Isle of Mull

spaggy

wondering if anyone has been to the isle of mull? thinking of flying to prestwick with ryanair then catching the ferry from oban. Daughter is mad on balamory!!

Has anyone used this route to get there or can recommend somewhere to stay on the island?

Thanks :rolleyes:

Dumyat

Are you hiring a car or using public transport? Prestwick airport is quite far south out of Glasgow although ryanair call it glasgow prestwick. Oban is to the north...and roads etc are much slower to travel on than elsewhere in UK. It is possible to do journey by train (and I think Ryanair do half price rail ticket from Prestwick). That would involve changing at Glasgow. Not sure about accommodation on Mull...but Oban itself is full of hotels and B&B's.

edit: just checked AA route planner...they estimate 3 and half hours from prestwick to oban.

tonys_3

I stayed at the Isle of Mull hotel but that was over 20 years ago-it was good then.Take a look at
http://www.4hotels.co.uk/uk/isle-of-mull.html for any number of places to stay.
Once you are North of Glasgow,the scenery in Argyllshire is fantastic and it is arguably the most beautiful in Scotland.
I also looked at coming in to Oban from Inverness but the AA still reckon on 3 and a half hours to do the journey.The scenery is still great though.

scottishf

Took my kids 2 years ago....and thought that i would have been quite a good place to visit if it was dry...we went when it was wet...and there was NOTHING to do

And as we didnt take the car over in the ferry..we had to wait there until the end of the day until the bus came back for us

lindadykes

I have now had three holidays on the Isle of Mull, and we have always found plenty to do, yes you do get some rainy days, just make sure you have waterproof clothes with you. Would reccommend though that you hire a car in order to get the best from the island. Be aware that the ferry from Oban docks at Craignure, about 20 mile away from the capital Tobermory. We always stay self catering we stayed here - https://www.islandcabins.co.uk this summer and I can really reccommend it, the view from the conservatory is stunning and it is just a short, though steep walk to the main street in Tobermory and for Balamory fans it is just round the corner from Josie Jumps house. Places we have enjoyed visiting on the island are;
Torosay Castle - park in craignure and take the little train to the castle
Duart Castle
Calgary Bay - stunning white beach, clear water and magnificent sunsets
Iona - another ferry ride needed but well worth it
Crater Loch - a loch in the crater of an extinct volcano, ask for directions at tourist information.
RIB Rides - An exhilarating and exciting ride on a rigid inflatable boat from Tobermory.
The Chocolate shop in Tobermory - the kids loved the death by drinking chocolate.
Hope I've whetted your appetite, if you do go make sure you stop just outside Salen with a good pair of binoculars and you can watch the seals basking on the small islets just off shore. Two good websites with more info are https://www.holidaymull.org and https://www.mull.zynet.co.uk/

spaggy

Thankyou everyone for your advice

Nile

Hello spaggy


We've stayed on the Isle of Mull many times and had wonderful holidays. We have always taken our car. Would you and your daughter be interested in seeing wildlife? There are wildlife tours you can take, both on land and boat trips. Mull is an excellent base for viewing buzzards, white tailed eagles, seals, otters, dolphins and whales.

If you would like to know more, have a look at the Local Moneysaving - Scotland board. On page 4 is the thread 'Planning a hol in Scotland and like wildlife?' Posts #4 and #5 give information about Mull.

Click here to view that thread.

Kind Regards

Nile

eml_3

We went on a day trip to "Balamory" a couple of years ago. We booked to go on the Balamory Bus through Oban tourist information - it picked us up off the ferry, drove round and showed us all the houses and then picked us up and took us back a few hours later. As I recall, taking your car on the ferry was very expensive and there are lots of single track roads to Tobermory, so not much fun to drive. The tickets were pretty cheap and no charge for the kids.

We weren't stuck in Tobermory for hours and it is a nice place to potter about. Our 3 yr old was entranced, although we had to keep thinking of reasons why Miss Hoolie etc weren't actually there!

Oban was also very nice, although we were there during the August heatwave of 2003, so everywhere is good!

Dude

I work there occasionally, can’t comment on tourist stuff but Tobermory has one of the best Chippies in the world! Food is served from what looks like it used to be a horse box, but has won awards and i believe it is in good food guide. enjoy

Becles

Josie Jump's house is a hotel, but I can't remember what it's called. Might be fun for little ones to stay there!

I took my two over for the day but we got the ferry from Kilochan straight into Tobemory. The drive from our caravan in Fort William to Kilochan was fabulous - lots of scenery but not the sort of roads to drive on if you're a nervous driver. They were mostly single track - to just the width of the car in places, and there were often sheep wandering along them! That journey took a couple of hours to do, due to the road conditions. However, it was worth it just to see the grin on my son's face when we sailed into Balamory harbour

We enjoyed walking round looking for all the houses. The ones in the upper part of the town are up steep banks, which may be difficult with little ones who don't like walking.

THIRZAH

We were staying near Oban this year and booked a " Three Island Tour" with Bowmans coaches of Oban. We went to Mull, Staffa and Iona in a day. They also do a tour to Tobermory .