Inverness Transportation

4 more images

Took the Isle of Skye tour from Inverness in June. It was wonderful to have someone else doing the driving as one misses an awful lot when trying to drive and sightsee at the same time. Made visits to the Eilean Donan castle and Clan Donald/Armadale Castle Gardens and stops at Loch Ness/Urquhart castle and assorted places for views/photo ops. Coach was comfortable and guide was informative and entertaining. Strongly recommended. Departs from tourist center in downtown Inverness.

Combine public transport / flight to Inverness then Hire a Car (good choices in Inverness)

Inverness is blessed - as the main town serving the Highland Region (a huge underpopulated area) - it has great transport links!!

This is the main centre, resource base, fuelling stop, shopping centre for Northern Scotland.

And to top it all - there is an airport(east of Inverness) - small and lacking hi-tech stuff, but its there and well worth checking out - the extra expense is probably well worth it!!

Inverness suffers with one way streets so should you take a wrong turning in town you can end up going miles around, and this can happen repeatedly if looking for your B&B etc.

Arrival in Inverness is also compounded by a series of roundabouts and dual carriageway. The locals race this. To pull out quickly onto a roundabout is the only way to proceed. Go for it!!! And its nearly impossible to know which exit to take, which lane to be in. Don't worry. Just take it easy.

Car parking is expensive and restricted, and even the multistory car park at Eastgate built to ease this can be full. Round and round in a polluted concrete nightmare, and when you come out, where do you go? Ahhhhhh.

I usually park in the quiet and beautiful part of town, by Eden Court Theatre (free parking but strictly speaking only for patrons) and walk into town over the lovely suspension bridges (foot). Its only 5 / 10 minutes walk and stress free - you can spend 20 minutes driving round, easily!!!

See this map for details (look for Bishops Road beside the River Ness):
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=266250&y=845250&z=1&sv=266250,845250&st=4&ar=N&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf

Boating on the Caledonian Canal is a great way to spend a holyday, and a good way to see the inland part of the Scottish Highlands. The Canal is about 100 kilometres long, stretching from Inverness on the East coast to Fort William on the West coast. There are 2 companies that run a hire service for boats at either end of the Canal.

I rented a car from Arnold Clark, a Scottish vehicle dealership that offers car hire around the country. The price was excellent--MUCH better than the quotes I received from global players like Europcar or Avis. After I booked via the Internet, the company picked me up from the Inverness airport on schedule, then provided a drop-off service back to the airport when I returned the car. Everything worked like clockwork.

We hired a car and drove around the UK... It was easy for us since we are used to driving on the left side of the road, although the strange road signs had us wondering a few times... :)

The roads were all very good except for the traffic jams around the larger cities...try to avoid 'peak' hours if you can help it...

The distances between cities in the UK are all fairly short, and it doesn't really take too long to get anywhere except if you stop for photos every few minutes. ;)