A New Year’s Adventure in Scotland: Exploring Edinburgh, Inverness, and Beyond
Four days took us from Edinburgh’s busy streets to Loch Ness, with castles, waterfalls and a drive north that felt much longer than expected.
Itinerary
One of the most useful things you can have at the start of a van trip is a rough itinerary – not a rigid schedule, but a sense of where you might go, what order makes sense, how long each area deserves and where the best overnight stops along the route are likely to be. Thinking through the structure in advance saves time and reduces the decision fatigue that can make longer trips feel stressful.
The itineraries on this site are based on real van trips – roads actually driven, stops actually stayed at, routes that have been tested for logistics, timing and practical viability. They are offered as starting points rather than fixed plans: van travel works best when there is flexibility to respond to weather, unexpected discoveries and the simple desire to stay somewhere longer than you planned.
Most itineraries on the site include a mix of overnight stop types – a combination of free stops, certificated locations and occasional campsites – and are designed to be achievable without exceptional planning or specialist equipment. They reflect the kind of van travel that works for most people, most of the time.
If you are planning a first UK van trip or looking for a fresh route idea, the itinerary posts here give you a solid, honest starting point.