North Coast 500

[Jaxx]

Has anybody done the North Coats 500 recently or has any advice/tips? We are looking at doing it in September as a domestic "mini moon" after our wedding. We've put the Disneymoon back to 2022!

Found a lot of good resources online but always interested to hear of first hand experiences, if possible!

[Beth_Disney]

Mitch84 went last year and wrote a trip report - https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1181198

[snowbelle]

Hi we did it last year inspired by Mitch84 road trip as we had to make a quick change due to cancelling the US
We live on the Welsh border and eventually drove 1895 miles
Our itinerary was definitely a quick plan, and in between lockdowns we didn’t do a trip report but a few pointers here
* originally Liverpool for 1 night cancelled due to lockdown
* Drove straight to York for two nights stayed in a Travelodge
* Drive to chesters fort at Hexham - pre booked tickets spent a few hours there as there were only two others there
* One night in Annandale water
* long drive to Inverness for two nights - Loch Ness and pre booked visitor centre
* drove to Rogue Falls - fabulous walk to the falls across the suspension bridge and walked along the other side
* Falls of shin for salmon leap - fantastic spent a good two hours there hardly a soul there
* Wick - sadly it was freezing and very dull had a quick walk around then drove onto John ‘o’ groats
* arrived John ‘O ‘ groats mid afternoon we were the only ones there and took some amazing photos , the sun was going down and the sunset was gorgeous
Two nights in a B&B in Thurso half day walking to the sea stacks at Duncansby head saw seals, so many birds and amazing scenery
* Three nights in Aviemore - absolutely loved this , visited the Cairngorm reindeer centre and drove up the Cairngorms
* two nights in Fort William - took the Jacobite train to Mallaig amazing scenery ( a little dampened by a woman loudly proclaiming her dislike for tourists in a restaurant and that tourists were the scourge of COVID 😳 in a restaurant full of tourists ! )

* Fort William - Glencoe-Loch Lomond - stunning drive scenery out if this world

* Our plans were thwarted due to new lockdown rules so we had to cancel our next stop to Stirling and drive straight to our hotel in Gretna ..had a little walk around Gretna outlet village and a much needed sleep
* Had to drive all the way home due to new UK lockdown ( we had planned a night in Blackpool as we have never been )

Good points- scenery
Spending time together
We took our camping stove and food so had plenty of rural eating experiences
Didn’t go for shopping but found some nice shops in Aviemore and Gretna
Not many people about so plenty of time to takes photos and take it slowly

Bad points - lady in the restaurant left a bad taste in what was mostly a good day
Went a bit late in the year so expectedly it was cold
Not many toilets open due to COVID - so planning needed !

Meh points - Jacobite train - V expensive for price paid and a lot of people not complying with mask wearing and distancing too long in Mallaig trying to kill time although Mallaig is very pretty

[Jaxx]

Originally Posted by Beth_Disney

Mitch84 went last year and wrote a trip report - https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1181198

See more...

Oh fab, thank you so much for sharing the link!

[Jaxx]

Originally Posted by snowbelle

Hi we did it last year inspired by Mitch84 road trip as we had to make a quick change due to cancelling the US
We live on the Welsh border and eventually drove 1895 miles
Our itinerary was definitely a quick plan, and in between lockdowns we didn’t do a trip report but a few pointers here
* originally Liverpool for 1 night cancelled due to lockdown
* Drove straight to York for two nights stayed in a Travelodge
* Drive to chesters fort at Hexham - pre booked tickets spent a few hours there as there were only two others there
* One night in Annandale water
* long drive to Inverness for two nights - Loch Ness and pre booked visitor centre
* drove to Rogue Falls - fabulous walk to the falls across the suspension bridge and walked along the other side
* Falls of shin for salmon leap - fantastic spent a good two hours there hardly a soul there
* Wick - sadly it was freezing and very dull had a quick walk around then drove onto John ‘o’ groats
* arrived John ‘O ‘ groats mid afternoon we were the only ones there and took some amazing photos , the sun was going down and the sunset was gorgeous
Two nights in a B&B in Thurso half day walking to the sea stacks at Duncansby head saw seals, so many birds and amazing scenery
* Three nights in Aviemore - absolutely loved this , visited the Cairngorm reindeer centre and drove up the Cairngorms
* two nights in Fort William - took the Jacobite train to Mallaig amazing scenery ( a little dampened by a woman loudly proclaiming her dislike for tourists in a restaurant and that tourists were the scourge of COVID 😳 in a restaurant full of tourists ! )

* Fort William - Glencoe-Loch Lomond - stunning drive scenery out if this world

* Our plans were thwarted due to new lockdown rules so we had to cancel our next stop to Stirling and drive straight to our hotel in Gretna ..had a little walk around Gretna outlet village and a much needed sleep
* Had to drive all the way home due to new UK lockdown ( we had planned a night in Blackpool as we have never been )

Good points- scenery
Spending time together
We took our camping stove and food so had plenty of rural eating experiences
Didn’t go for shopping but found some nice shops in Aviemore and Gretna
Not many people about so plenty of time to takes photos and take it slowly

Bad points - lady in the restaurant left a bad taste in what was mostly a good day
Went a bit late in the year so expectedly it was cold
Not many toilets open due to COVID - so planning needed !

Meh points - Jacobite train - V expensive for price paid and a lot of people not complying with mask wearing and distancing too long in Mallaig trying to kill time although Mallaig is very pretty

See more...

Thank you so much for sharing, thats very helpful! Can I ask when you went? We're looking at end of September so not sure what to expect weather wise. I do live in Scotland, but Glasgow area and our weather is definitely different to the Highlands!

[snowbelle]

Hi
We went late October, I don’t mind the cold and we got to see some snow on the Cairngorms we aren’t really B&b lovers so mostly stayed in premier inns apart from Thurso ( there isn’t one &#128512 premier inn Aviemore is lovely

[MrsBrown]

There will be very soon...

Originally Posted by snowbelle

Hi
We went late October, I don’t mind the cold and we got to see some snow on the Cairngorms we aren’t really B&b lovers so mostly stayed in premier inns apart from Thurso ( there isn’t one &#128512 premier inn Aviemore is lovely

See more...

[Geordieprincess]

We did the eastern part last July (although just based ourselves in Inverness and took day trips out) and the weather was beautiful.
Hoping to do the western part this year.

Highlights for us were
Dunrobin castle

Seeing the seals at Loch fleet nature reserve

Falls of shin salmon leap

Fort George was closed due to covid when we were there but the beach around it was full of amazing pebbles, smooth, sparkly, all sorts

Boat trip on Loch Ness

Wick castle

John o groats

Chanonry point dolphin watching

We were so lucky with the weather, honestly looking back at the photos it’s hard to believe we weren’t abroad with the blue skies and wildlife we saw.

I definitely think Scotland in general has better weather earlier in the summer. We‘ve had lots of lovely weather May to July and lots of rain last week of August.

[8gotoWDW]

We were supposed to be doing it this Easter - have accommodation booked via booking.com but sadly looks like it will have to be cancelled
Lots of different options available. I approached it like my disney planning and picked what I wanted to see/do and started from there. Mix of camping pods and hotels in different location each night. We were going to do it anti clockwise as the west scenery is supposed to be more beautiful.

[juliab]

We're hoping to do the NC500 this summer. I've booked a motorhome for the week from Inverness we've never been in one before.

I've got a rough plan of places to visit but I haven't booked ant campsites yet.