Your journey begins on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, Scotland's largest loch and the jewel of its first national park. The village of Luss on the western shore is among the most photographed in Scotland — its distinctive slate-roofed cottages clustered at the water's edge, with the loch stretching northward into the hills beyond. A gentle pause here rewards with views that have barely changed in centuries, and the village's tranquil atmosphere provides a perfect introduction to the wild grandeur of The Trossachs National Park that surrounds it.

Continuing west into the heart of Argyll, the road climbs dramatically to one of Scotland's most celebrated viewpoints. Rest and Be Thankful — named for the relief felt by soldiers who built the original military road here in the eighteenth century — sits at the head of Glen Croe at nearly 860 feet, where the mountains converge in a great sweeping amphitheatre of rock and heather. The view down the glen from this vantage point is one of the most dramatic in the country, and the name has never felt more apt than on a clear Highland day.

Descending into the Cowal Peninsula, the road follows the shores of Loch Eck, a slender and remarkably beautiful freshwater loch hemmed between steep wooded hillsides. Stretching for five miles through this narrow glacial valley, Loch Eck has an intimate, enclosed quality quite different from the grand open lochs of the north — the trees pressing close to the water's edge and the hills rising sharply on either side create a sense of sheltered seclusion that is deeply peaceful.

Perched on the shores of Loch Fyne, Inveraray is one of Scotland's finest planned towns — its elegant white-painted Georgian architecture reflected in the still waters of the loch, with the wooded hills of the Argyll estate rising behind. Built in the eighteenth century by the Duke of Argyll to complement his rebuilt castle nearby, the town has a quiet grandeur and architectural coherence rare in the Highlands. Inveraray Castle, seat of the Clan Campbell and ancestral home of the Dukes of Argyll, sits just beyond the town in its wooded policies and is one of Scotland's most distinctive stately homes.

Dunoon, the principal town of the Cowal Peninsula, set on the Firth of Clyde with long views across the water to the hills of Ayrshire beyond. Once a favourite Clyde resort for Glaswegians escaping the city by steamer — the so-called Doon the Watter tradition — Dunoon retains a breezy, unhurried character and a fine Victorian seafront. The town is also home to the famous Cowal Highland Gathering, one of the largest Highland games in the world, held each August on the hillside above the bay.