Enjoy sightseeing and shopping in bustling Edinburgh and Glasgow or explore unspoiled scenery and welcoming towns in the Hebridean Islands, Southern Scotland, Tayside, and the Northeast. Go from the Highlands to the Lowlands. Hike, canoe, or just relax at Loch Lomand. This friendly guide gives you the scoop on:

• Edinburgh Old Town, with its intriguing winding alleyways
• Accommodations that range from sumptuous 17th century hotel furnished with Gothic antiques to a secluded seaside escape, and from a 17th century laird's house to a sleek, modern and minimalist hotel
• Enjoying a pint of lager in a rustic pub where the barmen wear kilts and you don't tip or touring distinctive distilleries
• Cathedrals, castles and historic sites like the Calanais Standing Stones (the "Scottish Stonehenge"), Edinburgh Castle that holds the historic Stone of Destiny and Scotland's crown jewels, Doune Castle, made famous by the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Glasgow Cathedral
• Storied golf courses such as Muirfield, Royal Troon, and St. Andrews in the country credited with developing the sport
• Touring Sir Walter Scott's mansion, Abbotsford, with it's incredible library, relics, and mementos, or paying homage to poet Robert Burns at numerous sites
• Shopping for everything from fine wool knits to Caithness glass paper weights to Edinburgh Crystal to tartans and kilts to Highland Stoneware

Like every For Dummies travel guide, Scotland For Dummies includes:

• Down-to-earth trip-planning advice
• What you shouldn't miss - and what you can skip
• The best hotels and restaurants for every budget

Whether you're looking for fun nightlife or the legendary Loch Ness monster...whether you want to explore art galleries and museums or walk craggy seacoasts, this guide gives you the flavor of Scotland so enchantingly you can almost hear the bagpipes.

Barry Shelby was born 1960 in Berkeley, California, where he later attended the University of California. He received a master's degree in journalism in 1984 from Northwestern University in Illinois. From 1984 to June 1997, he was an editor at World Press Review magazine in Manhattan. He moved to Scotland in 1997, ?where he has worked as a caretaker at small and privately owned castle on the Clyde Coast, as a 'temp' with the privatised national railway company as well as a food and drink writer and editor for newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian, Glasgow Herald, and The List. He is married to a Scot and lives in Glasgow's East End with her, two dogs, and a cat.