What to recommend depends a lot on where you will be based and how long you will have on your tour.
Scotland is not a big country but it is rather "hilly" and has a lot of inland lakes called lochs (pronounce it "locks" with a soft "c" and you won't be far wrong, but never say it with the "ch" as in "cheese"). So it can take a long time to get around if you're not going between major towns.
If you are starting from Glasgow then explore the West Highlands. There is an extremely scenic railway that runs to Fort William, a town at the foot of the mountain Ben Nevis. Spend a night or so there then take the steam special to Mallaig. You'll need good guide books so you don't miss out on the Bonnie Prince Charlie memorial tower and the world's first concrete railway viaduct (built by "Concrete Bob" McAlpine) at Glenfinnan.
Also note that one of the viaducts on this railway line has a horse and cart embedded in one of its piers. This happened because of an accident during construction. The pier was hollow and a wagon of "spill" to fill it tipped back into the structure and they couldn't get the horse or wagon out.
The end of the line is Mallaig which you can use as a launch point for visiting the western isles.
The equivalent route up the east Highlands leaves from Edinborough ("Edinburrg") and runs to Inverness. On the way you pass through the rather touristy town of Pitlochry. This is actually worth spending a day in because there are two distilleries that you can visit and a small hydro-electric power station with a "salmon staircase".
At Inverness you are at the extreme east end of Loch Ness. It's worth an overnight here. It would be very cold and damp in autumn (we never call it "fall") especially on the water, but in you want to take a boat trip on the loch then have a go - you may be lucky and see "Nessie".
West from Inverness the railway runs to Kyle of Lochalsh. This is an interesting railway - the trains give way to sheep. At Kyle you can cross to the Isle of Skye. A railway runs north from Inverness to Wick and Thurso, the most northerly towns in Great Britain (but not the UK so get your geo-political knowledge sorted before you come).
The currency is the pound sterling (￡) and you will see Bank of England notes as well as Bank of Scotland notes. They are all equal value in Scotland but the Scottish ones are not always accepted in England.
Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and it is a country with its own parliament on the north of the island known as Great Britain. You don't need a passport or visa to move anywhere in the UK (Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland).
The Scots are rightly proud of their whisky (spelt without an "e"), especiall the malts. If you have a single malt then do not insult the drink by mixing it with anything except water. If you add something like coke-cola then the flavour of the mixer overrides the whisky; and some of the malts have very subtle flavours. If you intend to mix then just use a cheap blend, your taste buds won't know the difference. The same applies to ice - a true whisky drinker will only add chilled water, never ice to his malt "dram". If you follow this advice you will get the respect of the barman, then he won't think of you as "just another ignorant Yank".
Eat haggis at least once. You may not like it because there are great haggis and also cheap and nasty haggis, if you are served the wrong one it could put you off for life.
The best draught beer is known as "heavy", so you would ask for a "pint of heavy". This will be served at room temperature - never "warm". If you just want to drink the "international lagers" then there is no hope for you - stay home.
It's not possible to give you a good Scottish itinerary on this forum but I hope you now have a few ideas to base your own tour on. But get a decent guide book and learn the diferences between the American and English languages, with specific reference to Scottish terminology (we never call our speech "British English"). It will make your lives much easier.
Beautiful areas of scotland:-
Dumfries and Galloway
Isle of Mull
Isle of Skye
The Cairngorns
Rannoch Moor
The Highlands
Sutherland
www.visitscotland.com
www.scotrail.co.uk/freedom-of-scotland-...
www.west-highland-way.co.uk
Look at Loch Lomond, Inverness, Fort William, Tiree.
Have a travel agent help you.
