Car rental Oban to Portree

Hi, George,

The simple answer, as far as I know, is that it can't be done. There are two car hire companies in Oban - Flit and Hazelbank. Both are small companies. You would need to return the rental car to Oban. The only option would be to convince someone from one of those companies to drive you to Portree. That would most likely cost a fortune.

Oban to Portree is at least 4 1/2 hours. One hour Oban to Fort William; one hour Fort William to Mallaig; Half an hour for pre-ferry boarding; half an hour for the ferry ride; 90 minutes Armadale to Portree. You could travel by road from Oban to Invergarry, then the A87 to Portree, but you'd still be looking at a good four hours, if you're lucky.

It depends on what your plans are after you arrive in Portree. If you're staying on Skye for a while, and need access to a car, you could take the train from Oban to Inverness, changing at Crainlarich, then train to Kyle of Lochalsh and hire a car there. But that is still going to take the better part of a day. UPDATE: This is wrong. If you are going from Oban to Inverness by train, you have to switch trains at Glasgow, not Crainlarich!

I'd say that the best thing to do, if you want to get to Portree quickly, is to find a private driver to take you. It's going to cost a lot, as you would have to compensate the driver for his or her return journey to Oban. And no, as of now, there is no Uber in Oban! There are private drivers (and taxi service) in Oban, but my best guess would be at least $500.00.

I hope that you find some way to work this out. I'm sure that isn31c will pitch in with some ideas.

Good luck, and best wishes,

Mike (Auchterless)

Essentially I agree with Auchterless.

But Oban to Portree is not a 3 hour drive as you state. If you are lucky and don't encounter any slow moving traffic anywhere (like tour buses, farmers, delivery trucks, other tourists, roadworks etc) and don't stop to see any of the scenery or for bathroom breaks you might do it in a tiny bit under 4 hours. But these roads are nothing like interstates. You need to drive to the road conditions. At 5am Google maps was saying 3hrs 30 mins- if you are a local who knows the road very well, encounters no other issues/hazards and is willing to take risks (kicking down hard to use miniscule overtaking gaps) that may well be possible at that time of morning. But equally it is dark, and the chances of encountering deer or other wildlife is high. You run into a deer in the dark and you aren't going anywhere further fast. Equally at 5am Google Maps was saying 3:56 via Mallaig on a non existent 7am ferry, and just driving straight on to that non existent ferry with no wait line. It doesn't work like that in the Highlands.

My advice is to learn Highland Time, drive responsibly and enjoy and take in the scenery you have come all this way to see.

Hazelbank in Oban is or was a Practical agent so you can/could do one way rentals from there to other Practical depots. But no national/international chain does drop offs in Portree. Skye is strictly local car hire companies.
However on doing a dummy booking it looks like they have given that up (sometime last year) so seem to only now rent on their own account.

On the bus the change point is at Fort William- a significant town. Take advantage of the time to have a quick explore of Fort William, have lunch, maybe see the steam train, the museum, the scant remains of the old fort which gave the town it's name (at the official start of the Great Glen Way walk- the successor trail to the West Highland Way which ends in the town).

Take that as an opportunity, not an impediment.

I am a bit bemused by Mike's Oban to Inverness train as the line from Fort William to Inverness was never finished.

I suspect the fastest route is the morning bus to Fort William, the lunchtime diesel train to Mallaig, ferry over as foot pax, then car rental at Armadale.

Buses to Portree run in connection with local year round needs, and as ferry connections to the Outer Hebrides- and are timed accordingly.

Briefly you would end up spending a fortune on a taxi or private driver to gain maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours . That is your prerogative. Your choice. Your money.

Hi, Stuart,

I was thinking of Fort William when I wrote that you could change trains at Crainlarich! I know that the change point from Oban to Inverness is actually Glasgow Queen Street! I was posting late last night - the last thing before I went to bed. After I'd been in bed for a while, I remembered that the Oban train doesn't go to Crainlarich. Faced with the thought of getting out of a warm bed to correct my error, or waiting until morning to suffer the slings and arrows of your correction, I opted for the former!

Anyway, I stand corrected. I offer my apology to our OP. I should not be making these posts late at night!

Best wishes,

Mike (Auchterless)

Hi George
As a Skye resident I can tell you with absolute certainty that a one way rental from Oban to Portree is not possible. Simply because these are small independent, family run companies without the resources to do it, and because there is little demand. I am a local and yet have seldom needed to get to Oban.

The bus takes that long because that’s how long it takes to drive the journey! Google times are way out. Roads are narrow with few safe overtaking places. Traffic is slow.

Stuart and Mike offer excellent advice.

June will be my first visit to Scotland and I initially began planning with the mentality 'I've driven up to 9 hours in a day here in Australia, a few hours over there will be a breeze!' as I'm sure you've similarly thought being from the States.

You'll find consistent advice that driving in Scotland takes some concentration (think windy, narrow roads, in some cases the one lane road operating in both directions) and being slower than the map suggests.

We'll be doing the drive from Glencoe to Portree in a few months (about an hour closer than Oban) and from the advice of plenty of others are planning for it to be a full day event but we'll be making the most of it and stopping along the way, such as in Glenfinnan where we expect to spend a few hours.

I'm yet to speak from experience but have been told many a times now that in Scotland, the journey often is the destination because the landscape is that beautiful.