Generally I would recommend the train to people, the A9 (which will make up the bulk of your journey) is a horrible road. My mum will drive up to Aberdeen happily but she takes the train or the coach when coming to Inverness, despite it being a similar distance, because she hates driving that road and I can't blame her.
As for what to do that really depends on your own preferences. My personal suggestion is the botanic gardens. It's not very big, but it has some nice indoor areas if the weather is a bit dodgy, free entry and there's a cafe. It's close to the river too so if you're staying in the centre then it's a nice walk along. By far one of my favourite spots in Inverness.
Frequent delays from constant roadworks, the shift back and forwards between single and dual carriageway that causes confusion (especially among tourists unfamiliar with the road), both of these things leading to a high number of accidents which then leads to more delays... What's right with the A9?
True! Although I think the price of those overpriced nick nacks do cause shock in some people because so many people apparently forget how to safely rejoin a busy road when leaving the car park.
i had near death experience at that junction as someone in a hire car pulled out of House of Bruar car park without even pausing to look at which might be coming down the A9 towards them!!
That's terrifying! There's so many bad turnings on the A9, Pitlochry, Dunkeld, Avimore and of course House of Bruar are all awful. I guess because of the extra congestion at them caused by tourism, but in my experience the House of Bruar is the worst of them.
The Dualling work at Moy adds about 8 mins, and maybe 10 mins for the other project further south. The A9 is nowhere near as bad as many make out. In my experience the A82, A87 and A96 are far worse.
Lots of tourists driving on it and unfamiliar with driving on the left, lots of road traffic accidents and deaths as a result.
Constant road works as well
People lose concentration and cause accidents because of the monotony of it - they forget if they’re on a dual carriageway or single carriageway and made stupid overtakes + mixed with general bad driving and frustration at people going the speed limit.
Some of the junctions such as dunkeld are unsafe at peak times.
A tourist who has rented a car or campervan from Edinburgh will often come across their first section of single carriageway on the A9 and forget to keep left, or look the wrong direction when returning to the road after their first stop.
It's a high-speed road peppered with unfamiliar drivers. Plus deer and sometimes bad weather. It doesn't matter if you've driven for 2 or 20 years, there can be dangerous surprises.
Sunset is about 6pm then and it won’t be properly dark until 7pm. So plenty of time to do a river loop. Walk upstream to the islands and cross the river there. It will be pretty with all the autumnal colours. Walking both sides of the river is nice, you’ll pass Eden Court Theatre, Inverness Cathedral, then walk up to the castle for a great view! Good restaurant in there too 😄
So my wife and I went from Edinburgh to Inverness by train! It was great! A long ride but def worth not having to drive. And it was cheap. We did go in summer though. We stayed at an air bnb right up the road from culloden battlefield and then did some tours with rabbies tours , was awesome!
This was our cost for the train, we are Americans so it was all new to us but very familiar considering the Appalachian mountains in NC are the same mountains in Scotland
Leakey's bookshop, The Old High Church and Abertarff House are all in Church Street in the town centre. The view from the top of Tomnahurich Cemetery is nice on a good day and it's about a 15 minute walk from the town centre.
Tips I received before going to Inverness pasted below ☺️ we loved Birch Coffee and I tried the Bakewell croissant from XOKO which was delicious!
For coffee, I'd suggest Birch (High Street) and Kali coffee, Kali is on Castle Street and is decent! Then there's Perk on Church Street and XOKO (shawco) for bakes and coffee! There is also the Inverness Roasting company, which roast locally but, in my opinion, is just okay.
We just did this trip and drove, we made a stop at the hermitage to see the waterfall and it was our favorite of the trip and there was a van selling fresh fried donuts that were referenced the rest of the trip as well. We were surprised by how early things closed in Inverness (especially for a Friday night). We were able to do everything we were interested in in the morning before heading to Skye.
Easy and beautiful! Nothing tricky (aka single lane roads) until we were deeply into Skye. It took a little longer than we thought it would but we stopped along the way whenever the mood struck.
If you’re into books (or Harry Potter-set-vibes) then Leakey’s Bookshop might be worth a visit.
If you can find a way to get there by public transport or don’t mind paying for a taxi the Culloden museum and battle-site is worth a visit. Get the audio guide as it’s a really moving tour and they very cleverly manage to capture the horror and poignancy of what took place on what seems like a simple field.
In the city centre itself the Museum & Art Gallery is worth a visit
if you're going from Edinburgh to Skye and don't know what you want to see or do in Inverness then just head straight to Skye and reclaim a night of your trip.
This is the way. Or you could break up the drive to skye with a night in kings house or bridge of orchy but Inverness is out of the way if your goal is skye
I'm going to Inverness soon, my plan is to see the reindeer on the way there(driving), and fort George once there.
https://www.cairngormreindeer.co.uk/
10
u/Mist_Wraith 19d ago
Generally I would recommend the train to people, the A9 (which will make up the bulk of your journey) is a horrible road. My mum will drive up to Aberdeen happily but she takes the train or the coach when coming to Inverness, despite it being a similar distance, because she hates driving that road and I can't blame her.
As for what to do that really depends on your own preferences. My personal suggestion is the botanic gardens. It's not very big, but it has some nice indoor areas if the weather is a bit dodgy, free entry and there's a cafe. It's close to the river too so if you're staying in the centre then it's a nice walk along. By far one of my favourite spots in Inverness.