Isle of Skye

It's 3:30 AM and we stumble into our rental car. Driving through a stretch of single-track roads, we finally make it to the base. We are going to hike up the Old Man of Storr for sunrise. It starts off reasonably well. We cross a few gates and the trail turns from asphalt to dirt. It should only take about forty-five minutes. The first light starts to peak and we are racing against the sun. Just when you think it can't get any steeper, we realize where you actually want to be is at the top of the cliff facing the pinnacles. 

It was a strenuous hike but when you make it to the top you are rewarded with the most iconic view of Skye. We spend the next few days seeing as much as we can; there's the Quiraing, the aptly named Fairy Pools, Fairy Glen, Cuillin Hills and Rubha nam Brathairean, Gaelic for Brother's Point.

We left feeling as though we had only scratched the surface. 

Isle of Islay

One of Scotland's five whisky producing regions, Islay is home to eight distilleries (and yes, we visited them all). Except for the newest distillery, Kilchoman, all the other distilleries are located by the sea. After flying in through Glasgow, the next three days included driving around the entire island, sampling whisky and stopping at historic ruins. 

The Isle of Jura is only a five-minute ferry ride from Islay and has its own whisky distillery. Other than the main settlement of Craighouse, the island is pretty barren and sparsely populated. We didn't stay long, but if there's ever a place you needed to go to and get away, this would be it. 

While we were not huge whisky drinkers before this trip, we had fun touring the distilleries and might just keep a bottle stored away for the occasional dram.