Motorhome holiday in Scotland

[way2serious]

We are thinking of a holiday next year touring Scotland in a motorhome. Just me, DP and our little doggie. We haven’t got any definite dates or locations in mind but just looking for any advice or tips as to the best time, routes or companies to use. We are based in the midlands.

Join one of the campervan clubs and use their sites. You'll get lots of useful ideas from them too.

Are you hiring a motorhome? If so go for the van style ones, not the bigger ones as they make more of the remote locations accessible. Spring and autumn are lovely times to visit with fewer midges. If you are heading to the islands book your ferry well in advance. Do not underestimate the distances between places, Scotland is vast. Aim to make the most of a certain area, don't aim to do it all in one trip unless you are going for a few months!

We went up to the Kelpies and the Falkirk wheel this year. Both worth visiting and both under £20 to park for the night if you don't mind off grid. I wouldn't bother actually going on the canal boat on the wheel if I did it again, but it's wonderful to watch.

If you want to see Edinburgh there is a decent park and ride by the airport (Ingliston I think it's called?), which you can park and jump on the tram into Edinburgh - it actually goes all the way to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was an interesting visit if you're into that sort of thing.

We didn't get any further up as we were only away for a week but will definitely be going back to Scotland next year.

Here’s a useful link with info on stopovers/European style aires: https://rollingbothy.com/blog/resources/guide-motorhome-stopovers-aires-scotland?format=amp

We haven’t had a camper van for many years sadly, but did have a fantastic holiday going round Uist. The single track roads to the ferry weren’t great, but parking up at Hosta beach on North Uist with the place pretty much to ourselves was amazing. If you can’t manage island hopping this time, check out the Moray Firth area on the east coast. Much easier driving, and there’s a camper van stopover place in Findhorn (fantastic area to visit).

The north west and many of the islands are being overrun with campers and motorhomes and the facilities are not there to support the huge growth - I'd suggest south of the great glen unless very early in the season? Eg Portree campsite on Skye has no availability next may already.

As pp said - as small as you can manage will make driving and parking easier

Don't overnight park where it says no overnight parking - you didn't used to see this but it's much more common now because of the numbers - there are usually approved places around.Note that the whole Loch Lomond and trossachs area is formal sites only in holiday season . And glen etive.

( numbers - and behaviour of some. Please use proper campsite to empty your waste. . Don't pitch up in a car park for a week. If the car park is full and has a local role , move on - imagine the funeral arriving to find the church car park full ) There is loads of obvious stuff that too many people don't see as obvious

Single track roads - use passing places to permit overtaking. Don't stop on them even "just to take a photo ".

Remember that people live and work intheee places so don't drive at 25 on an 60 road - let people past

Rant over

We did a lovely trip up the east coast recently - you could go from Edinburgh around the coat and end up in Inverness for something different

For the hills - Glasgow to fort William is pretty good too.

If driving on single track roads, learn to reverse confidently. Hire a small campervan rather than a massive motorhome. Don't park overnight where you shouldn't (wild camping rules do NOT apply to vehicles), don't dump your toilet waste at the roadside (yes people do this). Don't try to whizz round the North Coast 500 in 3 days. Spend locally. Be mindful.

We have had a couple of really lovely holidays in the South West - Dumfries and Galloway, around the Firth of Clyde.

Also the north east - the Moray Firth as well as the coast in Aberdeenshire.

If renting and have never done it before I would recommend hiring and going for a weekend away several weeks before the holiday as that way you will be more clued up on what you need to take and how everything works.
Everything from bedding, clothing, cooking, washing, toilet, TV, WiFi etc are different and you want to get it right before the big adventure.

We have been MH owners for years and as well as CAMC, are members of several FB groups but are amazed on an almost daily basis of just how little some people understand about MH life and have done nil research before buying/hiring one.
Our favourite ones are how people don't understand the power supply and take all sorts of 230v items (hair dryer, straighteners, coffee machine etc) but have no intention of going to sites with EHU and then wonder why the 230v sockets don't work. Also they take multiple USB dependent devices when the MH is only fitted with a single USB point. 😖