We will be in Scotland in July with our 13-year-old grandson. We fly in to Glasgow on a Tuesday, rent a car at the airport and drive to Inverness, where we have an apartment for 4 nights. We will do some hiking and tour the highlands (suggestions welcome), and return the car to the Inverness airport on Saturday morning. I had hoped that we would then take the train to Kyle, rent a car and spend the night in Portree, where we have a booking. We’d see some of Skye (mainly Trotternish) and return the car at Armadale on Sunday in time to catch the ferry and the 4:00 train to Glasgow. We fly out at noon on Monday. The wall I’ve run into is that none of the car hires on or near Skye will rent to drivers over 75, and I’m stuck for solutions without a car. We can take the train and a bus from Inverness to Portree, but getting from Portree to Armadale on Sunday appears to be very difficult. I looked at hiring a driver and car, but it is way outside our budget. The taxis are also expensive, and public transportation doesn’t seem to work very well. I’m afraid we may have to skip Skye, but even then getting from Inverness to the train in Mallaig seems difficult. Riding the West highland route is a top priority for our grandson, so we need to figure out how to do that. Any help will be highly appreciated!!
Posted by
Isle of Skye, Scotland
1305 posts
I'm sorry that you are unable to rent a car in or near Skye. You could consider a Rabbles 1 day tour from Inverness to Skye for your day on Skye. Rabbies tours from Inverness
You could then take a Citylink coach/bus from Inverness to Fort William, and pick up the West Highland train there and take the train out to Mallaig and back. CityLink timetables The timetable I have linked to is the winter timetable but summer will be similar.
Whether all that fits with your available time only you can say. You could always skip Skye and give yourself more time to get from Inverness to Fort William and onto the train.
Hope this helps.
Jacqui (Skyegirl)
Posted by
103 posts
Trying to see/get around Skye without a car is unfortunately pretty difficult. As you probably noticed, the public transport isn't that great.
If taking the W Highland train is s priority then I'd probably skip Skye and take the bus from Inverness as mentioned.
Lastly, you don't mention where your flying in from to Glasgow, but if you're arriving off a transatlantic flight then I'd strongly recommend against immediately picking up a hire car and driving to Inverness. It's a 175 mile journey which will take at least 3.5hrs. Moreover, the A9 road to Inverness is often cited as Scotland's most dangerous road with a lot of serious and fatal accidents involving foreign visitors - as such it's not a good idea to drive it straight off a long haul flight with jetlag.
There are regular trains from Glasgow Queen St stn to Inverness and you could pick up a car once in Inverness.
If you're flying from somewhere else in Europe then that's fine, but be careful.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks to both of you for the suggestions. We will be flying in from Reykjavik that morning after a one-day stopover, so we’ll be pretty rested. Thanks for the tip about the road, though; we’ll take care.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA
82 posts
Not sure what your budget for a private driver/guide would be, but in 2016 we used the services of Exquisite Scotland, which is based in Inverness. The proprietor/guide is K Thompson and we found his rates (which are shown on his website) very reasonable for the service. We toured as follows-
Day 1 - Full day tour around Inverness
Day 2 - Full day driving and touring to Portree, where we overnighted for two nights.
Day 3 -- Full day tour around Isle of Skye (2nd night spent in Portree).
Day 4 -- Part day driving tour ending with drop off in Oban.
Note, this is not luxury travel. K has a very comfortable VW van (also pictured on his website). I was actually looking for just a driver to get to Portree and Oban, but K turned out to be a very accomplished guide. Extra cost will be his overnight in hotels along the way, but that was also quite reasonable. You could confirm that, and any other extra costs, in advance.
If you you pursue this, be sure to get K Thompson as you driver/guide. I think he sometimes subs out work to others. You could also check out his Tripadvisor reviews.
Posted by
Last Frontier aka Alaska 🏔️
3575 posts
I will add that we went from Inverness to Portree, but we had a car. I always plan the logistics from getting one place to another before I commit or reserve hotels or anything. Something that might seem close by and easy on a map, sometimes proves very difficult to get to.
I think you may have to chalk this up to a travel lesson learned or fork out the big bucks for a private transfer. Check with your hotel and see if they have any suggestions. If possible, dont miss Skye. Absolutely incredible!
Posted by
Gig Harbor, Washington, USA
1869 posts
Check out Arnold Clark car rentals. Their website says that if the driver is 80 or older, he/she will need a note from their doctor saying they are still fit to drive. Apparently, they are willing to rent to seniors.