Planning your trip to Scotland

The BEST WAY TO EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

From LAX, British, United, Lufthansa and KLM offer connecting service to Edinburgh. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $1,241, including taxes and fees. From Edinburgh, take the train to nearby North Queensferry, where the Fife Coastal Path begins. The path runs about 93 miles, from North Queensferry to Dundee, Scotland’s fourth-largest city. It can be walked in seven days or less — if you’re fit and driven. But it’s more enjoyable to allow extra time, so you can take rest days and explore historic towns such as St. Andrews (with its celebrated golf course and the oldest university in Scotland), castle ruins, ancient churchyards such as St. Bridget’s near Aberdour and the fishing villages between Elie and Crail.

Companies such as Fife Coastal Path Holidays, www.walkingfifecoastalpath.com, offer walking holiday packages, but be clear on what’s included. Many companies sell “self-guided” tours, which means they give you a map (or don’t), book your B&Bs and transport your luggage each day, so you can walk with just a day pack and rain gear.

TO LEARN MORE

Fife Coastal Path: https://fifecoastalpath.co.uk/. Basic information about the path, plus maps and suggestions for inns, bed and breakfasts, and restaurants. With a little research you can book your own inns and pay just for luggage transportation. Ask inn proprietors for suggestions on luggage transport companies.

There are very few guides to the path, but Hamish Brown’s “Along the Fife Coastal Path” (Mercat Press) is recommended, with simple, useful maps and suggestions on how to break up the walk. It can be maddeningly vague about practicalities.