Glasgow is a cheaper city to stay in compared to Edinburgh and a convenient starting point if you are driving up to the Isle of Skye. We did a few day trips out of Glasgow:
Day 1 - Stirling, Falkirk Wheel and Kelpies
All these are just less than an hours drive from Glasgow and you can leisurely space them out and cover all of them in a day, maybe even more :)
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Day 2 - Carlton Hill, Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle
Between Glasgow (Queen Street Station) and Edinburgh (Waverley Station), ScotRail runs over 180 trains daily with express trains only taking 45-52 mins each way. You don't have to book that much in advance, a day before is perfectly OK. For the 2 trips we did from Glasgow to Edinburgh, we bought the Off-peak day return. Note that Off-peak tickets allow you to travel any time after 9:15am to 4:30pm and 6:30pm onward on weekdays and any time on weekends and bank holidays.
We started from Carlton hill first and work our way into the city and then Edinburgh castle after lunch
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There is always a long queue to see the crown jewels. But since the collection is not as extensive as the Tower of London, the wait is not too overwhelming :)
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Day 3 - Deans Village and Edinburgh city
Edinburgh is a very beautiful city. We can actually spend a few more days there but unfortunately, time does not permit. We can only visit once more time on the next day. Deans village is not that far from the city, if the weather is not too warm, it's can be a very nice and leisure walk.
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