NC500

[Yorkshirelad]

Help please ...Anybody have good info on this... we want to do it stopping at nice pubs for the evening where possible ..

[mon the fish]

My advice? Avoid most of it. Too busy, as the roads are not suitable for the traffic levels and the infrastructure just isn't there to support the number of visitors.

Take in the A93 from Perth to Braemar, then A939 to Tomintoul and follow that to Nairn. Bits of the NC500 are good, a loop from Garve via Achnasheen, Kinlochewe, Poolewe etc gets the best bits of the roads without either the lengthy single track bits or the boring bit of the A9 south of Wick.

If you definitely want to do it, Torridon Inn and Kylesku are nice hotels on the West coast but need booked well in advance. Old Inn at Gairloch nice for food but I've never stayed there. Choices in Thurso as well (reasonable sized town), nicer than Wick IMO. Applecross Inn is now booked out a year in advance!

I've done various bits of the loop over the years (never in one go) apart from the NW corner between Kylesku and Tongue so can't help with that bit. A mate did it a few weeks ago, he stayed in spare rooms using AirBnB. Happy to help where I can!

[Allandwf]

I agree, most is quite busy now. I have also done most of it , in parts, over the years. There are numerous threads on it if you Google it, PH has a few. If you do come up for it, give me a shout and I may join in for a few miles.