We will be in Oban for two nights in July. We would like to see all three islands. Should we buy tix now or wait til we arrive? We will arrive in Oban the afternoon before we’d like to travel to the three islands. Worried tix will sell out but also worried the weather could be bad, especially for the Staffa part, and we’d have to eat the tickets. Thanks!
Posted by
Last Frontier aka Alaska 🏔️
3561 posts
It’s a crap shoot! We are going to wait until we are there so we know the weather. But, we have three nights too.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8879 posts
I don't think that the Rick Steves tour being in town will impact your ability to get tickets for the 3 island tour. First, they don't even attempt to go to Staffa. Secondly, I am assuming that they have their own dedicated bus on Mull. The ferry will always have room for walk on passengers.
In a worst case scenario, you wouldn't get to do the Staffa portion of the tour if there is bad weather. You would still get to do the Mull and Iona portions. The ferry to Mull is huge and weather isn't going to really impact it. The crossing to Iona is a short distance across protected waters. You really wouldn't have to "eat the tickets." entirely. I would suggest prepurchasing the 3 island early bird tour. We really enjoyed this and the puffins on Staffa. If we couldn't have gone to Staffa, I don't think that I would have felt that everything was a loss. Mull and Iona still offer quite an interesting trip.
Posted by
OP
USA
11 posts
Thanks everyone. Based on your advice, I bought my tickets for the three island tour ahead of time. :)
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14723 posts
"Those are already pre-booked. Want to make a small wager that those dates are already sold out?"
This is not correct. Our RS Scotland guide bought our CalMac ferry tickets the night before and tours would have no impact on the Three Island Tour. We took the huge ferry from Oban to Mull, got on to a hired coach, toured Mull as we drove to the Iona ferry dock, took the public ferry to Iona, then reversed the trip.
I know they wait until the last minute to buy them because it's so weather based. We barely got out to Iona due to wind/storm then had a very truncated visit as we had to catch a ferry back to Mull before 3PM as they would be shutting down due to weather.