“Loch where?” Was the reaction we received when we told other travellers where we were headed next. We didn’t really know where it was either, except that it was within the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. The National park is really big so we chose Lochgoilhead because it looked scenic and had a highly rated hotel called the Goil Inn for a very reasonable price. It is still located within the Argyll and Bute region which meant another lovely drive there. We passed Loch Lomond on the way and unfortunately got stuck in traffic for almost two hours due to a motorcycle accident. (We have approached three really bad traffic accidents during our time driving which is a reminder to stay focussed and drive to the conditions).

Loch Lomond

We arrived in the afternoon and were delighted with our choice to stay here. Lochgoilhead is a beautiful little village with many nice walks. We took a trail up to some waterfalls and even spotted a highland cow grazing. That evening we settled in to the Goil Inn with several ciders, slow cooked beef pies and some live music. Matt was also stoked that we had a full Scottish breakfast included as well as cookies, hot chocolates and sparkling waters in our room. No haggis but the black pudding was muy rico ✖️.

Loch Goil

The next stop was again within Argyll and Bute and also inside the National Park. We stayed in a small village called Blairmore. Here, we did a walk up Strone Hill on an absolute blue bird day. We stayed here for two nights in a lovely country house going for walks along the water and having a red wine at the pier. We also had another flash packer moment and went out for dinner at an incredible Italian restaurant where we both had seafood pastas.

Blairmore

After two nights we began the drive to Glasgow with a stop to complete The Cobbler hike. This is a medium grade walk up to the rocks you can see in the distance in the first couple of photos. We managed to do it in four hours return with a comfortable lunch break at the top. The weather changes so quickly around here so we were glad to be making our way down as the clouds rolled in.

We arrived in Glasgow in the evening and stayed at an airbnb so enjoyed a delicious microwave tikka masala for dinner. Note on this: aside from the environmental plastic waste and possible leaching chemicals, the microwave curries here are so delicious. They taste as good as an average restaurant one and most don’t have any weird ingredients or preservatives, just normal food and spices. They are great after a cold and damp day of hiking!

We spent the following day enjoying Glasgow city. It has a much more industrial vibe than Edinburgh and has some fantastic cafes and cool street art murals. We did the street art walk using the app which took us to lots of huge and well painted murals. In the afternoon we visited the Tall Ship which is a part of the maritime museum which was interesting as we could walk around inside the boat as well as on the deck. It was a really massive vessel which had sailed to many places we have been, including Chile!

After that it was time to taste some whiskey. It was our second to last day in Scotland and we still hadn’t tried any mainly due to Matt driving, so with the car dropped off we visited a distillery down by the Clyde river. We purchased eight different drams that we shared and got some great info about each one from the staff. We both had the same favourite, a 16 year old single malt, very smokey but also sweet. A shame that it was $150NZD a bottle. After four whiskeys each we were ready to kick on so visited a cool craft brewery five minutes from home. An oven pizza went down well after we arrived home at the very late hour of 7pm haha.

The following day we packed up, went out for a coffee and headed to the airport where we flew to Belfast, Northern Ireland. We really loved Scotland and it exceeded our expectations in regards to everything we wanted to see and do. The Highlands were particularly spectacular, the castles incredible and the cities vibrant. We also really noticed the friendly Scottish hospitality which was not too dissimilar to home. It is currently in my top four favourite places we have been alongside Argentina, Vietnam and Mexico. We are currently four days into our two week Irish road trip. I will be posting whenever we get strong and stable internet.