Gimme some advice (please) for visiting the Isle of Skye. We really want to go--I have read some travel narratives about it, and yes, I realize the weather in winter can get really wild (i love it!). There is one self-catering holiday cottage we want to stay in, but they are booked years in advance in summer--however, they are wide open in winter. I would not mind driving there; I am fine driving in Ireland.
We also want to go to Lewis and the Orkneys--as many as possible.
Isle of Skye was probably our favorite place we’ve ever visited, and the one that we did the least preparation for. We went there on the recommendation of several friends as my spouse was in the UK working at the time. We met for a wedding in Durham and then drove north, stayed in Edinburgh for a few days before heading up to Skye for an extended vacation/delayed honeymoon. We were there in late April, which turned out to be a tremendously lucky time for us.... very few tourists but everything was starting to bloom.
What amazed me about Skye was that if you liked hiking and being outdoors as we do, then you can just stumble across fantastic locales without trying. SCotland’s “Right to Roam” law really means you can hike just about anywhere - no rich landowners blocking access. We stayed in a campground just outside Portree and walked into town for breakfast. For hikes Storr and the Fairie pools stick out in my mind (we stumbled on both), but there were two others we did just by asking locals, neither had any sign or name we could discern but were equally spectacular (one followed a fence and some cliffs to a cobble beach, the other winded along the coast to some white maerl coves. Basically we would just drive until we saw something interesting, get out and explore. It was magical. We packed a lunch and some drinks in a backpack and just went ahead with very little planned each day, and every day wound up being full.
Of the ‘touristy’ things, we went to Talisker (awesome) and of course Dunvegan castle (informative and worth it, but formal tours of old buildings aren’t my favorite thing in the world). If we had more time and planning we might have gone out to the Outer Hebrides - but it takes a full day and the ferry is expensive... its the sort of place which appeals to those who really want to get away from everything.
I was also impressed by the food. Every place we stopped at had fantastic food. From coffee shops to taverns each place we solid - I don’t think we encountered a subpar meal during our entire time there. And of course, being the highlands, every tavern had at least 30 single-malts behind the bar - some had far, far more, and they always seemed to know everything about all of them. Being poor students at the time we aimed for a £50/day budget (for both of us) and most days we stayed well under that.
It’s one of the very few places we are actively planning on re-visiting (with such a big world, we tend not to repeat far-away vacations often).
