I thought it was worth pinging the PPOT UK-resident brain trust for this.
I'll be in the UK on vacation from 11 November to 18 November. Beginning and end of the week will be in London, and 3-4 days or so during the week (dates flexible) will be spent in Scotland, based out of Glasgow. I like London and haven't been since 2012, and a very good friend lives there. I'll be staying with them in Nunhead at the end of the trip, AirBnB in
TBD location for the beginning. I've never been to Scotland at all and have friends in Glasgow with an open invitation to visit. I also plan to explore the highlands some because why wouldn't I? I'm sure I'll go to Edinburgh too.
First question is about getting from one to the other. I figure the betting money on cheap-and-easy is to take a RyanAir/EasyJet/whatever flight for 50GBP or whatever the cost. This is probably my least favorite method because I hate discount airlines. Also I might have my Brompton with me. I like taking trains, and in theory a train ride, perhaps overnight, would be nice. But my Glasgow friends say it's unreasonably expensive and British Rail doesn't have the best reputation. How is it? And apparently there is Virgin Rail??
Third option is to drive. In my ideal world I know someone with some fun, interesting car that they lend me to use. Unfortunately I know no such person in the UK (I used to, but he died and his interesting car was worth half a million dollars so, um, no) Renting something 'classic' would be nice, but it's the wrong season and would likely be a lot more than I want to spend. Renting a normal car seems surprisingly cheap, however. I would want to take some A and B roads for nice driving part of the way. Google says a direct drive is about 7 hours. Is this a reasonable option? Can I find nice driving roads?
If it is a reasonable option, is there anything I wouldn't likely think of that I'd want to know about renting a car? I don't want to be anywhere near London proper with a car so would just take a train to some suburban location to pick one up.