Ayrshire day tours and touring ideas

Many visitors begin their tour of Scotland with a stay here, preferring to start out fresh after a long transatlantic flight into Prestwick or Glasgow Airport or a drive up from England. Increasingly, they are discovering how convenient the area is as a base for touring. Here are some of the reasons why

The outstanding natural beauty of nearby Dumfries & Galloway. Let the landscape and atmosphere of this magical corner of Scotland work its spell on you

The enchanting ‘Isle of Arran – ‘Scotland in miniature’. Check the regular ferry timetables here

Romantic and world famous Loch Lomond is only about 60 minutes by car via the Erskine Bridge, with the beautiful Trossachs not much further

And Ayrshire and Burns Country. A must for first-time visitors to Scotland. From the hotel, it's less than an half an hour's drive to the Burns' Cottage at Alloway, near Ayr. Tannahill's Cottage, Queens Street, Paisley is the thatched home of poet Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), a contemporary of Burns who co-founded the world's first Burns Club. Mary Campbell, immortalised by Burns as 'my Highland Lassie O', actually lived in Ayrshire but died and was buried in Greenock. Indeed, the Burns Trail runs throughout the area known as Inverclyde, which lies between Johnstone and the Clyde Coast

Just over half an hour north via the A78, Caledonian MacBrayne provide regular ferry services at Gourock and Wemyss Bay across the Firth of Clyde - to all of the Western Isles and to Dunoon, where the Highlands begin. A little further south at Ardrossan, meet the regular ferry to the enchanted isle of Arran. For Calmac ferry timetables, click here