i will be in scotland june 14 for 10 days and i am having no luck requesting reservations for dinner. i have tried going on the sites that are offered to schedule and keep getting a message that it failed to send, also some of the websites are not secure. we will be in edinburgh ,Inverness and skye . I was told it is necessary to reserve especially in Skye. please advise. thanks
Posted by
Glasgow, Scotland
1694 posts
Try and find the actual website of the restaurant.
The best thing is once you have that, find the e-mail address and use that. If you have not heard anything in 24 hours, chase up.
Posted by
OP
NC
50 posts
yes, that is what i did. it had the whole format to completei sent it and it came back as failed. also it seemed that there were no availability even out to 6 months. i dont know if the site is having problems or it it is me. tried skye and edinburgh with no sucess
Posted by
OP
NC
50 posts
cullin hills did not have any options to dine for dinner, only lawn tables
Posted by
Isle of Skye, Scotland
1306 posts
You are right that reservations are a very good idea for Skye as demand outstrips supply in the summer. I am not sure why your emails/booking forms are not working correctly. I have just reserved tables at two of Skye's upscale places for July/August without issue using their online forms. However, I also tried to book somewhere for a friend coming to stay on Skye in June and came up a blank on the more popular places. I'd suggest finding phone numbers for the places you are interested in and calling them. However, availability at the upper end places in mid June might be problematic by now.
Best wishes
Jacqui (Skyegirl)
Posted by
North Carolina
98 posts
Hi, Susan. This may not be especially helpful. It is more of a "trip report" regarding my recent reservations experience.
My husband and I just finished a North Coast 500 tour with Rabbie's. About a week before our tour was to begin, the company sent an email encouraging us to book dinner reservations in the places we were to overnight (Ullapool and Thurso). I immediately got on the task. I either emailed or used a restaurant's website's reservation service (most used OpenTable). I was entirely unsuccessful and a bit worried! What I learned, however, during the course of the journey with Rabbie's is many establishments are not actually taking reservations right now as there is a significance shortage in staff and they cannot accurately judge how many they can accommodate, so de facto, it is "first come, first served" based on what can be accommodated. (I guess the booking service can be set to make it appear that a restaurant is fully booked.) --In retrospect, I think this reveals a lot that is very positive about those who own and/or run those restaurants, and with stops at Spars and Tesco and little food trucks along the way, all on our journey had more than enough to keep us going.
Before we left for Inverness to pick up our tour, we were in Edinburgh, and we were able to find a place to dine easily with little or no wait. Now in Inverness, we have found a modest wait (very modest). I remain a bit worried about Skye but hope that we will be able to dine at our hotel.
I should add that while my husband and I are on the search for the best Cullen skink in the country, we are in no way foodies.