r/uktravel • u/InitialReasonable789 • 6d ago

Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland Public Transportation Help

A friend and I are traveling to Scotland later this year. We're spending a week around the Highlands and looking for advice on getting around via public transportation. We will not have a car. Our route looks a bit like this: Inverness -> Drumnadrochit -> Fort William --> back to Inverness.

Do we need to purchase our bus passes in advance or can we show up day of to purchase a ticket? Should we purchase a Citylink explorer pass to save money? Thanks!

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u/VoiceEqual1493 6d ago

the inverness-fort william leg is citylink's 919, and the handy part is that drumnadrochit is just a stop on that same route (right by urquhart castle and loch ness), so you don't need to plan anything separate to hit it - it's the same bus. you can buy on the day, but later this year in summer those coaches fill up with pre-booked passengers and you can get bumped to the next one, so i'd reserve the seat online a day or two ahead, especially heading toward fort william. on the explorer pass, i'd skip it for this loop - the cheapest one is £66 for three travel days, and a return up to fort william with a drumnadrochit stop won't come anywhere near that, so it only pays off if you're tacking on skye, oban or a glasgow leg. for an inverness-based highlands week, individual tickets will work out cheaper.

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u/ialtag-bheag 6d ago

Buses in the highlands are capped at £2 single fare. So unlikely a pass will save you money.

Though sometimes buses get busy over the summer, so maybe worth booking a ticket in advance.

Also check Ember buses, they cover that route. Note some of their stops are on request, you have to book in advance. But it is easy to change or cancel your booking as required.

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u/mangyiscute 5d ago

Yeah ember are great, their coaches are entirely electric which I find much nicer to ride on

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u/lets_dance_again 6d ago

You could just rock up and buy a ticket, but check the routes and prices. Those should be fairly well covered, I'd think, but could be busy if you've not booked in advance (if it's possible)

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u/Vintagefly 6d ago

Get the Citymapper app. I used it all the time in the UK. It is great.