Going to Balamory on Friday - any tips please?

[poppyseed]

Promised the children (5 and 2)that we'd go to Oban and do the Balamory ferry trip at Easter. We've already booked and are due to leave on Friday. We've booked the ferry with the car to go to Mull on Wednesday for the day only.
Before we go of course I have to ask you mumsnetters for any tips - the trip wouldn't be the same without doing so!
Which houses are worth visiting - can we take the car round the village (don't want to sound lazy here....)or is it best to walk? Is there anywhere that we shouldn't miss? You know the kind of thing - fire away...please

Poppseed - There's a bus I think. I've spoken to some people who took their kids.....be warned that there isn't much 'balamory' there when they are not filming!

The Pocket & Sweet shop is a shop, but's it's just a Tobermorey tourist shop that sells some Balamory things. The railway apparently is now called Balamory Railway though!
And Archies castle isn't there, its in Cumbria.

Eaither way Tobermoray is beautiful.

Yeah - beautiful I hope too
I know about the bus that goes from the ferry port to Tobermory. I have to be honest tho' and say that we chose to take the car to drive to Tobermory so that when we've 'done it' we can go on to the castle in the south of the island. I know that they're not expecting to do any filming this year but I think that they'll just enjoy seeing the houses hopefully.......

POppyseed - It is very 'picture postcard'. As far as the kids are concerned its Balamory....as long as they haven't set their sites on seeing the cast. Apparently though when they are filming.... Suzie Sweet can be spotted every morning at 9am at the Off Licence!

Try not to get mown down by you know who in that big yellow bus.
Watch out for Plummy on his bike - he is a real menace on the road.
and if you see that tart Miss Hoolie.....ask her how dare she be so rude on mumsnet?

We went to Tobermory about 18 months ago (so some of the info I'm giving here be out of date but I'll do my best for you). My tip is to make your first stop the Tourist Information Centre which is (or at least was) near the Tobermory ferry wharf. They had a leaflet which told you how to get to each house. My dd1 was 2.5 at the time and couldn't understand why we couldn't go into any of the houses to visit with the people. She was getting quite upset so we ended up making up stories about why they weren't there at that time (eg. PC Plum was out looking for a lost dog!) so be prepared for that if necessary too.
White and orange houses are private homes, Yellow house is a motel, Green house is a B&B, when we were there Blue house was being gutted and renovated or something, it was all scaffolded & boarded up. As previously mentioned, there is a red shop on the waterfront and the pink house isn't actually there, and nor is the nursery (I believe that's in Glasgow somewhere). Of course the houses are all over the town so get the tourist info map to save yourself time.
My dd loved it and it's such a pretty place that we adults enjoyed it too. Have a great time.

Thanks all - I've got the map already from the website so hopefully should know where to go . Does anyone know about buggy accessibility?

PS what's all this about tart Hoolie then!?

Hope you have a great time, Walk around if you can, the roads behind the main street are quite steep and theres a little play park up behind the hotel. you should manage with a buggy.fish and chips are great !

Actually Archie's Castle is in Berwick, Northumberland!

We were there last August. Ds was nearly 4 and the other kids we were with were 8 and 5. All loved it.

The blue house is now a very yummy chocolate/coffee shop. However, because ds went in there and had something to eat/drink, Edie McCreddie's house is the one house he says he didn't see: he just says he went to "like Edie McCreddie's house"!

Archie's castle isn't there (as Tortoiseshell says, it's in Berwick), but there is a large pink sandstone hotel just above the town (and next to the yellow house) which as far as ds was concerned was Archie's castle.

It's all fairly compact, so I owuld say it was easier to walk. However, the road up to the yellow house is fairly steep and then you have to go down it and and then up again to get to PC Plum's, Spencer's and Miss Hoolie's houses - which are all on the "upper" level.

We parked at the south end of the harbour (free public parking), stopped in the blue house for coffee/cocolate and cakes (and bought some yummy hand made chocolates) , walked along the waterfront, seeing the red house (from memory a shooting/fishing shop) on the way, up towards the hotel/Archie's castle to see the yellow house (the map is a wee bit misleading on directiosn there) and then back round to see PC Plum's, Spencer's and Miss Hoolie's houses.

I'd agree that the fish and chips from the shop at the end of the pier are very good!

You'll probably find that your kids enjoy the ferry ride as much as the trip to Balamory. Look at for seals!

Message withdrawn

OK, I hate to be a smartarse, but in fact Archie's castle is in North Berwick which is in Scotland, south of Edinburgh.

ooh I'm going there next wednesday, this has been very useful.