Motorhome Scotland Saturday 13th - Saturday 20th September 2014

When we were trying to make up our minds whether to buy a caravan or motorhome we decided to hire a motorhome in Scotland for a week.  Although when the time came to jet off to Glasgow we had already bought a caravan it seemed silly not to go, it would either confirm that we had made the right decision or make us want to sell the caravan asap.

We were met at the airport by the hiring company who drove us to the outskirts of Glasgow for a comprehensive handover of the motorhome.  The motorhome was a six berth, very clean and well looked after. It was kitted out with everything that we would need except food.

We had planned this trip in detail I wanted to revisit Arisaig, a place I had camped as a child with my parents. We wanted to enjoy the journey from Glasgow to the West coast and experience the motorhome life stopping off to visit places of interest enroute. We were aiming to get up to Loch Lomond our first night and as members of the camping and caravan club stay at Luss. Unfortunately the site was full and at seven oclock on a Saturday night we were lucky to find a site just round the corner at the top of Loch Long.

We had very little in the way of food but a stroll down the road found us a small supermarket for essentials and a chip shop!  There was a small cafe on site that provided breakfast the next morning after a stroll along the edge of Loch Long.

We had learnt our lesson, although we were nearly into Autumn, campsites were still very busy we booked our next site in advance. The following morning we enjoyed an egg and bacon roll from the small cafe on site before we packed everythig away and made our way up towards Oban. The A82 road that runs along the side of Loch lomond was being improved and made wider, it was certainly narrow in places. It seemed worse on the bends particularly when we met a coach or lorry coming the other way.  We took the A85 towards Oban planning to stop at a few tourist attractions along the way,  we found parking at sites very difficult and in several places were unable to find a suitable spot which we found dissapointing.  We drove into Oban town and found a supermarket where we stocked up our fridge,  again finding a suitable parking space was difficult.  Having sorted out our provisions we headed towards the camping and caravan club site on the outskirts of Oban.  This site is in a walled garden and very peaceful, we enjoyed some walks in the local area but left the motorhome parked on site.. 

We knew that our next site would be in Arisaig. From a google search we found lots of sites in the area and decided to take a chance.  We left the site in Oban and headed towards Fort William crossing the bridge at Ballachulish and enjoying the views across Loch Linnhe.  We found an excellent carpark at the Morrisons supermarket in Fort William with designated motorhome parking, big spaces and room to manoeuvre we made the most of the parking as well as stocking up on food.  We headed out on the A830 towards Arisaig.  The last time I had travelled this road in the 1970's it was single track with passing places, the road has been completely upgraded and we were able to cover the miles easily.  We had planned to stop at the Glenfinnan monument but again found parking a problem so continued on our way to Arisaig.   We found a space in a fabulous campsite right on the beach at Invercaimbe campsite
 

The views from our pitch were amazing. Just outside our door was a slide to enable swift access to the beach.  we never tried this prefering a more sedate route

As the sun went down each evening we enjoyed watching fabulous sunsets over the islands of the Hebrides.  
During the day we explored the beach and enjoyed watching the train passing on its way to Mallaig.  We had planned to visit Mallaig but from our experiences of trying to find suitable  parking decided against this. The weather was so good it seemed sensible to enjoy the beach and the local area so this was what we did, we stayed for three nights.  We had booked a campsite at Glencoe for Thursday night so headed off back towards Fort William where we again made use of the car parking at Morrisons and stocked up on essentials.  

The sight of the mountains as we got closer to Glencoe was breathtaking.

The Camping and Caravan Club site is at the head of Glencoe next to the Glencoe Visitor Centre and well set out with with hardstanding pitches.

 

We were only here for the night but enjoyed the visitor centre and the amazing views of the mountains, luckily the weather continued to be kind to us.  The next morning saw us driving towards our final stop at Luss down through Glencoe and across Rannoch Moor to yet more stunning scenery.  The Camping and Caravan site at Luss is on the banks of Loch Lomond.  after we had parked up we walked in to the nearby village of Luss and enjoyed exploring.  The church in the village was very pretty, there were lots of tourist type shops as Luss was the setting for a television programme and the number of coaches that arrived gave testament to its popularity on the tourist trail.  We enjoyed walks along the Loch.  I would imagine at the height of the tourist season Luss would be a very busy place.

The following morning saw us packing up and heading back to Glasgow to return the motorhome. The journey was a lot quicker and we were soon on our way back to Glasgow Airport and our journey home.

We enjoyed our trip in the motorhome but were dissapointed that we had not been able to explore as much as we had expected to.  We felt restricted by the lack of suitable parking spaces which would explain why many motorhomes tow small cars or carry bikes.  We probably could of made better use of public transport but that takes some research and we had not been prepared for that.  In conclusion we decided that the caravan suits us better we can still tour but in between we have a base and transport to get around. The idea of motorhoming still appeals until we are remided of the practicalities.