inverness, friend or foe? (Inverness in General)

Member Name: littlelugs

Product:	Inverness in General
Date:	26/07/03 (849 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lovely people, great atmosphere, not catered for tourists

Disadvantages: difficult to get to, not catered for tourists, not that many historical sights in the centre

Inverness, where do I start? My friend and I where travelling round Scotland, to Edinburgh, Inverness and then onto Glasgow before returning to Wales. The journey to Edinburgh was a nightmare, the trains we were on were rerouted, cancelled, running on half power, the air-conditioning failed, and to top it off 3 out of 5 engines on one train failed. (This all happened between Carlisle and Edinburgh, on the hottest day of the year). So you can see I was a bit sceptical when we had to continue up to Inverness 3 days later, 4 hours on the train, I was worried that we would make it out alive!!!!
The train journey was perfect, nothing went wrong, and Inverness train station is at the end of the high street, so in easy walking distance for everything. We were feeling lazy so we got a taxi to out B&B, taxis around the central area (where pretty much everything is costs about £4max).

Attractions in Inverness:

Inverness castle: cost £4 per adult. Quite good. You get to sign up to become a recruit (males) baggage (females) or a brat (under 16) for about 40minutes, you get to hear about the different roles of the people during that era, it’s all done in a very light hearted manner. (quite informative, good actors, bit abrupt ending though, and you don’t get to see much of the actual castle) I would go again.

Davy’s ghost: the Inverness ghost walking tour, cost £6.50 per adult, this is actually quite a good tour, leaving from outside the Inverness tourism office at 7.30pm each night, and you get a free drink at the end. I was to tired to take in much for it, but my friend said it was good.

City bus tours: 1. Inverness centre, didn’t actually get to go on this one, have been told it’s quite good, £7.50 per adult, it’s a hop on hop off bus tour so you can go and see the attractions then hop onto the next bus. The ticket is valued for 24hours, so it you to just have a short rest or someplace to eat your

lunch, this is for you.

2. Highlands tour, this I went on, it was very good, this is also a hop on hop off valid for 24hours tip: don’t sit at the top back of the bus, it goes onto a duel carriage way and goes pretty fast, you wont be able to breath!!) the front top is great! You get to see Culloden field, where the last battle was fort on British soil, cowder castle, which is only open in the summer months as lady cawder, lives there during the winter. (if you show you bus ticket you get a discount) its’ absolutely lovely. Completely in tact. Well worth a visit. Also, you get to see many other sights around the highlands.

Tours:
Jacobite cruises: there are a few loch ness tours but I’m only going to mention this cruise company as I was extremely impressed by them. They tried to help us in every way, you couldn’t get nicer people. This combined with the breath taking sights of the loch, heaven. We enjoyed it so much we went on another cruise with the Jacobite firm the next day!
There are six different cruises with them, all reasonable priced and will probably suit most need's, absolutely fantastic!

There are also other tours: (these I did not go on, but have been told about)
The Orkney islands: this tour coasts about £45 per adult, and takes a full day, I have been told (chatting to other travellers) that it’s very good but if your working on a budget, you can get a city link travel card which costs about the same (cheaper for students and young people) and it gives you unlimited travel for 2 or 3 days. (Also if you do get a travel card you can get money off hostels and other things)

The dolphin tour:
I’ve been told that this is actually very good, pretty much every time people are on the boat a dolphin is spotted, (so I’ve been told by two different people).

(All information on tours can be picked up in the tourist information centre on the high street
, abo
ve Bella pasta)


Shopping:
Inverness has most of the usual high street stores, and a few others such as James Pringles weavers (the factory is only a short drive away), so if you want a winter woollies for your self or your gran, with nessie or something on go there. If you want to find out your clan history go to the clan shop next to pound stretcher.

Pubs:
The nightlife in Inverness is actually quite good, there are absolutely loads of pubs and bars, the best pub there in my opinion is the Irish pub, for the life of me I can’t remember the name, it’s opposite the Pringles shop on ness drive I think, it’s absolutely fantastic, live music and a packed friendly atmosphere, you have to get there early and get a booth as it fills up incredibly quickly!
Another good pub is bar 27 (I think it’s called) a nice small pub, can get very packed, drinks are reasonable, nice local, pre club atmosphere.
Then if you’re ready to party till 3 or later then there are 3 clubs for you to choose from.
Myself I preferred barbazzas it’s a bar/quite large dance floor, pub, very nice, with a very large quite couch area in the back, very comfy! Only open till one though, and slightly more expensive drinks!

Food:
There are loads of fast food places, including MacDonald’s, it’s like most cities, the best place for fast food pizza is bicis pizza, tip: phone in your order!

Accommodation:
There are many B&B’s in Inverness, also there are many hostels if your on a budget, (the cheapest I saw was £8.50 a night) if you wish to find a B& B the easiest way we found was to go to the Inverness tourist information centre you pay a £3 charge and they find you a place, it’s usually quite good, but if they offer you a place with a sweet sounding man, with a curfew beginning with the letters Fe, biggest tip: Don’t go there. They found us another place and it was p
erfect! So
do give them a go!

Overall, I think that Inverness is an absolutely fantastic place with lovely people, I made a couple of good friends there! It is defiantly somewhere I wish to go back to sometime in the near future!

Summary: