May 27, 2018
Back in February, my boyfriend came to visit me in Scotland and we decided to go on a little roadtrip to explore the Northern part of the country and to find out for ourselves what all that "Highland"-fuzz was about. It all seemed easy enough: book accomodations, rent a car, drive. And to some extend it was, at least nothing overly bad has happened to us, but still: there were quite a few things that I wish I would've known beforehand. And that's exactly why I'm currently typing these lines, to make sure YOU are fully prepared and ready for an awesome adventure.
Mentally prepare for the “actual” street situation
Now by that I don’t mean the fact that the Scots also drive on the left side of the road – we’re still in the UK, after all – but the condition of the street surface you will find in more remote places, way off the beaten path. We initially had no idea what would expect us, as the highways on the mainland were obviously fine. But the surprises awaited us when we left those and took the ferry to the Isles.
First of all: beware of the pot holes. They are big and they are here to destroy your life (and bumper). I honestly felt like I was driving a Mario Kart race, trying to dodge them like banana peels on the track. Now of course I don’t know if they will have them all fixed before the summer tourism kicks in but in February they were horrible.
And the second thing is: the more you distance yourself from civilization, the narrower the roads get. Especially on the Isles it’s completely normal to drive on single tracked streets. But no worries, there are so-called “passing points” (see photo below) every 100 meters or so, where you can either pass a car or let them pass, depending on which side it is. This actually didn’t cause us any trouble but I think it’s good to know it beforehand. I can imagine that during the busy season (from May – September) it could cause you to lose some time in your originally planned itinerary so definitely keep this in mind when you’re timing your drives!
Don’t try to save money on insurance
Due to those certain, above mentioned, conditions of the roads, please do absolutely not try to save money on insurance. Because that’s what we did and bitterly regret until this day. We came back with a scratch on the bottom of the front bumper which cost us hundreds of pounds we could’ve saved if we invested them properly in a full car insurance. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good and experienced driver, things can (and probably will) happen anywhere, especially in the wild and rough Highlands.
My brother took my advice when he came to Scotland in late March and got the highest insurance level possible – luckily! On their first day they’d already scratched plastic parts off the bottom of the car and by day 3 a tire popped in the middle of nowhere and they had to wait to be picked up in the dark and cold.
Just think of Murphy’s law: Anything that can happen, will happen.
So don’t be like us. Don’t be stupid. Don’t take chances.
Seemingly small things that will make your life easier BIG time
Here are some unimportant seeming little things to consider on your trip. Things like a proper GPS that is not reliant on internet, as 50% of the time you won’t have any service in the Highlands. Either book one with your car rental agency or (if you wanna save money, like us) make sure that you’ve downloaded all your road itineraries beforehand (you can actually do that on google maps!) so you have them ready to go when you need them!
As you can imagine, when there’s no Internet connection, most of the time there also won’t be any (cool) radio station near you that you can listen to. And trust me, Radio Gaelic is only fun and games for so long. Having an already downloaded offline playlist (for example on Spotify) set up for your trip might therefore make your ride a much more pleasant one.
When we arrived at the car rental office they made us an offer we simply couldn’t turn down: for only 50 pounds we would get upgraded to a Mercedes and an automatic gear shift. The latter one turned out to be a blessing. Already having to deal with sitting on the other side of the car – lest driving on the other side of the street – not having to worry about changing gears with your other hand is pretty darn amazing. Especially in the curvy and hilly Highlands it is definitely something I would recommend spending the extra money on!
Further, if you’re taking your trip anytime between November-March, make sure it’s properly equipped for winter conditions. We took our trip in February and got surprised by a snow storm on the Isle of Skye which had us stuck on a hill for over half an hour before people came along which helped us push it back up. No need to mention how nerve wracking all of that was. And it wasn’t until then that we realized our car actually had summer tires on! So absolutely make sure this doesn’t happen to you. Please. At least ask for snow chains!
Pin me for later! 🙂
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