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Lodging & pub recommendations in these Highland villages, please!

Posted by (St. Louis, MO) on

Hello fellow RS travelers,

I will be on a two week golf trip with fun friends, and will need 3-4 rooms/night. I prefer locally owned places, that have charm, ideally centrally located in the village (not required), but NOT over-the-top. Clean, comfortable, and charming... at a reasonable price. (You know... what Rick has taught us to look for!)

We'll be traveling in May 2024. I would appreciate your recommendations for great spots in these villages:

  • Inverness
  • Nairn
  • Dornoch
  • Portree or Uig (preferred)
  • South Uist
  • Glencoe Valley
  • Aberdeen

I'd also appreciate names of your favorate pubs in these locations, having great food, local following, and hopefully having traditional live music!

Many thanks. I highly value your thoughts!
Ron

Posted by
1117 posts

As I live on Skye I will restrict myself to making recommendations for the island.

My choice for Uig on Skye (as opposed to Uig on Lewis - be careful with your accommodation searches - I've known folk to think they've booked on Skye only to end up needing a ferry to get across to Lewis) would be the Ferry Inn, both for lodging and food. Ferry Inn. I can't really think of anywhere else in Uig worth a stellar recommendation, although the Uig Hotel has a great view, does a very good Sunday roast lunch and the rooms look OK.

In Portree the hotels are somewhat pricy but the newly opened Bracken Hide is getting some good reviews. You stay in a 'pod' but have access to restaurant and hotel type facilities. There are lots of B&B options too in Portree.

On Skye the two main locations for live traditional music are the Old Inn in Carbost and the Edinbane Inn in Edinbane (which also has reasonably priced accommodation). Neither are on your list above as preferred locations, but might be worth checking out.

Hope that helps.
Jacqui (Skyegirl)

Posted by
268 posts

I wouldn't stay in Aberdeen. It is not a village and neither are some of the other places on your list. In my opinion you would do better to travel further inland and stay at the Balmoral Arms hotel in Ballater. I think it might tick the boxes for you including traditional live music. I've never stayed there but have enjoyed a couple of nice lunches.

https://www.crerarhotels.com/balmoral-arms/

Braemar is about a 30 minute drive away along the A93 and live music events are held there at St Margaret's and also the Fife Arms

www.stmargaretsbraemar.org.uk

www.thefifearms.com

If golf is your thing then Ballater and Braemar have excellent courses and I am told Braemar is particularly challenging. If you do play there I can recommend the Flying Stag pub in the aforementioned Fife Arms hotel as a good place for a meal.

www.ballatergolfclub.co.uk

www.braemargolfclub.co.uk

Posted by
6534 posts

In Nairn we ate at The Bandstand Hotel one night. Our lodging, that I highly recommend, was Sunny Brae Bed and Breakfast. It has parking if you have a rental car and EV charging stations. The hosts even did our laundry for £15.

Near Glencoe, we stayed at Tigh Na Cheo in Kinlochleven. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but we had a very pleasant stay. It had a nice sitting room downstairs. In town we ate at Highland Getaway Inn. The meal was good. There’s a spectacular waterfall nearby; Grey Mares Waterfall.

Posted by
1603 posts

We are staying at Sunny Brae B&B in Nairn in June. It looks wonderful. And we have dinner reservations at The Bandstand, The Sun Dancer, and Aurora Restaurant (an Italian restaurant; we want some diversity in our meals so thought we would try Italian. It's Sardinian, I think.)

In Glencoe Valley, we are staying at The Glencoe Inn, where we will have dinner one night. Then we plan on having dinner at The Clachaig Inn. They don't take reservations.

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