[Closed] Western Isles touring

i did it with my GF on road bikes camping in June (two weeks)

it was the worst holiday of my life....

seriously constant rain an 80 mph winds eventually blew my GF off her bike (luckily at slow speed) she then had emotional breakdown and we hired a car for the last 6 days.

Good luck to you but in all seriousness go to france...

i did it with my GF on mountain bikes staying in Hostels(two weeks) in august

it was the best holiday of my life....

Weather was great, we stated in Arran and went islay,colonsay, oban(for about 2 hours)barra, all the way up to stornaway. Boat over to ullapool, bike bus to inverness and then train home.

Stay in the gatliff black houses, they are amazing, Rheningdale is well off the beaten track though and hilly to get to, but worth a stay if you have time.

Just remember that some parts of the western isles are completly closed on sundays.

We had amazing weather at Easter last year and did Arran, Mull and Skye with the bits in between in 10 days. We used hostels mainly, carrying our kit on road bikes. Fabulous scenery all the way, but it could have been hell in poor weather.

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonjohntaylor/5693853553/ ]Day 6 - Dervaig zigzags (Mull)[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/simonjohntaylor/ ]Simon J Taylor[/url], on Flickr

Skye was a lot busier than everywhere else we went, although beautiful. We loved all of Mull and the mainland bit afterwards between Tobermory and Mallaig. Calmac ferries were cheap and reliable. Shout me if you want recommendations for hostels 🙂

Wow-- two very different experiences there,titusrider- you had bad luck with the weather and your GF's experience, two months later stevie750 had the best holiday ever! My reasoning for going this time of year was more settled weather and lack of midges, quieter roads etc.
Simon 1975, i usually go self sufficient for many reasons, although the hostels in the isles look more my kind of place, any that should be looked into for location/convenience/general ambience ?
cheers guys

I did Barra to the Butt of Lewis a few years back. Great holiday - even if we did have a headwind all week.
http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/p/barra-to-butt.html

I'd also recommend an Oban/Kyle trip (or vise-versa). I reckon the scenery is even better.
http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/2012/07/coasting-around-west-day-1.html
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/7570001986/ ]West Coast Route[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/druidh2000/ ]druidh_dubh[/url], on Flickr

Weather for Sep/Oct can be at either end of the spectrum. I've had scorching, sunburnt days in October. I've also experienced ferry delays due to gales.

i remember going north on Uist (south Uist perhaps) into a beating headwind gale all day. was sheltering GF behind and in 35 miles of flat riding i used my two easiest gears (compact/25) ALL DAY!

My advice, go up there, its lovely but take the bikes in a car so you can abort and go elsewhere/ change to a driving hol. We were tied in by trains

if you make it to harris this place was nice:
http://www.freewebs.com/vanvon/

and had somewhere to dry off

These were great hostels:
http://www.backpackersplus.com/ in Oban
http://www.mallaigbackpackers.co.uk/

But this was poor:
http://www.skyehostel.co.uk/ in Portree, perhaps we should have tried this one: http://www.hostelskye.co.uk/

YHA's hostels well less good generally (ill-equipped and expensive) but sometimes the only option. The one in Broadford (Skye) was good.

titusrider - Never was an MTFU so richly deserved.

thank you druidh 😛

to be fair i could have gone faster and left the GF to face the wind herself..... if she would be marrying me next week had i done that is another issue....

Thanks everyone, it will be train out of necessity, will be camping, but will use hostel for comfort/change/shower etc, prevailing winds can vary as well so north-south- north not worth being dogmatic about ?

Will go and get some maps ...........

*old boring pessimists voice*

we thought we would be camping too....

*old boring pessimists voice*

(ended up with about 5-6 hotels/ b&bs accepting damp stangers at the door)

have fun 🙂

Did it a few years back and it was definitely one of the best holidays I've ever had. A lot of people make the mistake of breaking camp early and getting on the road early when they're on a cycle tour. If you do that you will miss out on turning a corner to see some of the most magnificent sunsets you'll see anywhere. I will do it again some day.

There is of course nothing to stop you doing both of Druidh's routes within 10 days or so.

If it gets really bad you can put bikes on most buses.