Loch Ness...

[Guest]

Am taking the family to Edinburgh in June for a week and for 30 quid, we can get return rail tickets to Inverness, which I am sure looks like a nice place itself to visit. However, being car less and will only have the afternoon up there before the return train, does anyone know how easy it is logistically to get to Loch Ness - It doesn't seem that far on maps, but maps and real life can be two different things!

Any advice?

[DCI Harry Batt]

Loch Ness...

Local buses go there and back. Inverness is nice in itself, too. But don't go to the Thai restaurant I went to, as the waitress is a raving loonbucket.

[Guest]

Loch Ness...

Great thanks Ton - erm, whats the name of the resterant I need to avoid!?

[DCI Harry Batt]

Loch Ness...

Good question. No idea. Just steer clear of underground Thai restaurants, is my advice. Or, if you do end up in one, remember the number of your dish, as the waitress will have no idea what it's called or what's in it.

[delicatemoth]

Loch Ness...

You can get boat trip jaunts across the loch, which are good fun.

The nicest part of Inverness (that I've seen anyway) is down by the river. There are a couple of decent restaurants there but I can't remember their names.

Nairn, which is pretty near, is a cracking Victorian-style seaside resort.

[Guest]

Loch Ness...

Thanks all!

[AMMS]

Loch Ness...

Where do you live that you think Inverness is nice? The train journey up is beautiful and the countryside around it is too but the town itself is really nothing special. You'll be able to arrange a boat trip no problems have a look on here, If it's the Highlands you want to see consider getting off the train at Aviemore and arranging a trip from there, it is in a national park and situated in some stunning scenery, but if it's monsters you want then yes, Loch Ness is better reached from Inverness.

[Guest]

Loch Ness...

Its monsters we want, my 7 year old is fasinated!

Is this photo misleading - looks quite nice?

http://cesutherland.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/inverness_castle.jpg

[delicatemoth]

Loch Ness...

Yeah, that castle/river area is good, and Loch Ness is very fine. Other than that it's a pleasant enough medium-sized town, nothing special. I'm very fond of it because being there means I'll soon be somewhere exquisitely beautiful - as AMMS said, you're within striking distance of a lot of the best scenery in the UK.

I'd definitely recommend the area, but make sure you see more than just the town itself.

[Wyatt Earp]

Loch Ness...

It's all really, really lovely round there, though I last went too long ago to have any advice that's current. Except "Grin and bear all the winsome touristy Nessie-ana; remember people need to make a living." Though I wasn't all that good at practicing what I preach.

[delicatemoth]

Loch Ness...

Fort Augustus at the other end of the loch is much worse for all that stuff.

The Caley Thistle ground is in a good location - you can stand on the road and look down on it with the bay in the background.

[Guest]

Loch Ness...

Thanks everyone - Tickets books, we arrive into Inverness at 12 lunch time on the Wednesday and have to be back on the return train at 6.45pm - so it appears there is a lot we can see in that time that will keep the young one happy and a bit for us too. It should break up the week away just nicely...

Will report back!

[Guy Profumo]

Loch Ness...

battylad wrote:

Thanks everyone - Tickets books, we arrive into Inverness at 12 lunch time on the Wednesday and have to be back on the return train at 6.45pm - so it appears there is a lot we can see in that time that will keep the young one happy and a bit for us too. It should break up the week away just nicely...

Will report back!

I'd check all your 'bus times before you get there, or possibly try to sign up for a "Loch Ness" tour by pre-booking, as the services aren't that frequent.

If it's the "loch experience" your after, then Fort Augustus is probably where you may want to head - and there's also a massive set of lock gates at on the Caledonian Canal to boot.

If it's the "monster tour" you want, then head for Drumnadrochit, which has the "monster experience" theme shops and sheds coming out of its ears.

There's also Urquhart Castle, close to, but not adjacent to, Drumnadrochit, and it is a fair stagger if you're having to walk it between buses.



Here you go...

Page 4 - ex Inverness 13:15
Castle, Boat, Loch Ness Centre, and back to Inverness @ 17:00.

http://www.online-brochures.net/files/2645/

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Loch Ness...

What happens if you actually encounter (and capture on film) the "monster"? Do you get 5 minutes of fame on Breakfast TV, then get denounced as a lunatic by the "Scientific correspondents" in the national press, while you and your family are carted off for 20 years of intensive de-programming in a remote Berkshire hideout by Natural History Museum thugs with assault rifles?

[Moonlight Shadow]

Loch Ness...

I spent a bit of time in Inverness in between trains and coaches (took a train to Thurso from there, that's one journey into wilderness...) and a coach to Ullapool the day after. Cute town, found an old boozer with good ales that kept me busy for a bit...

[nefertiti]

Loch Ness...

go on the train to Kyle of Lochalsh the most beautiful railway line in Britain.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Loch Ness...

Ah no, that's the West Highland Line!

[Guest]

Loch Ness...

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

What happens if you actually encounter (and capture on film) the "monster"? Do you get 5 minutes of fame on Breakfast TV, then get denounced as a lunatic by the "Scientific correspondents" in the national press, while you and your family are carted off for 20 years of intensive de-programming in a remote Berkshire hideout by Natural History Museum thugs with assault rifles?

Think I would simply shit myself actually...