to take my kids to Scotland?

[prepschoolreject]

DH is not good at family holidays.

Last year, i took my children (then aged nearly 3 and nearly 2) to Disneyland paris alone.

This year, I am thinking of taking my kids (now aged nearly 4 and nearly 3) to Fort William on the Caledonian sleeper. DS (The nearly 4YO) is train obsessed and will ADORE being in rural Scotland!

(FWIW, I would love to take them back to Disneyland, but it's just a bit expensive, so looking for cheaper options)

I can do it, can't I?

If anyone has any other options, I'd love to hear them. Anything considered, except flights. DS has a few SN and flights are not something he can cope with well. All other transport (esp. trains) is fine.

You'll be fine on the sleeper.

The train run from Glasgow to FW is very nice.

However, FW itself is a bit meh - too many tartan tat shops for me! Have a look at Oban as well - you'd have to get off the sleeper at Glasgow and get onto a normal train, but I think Oban's a much nicer place. You can do trips to the islands, including seeing Tobermory, there's a sea life centre and loads of other things to do. It's also a much better place for food - there's a chippy that does all unusual fish, a fantastic seafood stand near the ferry terminal, and look up Eee-usk if you're having a splurge.

Except you'd need to go to ee-usk for lunch - no kids in the evening!

Ooh yes! Do it. Fort William is lovely. Well all of it is lovely...

Oooh... lots of lovely responses - thankyou!!

Answering questions:

1. Looking at the direct train from Euston to FW. Thankyou for all the responses about FW being fab. I think we will love it.
2. Dog is a chocolate labrador and the best behaved of all my babes
3. No need for sad faces re. DH. It's just not his 'thing'.... We agreed last year that we all had a better time without him. My dad was in the navy for my entire childhood, so it doesn't strike me as strange to have happily married parents who holiday / spend a lot of time separately.

Really looking forward to this particular adventure. Definitely heading north first though, train times really work for us!!!

Thankyou all!

my dad hated holidays aswell and on the few occasions when mum took us away without him it was so much more relaxed and no-one was on eggshells trying to prevent dad getting any more tense than he already was. it just wasn't enjoyable for him which made it not enjoyable for us.

woohoo! booked!!! Can't believe it! Very cool adventure coming up!

It sounds awesome, i would love to do it.

Great! Sorry we can't promise the weather we've got just now

Perhaps have a look at the cable car trip up Ben Nevis - great views and hopefully no whinging from tired legs.

Are you taking the dog too??

Fab place. the Nevis range gondolas are brilliant. They take you v high up mountain with brilliant views. Your kids will love it!

Have a wonderful time (I'm homesick now!)

Thankyou - Will DEFINITELY be taking the gondolas. They look great!

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Weather is not an issue for us. My children appear to be related to Ray Mears and would happily live outdoors 24/7 if allowed!!

And, best of all, DH wants to come with us. Thinks it sounds like a great adventure

Whatwouldfreddiedo - sadly, no, the dog now lives with my parents. I miss him LOADS but he is older now and the kids would kill him. He's happily whiling away his twilight years with my father (also twilight ) and while I miss him every single day, I know it wouldn't be fair on either dog or father to separate them now, especially when it would mean elderly dog being jumped on by my over active DS (He has a few SN, and would find it difficult to be gentle with DDog)

You can get a steam train from Fort William to Mallaig and even get a ferry for a day on Eigg.

Sorry, am going to deviate from the trend here.

I've taken the sleeper loads (work trips, pref not to fly) and tbh have never had a great night's sleep (it's referred to as the "non-sleeper" at work). I'd also be a bit worried about disturbing other people if I had kids with me but that's because my toddler always finds something to kick off about - it wiuld be a real concern for me but may not be for you!

Sorry to be a downer but I live in Scotland (grew up in VERY rural Scotland) and will def be going down south for a holiday this yr - we normally go up north but am sick of year after year of rain sodden breaks. It's so frustrAting as when the weather is good it's just amazing but the rain can be really limiting with small kids. We get all the waterproofs out and the raincover on the backpack and off we go but we have looked mournfully at rain lashed beaches wishing for a bit of sun and not had any at all. I can't take two weeks at 10 degrees in July this year.

I know I'm not exactly doing to Scottish tourist board a favour - you could have the most amazing holiday of your life but be prepared not to.

Ok, it's booked-ignore me, am sure you'll have a fab time. If you don't have a proper walking backpack for carrying your youngest (Bushbaby and the like) then try to source one. And hire a car!

Nevertooeralyforcake

Thanks - but I have odd children who (i) have no problems with cold / wet / windy weather (ii) love walking / running and (iii) will sleep anywhere

We are staying at Inverlochy Castle, so cars will be available as and when we want them.

Is there anywhere you would recommend going?

Wow, Inverlochy Castle - this is a completely different holiday than the ones that I have experienced! Forget I said anything negative at all!

The kids will love the boat trip on Loch Ness searching for the Loch Ness Monster, think it's from Fort Augustus or the next town up. The Gondolas have already been mentioned, they are great. There are two Nessie centres (surprise, surprise), one very kitsch (or tacky depending on your viewpoint, not updated for about 30 yrs!) and one more "scientific" - worth a look as are the canal locks.

I can't remember how far it from Fort William but I just love Plockton, it's a beautiful wee place, definitely worth a trip. Railway station and lovely palm trees (well, sort of...). Applecross is nice too - scary, scary drive (again, can't remember how far- sorry!) but beautiful views over to Raasay.

on the weather thing - we holidayed near Dornoch (way up north) a couple of years ago in August. We took cardigans, waterproofs etc - but had a lovely week of sunshine nearly every day and even swam in the sea - well ran in and out and shivered. Beautiful beaches with no people. DD loved it!

Plockton is just beautiful. Shame about the name.

Inverlochy Castle is a cheaper option?! :)

You can see the HarryPotter on the way to Hogwarts bridge at Mallaig. It's fab.

It might be a bit of a long day, but if your DC are good with ferries then you can go for a day trip (by train/ferry) to one of the small isles from fort william. The CalMac website has timetables including train times from Fort William. We had a nice time walking on Rum, and you can just walk up the track from Kinloch (no traffic as you need a permit to have a car there) as your kids a fairly young. Also saw dolphins during the crossing!

There is also a ferry to Skye from Mallaig, but the southern end of Skye is not terribly exciting and there's not really enough time to get anywhere else.

Inverlochy castle - stayed there on honeymoon and once since with 18 month old DS. Amazing place.

Would lOve to do sleeper with kids at some point. May have to try a solo trip first - fancy a weekend walking in Scotland!