Visiting Scotland when your partner doesn’t like whisky

When planning a whisky trip to Scotland, most keen whisky tourists typically plan their itinerary by plotting out the key distilleries they want to visit, and then they crudely join the dots by shoehorning in the requirements and logistics of accommodation, transport, and food.  That’s all well and good but, as you quickly discover, distillery tours and visiting times are generally condensed between the hours of 10.00am and 4.00pm – leaving you with some blanks to fill in your days.  Also, as we explored in this article here (scroll down to point no. 7), trying to get your various distillery tours aligned without clashes or overlaps is a tough challenge.  Another consideration is that – as a very general generalisation – it would be fair to say that most whisky enthusiasts who would plan such a dedicated whisky pilgrimage to Scotland often have partners that don’t share a love of whisky to quite the same level of fanaticism. 

Accordingly, when planning a trip to Scotland with your partner, you’ll often need to incorporate stops, side-excursions, and other attractions to keep your other half happy….and not sentence them to the drudgery of sitting in the distillery car park while you’re inside having fun.   To keep the mood happy between the two of you as you traverse around the country, here are some worthwhile destinations, attractions, and other things to do in Scotland that are all near distilleries or that you’ll pass through as you hop from distillery to distillery….

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The Top Six things to do in Speyside

Yes, of all the things to do in Speyside, the most obvious is to visit the distilleries and drink whisky.  But there’s so much more on offer if you look beyond the distilleries…

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The Whisky Lover’s Guide to climbing Ben Rinnes

Thinking about climbing Ben Rinnes?  If you love whisky and you’re visiting Speyside, then a hike up to the top of Ben Rinnes is a must.

Each year, thousands of whisky tourists make their way to Speyside to visit their own personal mecca.  Each pilgrim no doubt has their own favourite distillery and plans their itinerary around getting a glimpse into the factory that produces their most revered malt.

Of course, no one travels all the way to Speyside to visit just one, single distillery and thus it’s not uncommon for we pilgrims to set up camp in one of the many hotels or B&B’s and use it as a base to explore multiple distilleries over several days.

Outside of the distilleries, however, your average whisky tourist quickly runs out of things to do in Speyside.  The only other pursuits are the outdoors – golf, salmon fishing, and hiking.  And it’s this last category that offers something pretty special to the whisky enthusiast.

Ben Rinnes is the highest mountain in the Speyside region.  At 840m, it’s officially a “Corbett”, being 300 feet shy to qualify as a Munro.  It towers above many of the distilleries, and the snow melt and water run-off from the hills goes a long way to supplying many of the surrounding distilleries in its foothills.  Needless to say, the view from the summit is incredible, and distillery spotters can have fun trying to identify the many distilleries visible from the top.  For the whisky enthusiast or jaded Speyside visitor looking for a new perspective, climbing Ben Rinnes is a highly recommended and rewarding journey.  So here’s the whisky lover’s guide to climbing Ben Rinnes…

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