2 Fatties in a Fiat 500 - North Coast 500

[AJ86]

Welcome to my first non Florida Trip report!

Real quick introductions, there is myself, Andy, chief travel planner and my wife Frankie who pretty much goes along with what I say!

I do love a good trip report, and hopefully this will help give some inspiration for those looking for a staycation.

Well this is not the trip we had originally planned, originally we were due to go to Crete to a nice 4* All inclusive resort, but as things happen Greece was put back onto the travel banned list. So a rethink was in order. We had always wanted to see more of the UK, but when we had time off work we always thought a UK trip was a bit of a waste of time and always went overseas. Now was the time to tick off a trip we had wanted to do, the North Coast 500. A 500 mile circle of some of Scotland's finest scenery.

Around a month before we travelled I went into planning mode, I am on furlough so I have no excuse not to create a number of spreadsheets! During my planning phase I soon realised that people who plan to do this route either do so in their motorhome, camp or find hotels along the way. You can also do the route either clockwise or anti clockwise. Not one for motorhomes, caravans or camping, I was fighting to book the few hotels that were placed along the route, that hadn’t already been booked months in advance. I planned many different routes and stopping points with help of the kind folk on a facebook group and settled travelling in a clockwise direction.

I had also read horror stories of the route being jam packed with motorhomes and news articles had made it out to be some kind of wacky races. I always try to make my own mind up and tend not to read too much into articles and reviews. I waste no time and take advantage of Easyjet's sale and book flights from Luton to Inverness along with various other hotels and car hire.

I’m going to leave this short and sweet so lets jump into travel day here.