Fort William / Ben Nevis /stops en route

[MovingtoEssex]

Hi

I'm wondering if it's as busy there as we've seen on the news that snowdonia is.
We're really keen to climb ben nevis in the next 2 weeks, and explore the area - nothing booked, but camping most likely if we can find a site.

We're coming from near London, where would you stop on either journey? We would have 2 weeks so can take our time.

Any suggestions of a 2nd stop in Scotland too?

Thanks!
(P.s. also posted in 'Uk')

We drove from Manchester to Fort William & stopped at the lake district/Yorkshire dales & then Edinburgh to have lunch & sight see. We drove straight to Fort William from there, the scenery was so beautiful it didn't feel like the 3 hour drive it was.
You can free camp anywhere in Scotland but we stayed here, which has amazing views of Ben Nevis to wake up to & was central to all the local attractions, & was very cheap.

www.greatglenyurts.com/

I stupidily took lots of food, when there was an asda, aldi, M & S within a 10 minute drive.

Hope you have an amazing time - we can't wait to go back.

Just to add the traffic isn't as horrendous as made out, there were 5 minute queues at a little roundabout in the centre of Fort William but nothing major. The campervans take a little getting used to.

Thanks! That's spurred me on to do it. With some places closed and talk of hordes of people I was wavering. 5 min traffic jams are not an issue!

The Pooley Bridge Inn is hardly any detour and has family rooms and rooms with adjoining doors. Amazing views!

If you go as far as fort William then you should travel on to Glencoe which is spectacular . www.google.co.uk/search?q=ballachulish%20campsite&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari&sxsrf=ALeKk02jRfncvqpPq3doNBq3e-gpPf6afA:1595522120677&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=56678208,-5088037,1399&tbm=lcl&rldimm=6849487321902484140&lqi=ChViYWxsYWNodWxpc2ggY2FtcHNpdGVIpZD_rNSVgIAIWiUKCGNhbXBzaXRlEAEYASIVYmFsbGFjaHVsaXNoIGNhbXBzaXRl&phdesc=Nf1I4SZa_bI&ved=2ahUKEwiEwe-J5-PqAhXai1wKHWqJDasQvS4wAnoECAwQMQ&rldoc=1&tbs=lrf:!1m4!1u3!2m2!3m1!1e1!1m4!1u2!2m2!2m1!1e1!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:1&rlst=f#rldoc=1&rlfi=hd:;si:6849487321902484140,l,ChViYWxsYWNodWxpc2ggY2FtcHNpdGVIpZD_rNSVgIAIWiUKCGNhbXBzaXRlEAEYASIVYmFsbGFjaHVsaXNoIGNhbXBzaXRl,y,Nf1I4SZa_bI;mv:%5B%5B56.9068902,-4.7835678%5D,%5B56.505424,-5.610860199999999%5D%5D

From Glencoe there it’s not far to the Skye bridge. Plockton is a level place to visit too.
We stay in Glasgow so would go up the side of Loch Lomond to get to Fort William. The road is slow but the scenery is lovely.
I personally think Fort William itself isn’t very nice and wouldn’t choose to stay there for any length of time. It’s only 17 miles further to Glencoe and Ballachullish .

Its Ben Nevis we're aiming for rather than Fort William. Have found a couple of nice looking campsites 20/30 mins away and will phone tomorrow.
Went to skye years ago but kids wouldn't remember so that's a good call.

Did you have any luck with campsites? Everywhere we have tried is pretty much fully booked till the end of August.

@iskwobel it has been really stressful and I've given up for now. Clincher was the Glencoe site needing us to move pitch each day. Lots of places have no facilities open, so ok if you have a caravan.
I've postponed until end of august when there seems to be more flexibility (Scottish schools gone back).
Have you managed to book anything?

We tried but everywhere was pretty much full. In the end we had a night away in a forestry car park as we have a campervan
forestryandland.gov.scot/staythenight
It was fine but you can only stay one night at a time-stayed at one near Oban.
I hope it gets a bit quieter soon!!