We will be in Scotland in the beginning of September doing the NC500 starting in Inverness. We want to go to the Isle of Skye area first for a couple days. Which area or town in this area would be best for lodging to navigate the islands? We plan to go to Torridon from here.
Posted by
Last Frontier aka Alaska 🏔️
3560 posts
Portree is the biggest town with the most services (and crowds). It depends if that is what you want or one of the smaller towns with less services. You also don't mention what islands you want to go to? Lewis? Many stay on the mainland in Plockton, which would be closer to your next destination.
Posted by
Gig Harbor, Washington, USA
1862 posts
We have visited Skye three times. The first time we stayed at Flodigarry which is out near the Uig ferryport. Lovely location, extremely inconvenient for visiting other locales. Second time, we stayed in Portree. Excellent B and B, parking was a nightmare, restaurants mediocre. Convenient for visiting the Skye peninsulas. Last visit (2015) we stayed in Broadford, This was the best location of the three - lots of services and several good restaurants nearby. Broadford was the most central location for visiting all parts of Skye and nearby Eileen Donan Castle and Plockton. Neither Portree or Broadford are especially charming towns. That often seen Portree picture of the pretty colored houses is about one block long. The rest of the town is pretty mundane. Broadford is a "strung out along the road" sort of town. It's location is much better, IMHO.
We did the NC500 in 2015. It was interesting but not what I would choose for a first trip to Scotland. The north coast is quite barren and empty. We found the areas around Loch Torridon, the Great Glen, and Glencoe to be much more scenic. Also worth the time, if you are visiting Skye, is taking the ferry from Uig to Harris and Lewis for an overnight. Harris has beautiful beaches on one side, a moonscape on the other side. Lewis is filled with tiny lochs and you can visit Callanish. Harris and Lewis are actually one island, despite the two names.
Posted by
Ottawa
237 posts
We visited the Isle of Skye for 3 days last Sept. When trying to find accommodation on Skye, there was little available and what was left was outrageously expensive for our budget.
As was mentioned above, we chose to stay in Plockton which is a charming small village close to the bridge to Skye. There are a few B&Bs and a couple of small hotels.
We had a charming place to stay called the Heron's Roost with on site parking.
Dining is limited so best to ask your host/hostess to make dinner reservations for you at least your first night.
Posted by
228 posts
I have visited Skye just once. It was July, around 1985.
I think it must have been closed ;-)