If you are travelling from further away, there are a few things you might find it helpful to know. If you have more questions, just ask us.

Let's start with information about flights. You'll probably want to shop around for prices. Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia and the airlines themselves are all good places to look, but you'll have to know where you are flying to...

Dundee (Wikipedia) has an airport but it only has flights to London City (a small airport in the east end of London that doesn't have flights to the US), Belfast and Birmingham. While it is possible to connect all the way to Dundee from the US ( Continental fly direct from Newark (EWR) to both Belfast and Birmingham for example), Ken and Marisa (and Ken's parents) have always flown to/from Scotland to/from a 'non-Dundee' airport to save money.

That gives you (at least) the following options.

Fly direct from the US to Scotland

You will have to fly into either Glasgow (GLA) or Edinburgh (EDI). There is a list of the airlines with direct flights at VisitScotland.com. The last time I checked, these airlines included Continental from Newark (EWR), US Airways from Philadelphia (PHL) and Delta from JFK.

Fly to Scotland via somewhere else

This increases your options quite a bit. For example, Northwest will fly you from Detroit to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen via Amsterdam. Aer Lingus fly to Scotland from 7 US cities via Dublin (a good place to spend a day or two incidentally).

Fly to England and then travel up to Scotland

The world is your oyster here. There are any number of flights from any number of US cities to London Heathrow (LHR) and Gatwick (LGW). Manchester (MAN) and Birmingham (BHX) are also options. Once you've got to Britain, it's easy to get to Scotland. See the Traveling in Britain tips below.

Car Rental

Many of you will automatically think that you should rent a car as soon as you arrive in Britain. This is easy to do and it's what Ken and Marisa normally do themselves. We've used both Europcar and Holiday Autos with success, but we advise checking your insurance carefully. The last time we ticked the wrong box and it cost us $500 at the end of the trip.

Note however that there are good reasons not to rent a car, particularly immediately on arrival. Some of these include:

• Britain drives on the left.
• Automatics are not standard (clever, right?). You will need to pre-book an automatic transmission if you need one and it will cost you more.
• Petrol is very expensive (~$8 to 9 a gallon).
• Cars are much smaller than they are in the US - think Ford Festiva size - make sure you book a car that is big enough for your party and your luggage.
• There are roundabouts and other drivers will expect you to know how to use them.
• Traffic is bad, particularly in a city. There are no good reasons to be using a car in central London, nor really for that matter in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
• The pubs are brilliant and drink-driving laws, while similar legally to they are in the US, are much more strictly enforced. It's considered socially-unacceptable, so don't do it.
• Public transport is much better than it is in the US.

There are good Rail and Bus systems linking most major towns and cities. There are also extensive local bus networks. For example, there's a bus every 6 minutes from Ken's Mum and Dad's house into the city center (4 miles). There's a bus roughly every 30 minutes from Dundee to St. Andrews.

In summary, if you are just planning to hit London, Glasgow, and Dundee, you probably don't want a car. You probably do, if you want to check out the Angus Glens, St. Andrews, and Oban in the same day. Mind you, you'd have to be mad to want to do that.

Finally, note that there are some amazingly cheap flights within Europe. For example, today (29 November), I could have booked a flight from London to Glasgow for 79 pence (~$1) for the day before our wedding. (Here's evidence.) I could also have flown from Glasgow to Turin and back for $3.50. (More evidence.)

These are great deals but there are things you should be aware of. The flights are normally to and from minor airports. For example, the above flights were from Glasgow Prestwick (not Glagow International) which is ~30 miles from the city center. You also have to pay a lot of extra tax, and you also have to pay if you're checking baggage (particularly if you are checking American amounts of baggage). Still check out sites like Ryanair and Easyjet and see if they suit your needs.

How to get from a Scottish airport to Dundee or Perth by public transport

First, realize that this easy - you don't have to rent a car if you don't want to.

There's not a great deal to chose between the bus and the train. Ken likes getting the train (it's probably slightly quicker and it feels more of an adventure to him) but Ken's Dad swears by the bus. The train might be slightly easier if you have lots of luggage but plenty of people manage fine on the buses. Americans should note that the buses are not like Greyhounds in the US. They are very safe.

From Glasgow International Aiport

To get to Dundee or Perth you first have to get to Glagsow city center. You have several options.

• Get a taxi from the airport to Queen Street Station (trains) or Buchanan Street Stations (buses). Cost is of order 20 GP pounds. If you're asking for directions, Buchanan is pronounced "Bu-cannon", but let's face it, if you need to ask for directions in Glasgow, your biggest problem is going to be understanding the accent they are delivered in, not getting the Glaswegians to understand you :-)
• Get the Glasgow Flyer bus which goes to both Queen Street (trains) and Buchanan Street (buses) stations.

Buses leave for Dundee and Perth at least every hour during the day. You can get time-tables from the Citylink website.

From Glasgow Prestwick Aiport

If you are flying into Scotland on a cheap flight from London or Dublin, you might end up arriving at Glasgow Prestwick. This is quite a distance away (30 miles?) from Glasgow city center. To get to Dundee/Perth, catch the bus or the train (both are a short walk outside the airport terminal) into Glasgow city center and then follow the bus and/or train directions for Glasgow International airport above. (Note that the train from Prestwick will drop you at Glasgow Central station - you'll need to change stations (15 mins) if you're catching a train on north.)

From Edinburgh Airport

You basically have the same options as you have from Glasgow International. Taxi (~20 pounds) or bus (Express shuttle) into Edinburgh and then catch another bus or train to Dundee or Perth.

The best train station to use is Haymarket (there's also Edinburgh Waverly but it's further into town and all the trains from Waverly stop at Haymarket on the way north). Timetables are again available at the Scotrail site For trains to Perth, look for Edinburgh to Inverness. For trains to Dundee, look for Edinburgh to Dundee or Aberdeen. (All trains to Aberdeen stop at Dundee, but there are additional trains that only go as far as Dundee in this case). Service frequency is again around once an hour.