Summer 2026 Graduation Celebration: Edinburgh, London, Disneyland Paris, Paris - Day 3 West Highland Lochs and Castles

We had to wake up extra early for our day trip to the highlands. We had booked a tour with Rabbie’s to the west highlands to see some lochs and castles. We got up, ate breakfast and took a bus to the central bus station to meet the tour. 

We drove for about two hours and our first stop was Loch Lomond (and of course I had the song going through my head all morning). We spent a little time there at the loch and in the tiny town next to it, Luss. We got some coffees from a little cafe and I picked up some shortbread to eat later. 

From there we stopped by a viewpoint called “Rest and Be Thankful” to take in the beautiful view and snap some photos then continued on to Inveraray where we had about an hour and half for lunch and shopping. There was the option to go over to Invararay Castle, but we didn’t feel like it was enough time so we just walked around the town and did a little shopping after lunch. 

We left there and set out again making a stop at Kilchurn Castle, which we admired from the outside (it’s in disrepair so it’s not open to visitors to go inside). It’s situated next to a beautiful loch, Loch Awe. 

Back in the van, we made our way through Trossachs National Park to Loch Lubnaig before finally coming to Doune Castle, built over 600 years ago. This castle has also been in a number of films and TV shows including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Outlander, and Game of Thrones (it was Winterfell). We were able to go in to the castle and admission came with an audio tour that we all enjoyed (narrated by Terry Jones).

After leaving there we took a slightly different route back to the city which included, yes, more lochs. It was a lot of water and castles. We also were able to see the three famous bridges of Edinburgh and The Kelpies huge horse sculptures. 

When we arrived back to the station we met up with a friend of Roger’s from elementary school that lives outside of the city. I had accidentally booked our reservation for the wrong night (I can’t ever figure out what day of the week it is when on vacation) but we got it sorted and had a really good meal of Thai food. 

After that we got some Ben and Jerry’s because it was close and easy and sounded good then we took a bus back to our hotel.