Outer Hebrides summer 2014

[CycleTourer]

Furball,
yep, that's what we thought.

We don't like to overplan (it's a holiday fer Pete's sake), but with ferries some of the rules change.
I think our best option will be to tentatively plan a route, add up the ferry tickets and compare to the Rover tickets and Hopscotch.
Thanks,
Jurjan

We are very much like yourselves, we don't like to overplan our routes either. We have a rough idea of a route but make it up as we go depending on what there is to see, the weather and how we are feeling.

As far as the CalMac ferry tickets were concerned when I went to buy the tickets at Oban. The only problem with the Hopscotch tickets is that they are for particular routes and in our case with going to Col & Tiree it made a difference. The CalMac guy at Oban was very helpful, I outlined our route and the timescale and he quickly worked out the difference between the Hopscotch and buying them singly and in our case it was only a couple of quid difference to buy them singly, so we opted to just buy the tickets singly as it gave us more flexibility.

If you are taking a smartphone with you, Calmac do a free app which will give you up to date status of all their ferries, which is useful as some ferries can be cancelled at short notice due to bad weather or mechanical breakdowns. This available on Android but I'm not sure about the iPhone.

 

[jurjan]

Cycle,
yes, I think we may go that route as well, just take the few quid 'penalty' in exchange for added freedom in planning.

the plan at the moment is after arriving in Newcastle take the train to Oban, then we'll have to wait for the ferry the next day anyway, so a nice, long visit to the CalMac office in Oban is on the cards.

concerning the app: it does exist for iphone, unfortunately our phones are too old.

Thanks,
Jurjan

 

[furball]

If you want to visit Coll and/or Tiree it's worth checking out if the facility to add a stop off on Coll or Tiree still exists on the summertime Outer Hebrides Hopscotch tickets (it was possible in 20011). I'm not sure if that included the possibility of stopping off at Coll then using a single ticket to go to Tiree and then continuing on the Hopscotch ticket.

 

[andrew_s]

It's only possible to travel between Coll/Tiree and the Outer Hebrides on Thursdays, so whether it's feasible will depend on the timetable of the rest of the tour.
If you plan on actually visiting both Coll and Tiree properly, that probably means a full day on each as well, as there's only the daily Oban-Coll-Tiree-Coll-Oban ferry between the two, as far as I can see on google.

 

[toekneep]

Hi, my wife and I did the following trip last September and it was one of the best tours we have done: Arran, Islay, Oban, Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Skye, Mull, Oban home. If you go to the north of Skye you really should take the road across the island and see the Quiraing. It's stunning.

 

[jurjan]

Andrew, Furball,
you're right, looks like Coll/Tiree are out (our ferry arrives in Newcastle on Sunday).

Toeskneep:that looks just like the kind of places we want to see/visit.
stunning!
We'll see if we can fit in a bit of Skye as well.

thanks,
Jurjan