North Coast 500

[Truman]

Me and the Mrs have just got back from doing this in the Zed...All I can say is I'd do it again next week if I could get the time off work..We travelled up and stayed in Sterling then Inverness,over to the west we spent a night in the Loch Maree Hotel near Gairloch,next place we stayed was the BettyHill Hotel (just a pub with rooms really) then the Royal Golf at Dornoch..spent a couple of nights near Glencoe on the way back down and finally a night at the Haweswater Hotel in the Lake District..did about 1400 miles altogether..the weather was really good until Glencoe then we had a bit of rain in the mornings but it cleared up in the afternoon... Never having done it before I was a bit unsure about ground clearance/road surfaces etc but we had no problems at all (unlike the two girls we met near Achanalt who had locked themselves out of their car).

Awesome,

What would you say the minimum time you could do this in? I have restricted time off work (or at least.. the Mrs does), and it looks like you took a few days to relax in certain places.

I suppose it's all down to how far you want to drive in a day,we did the actual NC500 in 3 days really,,Sat Sun Mon...but we added a bit on the front and back to make more of a break of it...we met hardly any traffic,you occasionally have to be a bit patient on the single tracks,I have read of people doing the whole lot in a day,fine if you don't want to see any of the sights or visit anywhere I suppose.We made the trip up and down from Inverness part of the holiday..

 

[Crimson_27]

Kinlochewe petrol station. Owner there is an enthusiast and has a Facebook page. Really nice guy and helpful.

agreed , if it wasnt for him id have missed one of the best roads which is about two minutes away from this petrol station. very helpful guy. We did it over 3 days with a couple days each side of the NC500.

 

[Ewazix]

We are recently back from touring a truncated version of the NC500 (about 400 miles) but also taking in the Isle of Skye, brilliant trip and restored my faith in finding a decent driving road with little or no traffic at times!

Even at this end of the season decent accommodation really MUST be booked, and eating anywhere with decent reviews again needs to be booked as well, but worth it.

Apart from the driving, the highlights for us was the seafood, stunning scenery and coastal wildlife. Also finding a pair of blond twins sunbathing on a rock in the Kyle of Lochalsh