Scottish Highlands - February 2026

We spent a few days in a campervan again for Feburary this year.

The video gives broad highlights, although we don't ever record video with the thought of a complete video at the end of it - so it is mostly just a bunch of random clips in rough order.

Day 1 - Picking up the campervan

Last year, we rented a VW California, so relatively small and without a bathroom. Sonia was sick last year, so we ended up staying in hotels for most of the nights. This time, after experience the relatively easy Scottish country roads (compared to England), I felt more confident getting a larger van with a bathroom.

We went with Roadsurfer, in part because they also have a Manchester base where I could pick the van up and drive up to Scotland. Last time we went with a great local company near Loch Lomond, but the logistics of the train travel and shuttles made it just more awkward - so I was okay with driving ~4 hours up to Scotland.

We went with the Family Finca, received the MAN model.

We arrived at our destination campsite in Pitlochry in the early evening, had a good dinner in a nearby restaurant and then settled in for the night. It was quite cold, but the van's diesel heater worked perfectly and everything felt quite comfortable.

Day 2 - Cairngorms

Our plans for this trip relied on a pattern of:

• Explore the area we awake in for the day.
• Once the sun sets, we make the potentially long drive to the next stop.
• Repeat first step.

I don't mind driving in the dark, I don't mind driving long distances. This way we can not waste our daylight hours by spending too much time driving and instead enjoying the area we're in.

The day can be adequately summarised by the photos below. Queen's view and Uath Lochans were the highlights. The lightly snow covered, sunny, walk through the forest at Uath Lochans was genuinely great.

Getting to it was somewhat interesting, the road was compacted, icy snow - I suspect because there's some industrial logging traffic that goes by to the pine forests that were continually smoothing the road. This was my first real test of the tyres of this van and.. they didn't hold up well. I came around a corner to a car coming a bit too fast on this single-track lane and hit the brakes, the van slid for a good 5+ metres. To be fair, they were standard all season tyres, I wasn't expecting a lot.

This was a nice prelude to the pretty sketchy driving experience to our stop off for the night. As we set off to 'wild camp' (in the van, obvs) for the night - it started snowing quite heavily and had been snowing in the previous days. We were heading to a relatively remote area with very little traffic, especially during February.

The road got very slippery and it felt like we were continuously climbing for a long time, but it was pitch black - so some of it may have just been an illusion, because it didn't take us long to get back down to sea level. In day 3's photo post, I have a video clip of the drive.

Day 3 - Ullapool & Assynt

• Parking up and staying in the lay-by was perfect, it was quiet and we woke up to the great views over Little Loch Broom.
• We had a good Fish 'n chips in Ullapool for lunch, had a brief walk around, and then made our way up to Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve. This area was probably the most impacted by the snow of the trip, we didn't dare drive up to the carpark as it was a steep hill, with somewhat deep uncleared snow.
  • We parked nearby and walked up.
• Initially set off to The Bone Caves, started our hike, but realised we had left it quite late and probably weren't going to make it there and back with much daylight left. Still, the hike past the waterfalls and by the streams was pleasant.
• Next - Ardvreck castle. One of the reasons we turned back from the previous hike was that we wanted to see this. Other than someone initially flying their drone from the car, we were the only ones here - as is often the case - we had the whole little peninsular and ruins to ourselves once the guy with the drone had gone. I had used up my drone batteries so couldn't put mine up..
• Tomorrow's day was focused on Skye, so we spent a few hours driving to Broadford, which is near the entrance of the Isle of Skye.

Day 4 - Isle of Skye

• We came to Skye last year too, but it left a big impression. Some of the most impressive landscapes I've ever experienced, and we didn't see as much as we liked.
• We stayed in a hotel in Broadford for a couple of reasons:
  • No campsites available
  • After a couple of nights in the van, freshening up in a hotel room is nice.
• A few highlights:
  • Duntulm castle
  • A random little stop off by the coast, 10 mins from the castle, where we made lunch in the van
  • Fairy Glen
  • Some other random stop on our way off skye, where I put the drone up as the sun was setting for a good view of the cliffs.
• I'm such a big fan of Skye, it's popular (although thankfully a lot less so at this time of the year) and for good reason.

Day 5 - Our final full day

• Our stay for the night was in a campsite in Fort William as we had plans to explore Glenfinnan and Moidart before going to our final campsite to head home.
• Glenfinnan is by far the most popular attraction I've seen in the Scottish highlands, for obvious reasons. It's the home of the famous viaduct as seen in Harry Potter with the Hogwarts Express going over it.
  • Lots of coach day tours, presumably from Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc.
• Loch Moidart and Castle Tioram - a bit of an awkward drive there, but I'm glad we did it. It's a unique landscape, with cool castle ruins on a Loch. Exploring and flying my drone around there was fun.
• This was our last actual day in the highlands, after this we went down to Glasgow and stayed there over night in a campsite so that we could make the drive down to Manchester on Day 6.

Final thoughts

• The bigger van with its bathroom was great, although we struggled to understand the boiler and never bothered to use the shower. Apart from one night, we were on campsites anyway.
• The toilet was the biggest QoL improvement, makes the days easier if you're not spending part of it trying to find toilets near trails/attractions/etc.
• Plus the general space and utility of the van felt a nice step up.
• We didn't need the Family Finca for this, the Couple Cottage probably would have been better suited and the better choice.
• The fuel costs were really quite significant and that is the disadvantage to the larger, heavier van.
• Otherwise it was good to drive, well kitted out, my experience with Roadsurfer was really quite good.
  • Pickup and drop off was good.
  • Refund of the deposit came back instantly, whilst I was stood there handing the keys back.
  • Not much to complain about really. I somet
• The van was reliable with no complaints... except for the last night.. where the heating failed in the freezing weather. Not the worst situation, we brought decent bedding - but it wasn't the most comfortable. Things like this occasionally happen though, it is what is is.
• There's still a lot to see in the highlands, I do really like Scotland, the people are nice, the place is amazing, I'm just sad it's taken me so long to take advantage of something so great on our doorstep!
• Two February's in a row and it has been broadly great weather and with very few other tourists. I'd say it's a great time of the year to go as long as you have adequate clothing.