Questions about a four night/five day tour of Scotland

Much as I love Mull and Iona, I think the first itinerary scenically will offer the best bang for your bucks - particulkarly on Days 2 and 3.

Thank you so much. What do you think about staying 2 nights in Ullapool?

Ullapool is a pleasant small town on the shores of Loch Broom. It is the ferry port for Stornoway.

With two full days, you won’t have a lot of time in Ullapool itself, as it will mainly be used as a place to sleep. I like it as it is the kind of place to drop out and relax.

The town centre is compact and didn’t exist until 1788 when the British Fisheries Society commissioned Thomas Telford to design a village and port for the developing herring fishing industry, as part of a plan for the development of the Highlands. It is a grid pattern of wide streets lined with stone built or whitewashed houses.

There is a small shopping area on West Argyll Street. Shops are mainly geared to tourists though. There is an Information Centre and a very good museum in a redundant Church. (This was one of thirty across the Highlands designed by Telford and funded from Government money.)

The only other real tourist attraction is the Stoneware Pottery on the edge of town. This produces hand thrown and hand painted pottery and you may be lucky to see them at work. It produces some lovely designs.

What a lovely response! Thank you so much. Do you have any recommendations about where to stay and where to have dinner? Also for Portree.

This is a diversion from the OP's question, but please indulge me. It is nice to see @Wasley's back. I am told she has been on holiday for a few weeks but her absence from the forum over the last few weeks has been noticed, and she has been missed.

This is a bit more about the Parliamentary Churches- https://caithness.org/caithnessfieldclub/bulletins/1980/october/thomas_telfords_parliamentary_churches.htm#:~:text=The%20term%20%27Parliamentary%20Churches%27%20arose%20from%20the%20fact,of%20the%20most%20thinly%20populated%20and%20scattered%20parishes.

For Ullapool eating I can recommend the Ceilidh Place. I see they also have rooms, so might well be worth checking out.

For Portree dining I recommend Gasta, which is a pizza place, or for something a bit fancier Scorrybreac

I would also pick the first one. I made a lot of the same stops on my own drive, and the scenery is stunning. The drive out to Applecross was my favourite section of road.

All these suggestions are great. Thank you.

Now we are deciding between Rabbie's and Best Scottish Tours. Any opinions would be welcome.

Ceilidh Place gets a vote from here too.
The much much improved shore street which opened last year is a nice place to lean on the rails and view the hills at the head of Loch Broom.
Outstanding fish n chips at the Seaforth ( eat out)
The Seaforth bar is outrageously expensive for a beer, the local taxi driver who had brought us from Dundonnall said the Ceilidh was the locals bar.
Theres a nice shortest walk up Ullapool hill ,maybe 500 ft climb ish.

this is the 4 night/5 day itinerary proposed by Best Scottish Tours: (they look to be a little more lux than Rabbie's)
Could really use help deciding between this itinerary and the Rabbie's Highland Explorer tour (above)
1) Loch Lomond, Inverary and Glencoe (overnight Glencoe)
2) Road to the Isles, lunch in Mallaig, ferry to Skye and overnight
3) tour of Skye-Uig, Old Man of Storr, Kilt Rock Falls and Trotternish Peninsula with overnight in Portree (not sure if Portree yet)
4) Eileen Donan through Glen Shiel to Fort Augustus and Loch Ness (ugh) and Creag Meagaidh National Reserve- overnight Pitlochry
5) Pitlochry to Dunkeld and Stirling castle tour (then back to Edinburgh)

For me, if I totally ignore the different price point, the Rabbies Highland Explorer wins hands down.

How lux can a small van really be anyway?

If we add in the price point, even if I let Rabbies choose my accommodation, at the very top end of their price range, then if the two itineraries were identical I would choose Rabbies as they seem to use, slightly more RS type places shall we say and still come out cheaper- more my personal type of hotel/guest house.

As it is I just think the Rabbies itinerary is a far better one, not as "predictable" as that of the competition.

You are totally right. It’s really a much better itinerary. It’s the lodging that’s probably vastly different. And I like to stay in a nice place. But you said exactly what I’m thinking. It’s a much better itinerary.

Hi ebwrite -

I’m with wasleys, Stuart (isn31c), Richard and Skyegirl. Go north young man!

Ian

Thank you all!!!

Looks like it’s really tough to find good lodging in Ullapool. Any suggestions?

Where have you tried?

What does the Rabies tour suggest as accommodation options?

Rabbie’s doesn’t give a hint as to where in Ullapool but uniformly almost every place I looked is booked for my September dates. Harbour House would be my preference but it’s booked.

What I wonder is whether Rabbies have block booked rooms for their tour dates in each destination.

I'm signed up for the Rabbie's Mull/Iona/Skye tour this fall. I wanted to see Iona first and foremost, which is why I chose that one. I'm going to the Cairngorms on my own earlier in my trip. I also don't have a huge interest in seeing Loch Ness-I'd rather see Loch Lomond, which the Mull/Iona/Skye tour visits. But I think either one would ultimately be great!

Yes, sounds like a great trip also. Are you booking accommodations through Rabbie’s or on your own?

ebwrite, I chose to book on my own. I just wanted to be 100% in control of my budget, especially as a solo traveler where I'll inevitably end up with a certain level of "singles tax." I booked far enough in advance (well before I actually registered for the tour) that I found some decent options.

I would book accommodation via Rabbies. Ullapool is tiny with few places so they may have block booked. I'd try the Ceilidh place and if you can't get in there go with Rabbies. There's no real luxury places anyway.

Jacqui (Skyegirl)

I did contact Rabbies and we will be booking direct either Harbour House or Eileen Donan B & B. As for Portree, super hard to find anything available. The problem with Rabbies is that they don't tell you what they booked in advance and as we have a special situation- need two bedrooms or some other type of lodging, it's even more difficult. My adult son doesn't want to share a room with me. Suggestions very welcome.

I’ve been trying for days, but I really just can’t get any accommodation at all in Portree for our dates, so I think I’m going to have Rabbies book for us. Would love to hear from other people who have booked lodging through them. I’m a little nervous about it.

ebwrite

For my Rabbies tour of the western Highlands and the island of Skye in October of 2022, I chose to have Rabbies book the accommodations. I was insecure about asking them to do that so I booked a cancellable back up place that was near Portree, but not right in town. Rabbies took a bit longer responding to my email inquiry about where they booked and I was getting antsy knowing places in or near Portree get reserved far in advance. that is why I had a back up plan of my own.

In the end, I went with the BnBs that Rabbies booked and cancelled the one I had as a back up. The accommodations were wonderful.

The 4 day tour was phenomenal.

Edited: oops, my trip was in August and September.

Attached is my TR of the Scotland September 2022 trip should you think the information might help in your planning.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/scotland-and-london-3-weeks-august-september-2022

We loved the B&B Rabbies booked for us on a tour of England and Wales-I think it was in Shrewsbury. I've never been on a RS tour, but based on what people on this forum have said about some of the accommodations on his tours, I have more confidence in the ones Rabbies books. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't book you two separate rooms. Also, Rabbies may give the accommodations enough business that they would be more likely to have a room available for them to book rather than one for an unknown tourist.

I think we will have Rabbies book the lodging.

Rabbies accommodation will serve you just fine. It's not as though there are 5 star hotels in Portree. It's a small village with limited choice. All the B&Bs are basically very similar.

Update: we did book Harbour House in Ullapool but still having trouble finding anything for Portree. We are limited because we will not have a car. Rabbie's offered Pier Hotel but the reviews are just terrible. Any other suggestions appreciated.

If it were me, I would go with the hotel Rabbies offered: The Pier Hotel since you are having so much trouble finding availability in Portree. Frankly, the reviews on TripAdvisor were not horrible from my view. Most of the bad reviews were old ones.

Recent reviews of the Pier Hotel look OK and to be honest you are unlikely to find anything better in the village itself unless you look at somewhere like the Marmalade Hotel, which is probably the nicest hotel in the village. The only real alternative would be to look on Airbnb and zoom right in on Portree so you can find something walkable to eating options. If you want to check out any specific airbnb locations you are welcome to send me a private message and I can give you an opinion on location.

We ended up reserving at Harbour House in Ullapool and Marmalade in Portree. It is expensive even with a discount. I will keep looking. Does anybody have an opinion about the Bosville? There’s so many lovely b & bs just out of town but we don’t have a car. Is the Marmalade central to walking into town? Are we losing the area feel by booking into such a nice/generic hotel?

There's nothing generic about Marmalade (or any of the places on Skye). You are a 5 minute walk from the centre of the village but they also have their own restaurant. I would stick with the Marmalade, although the Bosville is owned by the same people it will be noisier as it's right in the village and there will be passing traffic and possible street noise from people coming out of the bar at closing time.

As a follow up, we booked the Harbour House in Ullapool. For Porteee, we have the choice of the Marmalade , or the Bosville. We would love some opinions.

We ended up booking the Marmalade in Portree. It was that or the sister property, the Bosville. But Bosville had several complaints about inability to sleep because of noise so...