The highlight of our trip was probably our journey through the Scottish Highlands. We (accidentally!) spent two nights in the Loch Lomond area and then drove through the Glencoe and Fort William areas up to the Isle of Skye, where we spent a night. This is our route. All these photos were taken within sight of the road.

There were many, many opportunities to stop along the A82 and A87 between Glencoe and Isle of Skye! Here my brother Benji is taking a shot.

Some of our fellow travelers on the Glencoe Road

When we arrived in the Loch Lomond area, when I went to check-in at our hotel, I found to my horror that our reservation was for the following night! In my trip planning, I had carefully booked hotels for each night, except that particular night! So on the bright side, we had one extra day in Scotland. On the dark side, we had no hotel for the night! (And the backdrop was that I had previously spent 8-12 hours trying to find any accommodation in Isle of Skye and failing miserably because it was peak season and EVERYTHING was sold out. I had finally found some rooms at a seedy establishment on the very edge of Isle of Skye, which I was able to book for one night.) So I pulled out my laptop and hopped on the wifi in the lobby and frantically began looking for hotels in the area. I finally found a place one town over. It turned out to be one of the most incredible stays of our whole trip! Achray House was a huge old mansion that had been converted to a hotel. They had a wonderful living room filled with classy red leather furniture with a crackling fire. (I cannot BELIEVE I didn't get any photos of it!) The South African owner was a FANTASTIC host.

One of the many gorgeous scenes along the A82/A87

The Old Sligachan Bridge on Isle of Skye

This post is part of a series of posts about my family's British Isles trip in July/August of 2016. My parents and four siblings joined me as we went from London to Dublin and everywhere in between in 2.5 weeks. Here's our itinerary:

London (England)
Stonehenge (England)
Oxford (England)
Bibury, Cotswolds (England)
Wales
Peak District (England)
Chatsworth House (Peak District, England)
Yorkshire and Staithes (England)
Foggy Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
Bright Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
Kilts & Bagpipes (Scotland)
Edinburgh (Scotland)
Northern Ireland
Waterford/Dunmore East (Ireland)
Western Ireland and the Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)
Dublin (Ireland)