I’m super lucky and my husband is ridiculously supportive of my solo travels so I arranged a sitter for the kids while he was at work and spent a week alone in the Highlands. I try to do a solo kid/family free trip once a year (along with some random weekends). It feeds my soul. I got an amazing deal at the Travelodge City Centre so didn’t need a hostel for the week which was nice too. I really fell in love with the Highlands and it’s been hard to make myself plan different trips because I really just want to go back!
Itinerary:
September 13- Fly into Inverness, take bus to hotel, walk around
September 14- Timberbush Tour- Dunrobin Castle, John O’Groats
September 15- Train to Aviemore on own
September 16- Rabbies Tour- Glen Affric, Culloden & Clava Cairns (was originally booked with Timberbush but they cancelled somewhat last minute)
September 17- WOW Scotland Tour to Isle of Skye Including Fairy Pools
September 18- Lazy Day- I did some shopping, checked out a bookstore and did a lot of nothing
September 19- Timberbush Tour- Applecross, Loch Carron & the Wild Highlands
September 20- Fly Home
September 14- Timberbush Tour to Dunrobin and John O’Groats
This tour was really nice. Lots of time at Dunrobin. Our guide managed to find us somewhere in the midst of stuff just opening to eat for lunch that was nice (and affordable). Bonus that I got to pick up my husband some beer in John O’Groats. Beautiful and I thought it was worth the day out. Lots of younger solo travelers on the tour.
September 15- Train to Aviemore
I didn’t want to do long tours every day and am pretty comfortable taking public transport on my own (I hate driving and don’t enjoy it at all which is why I went the tour route) so took the train to Aviemore. It was beautiful. I walked to Loch an Eilean and it was beautiful. It was a long walk to get there. Couple miles and the weather was honestly crap. But I still enjoyed the beautiful heather and the time alone with nature. It was a nice, cheap day out. I had the best meal of my trip this evening at Rocpool. One of the best restaurants I’ve at at in the UK. Pretty much all meals required reservations unless you wanted take out/fast food.
September 16- Rabbies tour to Culloden
I 100% admit the only reason I booked this tour was because I wanted to go to Culloden Battlefield. If I was to go back (which I’m planning to do this August), I would just take the bus and skip the tour. The Cairns were kind of neat and Glen Affric beautiful but it was a bit more than I really would have wanted to do. Still worth it at least once.
September 17- WOW Scotland Isle of Skye Tour
This was the tour I was most looking forward too. I paid the extra money to sit up front, don’t think it was necessary, but if you have the extra money go for it. A lot of rest stops still had toilets closed due to Covid so not as many stops as maybe there would be normally but we managed. It did feel a little rushed with the Fairy Pools but it was a great way to see Skye for those who are unwilling to drive… and I admit, after going I wouldn’t want to drive, haha. Lots of single lane narrow winding mountain roads. It was beautiful, we’re going back as a family in September and I can’t wait.
September 19- Timberbush Tour to Applecross
I was torn on whether to do this tour or not or just do another Loch Ness tour (which I did a similar one of out of Edinburgh with the kids earlier in the month). This is the one tour that really surprised me. It was really unique and we got to see fish jumping in the river and the Applecross roads were just amazingly breathtaking. Again, I’m a chicken and have no desire to drive it myself. See the trend here? I’d love to do an NC500 trip though (and maybe make someone else do the driving for it).
Jaunting Around The World 