If you are planning a trip to Scotland, I’m sure it has crossed your mind to ask “how much does it cost to travel Scotland?” Because hey, we don’t all have an unlimited travel budget!
Below, I will outline the cost to visit Scotland in the Summer AND Winter, to give you an idea of both.
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Well, of course, the cost of your trip is going to depend on lots of factors, so I cannot predict exactly how much you may spend. BUT, I can share my personal experience and give you context to help you estimate just how much you might spend while visiting Scotland.
And, I can give you an idea of the categories and types of things you will undoubtedly spend money on in Scotland so you can create your own travel budget.
If you are still in the planning stage and want to know our itinerary, I’ve shared it in a long and detailed blog post about our one week Scotland road trip.
The Itinerary
It’s important to know the itinerary we followed to give you context for how much it costs to travel Scotland. I’ll give you a quick rundown of our itinerary, however you should read our entire one week road trip itinerary to get more details!
Edinburgh – 1 day
Inverness -1 day
Isle of Skye – 3 days
Glencoe – 1 day
Glasgow – 1 day
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Now, some of these days were more of travel days, or we saw most of the sights that day as we drove to our next location. I feel that may be the best way to fit everything worth seeing in Scotland into a week schedule!
I recommend that you fly into Edinburgh to start as it has the largest airport and is typically the least expensive to fly in to. However, I have seen deals pop up to fly into Inverness in the north. This would also be a great place to start!
The Best Time To Visit Scotland
Your budget might impact when you choose to visit Scotland, as prices can vary a lot based on time of year. The main tourist season in Scotland is June, July, August, where you’ll find higher prices. The off-season, the winter months, will see lower prices. However, there are a few considerations for both.
In the Summer, you’ll find longer days, more activities like Highland games, and more options open for accommodations and dining. The trade off is higher prices and crowds.
Winter in Scotland comes with shorter days, colder weather, and sometimes closed shops and restaurants. However, you’ll find less crowds, you might see the Highlands in snow (magical!), and experience Edinburgh’s great Christmas markets. Of course, you’ll also find lower prices. This is when we visited Scotland, and we absolutely loved it!
In general, there is no bad time to visit Scotland, just preference!
Because of this, I’ve given you our actual costs from our trip to Scotland in December, plus ballpark estimates for Summer costs.
Our Travel and Spending Style
I like to call our travel style ‘mid-range’ or just ‘affordable’.
We don’t spend a ton of money on hotels and food, we skip some activities that don’t interest us, but we do spend money on great experiences.
We typically eat out at every meal (except maybe breakfast and lunch depending on the day). Generally, we use public transportation unless a rental car is much easier, which it was in Scotland.
On top of that, we try to find free activities as often as possible.
I tell you all of that so you have a reference point of how we spend our money when we travel, to give you an idea of what you may spend.
The Cost to Travel Scotland – Winter & Summer
We visited in December, which is important to know! December is off-season in Scotland, so our hotel prices were much lower than they may be during the summer months.
The numbers I’m providing from our trip come from the costs to visit in December, which is the off-season in Scotland. I will also provide a breakdown of the ballpark costs to visit in Summer.
Summer will naturally be a more expensive time to visit Scotland as it is the high tourist season. So, here are the prices you can expect to find in Scotland during the Summer. All prices assume 2 people, shared accommodations.
June, July, and August are the peak Summer months in Scotland and see higher prices. Scotland’s low season is November to March, seeing lower prices and shorter days.
This outline will give you the approximate costs you can expect if you are visiting in the Summer & Winter. It will however, provide insights from our time visiting in Winter.
ALL PRICES ASSUME TWO PEOPLE, SHARED ACCOMMODATIONS.
Rental car
Winter cost: $33USD/day
Summer estimated cost: $52USD/day
We rented our car from Sixt, and we had an amazing experience. We were even given a free upgrade simply because they did not have any ‘economy’ cars left on the lot. If you rent a car in Scotland, or anywhere where Sixt is an option, we highly recommend them.
Accommodations
Winter cost: $60-$85USD/night
Summer estimated cost: $120-$200USD/night
During our one week Scotland road trip, we spent $613.05 on accommodation.
The per night accommodation price ranged from $60/night to $85/night.
Of course, accommodation prices can vary a lot based on the level of luxury, or lack there of. Scotland has a great mix of accommodations from luxurious castles all the way to free hike in&out bothy’s that are first come first serve. We land somewhere in the middle.
In the Summer, expect to pay more for accommodations, and know that the good places get booked up quickly. I recommend planning your accommodations as far out as possible.
While we usually stay in hotels when we travel, we stayed in a mix of both Airbnb’s and hotels during this trip. That is why I always check both Booking.com and Airbnb and then compare when looking for a place to stay!
In the week we were there, we stayed in 7 different places! This is because we ended up staying an extra day on either end of the week-long trip since we were traveling long-term on our 6 month trip to 18 countries. So, I did subtract the cost of the accommodations outside of the 7 day trip length.
Here are the places we stayed in and highly recommend!
Edinburgh – This Airbnb
Inverness – Crown Court Hotel
Roag – Malcolm’s House
Portree – The Portree Hotel
Fort William – Alt-an Lodge
Glasgow – Yotel Glasgow
Food
Winter cost: $80USD/day for 2 people
Summer estimated cost: $100USD/day for 2 people
The total cost of our food for 2 people, 7 days in Scotland, was $566.39.
Like I mentioned above when I talked about our travel style, we eat out for most meals when we travel. However, much of Scotland is remote, and it can be a bit harder to find a spot to eat for every meal. So, we went to the grocery story and purchased some breakfast and lunch food to keep at our hotels/Airbnb’s and in the car.
We often have picnic lunches to save money and time when we travel, so that is mostly what we did in Scotland. Some mornings, we would stop and get a coffee if our accommodations didn’t have it (or had bad coffee).
When we eat out, we try to find pretty middle-of-the-road type places, nothing fancy.
Activities
Winter cost: $11USD/day for 2 people
Summer estimated cost: $35USD/day for 2 people
In total, we spent $79.91 on activities during our one week in Scotland.
Typically, we like to choose free activities unless there is something we really want to do that costs money.
In Scotland, we really wanted to visit Edinburgh Castle, and we ended up at another castle that we decided to pay to enter as well!
- Edinburgh Castle: $23.97/person
- Urquhart Castle: $15.98/person
The prices of our tickets are adjusted into USD.
Other than that, all of our activities were free!
The majority of our free activities involved hiking or seeing sites like Neist Point. You can read about all of the activities we did and where they were in our full one week Scotland road trip itinerary.
There are some Summer activities that you may want to participate in that we were not able to in the Winter. Those might include the Highland Games, riding the Jacobite Steam Train, or taking a ferry day trip to Isle of Mull. Here are the estimated ticket costs for each:
– Highland Games: varies based on event. $15-$35USD range
– Jacobite Steam Train: £65 return adult ticket
– Ferry Trip to Isle of Mull: £4.25
Scotland Road Trip Total Costs
In total, we spent $1,492.35 USD on our one week Scotland road trip, for 2 people in DECEMBER.
If you had done the same trip we did in the height of Summer, you could expect to pay around $2,600+ USD. This is a conservative estimate, in my opinion. Everything tends to become more expensive in Summer in Scotland.
All in all, I think that is a pretty good cost when you consider that traveling in the UK is often more expensive if you’re an American because of exchange rates.
Let me know what you think about the cost to travel Scotland from our experience! Did it convince you to travel in the shoulder season or off season to save some money?
What it will cost to travel Scotland will of course entirely depend on the person and time of year you visit, but I hope this has been a helpful reference point for you to plan your trip!
READ ALSO:
Epic One Week Scotland Road Trip Itinerary
2 Days in Edinburgh Scotland: The Perfect Itinerary
Travel Credit Cards: Our Secret To Affordable Flights All Over The World
I am really interested in taking my Finance to Scottland I have enjoyed your artical and all your advise do you think prices have changed much to go in 2024?
Prices probably have gone up since we went, and on top of that we visited in the off season. The easiest way to get an idea of what you may spend is by looking at hotels, flights, rental cars all around when you want to go and just see what they are going for.
Your breakdown and rationale has helped me with my decision to surprise my husband with a trip to Scotland. He is a Findlay with traceable origins to Scotland, so he will enjoy this trip into his roots, and of course I will too!
That sounds incredible! I’m so glad I could help you decide 🙂 I don’t think you’ll ever regret a trip to Scotland, especially if you have roots there! Enjoy!
Hello, my name is Carol I live in California, USA.
We are very interested in traveling to Scotland and found your article very informative. What’s the best way to contact you and/or follow you? I only have FB and Instagram accounts.