Looking at a Scottish island hopping trip this year using CalMac’s Hopscotch ticket – riding, roughing it etc.

I’d be interested in any experiences, good or bad.

God rules the Highlands, CalMac rules the Islands!

I’ve used them quite a bit for work, and they have always been fine. Utilitarian rather than plush, but got me where I needed to be when I needed to get there.

I think the hopscotch is reasonable value for money. Go for it.

I’ve used them several times to transport our caravanette + bikes to the Western Isles. Great company to deal with & highly flexible with late changes to bookings. If you’re travelling during peak periods in the summer it’s advisable to book in advance, or you may not be able to travel on the dates you need. Inter island ferries can become busy during the summer. Booking a day in advance for these is usually plenty.

If I were going again, Id book the initial crossing for a specific date. Once there I’d call CalMac for a heads-up on the availability of the next leg the day before. They may tell you there’s plenty of space & simply to turn up, or if space is tight it may be better to book.

We’ve changed our return dates twice at short notice due to the weather. Both times they’ve bent over backwards to get us & the motorhome onto the next ferry & have refunded us any unused portions of our Hopscotch ticket 🙂

Take you waterproofs, midgie repelent & some bino’s. The wildlife’s amazing 8)

D.

Do I get to post this again???

Scotland is rubbish. Especially the islands.

Good work druidh, cheers.

I’m just over in Glasgow so pretty familiar with the summer dangers! Hopefully we can get a good week.

The Hopscotch ticket looks like really good value!

I use Calmac every week through work and they really are very good. Hopscotch tickets are good value, i think im normally around £40 Oban-Craignure then back off via Lochaline/Kilchoan for my van and me. I see lots of people taking there bikes as they are free on the ferries…

Where are you planning to go, might be able to pass on some tips/info to help you out 🙂

One of my finest holidays was cycling Oban-Outer Hebrides-Skye. The bike/passenger ticket cost about £50 for around 5 or 6 ferries I think. Brilliant.

ditch the car and do it by bike.

what am i saying.

the islands and scotland as a whole are rubbish, boring, flat and unwelcoming.

don’t bother.

if you do decide to spoil it for the rest of us brve it then be aware that if by ruffing it you mean camping then don’t bother, the midgies on the islands really are a serious consideration not just a passing nuisance.

Mrmichaelwright – absolutely! It would be a crime to drive it. We’re used to the midges, so we’ll either do it early or very late summer. And we have lots of Avon SSS! My girlfriend will want to stay in lots of nice little B&Bs anyway…

Mowgli – that’s what I was budgeting for.

Steviegil – trying to convince the girlfriend that a trip from Oban-Barra-Eriskay-Uists-Harris-Lewis-Skye will be a holiday of a lifetime for very little money (it will be a tight year for us, sniff). Basically up all the islands!

if you are biking it then it costs very little as bikes are free.

We did Kennacraig-Islay-Jura-Colonsay-Oban-Mull-Ardnamurchan as part of a longer tour and there was one ticket that did the first few journeys and another for the rest, they gave us excellent advice as to which ticket to buy at Kennacraig.

The wife tours up there quite a lot and has been to most of the islands by bike. Sky isn’t particularly good as a [road] cycling destination as there are only really 2 roads and they get pretty busy whereas Mull oddly enough seems to be quieter.

The western isles are stunning for cycling

SYHA hostels generally very good and there’s also http://www.hostel-scotland.co.uk/ and various black houses to choose from

I’ve used ’em a few times a year since 2006 going to visit my friend on Lewis (usually Ullapool-Stornoway out, then Tarbert-Uig back). Apart from the MV Isle of Lewis‘s tendancy to break down occasionally, and a couple of delays due to bad weather in The Minch, I’ve had no problems at all. I normally book both trips in advance, although as Davesport says they’ve always been really helpful whenever I’ve changed my bookings due to dodgy driving conditions on the mainland, broken wrists, or just because I felt like staying on for a few more days – it really is more like catching a floating bus! 🙂

Excellent advice guys, thankyou.

Did this loads of times before we had kids. Now waiting for them to get a bit older then start all over again! We always wild camp and try use the showers which are installed at a lot of the Calmac terminals.

I’ve done various cycle routes using Calmac. Most memorable was spending a few days in Tiree then over to Barra (there’s a sailing once a week from Oban via Tiree to Barra) then Eriskay, North Uist, over to Skye, Raasay, back to Skye then train home from Mallaig. The weather was fantastic when we did that – sunshine for 2 weeks.

We’ve also done it the other way round and included Harris & Bernaray. Another time we headed from Barra up to Stornaway, over to Ullapool then cycled to the east coast, stayed at Carbisdale castle then train back from Inverness. That was also pretty good.

I would thoroughly recommend it. The hebrides are ingrained in me after my Dad taking us walking camping there just about every summer. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that the weather always seems better in the Hebrides than in Glasgow.

No pictures from those days I’m afraid as I’d need to scan them but here’s some from Tiree last year to show you what it can be like:

View to Gott Bay by alanach_d, on Flickr

Typical View on Tiree by alanach_d, on Flickr

Balevullin by alanach_d, on Flickr

Balevullin by alanach_d, on Flickr

Amazing pics jad.

the island rover ticket can be even better value if you want to mix things up a bit.

One of my favourite bike rides ever was just a day trip from glasgow a couple of summers ago. cycled glasgow to gourock – ferry to dunoon then cycle dunoon to portavadie – ferry to tarbert then cycle to claonaig and get the ferry to lochranza and go round arran the long way to get to brodick and the ferry to ardrossan then cycled back to glasgow. Was a long day but the weather and scenary was incredible so it felt like i’d been away on holiday rather than just a cycle ride from my own door.

I’ve done it maybe five times. So far, weather 4 waderider 1. But that 1 was the best holiday of my life, and the other 4 were pretty good also.

On a road tourer with walking kit packed most times, or a MTB that wasn’t fully utilised.

Omar – yes, I’ve done the Tour de Arran a few times. For Glasgow folk it’s a hop on a train away, but the far side of the island could be a thousand miles from dirty ol Glesga! It’s probably my favourite riding island (mainly because I haven’t ridden the others) and the ability to get 55mph+ down The String road on a singlespeed MTB.

Waderider – we’ll probably do it with MTBs.