Eight fantastic days - Hebrides/West Coast tour

[LollyKat]

The Island Hopscotch tickets usually give the best value - they are flexible and with only a bike there is never any difficulty getting on.

[gloomyandy]

Yes the Hopscotch tickets are pretty good, though I got the impression on this trip that CalMac are not really pushing them much these days. New routes like the Lochboisdale to Mallaig one do not seem to be included for some reason. I've also never been totally sure how the hopscotch works when it comes to travel direction, I think you can use them either way, but probably worth checking. Remember that on some routes even if you have a ticket you will still need to go to the ticket office and fill in a boarding card.

With the introduction of RET they have discontinued the Island Rover tickets (as many journeys as you want within 8 or 15 days). For some reason this ticket really appealed to me, being able to just hop on any ferry I fancied at no extra cost and for many years I had a yearning to make use of one. But in reality you had to use a lot of ferries to make it better value than individual/hopscotch tickets. I finally managed to justify one a few years ago on a tour of the Firth of Clyde/Southern Hebrides/Inner Hebrides. It was kind of cool just being able to wave the (increasingly crumpled) ticket to get on. Though often I was met with a puzzled look from the staff, I don't think many people used them! I think I saved about £2, but buying the ticket felt wonderful! I think I'm a bit of a CalMac fan at heart!

[uppadine]

The video in the second post follows almost exactly the CTC tour route led by Gary Cummins at the beginning of the month - it's astonishing we didn't get filmed. This is a wonderful area for cycle touring, and if you opt for a CTC tour (I think there have been four or five Scottish ones this year), it's a great way to see the country, with perhaps a bit of the organisation taken care of - nothing wrong in that - but also to meet like-minded happy cyclists.
Our hopscotch tickets for 7 ferries cost £25, plus a nominal sum to cross to Great Cumbrae at the end. Crossing to Jura is also a couple of quid.
Despite the fabulous weather and sheer beauty everwhere you look, we found everwhere very quiet, and Bute for example needs a lot more tourists. The infrastructure is there, ie ferries and ports. Cycling is pretty good for the local economy, ie we spend money as we travel, unlike campervans and cars, who fill up at a big supermarket and live in an economic bubble. See Scotland on your bike!

[rualexander]

One thing I noticed on the Calmac timetables this year is that in the fares section whilst cycles are still carried free of charge, it now states 'restricted numbers'. Presumably this is not generally a problem but if turning up with a big group or trying to get on as an indivudual at the same time as a big group, there may be an issue.

[rualexander]

One thing I noticed on the Calmac timetables this year is that in the fares section whilst cycles are still carried free of charge, it now states 'restricted numbers'. Presumably this is not generally a problem but if turning up with a big group or trying to get on as an indivudual at the same time as a big group, there may be an issue.

[andrew_s]

I've also never been totally sure how the hopscotch works when it comes to travel direction, I think you can use them either way, but probably worth checking.

You can.
I found a ticket from last year in a pocket on Tuesday, and it said "Barra to Eriskay OR Eriskay to Barra" (the man didn't collect it)

[bogmyrtle]

Since the introduction of the road equivalent tariff, hopscotch tickets cost the same as the individual tickets added together. They are now just a quick way of buying particular batches of tickets.

[gloomyandy]

I've never had any problems taking a bike on to a CalMac ferry but I suppose you can never be totally sure. A few years ago I got the ferry out to Coll I hadn't realized that the weekend I had chosen was also the weekend for the Coll marathon (or whatever it is called) it also seemed that there was some sort of organized ride up through the Hebrides. The result was chaos! Must have been forty or so bikes all stacked together, problem was my bike and that of many of the people getting off at coll where at the bottom of the pile! Oh what fun, still no one was turned away.

As to tickets it has always seemed to me a bit hit and miss when it comes to CalMac collecting them from cyclists (same goes perhaps more worryingly for boarding cards). I've often never been asked for a ticket and have quite a collection of them in my bar bag!

[khain]

Prices seem pretty reasonable. Probably much cheaper than the train getting there.

Is there much opportunity for camping, either wild or at campsites?

[ambodach]

There has been a caveat re numbers of bikes able to be taken for many years. Don't know where you travelled but my tickets have always been collected. One year the timetable confidently announced "" cyclists travel free". This was of course their annual deliberate mistake akin to the time you were invited to visit Mull to see the red squirrels. There are no squirrels on Mull.

[Bonefishblues]

Sounded great Andy. Did the islands some years ago in similar weather. Glad you enjoyed it after last year. When I took the Mrs by car it tipped and blew but theres nowhere in the UK better.

Al

I've never cycled the islands beyond Skye and Mull, but have done a long-promised (to my wife) car tour of them. Perfect weather in late April, convertible car, truly memorable. The beaches of Harris around Scarister are without equal IMHO, in fact I have a print of them and the Sound beyond by the artist Kelsey behind me as I type.

[gloomyandy]

Campsites and camping. There are enough campsites out on the Hebrides but not that many. There are also a number of hostels (I particularly like the Gatliff trust ones, which are basic, but I like that). There are lots of places you can wild camp, but you do need to seek them out a bit as there is a lot of rough boggy ground. See my earlier post about potentially changing attitudes to wild camping. It seems to me that some folks on the islands are getting a bit fed up of finding a camper van blocking an access road, or in the middle of grazing land or whatever. However I've not found that attitude extending to cyclists or walkers. In fact folks seem to be very generous I had two offers to camp in gardens or near houses on my trip. I find that a casual inquiry, "Do you happen to know a good spot I can pop my tent for the night?" will often produce a positive response.

Just checked my bar bag I have tickets for Uig to Tarbert, Mallaig to Armadale, Lochboisedale to Mallaig and several Leverburgh to Berneray! Maybe it is just me!

[robing]

Yep I was very lucky. All through the trip I was bumping into people who said things like "Did you get soaked yesterday?" seems like it rained in various places, just not where I was!

robing: I did a similar trip (Barra/Uists/Harris/Skye/Ardnamurchan/Mull a few years ago and really enjoyed the ride through Ardnamurchan and Mull (though it is all good). Hope you get good weather for your trip!

Thanks! I stayed at the howmore hostel too last summer and really enjoyed it, good bunch of people there. You can camp there but it's only what £15 to stay indoors.

[gloomyandy]

£14 I think, which is great value. They seem to have done a lot of work on the howmore recently, there is even a bike shed now! I really enjoyed my stay there, really good group of folks to chat with and a stunning beach (what else, this is the Hedbrides), just a few hundred yards away! The only real downside is that there is no local shop since the post office closed a few years ago, so you need to pick up food on your way.

[robing]

I didn't like the Berneray one so much, a bit grubby and crowded but stunning location so I camped there. The rhenigdale one on Harris was fun, very out of the way and a lot of hills.