wrong. At this time, the rain started coming down in sheets. I checked Google Maps once more and got the impression that Antojitos was across the road in an outdoor food court type of area. We crossed the road in the rain and quickly looked around but we couldn't see the restaurant. We sought some shelter near a pub and asked the guy working there if he knew where Antojitos was. He asked to look at my Google Maps and then pointed back across the road to a different place. So, we put on our raincoats and made our way back across the road but we still couldn't find the restaurant in the place where he had pointed us. It was raining so hard that I couldn't even read what Google Maps was showing, so we decided to look for some shelter and take a closer look. Then, it struck me that Antojitos was possibly inside some other restaurant. I'm not sure what the deal was between those two restaurants (maybe Antojitos recently moved in there and had not yet removed the old signboard?). Anyway, sure enough, when we went back to the place that Google Maps had indicated in the first place, we realized that there's a small signboard that said 'Antojitos". So, we went inside but there was absolutely no empty table. Also, because it was raining so heavily, nobody was in a hurry to finish eating and go back out in the rain, so it was unlikely that we would get a table any time soon.

Then, Sahana made the bold move to ask a couple seated at a 4-seater table if they would be OK with sharing their table with us. They were nice enough to accommodate us, so we took our seats. The waitress was a bit confused about how billing would work and also wasn't sure if the other couple was OK with us sitting at their table. After she was reassured by them, she took our orders. We ordered a plate with three tacos with some toppings and also tostada with refried beans and some accompaniments. Everything was SO good!

By the time we finished dinner, the rain had eased up, so we headed out and started walking towards an ice cream place that was rated highly on Happy Cow for vegan options. There was a long line even in that weather but it moved quite quickly. However, after entering the place, we realized that both the non-dairy flavors were actually sorbets. Anyway, we got cups with one scoop of each flavor (black currant and lime-prickly pear-ginger) and walked back to the hotel for some well-earned rest.

That's when I realized that I'd forgotten to pack one of my important prescription meds from the US. We decided to cancel our plans to do some sightseeing early the next morning and instead go to a pharmacy to get an emergency 1-week supply. I think we need to work on making our checklist more detailed for future trips!

Scotland Trip - Aug/Sep 2026 - Day 1

 About an hour before landing, they served some tea/coffee/soft drinks and offered some banana bread that was non-vegan. I took the tea but Sahana slept through it. The pilot had made good time, so we touched down in Edinburgh about 20-25 min ahead of time (butter-smooth landing!).

Immigration was very smooth with no interaction with humans but we had to wait a very, very long time for our luggage to arrive. We headed out and looked for the tram station. There are multiple options to get to the downtown area (about 35-45 min away) like bus, tram, train and cab.

We bought tickets for the tram and got on to one that was ready to leave. Thankfully, we got a couple of empty seats, so we could sit down. We realized later that the tram gets very crowded, so it wouldn't have been easy for us to stand for such a long time in our sleep-deprived state.

We got off at the Haymarket station and tried to orient ourselves so we could walk to our hotel which was supposed to be only about a 10 min walk. As usual, Google Maps and Apple Maps were confused about which direction we were pointing, so we initially headed down the wrong way and then had to trace our way back, all this while lugging 3 suitcases. It took us almost 30 min to reach our hotel because, as we realized later, I missed a turn somewhere, so we took a really long route to our hotel. We were already very tired when we reached the hotel on top of being sleep-deprived.

Thankfully, the hotel staff told us that they had a room available for early check-in, so we got our keys and headed up to our room to freshen up before heading out. The room turned out to be a typical, European-style matchbox of a room with barely enough room to keep three closed suitcases. But, Sahana found a way to organize them so we could at least open one of them at a time when needed. We had a shower in a super-tiny bathroom and then headed out for some breakfast and later, Hollyrood Palace & Arthur's Seat.

We found a place called Braw Brunch where they had vegan cinnamon rolls and coffee with non-dairy options. Unfortunately, they had only one vegan roll remaining, so we ordered that and two coffees. The staff was super friendly and pleasant to talk to.

It was a long-ish walk to Hollyrood Palace and we had to walk through the Royal Mile to get there. The Royal Mile is this super busy stretch of walkable road where there's buskers, street entertainers and a huge throng of tourists just walking around. It's got a very festive atmosphere. Later, we found out that it's the last few days of a festival called The Fringe. The Fringe along with the Edinburgh International Festival is the third highest globally ticketed event in the world after the Olympics and the World Cup!

We slowly made our way through the crowds and the streets of Edinburgh Old Town till we reached the Hollyrood Palace around 1pm. We showed our tickets and picked up the multimedia sets for the self-guided tour. This took the better part of 90 min but it was very interesting to see how the Scottish/British royals lived way back in the 16th & 17th centuries. It's still used today by the British royals as a summer residence. After visiting the palace, we went to see the Abbey (or what remains of it) and then walked through the garden.

We exited Hollyrood Palace and made our way towards the path that leads to Arthur's Seat. From where we were, Arthur's Seat looked impossibly high and I was ready to quit right there but I saw so many people walking up that I decided that we should try going as far as we could. It starts off as a paved path but quickly turns into a rough path of gravel/stones/pebbles and mud. People walk wherever it's convenient and sometimes, you have to figure out which way suits you best. Sometimes, you may want to take the gradual incline with stones/gravel/mud but just next to it, there will be some steep/high steps.  The other major challenge is just the degree of incline. It's equivalent to a 10:1 on the treadmill but at the same time, it's also relentless. There's hardly a point at which the ground levels off.

Anyway, we kept taking breaks to catch our breath, for drinking water and once, for half a protein bar each. There's a mini-summit at which there's a broad flat area where people take some rest and admire the view. Some people give up at that point and head back because the short stretch from here to the peak becomes more treacherous. The pebbles turn into big, loose rocks and there's no discernible path or trail anymore. Each person has to just identify footholds that look secure enough and make their way to the top. And, because these rocks are loosely strewn about, the footing is less secure when you're going down. This worried both Sahana and me a lot.

At this point, we kept thinking we should stop and head back and then we would change our mind and take a few steps up. We kept doing that till we finally reached the top. There were two "peaks" where there were a couple of pyramidal blocks placed to signify the peak(s). We chose one of them that seemed to be slightly higher than the other and found a place to sit and take rest and the obligatory pics! Also, we wanted to stop our brains from worrying about going back down through those rocks!

On the way back down, because there was no clear trail among the rocks, we ended up not joining the trail that we originally climbed up on. Instead, we appeared to be on some semi-trail that was about 10ft below the actual trail and there was no clear way to get back to the actual trail. Then, we noticed that, from our trail, we could actually find our way down to some wide flat meadow that slowly descended back in parallel to the trail and it looked a lot simpler/safer than the pebble/gravel-strewn one that we had climbed up on. There were a few people on that meadow also walking down, so we thought we would just follow them. This made our lives a lot easier.

About halfway down the slope, we met a local who was walking his dog. He seemed very friendly and advised us to turn and continue on a different path down the slope to a paved trail that ran around the base of the mountain. That would take us back to the parking lot where we started. We would end up walking for about 15 min longer but the views would be much better and the path would not be as perilous as the original one. So, we thanked him and took the path he recommended. Big mistake, as it turned out. We don't know if he was underestimating the distance or if we didn't follow his advice properly, but the paved path ended up being an extremely long, winding way to get back to our starting point. Think of it as doing 330 deg around a circle instead of doing the other 30 deg. By the time we hit the paved path itself, Sahana was limping because her hip was hurting and my feet were killing me and my ankle had begun to hurt (again!). And, the paved path refused to end. We kept walking and passing people and we would keep asking them if the path led to the parking lot and they would say yes, but that it would be quite a long distance. We kept trying to keep each other's spirits up but at a certain point (we were quite close to the parking lot by then, I think), we just gave up. We decided to call an Uber and go back to the hotel room.

Our earlier plan had been to walk to a place called Soul Vegan for dinner. But, now that we were heading back to the hotel, we had to come up with an alternate plan. We decided to try ordering from Soul Vegan using Doordash. Doordash has partnered with a local company called Deliveroo, so we ordered some food (Singapore Fried Noodles with tofu, spring rolls, fries) through them and had it delivered to our room. Food was very tasty.

Our overall opinion, so far, of Scottish locals is that they're super friendly and nice to talk to. They're always willing to help strangers and visitors out. As we found out later from an Indian cab driver, their economy thrives mainly on tourism and foreign students, so it benefits them to be very nice to tourists! But, I still think that they're just super nice people, in general.