Lodging on Skye - recommendations?

We stayed in Portree six nights last June. Two nights in the Pink Guest House. Not recommended. Well worn rooms and mediocre breakfast. Four nights inBen Tianavaig B&B. I’d stay there again. Very clean, attentive and helpful hosts, and an excellent cooked to order breakfast.

Alan, August is peak season on Skye. You may get some excellent recommendations and find the places are already totally booked. I'd suggest also attacking this from the other end: check booking.com and Google "lodging Skye" and see if you can find places that have vacancies during your time period. Speaking from my experience looking for a twin-bedded room in July, it's not going to be easy to find something nice in Portree. But you'll have a car, so you can look for more rural locations.

Hi, Alan,

I can recommend three:

Strathgorm, Lower Breakish (near Broadford). Wonderful, friendly owners, clean and comfortable rooms (two double, one twin/family), and amazing breakfasts. You won't need to eat again until dinnertime.

Almondbank Guest House, Viewfield Road, Portree. Nice hosts, comfortable rooms, great view.

Skyewalker Hostel, Portnalong. Very nice ensuite twins. Pub nearby for meals, or bring your own food and prepare it in the kitchen. Quirky, great owners/wardens. They have a couple of small outdoor yurts, as well. Most of it is dorm accommodation, but the twins are nice.

If all else fails, there's the Dunollie Hotel in Broadford. Shopworn, but comfortable, and a large breakfast buffet. It's used by tour bus companies, so can often be fully booked. Small car park, so you may have to park in the Co-op car park. Mixed reviews on the on-site restaurant. Better to go to the Cafe Sia, just up the road, next to the post office. Well stocked Co-op supermarket next door. Try for a room overlooking Broadford Bay.

Have a wonderful time!

Mike (Auchterless)

As a fallback, I can recommend the Dornie Hotel, located on the mainland within walking distance of Eilean Donan Castle and about 20 minutes by car from the Kyle bridge; also fairly convenient to the Glenelg ferry, should you wish to get to the Isle that way. It's nothing fancy but clean, affordable, and has a very good restaurant/pub that's popular with locals. The staff are very helpful. To make a reservation I had to call on the phone as my first couple of emails didn't get answered, the reason being that the person handling email during the winter was away on vacation.

Hi again, Alan,

I just remembered another Skye hotel where we stayed about ten years ago. It's the Edinbane Hotel, in the village of Edinbane, which is on the A850 between Portree and Dunvegan. This is a very typical Island lodge, with odd shaped but comfortable rooms, and a great pub downstairs.

They have wonderful traditional music sessions a couple of days/nights a week. We went to one of those sessions this past July, on a Sunday afternoon, and it was one of the highlights of our time on Skye.

Slainte!

Mike (Auchterless)

I agree with Mike, the Edinbane Inn is very good.

We really enjoyed our stay at the Bla Bheinn near Carbost. http://www.blabheinn.scot/ Tania has two rooms, very spacious and comfortable. Tania was great and she provided us with good advice, maps, and awesome food. We were there for three nights and Bla Bheinn served as a good hub for great hikes at the Fairy Pools, Quiraing, Fairy Glen, Old Man of Storr and other wonderful Skye locations. I would stay with her again if we returned.

We stayed at the Duirnish Guest House in Portree. It is just outside of town, but was an easy and enjoyable walk, particularly after being in the car most of the day. The parking is free and convenient, and we never had to drive in Portree. It was very comfortable and the hosts were most gracious.

Just to add some information about Edinbane. There are actually two establishments there now. The Edinbane Inn, which I think is the one Mike (Auchterless) referred too, which is essentially a pub with a restaurant and B&B rooms upstairs. They have live music some evenings. There is also now a new place called the Edinbane Lodge. At the moment it is only a restaurant, albeit an excellent one, with a 7 course tasting menu for the very reasonable price of £65. It is housed in an old hunting lodge (dating from the 16th century) and which has been lovingly restored by the new owners (a very talented chef called Calum and his wife). They are also planning to add some guest rooms (I believe) which should be open by the summer. Either place would be excellent. There is also a good B&B in Edinbane called Shorefield House. We stayed there when we were in the process of looking for a house on Skye and thought it excellent. It's a single storey house (so no stairs) with pleasant accommodation and very nice hosts. The location is quiet and it is only a very short walk to either the Inn or the Lodge for dinner.

If you want to base yourself in the north of the island, the Ferry Inn at Uig is another great pub with rooms and lovely views of Uig Bay. It would be very handy for exploring the north end and the Quiraing. I haven't stayed there but have eaten there many times and the owners are very friendly. It might be worth checking out their guest rooms.

Another place that gets excellent reviews on booking.com is Brae View B&B in Glendale. I believe they have a minimum two night stay in high season, but they are one of the highest rated B&Bs on the booking.com site (which many proprietors use). It's out west, but good for Neist Point, Dunvegan Castle and the excellent croft to table restaurant The Red Roof and the acclaimed Three Chimneys in Colbost.

If you are looking at booking.com, bear in mind that any rating less than 9/10 is not that great, and be sure to look at the negative reviews as well as the positive ones!

Good luck.

We stayed at the Bosville hotel in Portree in the center of town this past July. Great location, restaurant and pub.

Thanks again to all, great advice.

Out of curiosity Alan how much per day is the car rental?
We travelled UK in a Spaceship rental van in 2016. We slept free on Skye and Raasay over several nights using showers at the hostel in Portree and Raasay House. This was in August and it appeared much of the accommodation was fully booked.
Such a glorious place is Skye.
Raasay was lovely too. Well worth the ferry trip.

Lots of great recommendations on locating lodging. I want to warn you about dinner reservations. We went in September and were grateful our B&B host advised we get reservations before we arrived. In the case of Scorrybreac, I contacted them a few weeks in advance as they are so popular. We were able to make other reservations a day or two in advance, but if you plan to present yourselves for a table, you may not get to eat.

BTW, we had three of the best dinners in a two week trip in Portree!

We had a lovely stay with Kev & Janey at Morar B&B which is located in Ardvasar. We chose that location vs staying in Portree, because we had reserved the early morning ferry to Mallaig. The B&B is literally 3 minutes from the ferry terminal. http://www.accommodation-on-skye.co.uk/

I have not been yet, but am booked to stay at the Grasmhor B&B outside Portree -- the host has already been very lovely in helping me book & plan!

I will say I was feeling discouraged because so many places I tried were booked -- but it was more the places with online booking systems. Once I started direct emailing I got many more availability responses!

Good luck!

In 2016 we stayed at Skye Haven in Portree. Great view of the bay, free parking, small room but it suited our purpose, short 15 minute stroll from downtown. Had supper at the Granary and would recommend.