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.
When my husband and I left for our 6 month trip to 18 countries, we knew that airfare would be one of the single largest individual costs of our trip. So, after a little bit of research, we found a way to get affordable flights all over the world: travel credit cards.
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The first note here that I need to make is that almost no flight is truly free, you do have to pay the taxes and fees. But, what if I told you I just bought a $6 flight from North Carolina, USA to Athens, Greece this week. Or that I’ve spent only $11 for me and Colton to fly from NC to Turkey?
Would you believe those numbers?
I never in a million years thought I could fly abroad for less than a few hundred dollars, and that’s if I somehow found an amazing deal!
It wasn’t until I came across travel credit cards and the world of points and miles that I understood how these serial travelers I was seeing everywhere were affording their flights.
The trick was, they were barely paying for them.
So, after tons of research, applying for credit cards, hitting bonuses, and of course getting everything in order to leave home for 6 months to travel, I bought our one way flights out of the country for $11.
How did we do it?
The world of points and miles, of course!
Let me tell you how we did it and give you the information you need to start earning free flights with your credit card!
Let me preface this with one statement: the world of points and miles is BIG and there is a lot that you honestly don’t need to know to just get started.
So, I’m going to give you the most necessary information to get you started and cut out all the fluff. Let’s go!
I promise you this is not a scam, because maybe that’s the first place your mind is headed when I say “free” flights.
In fact, paying with points and miles to purchase flights at insanely low prices is entirely legal, I promise!
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Find them here!
What Are Points and Miles
Points and miles are the reward currency of airlines and hotels: aka loyalty points.
I’m not talking about the points you earn by flying with an airline repeatedly, that you only rack up over several years.
I’m talking about points and miles you earn just from having the credit card you already use!
Each bank or airline that offers credit cards with points and miles use them as an alternative currency for purchasing flights.
Many of the banks that offer travel credit cards have both airline and non-airline branded credit cards: a.k.a the airline the bank has partnered with offers airline miles as the sign up bonus, not credit card points. Those miles can only be used with that airline.
If you apply for a bank branded card with no airline association, you’ll earn points with that bank that can then be transferred to their airline or hotel partners.
How To Get Points And Miles With Travel Credit Cards?
The fastest way, and most likely reason why you’re wanting a travel credit card, is to earn points with a sign up bonus.
Most banks offer a sign up bonus of varying amounts after a certain amount of qualifying purchases on the card in the first few months.
It might sound something like this: “earn 60k bonus points when you spend $3,000 dollars on purchases in the first 4 months.” Yadah yadah.
But, you will also earn points while using your card on your everyday purchases! Some cards offer bonus categories, like 3x on grocery purchases, or 2x at restaurants, etc. So, when you spend money on your card, you’ll earn points in return that can be redeemed for various things, like flights or hotel stays.
Generally, if you’re wanting to redeem miles for flights or hotels, you’re going to need a good chunk of miles to do so.
You can purchase some domestic flights with as little as 8,500k points one way, but if you’re flying international, it will likely cost you 15k one way, at the very least.
Of course, the cost of award flights in points can greatly vary and is not always directly tied to the cash ticket price.
Other ways to earn points with travel credit cards include anniversary bonuses, giveaways, and transfer bonuses. These come and go and aren’t something I would rely on.
For the purposes of this post, which is all about a beginner’s guide to free flights with points and miles, sign up bonuses are your very best friend.
READ ALSO:
How to Save Money for Travel – Budget & Save for Your Next Trip
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How Much Are Points and Miles Worth?
Not all points are created equal.
Some points are more valuable than others simply because you can transfer and redeem them in more ways.
Points and miles also get their value depending on the deal you get when redeeming them.
Let me give you an example scenario to explain…
For example, let’s say you have 75k Capital One miles and you want to fly from Atlanta, Georgia to Athens, Greece for an amazing holiday eating delicious Mediterranean food and swimming in crystal clear waters for 8 days.
These are the flights you’re looking at. They’ll take you to Greece during the best time to visit, late summer when it isn’t too crowded and not too hot.
You have a few options for how you can book these flights with points
Option 1: Redeem Points with a Travel Portal
Option 1 is to redeem your points through Capital One Travel and their online portal. When you do this, you’re going to get a fixed redemption rate of 1¢ per mile.
So your 75k miles would be worth $750 for travel. You could use those 75k miles to buy a flight worth up to $750 through the Capital One Travel portal. That’s over half of what this ticket is worth. So you would still have to pay about $390+ on top of your 75k miles for this ticket.
We can definitely do better than that!
Option 2: Transfer to a Partner
Option 2 would be to transfer your Capital One miles to one of their airline transfer partners, then book the flight on their website using your points.
If you did this, those 75k miles could become 75k FlyingBlue points (Air France & KLM’s loyalty program and one of Capital One’s transfer partners).
The same exact flight booked on Air France with cash would cost you $1,142.
But, you can transfer your points from Capital One and over to FlyingBlue, so now you have up to 75k FlyingBlue miles! Let’s use them!
If you use FlyingBlue to book the exact same flight, you would only need 30,000 miles and $208 in taxes & fees. Way better than using all 75k and only covering half of the cost!
And, instead of paying $1,142 out of pocket for a round trip ticket to Europe, you’re only paying $208 plus 30,000 points.
*you want to transfer only the amount of points you need. In this scenario, thats only 30k of the 75k.
In this scenario, you would be redeeming your Capital One points, through FlyingBlue, for 3.1cents per mile. Now that’s more like it!
This is why points can be so valuable and why transfer partners can be the best way to go when redeeming points.
I know that was a lot, so let me summarize if for you:
- Out of pocket price for ticket Atlanta to Athens: $1142 on Air France/KLM
- Price of same ticket booked through Capital One Travel: 75k miles + $392
- Price of same ticket booked through FlyingBlue after transferring Capital One miles: 30,000 miles + $208 in taxes and fees.
You would come out of this deal with around 45k Capital One miles left in the bank. That’s enough to buy you another roundtrip flight to Europe.
Now THAT’S how we use points and miles to our advantage 🙂
RESOURCE: Free List of Transfer Partners & Airline Alliances + How to Use Them
*be sure to only transfer the points you need and no more so you can keep the extra points with your bank and transfer them elsewhere in the future*
How Do You Redeem Points And Miles For Flights?
The way that we typically redeem our points and miles is by using them to purchase flights. We do this by transferring our credit card points to transfer partners.
The scenario above is a great example of how we would use our points and miles to get amazing deals on flights.
Here is that chart again that I made to show you where you can transfer points based on what program you’ve accumulated points with.
The process of transferring points can be a bit complicated, but I’m going to help you out here.
Here is the basic rundown of how to redeem your points for flights:
- Accumulate points on your credit card
- Research credit card airlines transfer partners
- Search Google Flights or Skyscanner to find flight routes
- Search for award flights on airline transfer partners
- Find desired flights and see how many points/money required to book them
- Create a frequent flier account with airline if you don’t already have one
- Transfer points on your bank’s website to transfer partner of choice
- Book those flights!!
To use the example from above, I would find the flights I want and make sure I have enough points to pay for them. Then, I would log into Capital One and go to the Capital One Travel portal to transfer my points to FlyingBlue. Once my points were transferred, I would buy my flights!
The real trick is finding award flight availability and the deals that are out there waiting to be had! It takes a little bit of time and practice but you’ll get the gist!
READ ALSO:
How to Save Money for Travel – Budget & Save for Your Next Trip
Our Once In A Lifetime 6 Month Trip Itinerary
What 6 Months of Travel to 18 Countries Cost Us
What Travel Credit Cards Are Best?
For me to answer this question, you’ll need to ask yourself a question first: what are your goals?
Are you looking to cover some international long haul flights? Maybe you’re an avid domestic traveler and would like to cover a few legs of travel for your upcoming trips. Would you like to stay in nice hotels for just the cost of fees?
It’s good to look at the options and decide what you think will work best for your goals!
If you want to cover some flights, I would find a card that has great travel benefits and flexible rewards. If you’re more interested in hotel stays, get a hotel branded card!
You can find my favorite travel credit cards and all the information about them on my
Travel Credit Cards Recommendations page.
Want my help choosing a travel credit card?
Fill out my Free Credit Card Consultation Form & I’ll email you personalized recommendations!
“Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.”
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
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
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.