Hi guys,

First time challengers here and we are very much looking forward to it and enjoying the planning. Tonight whilst sitting down and working on our route we started to discuss the logistics of getting too, and returning from our start and finish points. We will be traveling up from North Devon and currently plan to start from Dornie and finish in Stonehaven. Our initial thought is to leave the car at the finish and travel to the start by some form of public transport or another alternative. Once we started working this out we wondered what other challengers have done or intend to do. Hope your all good, look forwards to meeting you in May.

Sam and James.

Welcome to the Challenge, the pair of you. I've left my car in Montrose over the last few years and it's always worked out well. There is the point though that I live in Glasgow, which is a little closer to the start than Devon. If you book far enough in advance, you'll probably find that public transport costs will work out a lot cheaper than all that fuel and you'll do your little bit to save the planet. Unless you plan to have a few extra days in Scotland after the event, I think that most Challengers opt for the public transport option

Having said that, Montrose offers free and safe street parking within close range of the Park hotel. I did ask at the hotel itself on one occasion but they weren't keen to have a car in their car park for all that time. Transport links to the west coast from there are a little convoluted, involving loops either north or south but they do get you their in a reasonable time. For Dornie you may have to consider a mix of trains and buses.

Hope that helps

Colin

Hi Sam & James
For travel within Scotland I would recommend the Travelline Scotland website

https://www.travelinescotland.com/

Go to the route planner and enter you start and end point and they will identify your options. Works fine with combinations of rail, long distance coaches and small local buses.

Colin

When I did the challenge last year I flew back from Aberdeen to Heathrow for about £69. Cheaper and quicker than the train.

Easyjet fly from Bristol direct to Inverness. A quick look at the easyjet website shows a Bristol to Inverness airfare as about £47 with a 15kg bag booked into the hold.

Shop around and see what you can get.

Try the Aberdeen airport for return flights to Bristol:

https://www.aberdeenairport.com/flight-information/destinations-and-airlines/

Thanks,

I think we finally came to the decision last night that it would be best to fly. By the time we have added up the fuel and cost of getting from the car to the start it works out cheaper to fly from Exeter to Glasgow on Thursday and public transport to Dornie. Then fly from Aberdeen home. Also its a 2 hour flight rather than a days drive so we will be away from our family's for less time which helps.

Cheers for the help, we will check out traveline for our trip to Dornie from Glasgow.

Sam

There are four direct coaches a day from Glasgow to Dornie using Citylink.

http://www.citylink.co.uk/timetables/Winter2017/WEB_GlasgowSkye.pdf