Kick off your trip to Inverness with a walking tour of the city and get tips on how to spend the rest of your trip from a local guide. You’ll pass by all the top city attractions like the Inverness Castle, Abertarff House, Victorian Market, Inverness Cathedral, and more. Spend the afternoon on a cruise along the Caledonian Canal and Loch Dochfour from Inverness and then enjoy views of the Urquhart Castle from the open waters of Loch Ness.

In the evening, explore the traditional pubs and lively music scene in Old Town Inverness. Sample a wide variety of microbrews at the Black Isle Brewery and then head to Johnny Foxes or the Hootenanny, historic Inverness pubs that feature live music every night of the week. Other options including watching the sunset over Loch Ness from Dores or taking a stroll along the Ness Islands path from town.

Inverness is the perfect base camp for exploring the Highlands area attractions. Take a full-day tour of the highlights of the Highlands and visit the Black Island peninsula where you can spot bottlenose dolphins playing in the bay. You can also wander through quaint fishing villages and the enchanting Fairy Glen. Next, head to the Loch Ness Center and Exhibition to learn about this unique geological wonder and the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. Finish the day by touring the ruins of the 12th century Urquhart Castle on the shores of the loch.

Alternatively, fans of the hit book and TV series, Outlander, can take an Outlander-themed tour and visit filming locations and historic sites that inspired the show like the Culloden Battlefield, Fraser Caves, and Castle Leoch. You won’t want to miss a trip to Clava Cairns, a Bronze age cemetery complete with eerie standing stones, and the site that inspired the fictitious Craigh na Dun featured in the show.

Scotland’s fairy-tale Isle of Skye is just under a 2-hour drive from Inverness and passes through some of the Highland’s most scenic glens and mountain scenery. Take a guided trip from Inverness so you can just sit back and enjoy the scenery rather than navigating the twisty mountain roads on your own. Many tours stop off at the Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland’s most photographed castle, before heading over the Skye Bridge and to the Fairy Pools and colorful harbor of Skye’s capital city, Portree.

Alternatively, you can spend the day sampling whisky of the Speyside region near Inverness at renowned distilleries like Glenlivet, Glenfarclas, and Aberlour. You can also visit the Orkney Islands with a full-day tour from Inverness. You’ll head north and take the ferry from John O’Groats to Orkney and see top attractions like the Ring of Brodgar and the stone-age village of Skara Brae.