Scotland (Ben Nevis) - places to eat/stay?
Discussion
Well. Where to start. Fort William is a bit of s
thole tbh, although there's a decent curry house there and one decent eatery (will edit later once I remember it). There are a ton of guesthouses though, not stayed in a bad one, but check for location otherwise you could find yourself up to 4 miles out of town (not kidding, it does sprawl).
Personally, I prefer to stay up at Spean Bridge. There's a great hotel on the corner there (again, will edit later with the name), with a very very good bistro attached and the Commando bar is just around the corner. It's about 35 mins drive from Glen Nevis, 10 mins from Fort Bill. Gives you a much more pleasant experience altogether. Much closer to the grey corries (some fabulous climbs) and the ring of steall <sp> which starts from glen nevis and is probably the best day's high level walking in Scotland bar none. Seriously! Google it!
Ben Nevis is best done up the CMD arrete route from near the distillery, rather than the tourist track up from near the youth hostel. It's an easy scramble at the end and the CMD ridge is nowhere near as scary / hairy as the thingy goch ridge on Snowdon or even Striding Edge on Helvelyn but just as airy. If you're a pretty competent scrambler, but don't know the mountain, look at hiring a guide and going up one of the scrambling routes instead. The main point is don't go up the tourist track - it's long and ambling and full of blind summits and you're surrounded by wkers in flip flops carrying M+S bags with sandwiches despite the foot of snow on the top. Better to come down that way and humiliate / discourage them!
thole tbh, although there's a decent curry house there and one decent eatery (will edit later once I remember it). There are a ton of guesthouses though, not stayed in a bad one, but check for location otherwise you could find yourself up to 4 miles out of town (not kidding, it does sprawl).Personally, I prefer to stay up at Spean Bridge. There's a great hotel on the corner there (again, will edit later with the name), with a very very good bistro attached and the Commando bar is just around the corner. It's about 35 mins drive from Glen Nevis, 10 mins from Fort Bill. Gives you a much more pleasant experience altogether. Much closer to the grey corries (some fabulous climbs) and the ring of steall <sp> which starts from glen nevis and is probably the best day's high level walking in Scotland bar none. Seriously! Google it!
Ben Nevis is best done up the CMD arrete route from near the distillery, rather than the tourist track up from near the youth hostel. It's an easy scramble at the end and the CMD ridge is nowhere near as scary / hairy as the thingy goch ridge on Snowdon or even Striding Edge on Helvelyn but just as airy. If you're a pretty competent scrambler, but don't know the mountain, look at hiring a guide and going up one of the scrambling routes instead. The main point is don't go up the tourist track - it's long and ambling and full of blind summits and you're surrounded by w
kers in flip flops carrying M+S bags with sandwiches despite the foot of snow on the top. Better to come down that way and humiliate / discourage them!Glen Coe might be a bit far away but this place is great http://www.clachaig.com/.
Nip over to Skye and stay and eat at the Kinloch Lodge http://www.kinloch-lodge.co.uk/ well worth the extra driving.
You cannot beat Cameron House on Loch Lomond on the way up. Stunning place! http://www.devere.co.uk/locations/cameron-house.ht...
I would echo the sentiment of most who have already posted on here, Fort William isn't a great place at all. Me and wifey stayed their two years ago so we could climb Ben Nevis - which was brilliant by the way. We stayed at the distillery cottages and they were an absolute dive! To the point that we didn't stay the second night - which was the day we climbed Ben Nevis - and chose a 600 mile drive home through the night instead!
The only good point I would say about Fort William is there's a pub in the town called The Grog and Gruel which did us a decent meal.
The only good point I would say about Fort William is there's a pub in the town called The Grog and Gruel which did us a decent meal.
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