Your Country Needs You.

[jamamafegan]

I've just been to the Mull of Galloway area for a few days and it was absolutely superb. Glorious weather with midge-free evenings, much quieter all round than the standard Highland-island tourist trail and with some really good food options/pubs that don't deck everything in tartan for fat American tourists and double the prices accordingly. If there's a stretch of similar weather next year then I'll be down to the same neck of the woods without thinking twice. 
Lowlands Scotland>Highland Scotland for domestic tourism right now IMO.

Were you not just on Mull the other day as well? You’re fair getting about this summer.

Galloway has never been a place that I’ve been that intrigued to visit, although I did make the drive down for a job interview in Newton Stewart once and enjoyed the views during the drive. Come to think of it, Galloway and the Borders are the only areas of Scotland I’ve yet to properly see.

[The Mantis]

1 hour ago, jamamafegan said:

 

Were you not just on Mull the other day as well? You’re fair getting about this summer.

Galloway has never been a place that I’ve been that intrigued to visit, although I did make the drive down for a job interview in Newton Stewart once and enjoyed the views during the drive. Come to think of it, Galloway and the Borders are the only areas of Scotland I’ve yet to properly see.

 

A man like you needs to get down to Castle Douglas with the camera and visit Bellymack for the Red Kites, and Dee marshes just up the road for the squirrels, woodpeckers, nuthatches etc. I would say the kite experience is far better than Black Isle or Argaty. Plenty Red Deer in Galloway too. Also if you're into hillwalking it's as craggy as parts  of the Highlands and The Merrick is a decent high altitude walk without being very difficult.

[Ingo ohne Flamingo]

Whilst there's no doubt Scotland is absolutely stunning, as a country we're absolutely shite for tourists.

Outside the cities we don't have many decent hotels, it's all overpriced B&Bs that haven't been refurbed since 1985.

On the roads there's hardly any service stations and toilet facilities are pretty much limited to cafes or bars. 

Before we went to corfu for a week we looked at Scotland for a family of 4. Aviemore coming in at 1700 for the week! Skye was over 2000 just for a B&B and there's no danger my holiday was going to be a caravan in the pishing rain in Ayr. 

I love Scotland but its got a long way to go before I'd consider spending my annual leave here. That's without thinking about the midges and the shitey weather as well... 

[DG.Roma]

On 16/08/2020 at 20:14, virginton said:

I preferred Port Logan further down the coast though which was quieter and a real picture postcard scene yesterday:

The pub at the holiday park in Drummore was good and the cafe at the Mull of Galloway itself is just tremendous.

Good to see such positive chat about Mull of Galloway, and agree about Port Logan.

With how often you hear talk of Lands End to John O'Groats it's amazing someone down this way hasn't jumped all over the chance to promote Mull of Galloway in a "full length of Scotland" type route.

[The Mantis]

On 18/08/2020 at 23:16, Ingo ohne Flamingo said:

Whilst there's no doubt Scotland is absolutely stunning, as a country we're absolutely shite for tourists.

Outside the cities we don't have many decent hotels, it's all overpriced B&Bs that haven't been refurbed since 1985.

On the roads there's hardly any service stations and toilet facilities are pretty much limited to cafes or bars. 

Before we went to corfu for a week we looked at Scotland for a family of 4. Aviemore coming in at 1700 for the week! Skye was over 2000 just for a B&B and there's no danger my holiday was going to be a caravan in the pishing rain in Ayr. 

I love Scotland but its got a long way to go before I'd consider spending my annual leave here. That's without thinking about the midges and the shitey weather as well... 

Can't argue with most of that TBH, but here's a counter argument anyway.
Iceland, The Faroe Islands and Norway have prices to make your eyes water, and the weather's not the best. But they are class destinations so people bite the bullet and just pay. They're practically fighting off the tourists. The first two have very limited accommodation although they're getting there. Scotland's in that bracket.

You're from Scotland, so you take it for granted. You don't see it through Dutch or German or even English eyes. Correct me if I'm wrong but you seem to be assuming anybody would pick Corfu given a choice.

A good example is - my missus and her sister inherited their parents' house in Lewis (I'm not from there, I'm from Midlothian). I'm in a hillwalking club, and a camera club, so I started offering mates rates at say £300/week. The wife and sister were embarrassed at that and tried to suggest £200 would be enough. Because they take it for granted. Meanwhile the average tourist going there for a week thinks they've died and gone to heaven. They are heartbroken having to leave at the end of the week.

That's all in the past. Once the sister in law smelt the first few dribbles of cash, they started doing it properly, TripAdvisor and all that shite (against my wishes). With all the booking fees plus cleaners you really have to charge £700-800 pw. But nobody turns their nose up at that. They come back.
All summer it gets booked up so we can hardly get a slot for ourselves (and incidentally nobody in their right mind would choose to holiday in Scotland in July/August if it wasn't for the school holidays. Just look at the weather stats.  April/May/June for me any time, or even Sept/Oct).
 

You can't underestimate the pull of the history, the scenery, the castles, the wildlife, the distilleries. If you've ever got into a conversation with a Dutch tourist about whisky, you'll know what I mean. And a lot of people actually like the hills with mist on them. I remember walking near Bridge of Orchy and I met an English family. They were pointing at this speck about a mile up in the sky which was a Golden Eagle and it had obviously made their holiday... like you I probably wouldn't spend my annual leave either, just several short breaks, but that's probably true in any country.

[Ingo ohne Flamingo]

9 hours ago, The Mantis said:

Can't argue with most of that TBH, but here's a counter argument anyway.
Iceland, The Faroe Islands and Norway have prices to make your eyes water, and the weather's not the best. But they are class destinations so people bite the bullet and just pay. They're practically fighting off the tourists. The first two have very limited accommodation although they're getting there. Scotland's in that bracket.

You're from Scotland, so you take it for granted. You don't see it through Dutch or German or even English eyes. Correct me if I'm wrong but you seem to be assuming anybody would pick Corfu given a choice.

A good example is - my missus and her sister inherited their parents' house in Lewis (I'm not from there, I'm from Midlothian). I'm in a hillwalking club, and a camera club, so I started offering mates rates at say £300/week. The wife and sister were embarrassed at that and tried to suggest £200 would be enough. Because they take it for granted. Meanwhile the average tourist going there for a week thinks they've died and gone to heaven. They are heartbroken having to leave at the end of the week.

That's all in the past. Once the sister in law smelt the first few dribbles of cash, they started doing it properly, TripAdvisor and all that shite (against my wishes). With all the booking fees plus cleaners you really have to charge £700-800 pw. But nobody turns their nose up at that. They come back.
All summer it gets booked up so we can hardly get a slot for ourselves (and incidentally nobody in their right mind would choose to holiday in Scotland in July/August if it wasn't for the school holidays. Just look at the weather stats.  April/May/June for me any time, or even Sept/Oct).
 

You can't underestimate the pull of the history, the scenery, the castles, the wildlife, the distilleries. If you've ever got into a conversation with a Dutch tourist about whisky, you'll know what I mean. And a lot of people actually like the hills with mist on them. I remember walking near Bridge of Orchy and I met an English family. They were pointing at this speck about a mile up in the sky which was a Golden Eagle and it had obviously made their holiday... like you I probably wouldn't spend my annual leave either, just several short breaks, but that's probably true in any country.

Can't disagree with a word of that. Absolutely not everyone will chose corfu for example, the beauty of vacations is there are many different types, relaxing beach, family sun, family ski, city breaks, wildlife safaris, hill / mountain climbing, castle touring, scenery chasing, history exploring and much much more. Everyone has their ideal place, they're happy place. For me that's the Sun and Beach plus hearing other languages being spoken, I love the feeling of being away from it all. Whereas my brother in law, his ideal holiday is wild camping and munro bagging in whatever climes. 

Scotland is undoubtly one of the most stunning countries in the world and its obviously why in the summer you see loads of foreign cars, Dutch and Germans especially. Worth adding that both of those countries, especially Germany love Scottish culture and music. 

Nice you've got that little money making niche up in the Highlands! These cottages are definitely the way forward for exploring Scotland, the B&Bs as I've mentioned previously are not up to scratch and personally I don't like the idea of staying in a strangers home which B&Bs generally are. Maybe I'm too used to hotels, with my job I usually rack up atleast 2 months of overnight stays in hotels over Europe and beyond and become used to a standard. 

I do love driving around Scotland but with a 2 year old that's not an option now and a 13 year old who is far too independent, he just wants to make pals and have a good carry on. One day I'll make an effort to explore our country but ultimately when the price of taking your car on a ferry to the Western islands can be a couple of hundred quid, I'd rather jump on a plane somewhere. 

[The Marly]

We were meant to be on a Med cruise next month, but will now be holidaying in a cottage near Fort Williams instead. Wanted to holiday in Scotland again in November, but prices in Aviemore for a cottage are just short of robbery, couldn't get one for under 700 quid for a week (a one bedroom one). We're going to Devon instead to a cracking cottage we've been to before, with a hot-tub for £400

[MONKMAN]

The same robbing fuckers charging £200 a night for a B&B will be moaning when everyone fucks off abroad again, once things calm down.

[The Mantis]

Just for balance... Off to Islay on Friday with my mate. £90 for a twin room, decent quality B&B in Bowmore. TBF, we intended going last April,  it was £120 on booking.com pre-covid, but after cancelling it the B&B gave us a direct booking.

Edited August 29, 2020 by The Mantis

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, The Mantis said:

Off to Islay on Friday with my mate. £90 for a twin room, decent quality B&B in Bowmore. TBF, we intended going last April,  it was £120 on booking.com pre-covid, but after cancelling it the B&B gave us a direct booking.

Used to be that occasionally you could get a better price going direct after finding a place on Booking.com, it's pretty well standard now. Think they lost a court case when they claimed that their contract compelled a hotel not to undercut the price on their website. Saved about 20% booking a place in Germany recently, think they're going to have to change their model. Bit of a shame, it's a really useful site but it's their own fault for being so greedy.

[The Mantis]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

Used to be that occasionally you could get a better price going direct after finding a place on Booking.com, it's pretty well standard now. Think they lost a court case when they claimed that their contract compelled a hotel not to undercut the price on their website. Saved about 20% booking a place in Germany recently, think they're going to have to change their model. Bit of a shame, it's a really useful site but it's their own fault for being so greedy.

They're all at it anyway and that includes the likes of eBay and Paypal, it seems they get a huge cut in proportion to the little they actually do, although they've got you over a barrel as  without them you couldn't really market anything easily. Gumtree a noble exception.
If you see what I wrote above, about the wife's house in Lewis, she's on TripAdvisor and Home Away or whatever. They make it near impossible to contact anybody direct until they've paid, and their fee is about £120 (for a week's rental) which you sometimes have to forfeit in a cancellation even if it's the guest's fault, so she spends hours on the phone getting it sorted.

Edited August 29, 2020 by The Mantis

[welshbairn]

7 minutes ago, The Mantis said:

They're all at it anyway and that includes the likes of eBay and Paypal, it seems they get a huge cut in proportion to the little they actually do, although they've got you over a barrel as  without them you couldn't really market anything easily. Gumtree a noble exception.
If you see what I wrote above, about the wife's house in Lewis, she's on TripAdvisor and Home Away or whatever. They make it near impossible to contact anybody direct until they've paid, and their fee is about £120 (for a week's rental) which you sometimes have to forfeit in a cancellation even if it's the guest's fault, so she spends hours on the phone getting it sorted.

It's a lot easier from the paying side, there's nearly always enough information on Booking.com to find the owner and contact them directly. I'd recommend she slips as many clues onto her bit on the sites as she can. With my German booking I didn't realise what an idiot I'd been until checking the hotel website, and I cancelled the booking.com immediately and rebooked directly. Had a bit of a weird one where I booked a cottage with Home Away for July that I had to postpone, and had a conversation on their website with the owner about what a set of c***s they were, and how it would be easier just to leave them out of it. Then I realised we were chatting on Home Away's website and thought she might get trouble, so I googled to find her phone number and she told me not to be daft, they never read them. 

[The Mantis]

19 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Then I realised we were chatting on Home Away's website and thought she might get trouble, so I googled to find her phone number and she told me not to be daft, they never read them. 

Aye, it must be a bit like the swear filter on here, it’s just a robot. You can have a laugh trying to smuggle an email past it. Funny but with my Islay booking I could access the phone number, can’t remember now but booking.com had left it in somewhere, must have been an area that they didn’t check.

[RH33]

6 hours ago, The Mantis said:

Just for balance... Off to Islay on Friday with my mate. £90 for a twin room, decent quality B&B in Bowmore. TBF, we intended going last April,  it was £120 on booking.com pre-covid, but after cancelling it the B&B gave us a direct booking.

I’ve booked a pod near Port Ellen for three nights in Oct week. £100 a night which works out at £25p/h Between kids and I and only extra £8 to take our borrowed dog with us. 
 

 

[The Mantis]

14 minutes ago, RH33 said:

I’ve booked a pod near Port Ellen for three nights in Oct week. £100 a night which works out at £25p/h Between kids and I and only extra £8 to take our borrowed dog with us. 
 

For even more balance about these extortionate prices. Wifey is going away in October for a few days so I booked the Rob Roy Hotel in Aberfoyle, which I know already and it’s none too salubrious... but £55 for a single including breakfast. Handy for Loch Ard and Loch Rusky which is popular with the photographers.
You’re in Erskine... I was there this morning shooting the Waverley from up on the bridge. Wee roll and sausage at Caulders first. Then went on to Lyle Hill in Greenock to catch it again. And I can tell @Rudolph Hucker it was absolutely glorious and I never needed any waterproofs.

[RH33]

I’ve been stuck in all week waiting on Covid negative result. 

[Rudolph Hucker]

2 hours ago, The Mantis said:

You’re in Erskine... I was there this morning shooting the Waverley from up on the bridge. Wee roll and sausage at Caulders first. Then went on to Lyle Hill in Greenock to catch it again. And I can tell @Rudolph Hucker it was absolutely glorious and I never needed any waterproofs.

From Gourock towards Lyle Hill and Greenock, Friday afternoon. It ain't always wet, and when it ain't it can be glorious.

[The Mantis]

8 hours ago, Rudolph Hucker said:

From Gourock towards Lyle Hill and Greenock, Friday afternoon. It ain't always wet, and when it ain't it can be glorious.

Yeah that was just a wee joke that escalated when your dotting mate got involved. Looking at the islands threads etc you'd soon realise I'm fanatical about Scotland. You don't climb all the Munros without getting wet.

This guy has an interesting graphic though to show where the rain is. Next time you get an English guy telling you how wet Scotland is, tell him East Lothian is about as dry as kent.

[The Mantis]

One from yesterday

[Hedgecutter]

A local guy in Arbroath has started up his own kayak tour company during lockdown that lets you poke into the numerous inlets and funky caves along the coast there.

Looks cool as f*** tbh