I should be coming into a wee bit of money later this year and as the interest rates are so low (and on the principle that there are no pockets in a shroud) I am currently weighing up the pros and cons of a holiday retreat.

My preference would be somewhere in the Scottish Highlands, not too far a drive from the Central Belt. Options so far seem to be Aviemore(ish) and Fort William(ish). Each location has it’s specific plus points but I can’t really decide which is best. I’d likely let it out occasionally too – and both areas have some great MTB and snowsports facilities.

So, I’m just wondering if anyone can come up with some points I’ve not considered, or even just express a preference based on where would be the most attractive for letting.

(merely interested as I will be in a similar position this year).

If you buy somewhere, you’ll have to always go there.

Spend the money on going where you want to.

Aviemore(ish) would be my choice by a long way – Ft Bill feels a run down old place, midges and we(s)t coast.
Aviemore area feels more vibrant, fewer midges, drier, simples public transport Edinburgh up etc etc.
Nethy Bridge FTW – especially with a new climbing wall, swimming pool and dry ski slope and being-developed north shore / jump skills area – and you can count Bob Dillon as your neighbour 🙂

What BR said – You will end up spending time doing DIY there and feeling you always have to go to the cottage rather than going elsewhere

with br and tj.
As you said, no pockets in a shroud, might as well spend it.
Buying a house is just another way of banking the money.

Had exactly the same dilemma (east vs west) 5 years ago and bought a house (jointly with a friend) near Glencoe. Don’t regret it for a moment, although I do have some sympathy with comments above – we do find ourselves going there a lot but there is everything on our doorstep and it is great being able to leave kit over there and just drive up there. No hassles packing or thinking about where to stay. So we find we go away a lot more than we used to because it is so easy. still head away camping to other places regularly though.

We rent out just over the summer so we have it to ourselves the rest of the year but if we wanted we could easily rent it more- the holiday Market is definitely there.

And as for Fort Bill – it has everything you need and the outdoor scene is tip top. Don’t go there to sound time in the town anyway. What swung it for us is that we are into sea kayaking too and that ain’t so handy to Aviemore. Great too with young kids being able to just get in the car and go. They love it over there.

Aviemore is great too though. I’m there once a fortnight or so on business and several friends have houses there or close by. The forests around Rothiemurchus are superb.

Has to be aviemore for me colin far nicer place , not quite so dramatic as the ole bill but has all te facilities for snowsports , watersports and cycling and always a lack of places to stay ime(im not a big hotel fan) – so priced right should let easy !

Having a 2nd/holiday home can be a tie, especially if it’s a fair drive away, we bought a 2nd home in the Lake District about 6-7 years ago. When we were there we found it hard to go back to our main house! After about 6 months the GF’s boss was moving and she said she wanted redundancy and got it, I work from home so we moved up to the Lakes, best thing we’ve done. We were planning on on living there anyway it just happened sooner than we thought.

Do it if you don’t mind the drive and wont get to attached to it and it doesn’t need much work IMO. In the winter can be a worry not being there with frozen pipes etc.

If you’re going to let it out you’ll need someone to do the changeovers or pay an agent which can eat into the money you make, some agents take a high % for the full service.

I think I would choose Aviemore out of the two.

A while since I’ve been to Fort Bill but it never seems as nice as Aviemore which I really like.

No idea on whether it would be a bind or not – I guess folk with experience of that and a similar mindset to you can comment – but if you’ve got all that free time you keep bragging about then Shirley it sould be more of a second home than a 1-2 weeks a year thing?

EDIT- and I’ve got some free time later in the year, I’ll do some DIY for a stay? 😉

Also been a while since i’ve been to Fort Bill, but i prefer Aviemore. I’d assume aviemore has more rental ops going too as it seems busier/more vibrant.

How about you buy a flat for me instead as a better investment? 😀

We’ve bought a place in Lanzarote as a holiday home which will hopefully then be place to retire to when the kids have finished uni

Being so far away, you don’t get that urge to ‘use it up’ all the time, by the time this year is out I think we’ll have been 5 times which has sort of kept it as a holiday rather than a 2nd home
We used to have a big caravan at the Lakes but we often felt like we were wasting our weekends if we didn’t shoot across there every Friday evening when the site was open, it’s only 90 mins away so easy to do.
I definitely prefer the greater distance now

I’d like to go and stay in Aviemore again…. thanks 🙂

As someone from the provinces and living quite near to cornball… I would say don’t be such a selfish ****..

rent a place from a local each time you fancy a break.. rather than buying up and laying waste to what could potentially be a family home..

just a thought like.. 🙂

Yunki makes a fair point but in a reasonably harsh way. Surely it’s possible to buy a holiday home up there with a lesser impact on the locals? If it was me though I’d agree that it’s not the most fun way to use the money. Why not invest half sensibly then get a quartet of nubile ladies to carry you around this fair isle on a sedan chair until the money runs out?

How about somewhere around the Glencoe area?

rent a place from a local each time you fancy a break.. rather than buying up and laying waste to what could potentially be a family home..

is there a “local” test you can do to ensure we meet your exacting standards of holiday home landlord?

How can you rent a place from a local if there is a family living there? The highlands are full to bursting with english owned holiday homes. Where do you think the traditional highland welcome comes from? I’d rather rent a place from Druidh than any incomer from a foreign land.

sorry.. was half just poking fun at the rick stein thread.. 😳

sorry..was half just poking fun at the rick stein thread..

Cross thread trolling, that’s pretty advanced forumry. 8)

Either, as you’d probably have no probs letting it out. So I would choose based on your personal preference. When we head north we usually stay near FortBill cause we’ve found somewhere we really like and it’s a good location to strike out east/west and further north from. We always end up spending time in Aviemore too as it’s such a great place to ride. FWIW if someone was about to dollop a load of money on me then I’d be thinking exactly the same thing (including in terms of potential locations 😉 ), with half on eye on the situation Dobbo described.

Budget depending but why not 2 well built lodges in both locations, best of both worlds and a very tidy income potential.

Just a thought.

How about the liberal democrat way ,

Laggan it is in the middle

We have a holiday home in south west ireland, one of the best things we ever bought (coincidentaly the neighbouring valley is twinned with glencoe). We are lucky in that it’s relatively easy to get to being within 2hrs of two airports and a ferry crossing as it’s not an onerous journey to get there we try to go every six weeks or so. Extra expense – insurance, no domestic rates in ireland but a second home levy, fuel and general upkeep and furnishing it. Bear in mind you may want to pay soemone to keep an eye on it, do cleaning, gardening etc if you’re not there reguarly – who wants to go away for the weekend and spend hours cleaning and cutting lawns. We looked long and hard before buying it and got a local architect in and he did the survey and was able to project manage the renovation work. Plus side – we love it there and like to think would live there if there was work, we have neighbours who keep an eye on the property and we have out buildings for bikes and motorbikes. It’s great to be able to go away for a few days or week with no luggage, everything we need is there. Living in London the house in ireland also allows me to live the stw cliches of having a turf range, woodburner, chainsaw, axe and a bsa bantam 🙂

Yunki – you actually make a very good point and I am therefore looking at holiday chalets rather than a family home. I’ve seen the effect on house prices in some areas as a result of incomers hovering up the available accommodation.

There are lots of holiday homes. They’re called hotels, or sometimes, quaintly, B&B’s.

These actually supply jobs to the local community. The people who try to save their wages to actually “live” in them. Those poeple are part of the “community”. Their kids go to the schools there. They have friends there.

Trangers who appear every few weeks and are not “the community”, no matter how well meaning they are.

I say try something else with your money. Like a decent pc, then you can photoshop yourself some quality Margaret Thatcher granny porn. Buy some red braces with the change.

[*]These quaint B and Bs charge an absolute fortune nowadays. Not so long ago the quoted price was per room, now it’s the same price, but per person.

Holidaymakers also spend money in that local community. They eat out, buy food, petrol, go on “adventure activities”, all sort of things. That’s called employment. Hey – I might even employ some decrepit old highland grannie to clean up my luxurious cabin for me.

Meanwhile….

As dazzlingboy points out, the coast/sea kayaking is the major factor swaying me towards Lochaber. TBH, everything else makes me favour Aviemore.

As a family, we’ve been visiting both areas on an annual basis for some 20 years and before that I was going there myself, with friends and with my parents. I’ve yet to grow tired of either area and I suspect there is enough in both to keep me interested as long as I am active. The advantage of these areas is also that they are an easy drive for me, which means I would be there a lot more then 3 or 4 weeks out of the year.

Holidaymakers also spend money in that local community. They eat out, buy food, petrol, go on “adventure activities”, all sort of things. That’s called employment.

Coouldn’t agree more. I work for a company who market holiday cottages – we’re one of the biggest employers in the area, and we bring in a fair wedge to the wider community by encouraging people to come on their holidays to the region. Plus the builders, tradespeople etc who support and maintain the properties. It’s all good.

What I don’t agree with is people buying up properties in rural areas for their sole use and then only using them for a couple of weeks in the year. It just doesn’t make sense – economically or morally.

Anyway = I’m extremely angry that I’ve had to go and find a thread about Rick Frakkin’ Stein.