Let’s jump straight into this and explore the possibilities.
Firstly just to say, there’s no perfect set amount of time for you to visit the Isle of Skye, it just boils down to how much time you have to spare and what you want from the ‘Misty Isle’.
You could visit the Isle of Skye for seven days and find its not enough, I have done this many times and I actually live here so you start to get the idea, once it gets a hold of your heart it doesn’t let go easily!
In this blog I am going to concentrate directly on the differences between my two tours, a 1-day tour to the Isle of Skye and my signature 2-day tour Isle of Skye Tour of Dreams, both the 1 and 2 day tours depart from Inverness at 7am. The 2-day tour departs Mondays and Wednesdays, the 1-day tour departs on Fridays and Saturdays.
As we leave the millennium city named by the queen in the year 2000, both tours start out the same as we visit the hairy coos, Loch Ness before heading out to the west coast. However as we near the west coast this is where the benefits of the two day tour and the extra time start to show itself.
To get onto the Isle of Skye, every tour company generally crosses the Skye Bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh which takes about 10 seconds to cross ‘over the sea to Skye’. However I wanted to include something off the beaten track that was a little more thought out and romantic than that, so I decided we would deviate from the tourist trail and go out into the wilderness to catch a remote ferry from the mainland over to the Isle of Skye. The crossing takes 5 minutes but its a magical experience and comes with the huge bonus of passing by a 400 strong seal colony. n.b the Skye ferry only operates between March and October, so if you do book a 2-day tour out of season then we would have to use the Skye Bridge.
The lunch break on the 1-day tour is taken in Portree, however as we stay in Portree for the night on the 2-day tour I wanted to include a location that was completely different, so we will head to an amazing little known cafe that is located in an old viking harbour. It’s run by a good friend of mine and I can guarantee you that the food here will leave you talking about it for the rest of the day.
On the 1-day tour there are two hikes in the afternoon, to the Old Man of Storr and then the Fairy Pools, however with the extra day on Isle of Skye Tour of Dreams I have added an extra hike to a place that the 1-day tours cannot can reach, Neist Point. This the incredible location is best visited at sunset or sunrise and is the most westerly point of the Isle of Skye, so I factored this in as the last stop to give us flexibility in the event of the weather conditions before returning to Portree for the night. I have to say that whatever the weather here, it always proves to be very high on peoples list of favourite places on the Isle of Skye, mine too.
Our hike will take us down to the lighthouse built in 1900, the place is a photographers dream and one of Skye’s most prolific spots for marine wildlife spotting, including whales and dolphins, the sheep here are also extremely friendly. Overall the hike is fairly flat and straight forward, although the final section is sure to get the heart beating as its quite a steep ascent back to the starting point, having said that its a commercial built path with steps and its a relatively short section of the hike.
After an hours run back into Portree you will then get around 12 hours at the capital of the island rather than the 60 minutes on the 1-day tour. This gives you ample time to explore pretty coloured buildings in the harbour, enjoy some local entertainment and discover a little known hike I will recommend to you.
As we leave Portree on Day 2 of the Tour of Dreams we start out with the hike to the Old Man of Storr, this is done after lunch on the 1 day tour. Following this the extra time from already being on the Isle of Skye means we can venture north to one of the most incredible locations on the island, the Quiraing. On our 1-day tour with the two hikes to Old Man of Storr and the Fairy Pools it doesn’t allow enough time to visit the Quiraing with its rock formations and elevated views over Staffin Bay, so this is a two day exclusive, plus its worth remembering that it’s not possible for big bus tours to reach the Quiraing due to the winding single track road.
At the Quiraing there is also an incredible hike, but it requires 2-3 hours to complete so its not possible to do this and the Fairy Pools, however depending on the group (and the weather) I will give the group the option to decide as some tourists may have previously done one or the other, another example of how much more flexible a small group tour is and the benefit of the extra day.
Whatever hike is decided, we then return to Inverness via Eilean Donan Castle. Unlike the 1-day tour, we will spend an hour here giving you a chance to explore the castle whereas this is a 15 minute photo stop on the 1-day tour.
The 2-day Isle of Skye Tour of Dreams was the dream for me so I’m a little biased, but once you have been to the Isle of Skye you will understand that you could easily spend weeks here. You have to factor in many things you might not initially consider, like the time it takes you to get around, the weather, the moments we spend out of the vehicle taking unplanned photos, it all adds up so the more time the better.
Finally, Luke Tours does also offer private hire and bespoke tours to the Isle of Skye and anywhere else in Scotland, so I am always happy to build you a tour itinerary based on your own ideas and time constraints, please just get in touch and we can get the ball rolling.