Originally Posted by
lwildernorva
It sounds as if you'd like to see the Highlands and hit a distillery as well, and with more time, you could easily do this, but in the short amount of time you have, I'd consider a day in Edinburgh and then taking a rental car and driving up the A9 to around Aviemore. Your GPS may tell you that's a 2.5 hour drive--I guarantee you it'll be a lot longer than that because, once in the Cairngorms, you'll hit some spectacular scenery that on a clear day will make you want to jump out of your car and take a lot of pictures. Either on the way up or the way back, you can stop at the Dalwhinnie distillery. Best in Scotland? No. Representative of a whisky distillery? For your purposes, yes.
This sounds appealing, but I've never driven on the left-hand side before and starting off with a trip through the mountains on a potentially rainy day might not be the best idea. So far I'm leaning to seeing places I can reach by train within a couple of hours (Pitlochry/Perth looks good).
Then spend your third day in Edinburgh, seeing the sights you missed the first day. I think that's a manageable itinerary. In three days, you can't see everything, but you'd get a taste of a charming city as well as a hint of the spectacular scenery that makes a lot of people want to leave Edinburgh in their rearview mirror.
Do you have suggestions for a 2-day Edinburgh itinerary then (historical stuff, museums, art, food, drink, etc)?