Frommer's Best Walking Trips in Scotland [Paperback]

"Frommer's Best Walking Trips in Scotland" is not your average austere walking guide, for Scotland or anywhere else. Instead, this book comes in the attractive package of a Frommer's Travel Guide, filled with pictures, maps, graphics and detailed useful information about an excellent selection of walks in Scotland, which are likely to appeal to a broad range of abilities and interests.

Scotland offers hundreds of possibilities for everything from short strolls to multi-day treks; this guide offers 57 walks, selected from across the various regions of Scotland. The walks take in a variety of terrain ranging from city walks in Edinburgh to seashore scrambles to circuits of wooded lochs to mountain walking in the Grampians of the central Highlands to rambles in still wild northern Scotland.

The section for each walk includes basic data such as distance, grading for difficulty, elevation gain, a time estimate, and a recomendation for the best time of year to go. Also included are directions to the trailhead, a sketch map, and a point to point description of the walk. For what it may be worth, the difficulty grading seems reasonably realistic for the averagely fit recreational hiker.

The walks are organized by region. Each regional chapter includes practical information on lodging, dining, and selected items of general interest. The front of the book offers a nice selection of color photographs of some of the hikes, along with a brief wildlife and plant guide. There is a compilation of useful travel websites in the back of the guide for further research.

"Frommer's Best Walking Trips in Scotland" is very highly recommended to those travelers who love to walk and plan to sample some of the excellent opportunities for walking on offer in Scotland.

Full of promise but light on content, nothing much more than a collection of selected walks, hardly what you would describe as "The Best". Whilst "The Best" will always be subjective there is much missing from this book in terms of regional coverage. The insights are not great, nothing much to learn. In terms of ideas you actually do much better with a review of some of the web sites for walking in Scotland - much more detailed, include reviews and some scenic photos as well as more detailed plans on how to get to and undertake the walks.

All in all, dont bother, save your cash and put it towards ink for your printer!