For context: I'm in my 40s, New Yorker, and since 2016 have tried to get to Scotland for at least a couple of weeks every year. So, I’m not Scottish, I just really like it there.

You will beat the midges in April!

I was unimpressed with the stay at the Torridon last year. We stayed in the Stables, which has been spruced up since our first visit sometime pre-Covid, notably the bathrooms and generally decor. The main house was significantly more expensive (the non-suites didn't seem worth the uncharge over the Stables, and the suites were more than I wanted to spend. If the suites are in your budget, the experience might be fantastic?) The food was overall extremely disappointing in the non-fine dining restaurant (I've never eaten in the 1887 restaurant, so can't comment there); the fairly limited menu was essentially the same both nights. However, the absolutely best part of the stay was the experience in the whisky bar. Despite being underwhelmed otherwise, I would consider staying at the Torridon again just for the service and experience there. Service was incredible, we drank many extraordinary and rare whiskies for incredibly reasonable prices, all considered. I counted the mediocre food/room as fair for price of admission to the Whisky Bar.

The absolute best place we stayed last year was The Dipping Lugger in Ullapool. There are three rooms, it overlooks the ferry, and the food was extraordinary. The dinner was probably the best meal out I've had in a year (I'm irritated by the experience of dining in New York these days, but I'll spare you those thoughts here). It was a tasting menu that was exquisitely done: comfortable pacing, amazing wines, wonderfully local, and just a pleasure throughout. Breakfast was an equally high standard. The bed was plush and comfortable, the freestanding tub was a delight to relax in, and there was a real sense of hospitality from the pantry with sweets and drinks to the gin & tonics that Robert (the owner) brought to us in the room as we got settled. It's just lovely. Ullapool was previously a place to pass through on the way elsewhere, but it's now really on the list of places I'll go out of my way to visit.

In a different vein, I have always enjoyed staying at Inver. It’s a reasonable drive from Glasgow (and I'll agree with others that renting a car from Glasgow is quite easy)— I’ve combined a stay/dinner there as a stop on the way north or to Harris/Lewis. The stay are in “luxury bothies,” wee little hut/sheds that are very comfortable but not large. They bring breakfast to the hut in the morning; dinner is in the restaurant and is very good, very inventive, sometimes veering to the molecular or ambitious (we had freeze-dried ants to provide crunch on ice cream, the ants had been hand foraged? collected? by someone in-house. It was surprisingly good). I’ve only been in the summer, however.

The Lodge at Loch Lomond, also convenient enough to Glasgow, has saunas in the room, which was very lovely after a day out.

In Inverness, I would very happily eat many meals at the Rocpool restaurant. Fantastic food, incredible service, not stuffy at all. If you like onion rings, get the onion rings there. (It’s a fancier restaurant than it sounds by that description, but the onion rings really are fantastic).

Enjoy your trip… I wish I was going in April.