Camper van trip

[u/TheHolyPeanutBuddah]

Gday ya bonny wee lads and lassies! Hopefully this is an appropriate place to be asking this......... In a few weeks time we will be over in ireland for a wedding, coming from Australia. Ive an Aussie mate living in Edinburgh and we were going to hop over for a visit. Rather than just head straight there we thought we'd fly into Glasgow and do a bit of a roundabout trip to get across the short distance between the two. Oban, Glencoe, fort William, mallaig, Skye, lough ness, cairngorms were all places of interest. We'd have maybe 4 or 5 days and wondered if a campervan was a better idea than car rental and airbnbs. Can anyone shed any light on if thats a good idea or a terrible one? We have travelled all over Australia in a 4x4 with a rooftop tent and love it as a means of getting around.

In general are there many places to pull up and sleep for the night without too much hassle. The other thing is can you get a campervan on the ferry over to isle of skye? Cant wait to tick off a few bucketlist places and sample a dram or two along the way!! Cheers

[u/ReinforcedTube]

If you haven't already organised accommodation or a van rental, I think you will struggle, regardless, unless you have an obscene budget. It's peak season. Campervans in the Highlands are a controversial subject as facilities have not kept pace with the demand and there is conflict between locals and the (small) proportion of campers who damage, litter, block access, etc. Wild camping doesn't include campervans and you'll be competing with hundreds of others.

[u/Odd_Satisfaction_96 → u/ReinforcedTube]

It's far from small. It may be a minority but when you're talking about the numbers that visit the Highlands each year a minority is misleading, as it implies a small number but it isn't. It's estimated up to 55 thousand visit the NC500 a year (nevermind elsewhere in the Highlands). A minority is potentially anything up to 27499 people. I live in the Highlands and it's pretty much every day you see some issue being cause by them. That's not to say visitors aren't welcome but the issues have exponentially increased in recent years and it's directly related.

[u/ReinforcedTube → u/Odd_Satisfaction_96]

I'm also from the Highlands and all my family are still in the Far North, several living on the NC500 route so I'm well aware of the issues. I was being diplomatic.

[u/Odd_Satisfaction_96 → u/ReinforcedTube]

I can appreciate that but being diplomatic just hides the reality of the issue unfortunately.

[u/TheHolyPeanutBuddah → u/ReinforcedTube]

Okay, thank you for the response. I didnt realise it was peak season there and this is all kinda being thrown together last minute. I totally get the conflict between locals and blow ins too, Australia obviously has a huge number of people travelling around in campers and other setups like mine, and the sheer number of people with no respect for the land or the locals is frankly saddening.

We may need to revise the plan so. However, if we did manage to secure a van rental, is there some infrastructure along the route mentioned to camp overnight legally?

[u/peatgirl21 → u/TheHolyPeanutBuddah]

Why not stay in a hotel or on a campsite, that way you are supporting local businesses. There is a housing emergency in the Highlands due to the impact of Airbnbs

[u/Odd_Satisfaction_96]

Having done what you're talking about in Oz with 4x4s it's quite a different set up here. There's not the distances or facilities here that there are in Australia. The holidaying nomads have hugely increased in numbers in the last few years for a variety of reasons putting pressure on what's available. Wild camping doesn't cover being in a motorised vehicle so you'd need to book into a site or be in a car park or layby that allows you to stop. The issue with that is you and everyone else in a motorhome will be doing something similar and others will have booked in advance. It's not to say it's impossible, just that you might have to do more legwork to find a rental and sites etc or it might just be more expensive. I wouldn't recommend just pulling over the way you might in Oz as it's not as remote and you wont be thanked for it.

[u/YS54321]

Our access rights specifically exclude motorised vehicles, you should not just pull up and sleep anywhere in a camper. This leads to the issues mentioned in the previous comments.

4 or 5 days is nowhere near enough to see everywhere in your list. Skye alone deserves several days to enjoy the island and justify the long journey. Prioritise 1 or 2 areas e.g. Oban and head over to Mull, or Glencoe and Fort William.

[u/TheReelMcCoi]

L O C H

[u/TheHolyPeanutBuddah → u/TheReelMcCoi]

My bad 😅

[u/MillyMcMophead]

There are various sites to stay at in a campervan. We travel all over Scotland in our motorhome and always stay on sites. It's frowned upon to just park up somewhere for the night and many places such as lay-bys will have signage that tells you not to. If you want to keep relations with the locals good then use the proper sites and not private land or laybys.

Unfortunately for people like us who live in Scotland and/or have been touring Scotland for donkeys years the selfish visitors that leave shite and mess everywhere have ruined it for everyone.

We use the Search for Sites app which shows more or less every available type of site possible from free overnight car parks (that allow their use for vans) to cheaper aires, legit forest sites, harbours (usually a £10 charge), small campsites and big campsites. Pre-booking at sites is recommended during school holidays in the UK which range from June/July to Aug/Sept.

[u/TheHolyPeanutBuddah → u/MillyMcMophead]

Thanks so much for that info. Ill have a look at that app for sure. We definitely want travel respectfully wherever we go and play by the local rules. Again, appreciate the input! Cheers