Hello, all, I'm travelling to Scotland this May and am planning on spending three days in the Isle of Skye. Couple of questions: 1)Is 3 days enough time to cover Skye? 2)What's the transport situation within Skye if you don't have a car? 3)I'm travelling alone and thinking of staying in Kyleakin. I'm coming in by Ferry from Mallaig to Armadale. Is getting to Kyleakin from Armadale a problem? Maybe Portree would be better?
I'd really appreciate some help here. :)
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
You can see a lot of Skye in three days, but it really depends on what you want to do . It's a bigger island than most people realize. The public transportation is not very good. It's a lot, lot easier with your own car. THere are a couples of threads on this issue on other forums. The TripAdvisor forum is more optimistic and has some specific advice. The Fodor's forum is more pessimistic. It comes down to this. You can do it by public transit, but it takes a lot more time. You need to plan carefully. No matter what I don't think staying in Kyleakin is a good idea. It's on the very edge of Skye. It is good access to Elgol, but a long way to Trotterish and a long way to Dunvegan. I stayed in Broadford for a photo workshop and it was a bit more centrally located. My sister and I stayed at Portree on my first visit to Skye many years ago. We had no car, but oh my we did run into the no bus on Sunday and ended up hitching. What is stopping you from renting the car? Cost or fear of driving? If it's the latter then I wouldn't worry so much. It's not that hard to drive on the left. Lots and lots of people do it. And in rural location you won't have the stress of traffic. It looks like to get specifics on schedules you'll need to peruse the Stagecoach website. I found a PDF of the route from Portree to Elgol. http://www.stagecoachbus.com/PdfUploads/Map_29799_South%20Skye%20(55,%20152,%20155,%20164).pdf
Posted by
OP
bangalore
2 posts
Thank, Pamela. This certainly helps. The reason I'm not taking a car is I can't drive. :) I've been trying to get accommodation in Portree, but everything looks to be all booked up for my dates, unfortunately. Hopefully I can find something. Looks like I'm just gonna wing it, land up there and hope for he best.
Any recommendations of must-do things in Skye?
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
Try Broadford. Or, look into tours. Rabbie's Tours gets lots of endorsements on this site. There's a three-day out of Edinburgh or Glasgow. It looks like SkyeTours from Kyleankin is one option, but the reviews raise some issues to check into. You could try for custom... Or if you just can't find a place or work this out, think about Mull. It's another Hebridean Island. You can get to Oban by train. Then take the ferry to the Island and catch a local bus to Tobermorey. There are lots of tours from that there. Fionnphort at the other end of the island has the tours to Iona and to Staffa. Mull is a great island. It has castles too. You do have the same issue with buses though.