Basics - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 25

involved, you might be better off including a night's
stopover in your itinerary.
The cheapest direct scheduled flights to London
are usually to be found on one of the Asian airlines,
such as Malaysia Airlines ( W malaysiaairlines.com) or
Thai Airways ( W thaiair.com). Average return fares
(including taxes) from eastern cities to London are
Aus$1500-2000 in low season, Aus$2000-2500 in
high season. Fares from Perth or Darwin cost around
Aus$200 less. Return fares from Auckland to London
range between NZ$2000 and NZ$3000 depending
on the season, route and carrier.

Travel CUTS W travelcuts.com T 1800 667 2887. Canadian youth
and student travel firm.
USIT W usit.ie T 016 021906. Ireland's main student and youth
travel specialists.

TRAIN AND COACH INFORMATION
East Coast W eastcoast.co.uk T 08457 225333. Trains to Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness.
Man in Seat 61 W seat61.com. The best train information website on
the internet.
National Express W nationalexpress.com T 0871 781 8178.
Coaches to Scotland.
National Rail W nationalrail.co.uk T 0845 748 4950. Information
and fares for all train services and companies.
ScotRail W scotrail.co.uk T 0845 601 5929. Caledonian Sleeper
train to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William.
Traveline Scotland W travelinescotland.com T 0871 200 2233.
Excellent Scotland-wide journey planner, connected to the latest bus and
train timetables.
Virgin W virgintrains.co.uk T 0871 977 4222. Trains to Edinburgh
and Glasgow.

From South Africa
There are no direct flights from South Africa to
Scotland, so you must change planes en route. The
quickest and cheapest route to take is via London,
with flight time around eleven hours, usually
over night. Return fares from Cape Town to London
are around ZAR10,000; try British Airways ( W ba.com),
South African Airways ( W flysaa.com) or Virgin Atlantic
( W virgin-atlantic.com). You'll save money if you buy
the next leg of your journey to Scotland separately,
through one of the budget airlines.

FERRY COMPANIES
DFDS Seaways W dfdsseaways.com T 0871 522 9955. Ferries
from Europe.
P&O Ferries W poferries.com T 0871 664 2121. Ferries from Ireland.
Stena Line W stenaline.co.uk T 0844 770 7070. Ferries from Ireland.

From mainland Europe

Ferries run by DFDS Seaways go overnight from
Ijmuiden, near Amsterdam, to Newcastle (daily;
16-17hr), less than an hour's drive south of the
Scottish border. High-season return fares start at
around €500, for a passenger with a car and an
overnight berth. The very useful Direct Ferries website
( W directferries.co.uk) gives you the latest information
on crossings and allows you to compare all the
options. A much quicker (and usually cheaper) alter-
native is to fly with one of Europe's big budget
carriers, such as easyJet ( W easyjet.com), Ryanair
( W ryanair.com), Norwegian ( W norwegian.com) or
Jet2 ( W jet2.com).

Getting around
There's no getting away from the fact
that getting around the Highlands and
Islands is a time-consuming business:
off the main routes, public transport
services are few and far between, parti-
cularly in more remote parts of Argyll,
the Highland region and the Islands.
With careful planning, however, practi-
cally everywhere is accessible and you'll
have no trouble getting to the main
tourist destinations. And in most parts of
Scotland, especially if you take the scenic
backroads, the low level of tra c makes
driving wonderfully stress free.

AGENTS AND OPERATORS
ebookers W ebookers.com, T 02033 203320. Low fares on an
extensive selection of scheduled flights and package deals.
North South Travel W northsouthtravel.co.uk, T 01245 608291.
Friendly, competitive travel agency, offering discounted fares worldwide.
Profits are used to support projects in the developing world, especially the
promotion of sustainable tourism.
STA Travel W statravel.com, T 0333 321 0099. Worldwide
specialists in independent travel; also student IDs, travel insurance, car
rental, rail passes and more. Good discounts for students and under-26s.
Trailfinders W trailfinders.com T 02073 681200. One of the
best-informed and most e cient agents for independent travellers.

By train

Scotland has a modest rail network , at its densest
in the central belt, skeletal in the Highlands, and
nonexistent in the Islands. ScotRail runs the majority
of train services, reaching all the major towns,
sometimes on lines rated among the great scenic
routes of the world.