Looking for B&B Recs for Portree/Skye

One of our regular forum members owns a BandB on Skye. Her user name is Skyegirl and you could send her a private message through the board to find out more. I would probably start there just because she has been so helpful to so many people.

You have probably left it a bit late, as many places get booked a year in advance. You may need dinner reservations for some popular spots, particularly at the weekend.

Skyegirl should be able to assist. My go to guide for B&Bs is sawdays.co.uk.

I hope you are planning on a 4+ night stay, as there is plenty to see and do and the weather may not cooperate.

P.S. It’s whisky not whiskey!

Hi Marcus
Because I live here and don't stay in B&Bs my knowledge of the B&Bs of Portree is a bit limited.

However, if you are prepared to do self catering then this lovely cabin on the edge of Portree with views over the bay is fantastic. The Cedar's Cabin It is within about 10 minutes walk of the village centre and also within walking distance of the Aros centre, which has a grocery store (including sale of alcohol so you could buy your whisky and bring it back to the cabin) and cafe.

Here's a B&B option nearer to the centre of the village Orchard House

Another option a little further out from Portree could be Tianvaig House, which has two lovely rooms with continental breakfast Tianvaig House

People on here will know that I have my own B&B, but for the avoidance of any doubt it's not in or near Portree! I do know the owners of the 1st and 3rd places I've listed, but I have no incentive to mention their places - I do so because they are great places to stay - you can see their reviews via the links!

Best wishes, and happy to help with any other information about Skye.

Jacqui (Skyegirl)

It’s been years, but we stayed at a B&B on Boswell Terrace. I don’t recall the name, but remember we were traveling without reservations were lucky to get a room. Most B&Bs were booked solid and the room we got was on the 3rd floor, no elevator.

Thanks for your help everyone! We now have lodging lined up for our entire trip through Scotland. Skyegirl is absolutely correct, there's definitely more demand than supply (especially in the more touristed or remote areas) and finding places to stay is difficult. If I can offer any advice on the process: Book now, dont wait!

I'd say it would be prudent to make dinner reservations anywhere you want to eat, not just at the popular places. If you fail to do that, my suggestion is to be at the door of a place where you'd be happy to eat shortly before it's due to open. You might get lucky. Sunday is especially challenging, because a lot of restaurants are closed then, but the tourists still want to eat.

For anyone concerned about lodging on Skye being all booked up, I can recommend the Dornie Hotel, about 10 min from the Kyle of Lochalsh Bridge and literally a stone's throw from Eilean Donan Castle. It's affordable, clean -- nothing fancy -- with helpful staff. Their pub seems popular with the locals, serves good food, and IIRC has a good selection of local whiskies.

Jennifer you do know we often spell things differently in the States.

Tyre is Tire
Aeroplane is Airplane
Arse is Ass
Ageing is Aging
Offence is Offense

So Whisky is Whiskey

Cheers

Hi Claudia -

I hesitate to take issue with someone so experienced (and whose posts I actually always look forward to) but the ‘e’ in whisk(e)y is a differentiation thing for Brits. Taught at our mother’s knee - well, almost - the whiskey with the ‘e’ is Irish and the whisky without is Scottish. From personal experience I know the Scots can be touchy about their Scotch!

Me? I’m an equal opportunities consumer, but as someone who is English I try to ‘keep the band in the nick’ as we say hereabouts as we apparently start from a little way back when it comes to offending either the Irish or Scots!

Ian

P.S. To be strictly accurate we should be spelling it ‘uisge beatha’!

I'm with Ian and Julie here. Regardless of how it is spelt in the States, the one good way guaranteed to really upset the Scots is to put an e in their whisky...

I had heard about drink spiking ,but that's exteme

Richard - ‘Sorted for e’s and whizz(ky)’.

My drug of choice is Tetley's.
I know not if what you speak...

Not to derail the conversation, I also hope to be on Skye in May and have an AirBnb booked, but I always frown at how many places only have a Double for a bed. I would never get a decent nights sleep in a double thus I won't book them. The Scottish King = Canadian Queen which is acceptable but I prefer the SuperKing (?) which is the Canadian King. For my 23 nights I have booked in Scotland I have 5 nights booked in a Canadian Queen and 18 nights in places with 2 single beds.

The reason I mention this is I entered those places Skyegirl noted and two of them are booked for my dates, and the third only has a double. They all look lovely and have good reviews but I just can't bear to sleep in a double bed with my wife, we'd have marital issues if I did that.

Am I being too picky, or am I preserving my marriage?

I strongly suspect the "double" means a bed for two people. It will be a king-sized bed 150cm wide rather than the traditionally named double bed which is 135cm wide. A super king in the UK is 200cm wide and you won't find them very often in b and bs.

Irish whiskey
Bourbon whiskey
Scotch whisky

simple

the best way to be sure of the bed size is to ask the host, or it may be in the detailed listing. It also will help you gauge the responsiveness and helpfulness of the host.

We have reservations and haven't been yet, but we're booked at Grenitote B&B - 5 minutes up the hill from town with lots of free parking. When I look for lodging, I often dig for places that don't use booking.com, VRBO, and the like, and they often only accept cash payment. If I owned a B&B, the commissions would bug me too, so I like to support them. I also hate searching for parking in town.

Just to add in respect of the post above this one, that most (if not all) B&B owners will happily take a booking outside of booking.com or Airbnb etc. Just contact them directly. Most small B&Bs use the agencies because of the reach it gives them, and it certainly does increase the number of bookings. However, the Visit Scotland website also has a decent search engine to help find B&Bs. So a combination of searching the major agencies plus Visit Scotland to get phone numbers and email addresses might be a good strategy.

I"d also certainly recommend asking the hosts about bed sizes. I'd have thought very few places would offer old style doubles (4 foot 6 wide). Most would offer UK King Size, which is 5 foot or 150cm at the very least. But always worth asking.

Skyegirl (Jacqui)