[Closed] Back from Scotland roadtrip

Get the AA truck stop and cafe book. No more crap, overpriced, overcrowded motorway services. 43,234,123 tourists? You shouldn't have walked down the Royal Mile while the festival is on!

Yeah, yeah but where did you actually go?

We drove up to Ft Bill and stayed in a nice campsite in Glen Nevis but I was pretty disappointed with the trails/paths in the area. You can walk up the Ben and back the same way, that's about it. We were going to drive up to some place in the west called Applecross and stay the night but we got tired of packing up the car all the time so we were going to day trip instead. However we got up late and ended up only making it as far as Eilean Donan which was where all the tourists were. And we had to either pay £30 on the ferry to make the only possible round trip (via Skye) or drive back the same way.

So that's about all we got up to. On the way back we went to see family friends in Edinburgh (and buy a new jacket) from where we were going to go to Inners but didn't (see above).

[i]Scotland roadtrip[/i]

Sounds like a family holiday to me, but hey what do I know about 'roadtrips'. And you didn't do any walking, cycling or anything else remotely outdoorsy, what on earth did you do all day - apart from drive?

Oh I just noticed the '1 totally knackered wife', now I know what you were doing all day.

I was pretty disappointed with the trails/paths in the area. You can walk up the Ben and back the same way, that's about it.

Quite. 😳

that would be the "trails you found"

plenty trails in that area and if you like you can go up nevis and come down a different way ..... hell up the north face path to the loch and down the tourist motorway is a great loop for the technically minded rider

whole trip sounds like a badly planned farce where you tried to cram far far far too much in and just ended up driving all day. - much like my first trip to new zealand ....

£5,764 spent eating crap at service stations and rubbish roadside pubs

oops caps

much like my first trip to new zealand ....

like _most_ peoples trips to nz ! "I want to see the north and south island in two weeks" Easy - fly over it !

£5,700 jesus christ, how on earth did you spend that much camping and in a car doing 50mpg??? I was up in north west scotland a couple of months back for 2 weeks and we spent about £2k max, that was having lots of nice pub lunches, and some great evening meals.

There are many ways to the top of Ben Nevis (well at wast 2 for novices) so don't blame the hill just because it didnt have big sign posts on it !

Applecross in itself isn't amazing although the pub does very nice seafood. IMO the scenery is nicer getting to Applecross than it actually is there.

ps you went on hilday, not a road trip...unless your american 😉

0 rides - WTF ???????????????????????

Probably since the dawn of time the Scottish midge has been wreaking havock.
The human race put men on the moon in 1969.
Its 2009 and we still cant kill the flying little ****ers.

Our hols to Skye/Harris/Lewis cut short by 5 days due to these swarms of flying teeth. I have never inhaled so many small animals going up a hill, so we ended the pain and came back to Edinburgh.

Mrs Rickmeister has about 250 bite bumps and a new addiction to anti-histamene (spelling)......

have to try again in September or Spring I reckon.

Skin so soft. Fail
Autan. Fail
Jungle Formula. Fail
Some gloop we were given at the Fort Bill Worlds. Fail
Spiral Midge coils. Fail
Big smokey fire in a fire basket. Fail

Nature 1. Humans 0

£5,700 jesus christ, how on earth did you spend that much camping

That wasn't a serious figure, rather a humorous reference to the cost of motorway service station food. We didn't spend a lot overall.

As for the walking, I looked at the map. Silly me eh, I should've gone wandering around the mountain blindly looking for trails..!

It was a road trip (being a trip mainly focused around driving about seeing scenery and also being that's what my wife calls it being American herself) and not focused on doing outdoor pursuits, which is why we didn't get any done. I also feel guilty about leaving my wife and kid sat in a layby for three hours whilst I ride my bike but hey, that's just me 🙂

Oh I just noticed the '1 totally knackered wife', now I know what you were doing all day

It's what she was doing all night that was the problem. Feeding and trying to calm a screaming baby, mostly...

>>Not a bad trip overall. Just needed better planning<<

Summed it up yourself...

STW's awash with pretty good advice on Scotland from folk who've been there, done it etc and there are books falling off the shelves on the subject these days. You could also have stuck your head into a very helpful local bike shop in FW high street, the Tourist Information place on the campsite road? Even taking the wild riding out of the equation there are lift served DH,'DH lite' & XC courses on your doorstep and Laggans just a short drive up the road. Applecross? No need to go that far - Arisaigs just a short drive up the coast, it has some brilliant wild riding and beaches to die for - wtf would you need to leave your wife
in a layby for 3 hours??!!

It's all there...

I was pretty disappointed with the trails/paths in the area. You can walk up the Ben and back the same way, that's about it.

I don't get this. If you were camped in Glen Nevis, the site backs onto the Mamores, a chain of mountains that are quite simple to access, but also very scenic and rewarding summits (11), with tracks up every ridge and most glens. Avoiding summits, you could have hiked along the Wet Highland Way toward Kinlochleven. Did you walk up the glen to the big An Steall waterfall?

Sorry, I expect it's difficult with kids in tow.

I did ask on here but I don't have the stomach for a lot of planning. I only took the bike just in case - it was a family trip not a biking trip, and family comes first. The situation is delicate what with the baby and all. The wife was exhausted and I was pretty tired, so taking her up the mountains wouldn't have been a good idea!

I loved Scotland and will go back - I'm not being negative about the place 🙂

We drove up to Ft Bill and stayed in a nice campsite in Glen Nevis but I was pretty disappointed with the trails/paths in the area. You can walk up the Ben and back the same way, that's about it.

Blimey. Direct from that Campsite, you can go up Ben Nevis, you can go across and round the back and up Ben Nevis (either up to the tourist route, or round the ridge, although the ridge is hard if you're not used to mountains), up the West Highland Way to Sgorr Chalum which is a fantastic viewpoint, and on through to lovely lochs and high moors, you can go through the forest to Cow Hill (another nice viewpoint).

If you drive down 5km to the car parks at the end of the valley, there are beautiful walks up the Mamores, waterfalls, mountains etc.

If you drive round to Nevis Range, you can get the Gondola up, and there are nice walks on the top of Aonach Mor, which you don't even need to be fit to see.

And that's just the walks that are obvious and marked on the map - there are tons more in the area if you ask in tourist information for walks, or buy a book of them, or just ask people where is nice.

Joe

Molgrips - did you fall foul of the different approach to mapping of paths north of the border? I know that for some folk used to Englandandwales, the lack of purple RoW lines on the OS maps is a bit off-putting.

[i]I also feel guilty about leaving my wife and kid sat in a layby for three hours whilst I ride my bike[/i]

I would feel more guilty about wasting so much fuel just driving round the country to look at scenery. Sounds like a crap holiday, eh sorry roadtrip.

And I can't understand why you were disappointed with the paths/tracks in the area, which quite frankly must be a joke, when you didn't even do any walking or cycling.

So, in summary, you might have thought your holiday was fun, albeit a bit tiring, but it was actually rubbish. The STW massive have spoken. 🙂

Just quickly so we don't get such a bad press. I live in Scotland (but not Scottish, sorry Scots!) and it's awesome. We went up to Strathpeffer, Applecross etc. and the drive back through Glencoe to Stirling was superb. We have some of the best biking from virtually every town, village or city in the country and the scenery is amazing.

My friends and family from Switzerland, Spain etc. etc. are always amazed at how beautiful it is and how much there is to do.

Rant over!

[i]Not a bad trip overall[/i]

I don't think fun was mentioned was it. Also this bit [i]The problem with the bike was the fact that it was in bits on the bottom of the boot[/i] - so you put all your luggage on top of your bike!

Jeez. Some folk on here need to take a chill pill. The poor guy makes a humorous post about a driving holiday around Scotland, fitting in with visits to various folks, and you all want to jump on his back. He even pointed out his big mistake (lack of planning) in his posts.

He liked what he saw, would have liked to have seen more and he'll be back a bit more prepared. I can completely "get" what he's saying about lack of trail marking on maps and about wanting to get some "me" time without impacting too much on the family.

Och c'mon - the bloody tourist offices are usually overflowing with 'suggested walks'

Aye - but that would have meant "planning" to find our where they were....

(btw - I'm pretty sure the camp site at Glen Nevis has a "walks" brochure too)

Jesus, why are you lot jumping down my throat? I'm an experienced traveller and outdoor person just so that you know - I've done plenty of walking and riding in England, Wales, France and Finland. I know how to use tourist information offices, local references and maps.

I did NOT go up for a walking or biking holiday and then fail to find any trails. I went for a SHORT trip to drive about and see what we could see, taking a bike and some boots on the off chance. When we found ourselves in Fort Bill I picked up a 1:50k OS map just to see what was around and I found that there wasn't much marked on the map in the immediate area apart from the trail up the mountain and some fire-roads in the woods out back. We didn't fancy either of them due to being pretty tired. The wife's still run down after having the little one and she hardly got sleep for the whole holiday so climbing mountains wasn't on the cards.

Why are you lot attacking me? The thread isn't a whinge, it's just chatter.

hey molgrips, i can't speak for anyone else, but my comment above was just in jest. From your OP it sounds like a good trip with a slightly tongue-n-cheek write up, so I wouldn't worry about the naysayers. As for the poster who left their holidays 5 days early because of midges however...

chill out molgrips, I', just winding you up as I'm sure others are.

Fair play... Seemed a bit harsh that's all 🙂

As for midges, it wasn't too bad. A few buzzers around my head but I used Lifesystems DEET 50% and pyretheum coils (that's a smell that takes me back to the last time I was up there aged 6) and was not too bad. I suppose it wasn't the worst weather for them tho.

It is a bit strange that there are so few tracks on the map tho. I was expecting more, and if they exist the OS should get their fingers out.

Jesus, why are you lot jumping down my throat?

Sorry dude.

The Highland OS 50k maps aren't great at marking trails IMO. I recommend this:
[img] [/img]

Guid on`ya mate.

I am a Southern Softy. i.e. Southern Scotland and have never ventured that far North.

I have often gone down the Lakes with the SO, bike in boot and have left it there and done other stuff. Lakes being between 1-2hrs drive away depending on how far south or east we go.

Hey - OS are brilliant at marking trails... and for the Scottish Highlands they even have nice wee dotted lines on their maps that aren't really trails on the ground at all 😉

>I am a Southern Softy. i.e. Southern Scotland and have never ventured that far North.<

Wow - aren't you in for a pleasant surprise!

HB - see my point above regarding the difference in RoW marking. That seems to put a lot of folk off..

Why are you lot attacking me? The thread isn't a whinge, it's just chatter.

Hope you enjoyed yourself and now you've got the idea, do come back
For a first trip you probably did the right thing, tried to do too much, so now you've got the picture, you can plan round it next time

Slainthe Mhath

I told you Scotland was shite and that you shouldn't bother coming here.

Sometimes it's nice just to travel about and see new things...