As Starfish Travel operates from St Andrews we offer NC500 tours as 5 & 6 day tours to which you can obviously add days.

The five day tour is available for £1,875 for two to eight people.

Prices include fully licensed and insured Mercedes Vito 8 seater minibus plus driver/guide but excludes accommodation, admissions and meals.

Water bottles will be provided and there is a wee dram to taste on board too.

One of the main attractions of the NC500 is the remoteness of this beautiful part of Scotland, so please expect there to be limited phone signal and internet and accommodation 8 people plus driver might be a bit of a task. There you might need to stay in self-catering or Air B&B’s and some accommodation can be very special if you wish, for instance Crofter’s Snug

. Furthermore, if you really would like to get off the grid you could opt to drive as far as Durness and then start walking for a day and use one of the MBA’s Boothies for an over night stay. You can only reach these walking…

Kevin Boothy is one example.

Above you see a map of the full NC500 route starting from St Andrews alternatively the tour can also start in Edinburgh or other places. This would ideally be at least a six day tour available for £2100.

Throughout this page we will show a small selection of options.

Do feel free to tell us your preferences or wishes and we will create a tour exactly how you want it. For instance if you want to use your NC500 experience to get away from it all you might want to explore the west of Durness which is not accessible by car. Sandwood Bay is Scotlands most remote beach. If you are intrigued read the “Highland Hermit” by James Carron

Six Day NC500 Itinerary :


Day 1:

8.30 am Pick up St Andrews

10 am Blair Castle

12.00 noon Dalwhinnie Distillery, Tour & light lunch

3 pm Aviemore Coffe break & walk

6 pm Strathpfeffer Hotel Check in & dinner

Suggestions for accommodation:

Craigvar B&B Ben Wyvis Hotel

Attractions on your way

The Hermitage Dunkeld Cathedral Edradour Distillery House of Bruar Killicrankie Dewar’s Distillery Highland Chocolatier Cairngorm National Park Working sheep dogs only at 4pm Strathspey Railway Rothiemuchus Estate -Outland film location

Day 2:

9am Leave Strathpfeffer

10 am Dornoch

11.30 am Dunrobin Castle Tour, Gardens & light lunch

4 pm John O Groats

6 pm Thurso Hotel check in & Dinner

Suggestions for accommodation:

The Y-Not

Pentland Lodge House

Other attractions Dornoch

Discover Dornoch from Visit Dornoch on Vimeo.

Royal Dornoch Golf Club Falls of Shin Dunrobin Castle John ‘O Groats Britain’ most northern Golf Club RSPB Duncansby Head Duncansby Head Thurso

Day 3:

9 am leave Thurso

9.30 Caithness Horizon

11 am Wolfburn Distillery Tour

2pm Torrisdale Bay

3pm Durness & Balnalkeil Craft Vallage

5.30 pm Balnakeil Beach

7.30 pm The Whale Tale dinner

Suggestions for accommodation:

The Old Bakery B&B
The Hideaway

Day 4:

9 am Leave Durness either for Kinlochbervie (35mins) to walk to Sandwood Bay or depending on the weather or to Scourie (40 mins) to take a boat to Handa Island

2 pm Stoer

6pm Dinner at Peet’s Restaurant

Suggestions for accommodation:

MacKay’s
Pentland Lodge House

Day 5:

9 am Leave Lochinver

10 am Ullapool Coffee stop and shopping

1 pm Gairloch Beach

3 pm Shieldaig

4 pm Feanrmore

5.30 pm Applecross

Suggestions for accommodation:

Applecross Inn
B&B Applecross

Day 6

9 am Leave Applecross via The Beach Na Ba’

1 pm Lunch in Aviemore

3.30 pm Dunkeld Coffee & cathedral

6.30 pm St Andrews

Potential 5 day route:

Other attractions on and around NC500

Strathnaver Museum

Caithness Horizon Museum

Castlehill Heritage Centre

Reay Golf Club

Clynelish Whisky Distillery

Wolfburn Distillery

Rock Rose Gin

Durness Golf Club

Balnakeil Beach

Smoo Cave

Rock Rose Gin

Balnakeil Craft Village

Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve

Dunnet Head Nature Reserve

Sandwood Bay

Northern Lights

Highland Stoneware Lochinver

Peet’s restaurant

Balblair Distillery