Need to get away for a wee bit and came across the NC500 - looks wonderful, and guessing it's relatively un-busy vs the rest of the UK. Would like to do it on my motorbike and camp along the way.
Possibly a week early September to do it - any advice, campsites, things to avoid?
Live in Kent so thinking of blasting up there, do the route and back down in a week or so. Doable and fun?
I've heard that the NC500 is very busy, queues on singletrack roads, parking spaces, laybys etc. etc.
It's sad, but I suspect that if you want a bit of solitude you might be better staying away from the 'official' route.
The west coast looks like the best bit to visit so maybe do just that and take your time to enjoy the experience.
Do it. It’s amazing, and not at all busy if you’re on a motorbike!
Booking.com is your friend. All you need to do is have a quick search at about 14:00 each day and crack on. Did it in June for the second time, we’ll my variant of it which is just to wing it and take the side roads if there are any.
Go to Durness and remember to stop and take it all in. Very easy to get carried away with riding for the sake of it as the roads are mostly very good!
If the forecast is good you could always wild camp. Easy on a motorbike.
There have been articles on Radio Scotland with locals on the NC500 complaining about lack of infrastructure to support the numbers so I'd think it'd be busy and not particularly pleasant. An alternative if you want "away from it all" might be to get a CalMac season ticket for a week and cruise the Western Isles. Crossing Skye is spectacular (but busy) but you have 2 choices, the bridge and the ferry from Mallaig, both which have routes that will take your breath away.
CalMac island hopping details here
And when I did this, I stayed at Gatliff Trust hostels. The one on Berneray was an incredibly chilled, relaxing place to be
EDIT - Hopscotch 15, head for Fort William, on to Mallaig, ferry to Skye, down through the Uists, ferry back to Oban, then back to civilisation via Tighnabruach. Would totally work for me, as long as you're not on a sportsbike as you'll be going no place fast
I've driven most of it, only missing Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh. By all means drive the West Coast from Kyle up to Durness, but either turn off at Kyle of Tongue down to Lairg, missing out JoG (it's a dump). Another option would be to head back down to Ullapool and take ferry across to Stornoway and then drive back down through Lewis, Harris, Uists etc. Also worth exploring off-route around areas like Inverpolly, Lochinver etc. If you want to do an 'island' but not the Outer Hebrides, I'd skip Skye and go to Mull - drive across Ardnamurchan and take ferry from Kilchoan to Tobermory - west coast from Dervaig, Calgary Bay, Ulva Ferry (boat trip to Staffa & lunch at Boat House), head all the way down to Fionnphort and trip to Iona or go along to Knockvologan beach.
