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NC500 Pocket Map: Plan your adventure on Scotland’s North Coast 500 route official map

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Golfing.Scotland is the home of golf and attracts golfers from around the world who want to play some of Scotland’s best known courses. For golfers, I’d recommend driving the route between Inverness and Dornoch, and also detouring a bit from the NC500 to the Nairn area. The RSPB has several reserves around or near the NC500 that help protect the local wildlife. For seabird lovers, there are several spots along the route but I’d highly recommend the Dunnet Head Nature Reserve which is home to a number of species, depending on the season, including cormorants, puffins, razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes, and fulmars. We have driven Route 66, and we can say that there are a lot of differences between a historic route that spans over 2,400 miles and crosses 8 U.S. states and the North Coast 500. The NC500 is a mainly coastal route that goes through small villages and rural areas in a sparsely populated area of northern Scotland.

I’d probably recommend 4 locations for 2-3 days each along the route to avoid having to keep driving the same part of the route too much. It depends of course on your main interests along the route but I’d say maybe in or around 1) Inverness 2) Thurso 3) Lochinver and 4) Gairloch (or Kinlochewe). But I’d look at our detailed day by day NC500 itinerary for help in where might be the best bases for you, depending on your interests and what you really want to do. It also depends if you prefer towns or plan to camp or stay in more rural locations. I doubt you will likely find a travel companion a week before such a trip, so I’d plan to do the trip on your own, but there are message boards out there that you might want to try. I’d try local ones in your particular area to see if anyone is interested and maybe some specific to the NC500. Unfortunately, the best travel companion board that I know of (Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Travel Companion message board) closed down last year. There are also general Facebook communities you can join as well and I’d do a search for “travel companions”. I would make the walk down to Smoo Cave – it is free to see the exterior. You can also do a tour here but that might be a bit too much for the kids. You might also be wondering if you can do the North Coast 500 by train. The simple answer is no, there is no train route that approximates the route and an entire portion of the northwest of Scotland has no train connections. But even right along the route, few people get out of their cars to hike around lochs, hills, beaches, or fields so if you get out into nature you’ll probably find yourself relatively alone. Relatively few people even stop to visit the local museums and we’ve often had them to ourselves. You might also consider heading out on a boat to see the coastline from another angle.

This one is easy, don’t litter! Bring along bags or containers you can keep in your car to store your trash and wait until you get to a proper place to dispose of it responsibly. One common issue is that tourists are throwing garbage into proper trash receptacles but the receptacles are already overflowing so the garbage ends up on the ground or in the water anyway.

Yes, as I am sure you expected, we would not recommend this. As you have read on our blogs as well as it sounds like from other people online who have done the trip, we’d not recommend that route for you. Basically you’ll have 1.5 days or a little more since you arrive late on 24th and need to be in Inverness by the evening of 26th. Wild animals, particularly deer, may also be on the road and are much more likely to run out in front of you. Be extra mindful for deer in the early morning and evening hours when they are most active. Corrieshalloch Gorge National Nature Reserve– At this nature reserve, kids have the chance to walk across a “scary” suspension bridge and there is also hiking trails. Just be careful to keep hold of young children. You might find this suggested 7 day camping itinerary useful as it provides a suggested NC500 itinerary and tips for those planning to camp or stay in motorhomes along the route. Guided Activities– There are many opportunities to book some fun activities and tours along the route. Examples include wildlife boat trips with EcoVentures, Caithness Sea Coast, or Hebridean Whale Cruises,ziplining with Golden Eagle Zip Line, geology walks (kids 10+ only) with Deep Time, fishing with Assynt Fly Fishing, loch canoeing or kayaking with Kayak Summer Isles, pony trekking with the Gairloch Pony Trekking Centre, and deer spotting and ATV trip at Reraig Forest. Note many of the above activities have age limits and most require advanced booking.Climb Ben Loyal and Ben Hope – the Queen of Scottish Mountains, Ben Loyal is a Corbett with four dramatic peaks to climb. Ben Hope is the most northerly Munro. Wow! What a terrific source of inspiration! Thank you SO much for taking the time and put it together! It depends if you are camping or booking pubs and hotels. For hotels, B&Bs and camper vans the route is so popular many places are booked up a year in advance – so get planning! The drink drive laws in Scotland were changed in 2014 and are now very strict with low limits to discourage drinking and driving. The legal drinking limit is now lower than in any other part of the UK. You could still be charged even if you are riding a bike. However, in recent years, they have added North Coast 500 brown tourist signs along the route to help people stay on the route. So it is much easier to follow the route now.

Suilven –At 731m Suilven might be considered a wee hill in Scotland (Ben Nevis is nearly twice its height) but once seen, Suilven (pronounced Sool-ven) is a hill never to be forgotten – it is one of Scotland’s most iconic mountains. That is great that you have more time for your North Coast 500 trip and you could easily make all of the overnights from 1 night to 2 nights if you wanted. I’d definitely recommend spending a bit of time exploring the area around Inverness as there is a lot to see if you haven’t been before (e.g., Loch Ness, Fort George, Cawdor Castle, Culloden, etc.). However there is no right way to drive the route so head in the direction that makes the most sense for you! Lodging reservations is often an important factor in people’s route. Planning a North Coast 500 itinerary? For whale watching, we were told that Duncansby Head, Dunnet Bay, and Strathy Point are popular spots for whale watchers as well as for dolphins, porpoises, and other sea animals. There are wildlife boat tours you can do in the Caithness area for a better chance to see the wildlife. The Orkney Islands (can be reached by ferry from John O’ Groats) is also a great place for wildlife, including sea mammals, voles, and sea birds.

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My concern is do my stops on the west coast give us sufficient time to do that? we do intend to take the scenic route to Lochinver. If you plan to hike, you may want to invest in a good set of hiking maps, especially for those planning to do longer distance hillwalking, climbing, or hiking. Ordnance Survey maps are the ones we recommend (see below). Having the round-trip flight and car bookings done, we are now in the process of establishing our self-driving route, and we are trying to figure out how to reach as many points of interest as possible, but without over-doing it… There are lots of ways to do the NC500 / S cotland Route 66 – with a tent, staying in b&bs or self-catering. How you do it is up to you!

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