[partyweb]

Got a holiday home booked near Gleneagles this summer. Looking for some ideas for places to go with twin 4 year old boys.

One idea is to go to the island of Tobermory, home of Balamory. Is this worth the trip?

Are there any miniature railways near? Or working old fashioned steam railways?


All ideas Welcome.

[DJT75]

There's a lovely warm place just south of there, not too far, it's called England

[partyweb]

Originally Posted by DJT75

There's a lovely warm place just south of there, not too far, it's called England

Currently a bit too warm for my liking. Where's that rain they were promising, my grass is almost dead.

[DJT75]

Originally Posted by partyweb

Currently a bit too warm for my liking. Where's that rain they were promising, my grass is almost dead.

You have grass? My 12 month old returfed garden is a dust pit now

[partyweb]

Originally Posted by DJT75

You have grass? My 12 month old returfed garden is a dust pit now

Yes, I still have some around my sink drainpipe.

[Rian1988]

Originally Posted by partyweb

Got a holiday home booked near Gleneagles this summer. Looking for some ideas for places to go with twin 4 year old boys.

One idea is to go to the island of Tobermory, home of Balamory. Is this worth the trip?

Are there any miniature railways near? Or working old fashioned steam railways?


All ideas Welcome.

Hey there, I live in Perth there is actually lots to do, try visiting www.visitscotland.com, www.perthshire.co.uk, www.perthcity.co.uk.

I am sure there are old rail tours departing from Perth, visit www.firstgroup.com/scotrail

I have visited Tobermory before but it is not a day trip it will take the best part of the day to get up the west coast you will then need to catch >2 ferries, any questions feel free to ask!

[Keith Hurst]

Hi, take a wee drive south to Boness, near Falkirk and Grangemouth. They have a full up and running steam railway and also have the engines decked out as Thomas the Tank Engine on certain days.

You can find their link here...

http://www.srps.org.uk/railway/

If you're going to visit it and want a beer whilst your here give me a shout.

KH

[jimbobaggins]

Originally Posted by partyweb

Got a holiday home booked near Gleneagles this summer. Looking for some ideas for places to go with twin 4 year old boys.

One idea is to go to the island of Tobermory, home of Balamory. Is this worth the trip?

Are there any miniature railways near? Or working old fashioned steam railways?


All ideas Welcome.

We drove all the way to Tobermory for the kids a couple of years ago as a surprise, and they loved it, though back then there wasn't much Balamory stuff going on, though now I believe there is more for the kids to do.

It took a few hours to drive from Loch Lomond to Oban and the ferry was £55 with the car (which you need), so I would suggest staying over there for a day or two. Once you arrive on Mull, you have to drive right across the island on a single track road, but seeing as there are virtually no cars there, it is fine.

The houses are still painted up, but be prepared to explain why Archie's castle isn't there - apparently they superimpose it from somewhere else in Scotland. Oh yes and Edie McCredie garage is a chocolate shop now.

I'd recommend it if your kids are young enough and seeing their faces when you drive over the hill into the port is classic! "Does anyone know where we are yet?"...

[partyweb]

Originally Posted by jimbobaggins

We drove all the way to Tobermory for the kids a couple of years ago as a surprise, and they loved it...

Thanks for all the help so far. We're still planning on doing the visit as a day trip (we've only got a week in Scotland). Now as I understand it the easiest way to get there from Gleneagles is to go to Oban (2 hours, I guess?) Catch a 45 min ferry to Craignure (Mull) and then it's a 20 mile drive (15 mins?) to Tobermory.

I found these ferry times and prices which have SINGLE, SAVER SINGLE, and SAVER 5 DAY RETURN. Are we going to have to buy to car singles for a day trip or can we use any of the other options?

A second idea would be to leave our car in Oban an go as foot passengers as this would save us a lot of money. Now does anyone know if there is a good regular bus/coach service between Craignure and Tobermory? And if so how much, how frequent, and how long the journey?



Also any other suggestions for what to do while we're in Perthshire are more then welcome.

[partyweb]

Any more thoughts please.

[booyaka]

go to the salmon leap? see the fish jumping up the river to spawn??

interesting and really cool if you get to see the fish jumping up the river

http://www.perthshire.co.uk/index.asp?pg=362

[Rian1988]

Depending on when your going, this is always good and the kids will love it, http://www.enchantedforest.org.uk/

[Buzza]

If you have not already found it, see http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/conten...t/bus/?s=0&a=0
Service 495 for the Craignure - Tobermory bus service (by Bowmans Coaches (01680 812313).
I had to download from the link then open in Acrobat to read. Around 50mins. each way on the bus.

Great news for you (and all visitors to Scotland at this time) - "30% fewer midges" - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...st/4799243.stm

Enjoy your stay!

[partyweb]

Originally Posted by booyaka

go to the salmon leap? see the fish jumping up the river to spawn??...interesting and really cool if you get to see the fish jumping up the riverhttp://www.perthshire.co.uk/index.asp?pg=362

Thanks, did this last time, and unfortunately didn't see any salmon. Still, enjoyed the sight of the large dam. May be worth a try again.

Originally Posted by jstw

Depending on when your going, this is always good and the kids will love it, http://www.enchantedforest.org.uk/

That looks great but we're going sooner than October.

[partyweb]

Originally Posted by Buzza

Service 495 for the Craignure - Tobermory bus service (by Bowmans Coaches (01680 812313) Around 50mins. each way on the bus.

Top marks Buzza, that's what I was looking for.

Originally Posted by Buzza

Great news for you (and all visitors to Scotland at this time) - "30% fewer midges"...Enjoy your stay!

That is grrreat news!

[Rian1988]

Bringing back an old thread I know, but Partyweb? Did you go? How was it? What did you do?

[partyweb]

A wonderful time was had by all. Thanks to all who contributed their ideas.

This was our 1st driving holiday with a satnav onboard and boy did it make a difference. Even I could enjoy the holiday and watch the scenery (and the road, of course) and the satnav even reminded us what we may have missed while on route to places. Best of all was it's ETA feature which was vital when making lots of long excursions. For example one of our trips was to go on the train journey that crosses the famous 'Harry Potter' viaduct (which is rated at one of the best train journeys in the world!). It needed an early start as the only train each day departed at about 10:30 am and my satnav told me it was a 2.5 hour journey from where we were staying. So after a quick breakfast we leave about 15 mins late, so I drive a bit faster to make up time. So all was going well until about 1 hour into the journey when we were finally running on time one of the boys is sick in the car and after cleaning him and the car up we'd lost 30mins. Thanks to the satnav it told me that with the new ETA we would miss the train so it was not worth continuing our journey but was better to turn around and go back and do something else instead. In the old days without satnav we'd probably just have kept going oblivious to the fact that we wouldn't have made it. Oh well, next time we return to Scotland that's top of our list.

Visited the Edinburg festival and watched some great fun street entertainment but for us newcomers we were a bit overwealmed as to exactly how we were supposed to tackle all the fringe scene. As a family consisting of 2 x 4yr olds we weren't sure what to do. Still, a fun day trip.

Did the compulsary driving tour up to Inverness, via Pitlochry and Aviemore, then south-west along Lochness, past Ben Nevis, on to Fort William, and then south past Black Mount, and on to Loch Earn, and finally back to our hotel at Duchally (near Gleneagles). I did this journey the last time we came but enjoyed the ride far more this time.

The highlight of the holiday was the visit to Tobermory/Balamory. Now the plan was to go to go to Oban and get the ferry across from there but a traffic jam into the port ment we missed the only worthwhile ferry across. SO I took my satnav into the information centre in Oban and we worked out another route that we thought might just work. This was to catch the short ferry ride as foot passengers from Kilchoan straight into Tobermory. Now from Oban this was another 2.5 hour drive. Which also meant taking a 5 min ferry ride across at Corran, followed by the most amazing 'rally-ride' across Sunart and Ardnamurchan (40 miles of the most up & down bendy twisting single track road I have ever driven). We finally made it to the ferry with 5 mins to spare. If you could have seen the boys faces when the ferry pulled into the Port of Balamory. A fun time was had visiting all the shops on the harbour front and some most welcome fish & chips before catching the return ferry followed by that rally-ride home.

Ok guys, lets see who knows their local geography and can guess where the photos of my boys below were taken:

[Kazuya Mishima]

Robert the Bruce, at Stirling Castle?

[Buzza]

Did you go in to the castle and if so, what did the boys think? As a child (grew up in Stirling), I used to head for the 'dungeons' every time. Stories of ghosts were always helpful to increase the atmosphere!

Delighted you had a good time and managed to get to Tobermory in the face of adversity. Wish I had thought to give you that alternative ferry though.

Holidaying in our home country is not as common nowadays as when I grew up in the 60's and can be expensive. Are there things you would recommend to others and will you come again?

Thanks for your feedback.