On a 14 day trip with golf in Invergordon and Dornoch areas (with a road trip up to John O'Groats), and ending in Inverness for a couple nights, would you go to 1)Ullapool for 1.5 days then to Speyside, or 2) Skip Ullapool and go to Speyside area directly from Dornoch for 4 days and expand more into north and south Speyside (we will go to Balmoral.) We've been to Portree and wonder if Ullapool will be a disappointment on a fairly short visit, not driving up the West NCoast 500. We sort of thought it would be interesting to see the West Coast area of the Highlands in Ullapool, but realized we will be seeing the see all along the eastern side of the Highlands up from Dornoch. We have a car.
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Chicagoland
800 posts
The northwest coast of Scotland is spectacular. But IMO, if you're not driving up along the North Coast, you'll be disappointed. You really need to drive along the coast for the best experience, at least for the passengers. I suppose you could spend a few hours on your way to Speyside driving the coast from Ullapool to Kinlochewe via inverewe Garden in Poolewe. If you think there will be a next trip to Scotland, try to drive the NC500. We keep discovering new things along the way even though we've driven it several times. Our first trip was before the tourist board decided to call it the NC500.
If you decide on plan 2, from Speyside you could venture into Aberdeenshire and castle country.