Travel advice for Scotland
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Scotland
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In common with the rest of Britain, accommodation in Scotland is usually expensive. Budget travellers are well catered for with numerous hostels and those with money to spend will relish the more expensive country-house hotels. In the middle ground, however, the standard of many B&Bs, guesthouses and hotels can be disappointing. Welcoming, comfortable, well-run places do, of course, exist in all parts of the country.
Most tourist offices will help you find accommodation and book a room directly, for which they normally charge a flat fee of £4. If you take advantage of this service, it’s worth being clear as to what kind of place you’d prefer, as the tourist office quite often selects something quite randomly across the whole range of their membership. Bear in mind, too, that outside the main towns and cities many places are only open for the tourist season (Easter to Oct): you’ll always find somewhere to stay outside this period, but the choice may be limited.
In the cities the in-creasing prevalence of modern budget hotels and travel lodges run by national (and international) chains may not win any prizes for aesthetics or variety, but they are competitively priced and for the most part meet criteria for clean, smart, serviceable accommodation.
Also making a bit of a comeback are inns (in other words, pubs), or their modern equivalent, “restaurants with rooms”. These will often have only a handful of rooms, but their emphasis on creating an all-round convivial atmosphere as well as serving top-quality food often make them worth seeking out.
In reality, however, most place offer en-suite facilities, and the different names often reflect the pretensions of the owners and the cost of the rooms more than differences in service: in general, guesthouses cost more than B&Bs.
Some guesthouses and B&Bs have decor that consists of heavy chintz and floral designs, but the location, and the chance to get an insight into the local way of life, can be some compensation. Many B&Bs, even the pricier ones, have only a few rooms, so advance booking is recommended, especially in the Islands.
Hostelling Scotland (hostellingscotland.org.uk), run the longest-established hostels in the Highlands and Islands. While these places sometimes occupy handsome buildings, many retain an institutionalized air. Bunk-bed accommodation in single-sex dormitories, lights out before midnight and no smoking/no alcohol policies are the norm outside the big cities.
Breakfast is not normally included in the price, though most hostels have self-catering facilities. If you’re not a member of one of the hostelling organisations affiliated to Hostelling International (HI), you can pay your £10 joining fee at most hostels. Advance booking is recommended, and essential at Easter, Christmas and from May to August. You can book online, by phone, post and sometimes fax, and your bed will be held until 6pm on the day of arrival.
There are also loads of independent hostels (sometimes known as “bunkhouses”) across Scotland. These are usually laidback places with no membership, fewer rules, mixed dorms and no curfew. You can find most of them in the annually updated Independent Hostel Guide (independenthostelguide.co.uk). Many of them are also affiliated to the Independent Backpackers Hostels of Scotland (hostel-scotland.co.uk), which has a programme of inspection and lists members in their Blue Hostel Guide, available for free online.
That said, informal sites of the kind tent campers relish do exist, and are described throughout this guide, though they are few and far between. Many hostels allow camping, and farmers will usually let folk camp on their land for free or for a nominal sum. Scotland’s relaxed land access laws allow wild camping in open country. The basic rule is “leave no trace”, but for a guide to good practice, visit outdooraccess-scotland.com.
The great majority of caravans are permanently moored nose to tail in the vicinity of some of Scotland’s finest scenery; others are positioned singly in back gardens or amidst farmland. Some can be booked for self-catering, and with prices starting at around £100 a week, this can work out as one of the cheapest options if you’re travelling with kids in tow.
If you’re planning to do a lot of camping at official camping and caravanning sites, it might be worthwhile joining the Camping and Caravanning Club (campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk).
The least you can expect to pay in the high season is around £250 per week for a place sleeping four, but something special, or somewhere in a popular tourist area, might cost £500 or more. A good source of information is VisitScotland’s self-catering guide, updated annually and listing more than 1200 properties, or try one of the web-sites listed below.
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Scotland
written by Lucy Kane
updated 26.04.2021
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