Ireland and Scotland/England

Edinburgh was my favorite place to visit in almost all of western Europe, I would say you should definitely make it a part of your itinerary.

It is so cool to have the juxtaposition of the old parts of the city and the castle, right next to the modern parts of it. Scotland is simply beautiful in and of itself. The color of the rolling green hills simply does not exist anywhere I've seen in the States. Gorgeous!

I would recommend allotting at least one day of your trip to Edinburgh. Tour the Edinburgh castle, have a pint in a pub that is older than the United States, and DEFINITELY take one of the walking ghost tours. You get a great walking history of the darker side of Edinburgh and you get to visit some cool, creepy places. This was the one I've done several times and I just love:City of the Dead Tours - Edinburgh - Reviews of City of the Dead Tours - TripAdvisor

If you have a little more time to spend, a second day would be great to take a day trip out of Edinburgh. The trains will take you near anywhere in Scotland, and the train ride itself is extremely beautiful and is a to-do all by itself. I did this when I visited, took a train to Stirling and saw the William Wallace monument, did some shopping, ate some food, and hopped back on the train to Edinburgh before I took off again.

Not sure that you really need to drive anywhere. You should be able to trust the trains and buses and you'll have a much more enjoyable experience just sitting back and watching the landscapes as opposed to navigating the small roads and being stressed about driving on the left-hand side of the road. The train to/from Edinburgh/London is cheap, quick, and you definitely won't want a car while you're in London.

Definitely fit in Edinburgh and anywhere else in Scotland that you'd personally want to see. I don't think you need to commit a whole lot of time there, however, especially if you want to make it to London and Paris. All can be done satisfactorily in a day or two, but I personally wouldn't want to miss Edinburgh.

Edinburgh was pretty much my favorite city in a trip I took to the UK several years ago and Sir Funk pretty much sums it up.

If you have some time Holyrood Park, behind Holyrood Palace, was a nice place to walk through and the hike up Arthur's Seat was very fun.

Depends when you go and what you are going for. If you are interested in Whisky the west highlands and Skye/Isla are must visits, you could probably get pickled by taking a sample at each distillery along the way . If you go in Winter, don't take a brolly as it will get blown away, if you go in Summer then take the brolly as it WILL rain (as Sir Funk mentioned above, how do you think the hills got their lovely green colour?)

As for how convenient it is to get there? St Andrews to Inverness is about 100 miles, and about 140 miles to Broadford on the Isle of Skye. Scotland ain't a big place

Originally from scotland, east lothian and edinburgh area. I love going back make the trip every few years to see the family and i cant recomend it enough pretty much everything said above you really cant go wrong just taking time to explore the city. The castle is great, hollyrood is also cool if the royals are not there. Lots of great pubs and history. Lots of other great castles within train distance such as dirleton and tantallan which is near my home town of north berwick. Highlands are awesome as are all the whiskey tours. Sterling is cool very commercial. Can't go wrong with scotland.

I spent a decade of my life in Edinburgh, and it's the most beautiful city I have ever been to. Set aside time for just walking - through new town, around the Princes Street area, and up towards the old town and Castle/Holyroodhouse. If you go in spring, fit in The Meadows - buy yourself a picnic and just sit among the students for a while.

Isle of Skye is also gorgeous. The Black Cuillins can be breathtaking - if you are into photography, it will provide some excellent ops. And on the way there, you can stop at the Highlander castle (which sits just by the Isle of Skye on the mainland (the Elean Dunan (sp?)).

As for itinerary, I'd probably go with something like:
Edinburgh (2 days) -> Inverness (stopover) -> across to Kyle of Lochalsh and onwards to Skye (2 days) -> Fort William (stopover/ halfday) -> Loch Lomond and the Trossachs -> down south.

I rented a holiday home at Fort William last summer and stayed there with my family for 1 week and it was amazing

Beautiful view and scenery. Attractions include the a steam powered rail train used in the Harry Potter movies and Ben Nevis which is tallest mountain in the UK. The walks around Ben Nevis were breathtaking. Highly recommended.