Shetland

What time of year and how much time will you have? Where in Scotland will you be coming from?

I'm heading there in about 3 weeks.

Suggestion: Watch the show, and take notes. (That's how I found out about "The Cake Fridge"...).

A few years ago, we flew from London to Sumburgh, at the very southern tip of Shetland. We rented from Bolts Car Hire at the airport (I still have a ballpoint pen from them) and drove north and west. Our B&B was in Sandness. We only had two nights and parts of three days, before making a mad driving dash to Lerwick to catch a ferry to Orkney, then several days later flew to Inverness on the mainland.

Fit more than 2 days into your schedule; our two actual days was too short. Flying in and ferrying out worked well for us

I’m heading to Shetland in a couple of weeks too, lol. I’m doing an 8-night tour of Orkney then a few days off and another 8-night tour of Shetland. I also visited both areas in 2023.

There is a good guidebook that is newly published this year called Shetland: Your Essential Travel Guide. The authors are 2 local women.

https://shetlandwooladventures.com/shetland-guidebook-2/

In addition to the Cake Fridge, lol, I’m following The Peerie Cafe and the Island Larder on FB.

The Shetland TI website has lots of good information as well. I’m doing some of their DIY walks on the free days I have between tours.

https://www.shetland.org/visit

There is not a lot of lodging on Shetland so plan to book by next Feb or so if you are going in the summer.

Look for Trip Reports as well! I will do one and hopefully David will as well!

Wonderful islands!
I did a 4 day tour with my own car a few years back, sailing from Aberdeen to Lerwick overnight.Great way to do it though not cheap.

My own write up below if of interest...starting with Sumburgh, Jarlshof( even better than Skara Brae, I thought) puffins nearby on the cliffs.St Ninian's Isle
is gorgeous. Further links from there.

https://annestravelsandhikes.com/2019/08/03/shetland-in-4-days-day-1-jarlshof-and-st-ninians-isle/

Don't miss a chance to do tge boat tour to the Noss cliffs..outstanding for scenery and birdlife. Plus seals almost coming onto the boat!
Hermaness is fantastic and well worth getting over to Unst for; I did it as a day trip booking ferries in advance.
The cliffs at Eshaness also make for a fine, easy spectacular walk.
Mousa Broch was also a must see for me.So intact you can walk right up to the top, very safely and easily.
Good quality roads make driving a pleasure.

We've been to Shetland several times. Our most recent trip report is here.

Happy to answer any questions once you've an idea of what you might want to see and how much of Shetland you want to explore.

Jacqui (Skyegirl)

We're headed there for a third time next Spring. First trip was three nights based in Lerwick which gave us time to explore the main island pretty thoroughly, including a midnight trip to Mousa (Storm Petrels) and Bressay's Neolitic stuff, Jarlsof, Old Scatness, St. Ninians Isle, Stanydale, Mavis Grind, Eshaness, Moder-Dye, Textile Museum, Clickimen, Ft. Charlotte, Shetland Museum, Scalloway Castle. Second trip added two more nights in Lerwick and two nights on Unst and included Sumburgh Head, Town Hall, Hermaness, Unst Boat Haven, Muness Castle, Skinbladner, Keen of Hamar. Third trip will include two more nights in Lerwick and two nights on Fetlar and will hit Noss, Ronas Hill, Fethaland, various hikes on Fetlar, and back to Sumburgh Head. Sorry for the unorganized list.

As trad music fans, we stay in Lerwick rather than out in the countryside.

We are suffering a bit of FOMO for missing Fair Isle and Foula, but life is too short.

We just spent 10 days in Shetland. Had 4 nights at Brae, 2 nights in Unst and 3 nights in Lerwick. Did pretty much everything mentioned in the above posts. If you go to Unst, give yourself time to looks around Yell. While we were waiting to catch the ferry back from Unst, an otter wandered along the sea wall and dived 8nto the sea and swam around - magical! If you are in Shetland on a Sunday, keep an eye out for the Sunday teas. We went to 9ne at Whiteness - great community event.

Nancy, Not very much time I'm afraid. We hope to go next spring. We usually go to the UK in early September but I'm thinking the weather might be a wee bit better in the spring?? We want to take the overnight sleeper from London to Edinburgh and drive to Oben taking in the sights along the way, Skye is the goal here and the three island tour. It's a long story. Back to Aberdeen and the ferry to Lerwick. Two nights there but the plans are not fully fixed yet.

David, Rick does a show on Shetland?? Where have i been. I've watched Ruth Aisling and saw the Cake Fridge, I do like a bit of cake. It'd be nice to read about your trip when you return.

Cyn, What time of year were you there? We are unsure if we will take our car onto the ferry or leave it in Aberdeen and get one in Lerwick. I'll make a note of Bolt.

Pam, Thank you for the great information. Your trip sounds perfect and yes, please file a trip report!

David, Rick does a show on Shetland?? Where have i been...

@ Laurel - No, not Rick (at least none I'm aware of, I think it's a bit off the edge for his shows). There is (or was) a BBC series called "Shetland" which I found pretty good.

The show is available via streaming services (amazon has it as a paid subscription, IIRC). While much of it was filmed elsewhere, it does feature many locations on the real Shetland, so it can give one a glimpse of what to expect when visiting. I'm sure it has greatly popularized the area's tourism business, too (although it raises concerns about the shockingly high amount of violent crime they would appear to have there... [insert wink emoji here]).

Packing for that trip right now actually.

Laurel, we visited in August.

Rick has filmed, and broadcast, videos as far north as Orkney, but not Shetland, and certainly not the Faroe Islands.

Coincidentally, but unrelated, there’s Bolt’s for car rental in Shetland, and there’s a Bolt app in Poland, which is like Uber but much cheaper. As I said, the two are totally unrelated, except that a car is involved with both.

David and Cyn, I'm a pretty loyal Ricknik and I hadn't seen anything but you never know. Even his newest Scotland book barely gives it a mention, if at all. We have read all of the Jimmy Perez books watched the Shetland TV series based on Ann Cleves' books. Thank you, both, again.

scotlandmac- I just printed your trip report for reading later. The photos are beautiful..