My whisky trip.

@Sroberts86, I was up in Edinburgh for Christmas 2011. Highly recommend going to see Tullibardine distillery in Blackford. It's not far from Edinburgh, and the Glen Turret distillery is not very far off, which is The Famous Grouse experience distillery. Try to sample the Glen Turret 16yo! My wife and I visited Tullibardine on a rather slow day and ended up getting a private tour. Outstanding staff at Tullibardine, and all of the expressions I sampled there were very fine Scotches. Would love to hear how your trip goes!

Cheers Mikedram, I shall let you know when I get it all sorted. Been to a few Irish distilleries and I've been to Islay so I'm really trying to find something unusual and fun to do. Haven't tried any Glen Turret at all so that's probably a good call.

Not so whisky-related, but the West Highlands railway line is gorgeous... One part near Loch Shiel includes the massive viaduct used in the Harry Potter films.

I went to the Speyside Whisky Festival at the beginning of May - I would suggest making Speyside your destination (that is, assuming you like Speyside malts!) I flew into Inverness and stayed in Elgin - rented a car and drove around (which forced me to practice moderation, which is good!) I'll take the liberty of giving you my travel photo diary:

flickr.com/photos/talexander84west/…

That should tell you pretty much everything I experienced. I promise, you will NOT be disappointed!

If you possible can, drive - public transport probably won't help you much. There are a number of places you can visit by train, but you need to be careful not to get stranded if you do.

Outside of distilleries, make sure you stop by the Speyside Cooperage - I've still not been and have heard excellent things about it. The Highlander Inn is just down the road, and they do a good lunch along with an big selection of whiskies.

If you're near Inverness then pop out to Fiddlers in Drumnadrochit - Jon, who runs it, has an impressive whisky selection and and does good food. He's also lovely :) Also round there is the Black Isle Brewery, Glen Ord distillery and The Anderson hotel/restaurant/bar in Fortrose, which has one of the best beer selections in Scotland.

If you're in Speyside then Elgin's worth at least half a day - lots of distilleries around (some without visitors centres but often happy to show you around if you call in advance), Glen Moray in town (with a good cafe - tasty soup), Gordon & Macphail's whisky shop and the Dallas Dhu whisky museum nearby.

If you like Clynelish then it's well worth a trip to Brora - I did it by train, getting the first train from Aviemore in the morning and getting the last train from Brora in the evening, the only two trains that gave me enough time for a distillery tour in between. In Brora the Sutherland Inn has an incredible whisky collection (and is run by Leon, who is behind shop4whisky.com) and it's a few doors down from a bakery that does Capaldi's ice cream (which I've been commanded to visit several times by people who know ice cream).

If you make it even further north than Brora, Pulteney in Wick is pretty good and is only 30 minutes drive from John O'Groats.

I'd also second the west highlands train line - my next planned 'try and visit distilleries by train' route involves taking it and starts with Auchentoshan in Glasgow, ending in Inverness via Oban, Ben Nevis and Talisker...

Thats awesome man. Particularly liked the Glenlivet spiral shot. Would very much like to hit Aberlour as well. @talexander

All excellent sounding advice. I've lived in Glasgow for a few years at uni a good while back so if you have any questions about that then give me a shout. First whisky I ever tried and first distillery I visited was Auchentoshan@cowfish