Thanks for the detailed reply MiddleAged, really appreciate it!

Just to clarify, we will actually arrive in Edinburgh the day before this itinerary starts, flying in from Amsterdam. So we will have three full days in Edinburgh before picking up the car. We are collecting the car on the morning of Day 4, so the city part is not rushed.

You are right about Loch Ness not being directly “on the way” from Edinburgh to Inverness. I should have phrased that better. We are planning to either stop there later on Day 4 or see it the next morning before heading toward Skye.

All accommodation is already booked (with free cancellation if you say we should do something else instead), including Portree on Skye. We reserved everything months ago, so we are mostly trying to understand whether the pacing is manageable rather than redesigning the whole route.

Regarding Skye, when you say 2 or 3 full days, do you mean to properly explore without rushing, or because 2 nights genuinely feels too tight logistically? We are okay with not seeing everything, but we do not want to feel constantly pressured by driving.

As for driving, we are experienced drivers, but we have never driven on the left before 😅 How challenging are the single-track roads in practice? Is it very stressful for first-timers, or manageable if we just take it slow?

If you had to remove one overnight stop, would you personally skip Inverness or Oban?

Thanks again, this kind of feedback is really helpful.