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Inverness is currently undergoing a major re-development to its city centre with new wider paths being laid and road system being turned upside down, shaken around a bit and re structured aparently in an effort to reduce traffic and congestion. To be honest the mess is kept to a minimum ... Read review
city centre ample parking close to theatre and castle family run traditional scottish ... more
hotel locally renowned cuisine ground floor conference and bedroom facilities recently refurbished comfortable lounge large selection of fine wine malt whiskies superior rooms and jacuzzi rooms available pool bar with sporting event available
Information: :Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
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Advantages: Plenty activities, good nightlife at weekends, safe, scenic, Disadvantages: weekday evening entertainment can be a bit poor,
...i will be biased about inverness due to my living here for my (i would say entire life but take a couple of years out where i lived in other places like aberdeen, tain and the like) life. however i have been to most major cities in the uk along with plenty of small villages and towns too. i will give you as accurate a description and opinion as i possibly can on the town/city (as it is now).
Inverness is currently undergoing a major ... ...the eye(s).
Inverness is in fact the fastest growing city in europe and is still nicknamed Tesco town by the locals. Due to Tesco holding the largest number of stores in the city boundaries. The largest one being at the inverness business and retail park which is open 24/7 so shopping for random bits n pieces is never an issue. the rest of the retail park consists of boots, a multiplex vue cinema (7 screens i think) pizza hut, burger ... more
well you may think i will be biased about inverness due to my living here for my (i would say entire life but take a couple of years out where i lived in other places like aberdeen, tain and the like) life. however i have been to most major cities in the uk along with plenty of small villages and towns too. i will give you as accurate a description and opinion as i possibly can on the town/city (as it is now).
Inverness is currently undergoing a major re-development to its city centre with new wider paths being laid and road system being turned upside down, shaken around a bit and re structured aparently in an effort to reduce traffic and congestion. To be honest the mess is kept to a minimum and the noise level seems reasonably low throughout this work and the finished product does actually look very pleasing to the eye(s).
Inverness is in fact the fastest growing city in europe and is still nicknamed Tesco town by the locals. Due to Tesco holding the largest number of stores in the city boundaries. The largest one being at the inverness business and retail park which is open 24/7 so shopping for random bits n pieces is never an issue. the rest of the retail park consists of boots, a multiplex vue cinema (7 screens i think) pizza hut, burger king, jjb gym and store, homebase, argos, next, borders, maplin, mothercare, pets at home, petrol station, squillions of parking spaces, starbucks and probably a few others i have forgotten.
The city centre itself is on the small side with a park and stride system rather than park and ride (its that small) the eastgate centre is the main shopping arena/mall and offers a wide selection of shops from most phone networks and big brand stores like next, marks and spencers, boots, zara, quiz, officers club, gadget stores, bar, hmv, new look, la senza, perfume shop, debenhams to list but a few, there really is a large selection along with a large food hall with kfc, pizza hut, lorimers, ben n jerry's, etc etc . The high street again has more shops from health shops to a pie shop just next door and banks to primark etc. It is again well transformed with stylish lighting and attractive flower baskets (in season) etc.
There is only 3 or 4 nightclubs as such in inverness, Motion offers 2 rooms of hard house and rnb/house music, love2love & studio 25 offers usual commercial dance scene and rnb, Bakoo & Cactus Jaks offers much of the same but with bar top dancers in full swing some nights in cactus jaks. Rags well they are more hard house and techno type stuff but i can honestly say ive never been in.
Plenty of bars to choose from to suit all types of people from Irish bars to Ceilidh bars to live music and bands and the ironworks also has big names starring several nights a week all year round right down to your local jd wetherspoons offering nice cheap drink in every city
Tourism is the major player in inverness to be honest and there is plenty to see here i guess.
Loch Ness is a matter of a few miles from Inverness and offers an attractive scenery with castle ruins and visitor centres to visit, there is a road that loops right round the loch which makes for a great drive on a good sunny day with a few little villages on the way that are full of touristy nik naks and things.
Culloden battlefield is also nice and close but in the opposite direction with a brand new tourist centre just opened this year (2008) offering plenty of information on the history of the battle itself and a walk around the battlefield with information tables along the way. (you will notice that you never see any birds flying overhead either, dont really know why but inverness has an abnormal amount of seagulls in the centre which can actually be fun to watch as they are brave enough to take food from your hand at times and can get into a macdonalds box faster than you and i)
Fort george is the only working fort left in the uk i believe and has army troops living in it all year round there is however a visitor tour in peak season and is well worth a visit.
Distilleries galore to visit if you are into the whisky trail. Tomatin, glenmorangie, dalmore, i'm really not a fan so i can't say too much about them but i know there is plenty of them here to visit and get a wee tipple from. also a fantastic whisky shop in town.
Inverness is a great base to go from to hire a car and just explore for yourself why not head up the west coast where the countryside has not been spoilt and experience breathtaking views, sandy beaches and caves. Wookie caves in durness is a few hours drive but has some incredible sights and caves to explore.
There is also a great selection of eating places in inverness from all you can eat buffets for a fixed price to 4 or 5* restaurants an indian restaurant where gordon ramsay himself signed a proudly mounted note of thanks for a f*&@ing great meal. I've been and tried it too and it is rather good i must admit and i like my food more than i should.
Inverness tends to offer a wide range of activities however they tend to be within a 10 radius of inverness itself. things like Paintballing to quadbiking, ski-ing/snowboarding to fishing, hill climbing to cycling and many more. It tends to offer a lot for the energetic outdoors type and be not as great for those who like to club every night. But still if you were here for a week you probably would not get bored.
Public Transport is well accesible in inverness with buses running from 5 or 6 am til around 1 am in the city and buses to and from most of the highlands etc running on a regular basis too. Taxis are never far away with a large majority available all the time. Taxi fares are well priced and most companies will offer tours at fixed prices for parties of any size. Taxi's run 24/7 and there is around 5 or 6 different companies.
Accomodation for visiting inverness is a hit or a miss to be honest, there is a vast amount of b&b's, hotels, travel inns/lodges, hostels, guest houses etc but a lot of the time especially in the summer they are displaying no vacancies boards, i have found also that the price can vary so much it is definately worth shopping around the local travel inns/lodges you can expect to pay around £60-70 per night for per room but hotels, b&b's, guesthouses and the like vary a lot. Its worthwhile checking out a few hotels and obtaining qoutes as some offer family or twin rooms for as little as £30 per night depending on how full up they are. i have seen 4* hotels being cheaper than a 2* B&B for the same night yet the hotel offers far more like swimming pool and leisure centre etc.
Inverness has a very relaxed feel about it and offers a slow pace of life compared to the bigger cities. Well worth a visit even for a long weekend. The weather is quite unpredictable however and it makes for a far more pleasant time in the nice sunny periods.
Inverness Airport is approx 9 miles from the city and has a half hourly bus service throughout the day costing a few pounds per person but always plenty of taxis to take you anywhere. Fare into town is around £11 from 8 am - 12 midnight
Advantages: Very pretty, close to Loch Ness, a nice place to relax. Disadvantages: Perhaps a little slow for some people. Also somewhat touristy.
Inverness may seem like a slightly odd place for a honeymoon, but for my husband Dave (tekk) and I it was pretty amazing.
We were more or less on a holiday already – after having lived in Kent for quite some time (well, 23 years in my husband’s case) we decided to come and stay in Stirling, Scotland for a couple of months. After getting better jobs and making more close friends than we expected, a couple of months turned into quite a ... ...a little closer to home. Inverness sounded the most interesting of the places we hadn’t been to yet, so after an original but thoroughly enjoyable wedding day (which I may say a little more about in my future op on Stirling), off we went.
It was quite late by the time we got there, and as you can imagine exploring the town was not the first thing on our minds ;), so off we headed for the hostel.
Hostel, I hear you ask? On a honeymoon? Well ...
gennymutant 19.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Inverness (Scotland)
Advantages: Beautiful scenery Disadvantages: Hotel left a bit to be desired
...Loch Ness stretches from Inverness in the north to Fort Augustus in the south, a distance of 24 miles, and it reaches a depth of 754 feet at its deepest point. Is that deep enough to hide a monster?
Fort Augustus is a village built around the six locks, which enable boats to make the descent from the Caledonian Canal into Loch Ness. The fort (of Fort Augustus) was built after the Jacobite uprising in 1715 and named after the then Duke of Cumberland, ... ...by the Jacobites. Inverness is known as the capital of the highlands and is dominated by the 19th century castle now used as the Local Government offices. The building of St Andrews cathedral began here in 1866 and was finally completed in 1869. There are restored 17th and 18th century houses along Church Street.
There is a good shopping centre where you'll find the major stores and banks represented, together with lots of gift shops so you can ...
SusanLesley 05.12.2000 (14.05.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Inverness (Scotland)
Advantages: Adventure and Scenery Disadvantages: No night clubs (?!)
...for the small town of Inverness about twenty miles from our home. I say small advisedly as the population of about 20,000 inhabitants makes it the largest population centre for about 150 miles but it only really is a small town. Since writing this opinion the town has been given coveted status of a City! We located the boat yard fairly easily, sat on the west bank of the River Ness and were shown to our craft by a friendly Scot, in fact all the Scots ... ...had to be back at Inverness by early next morning else we would have to pay a fine! So back we went. Later that day as we were just about to leave the loch for the final time I spotted Nessie! This time it really was her, a line of well defined humps could be seen across the loch about half a mile away! My dad rushed to get his camera and a photo was taken - Nessie had been captured and I could return a hero to my friends with evidence of the catch! ...
DavidJWest 26.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Inverness (Scotland)
...fastest growing towns in Europe, Inverness is regarded as being the 'Capital of the Highlands'. For Scottish people Inverness makes a welcome change from the big cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. For other visitors Inverness makes an excellent base from which to explore the 'real' Scotland. The real beauty of Inverness lies in the fact that the town services nearly the whole of the Highlands. The town itself is relatively small, which adds to its ... ...out for a drink in Inverness is not an experience to be missed. Many of the pubs attract a starnge mixture of clientel. You can find young 'trendies' sitting at a table next to old women. People from the Highlands and Islands with bags full of shopping having a quick drink before the long journey home, sitting beside businessmen out for lunch. It really is a refreshing change from the more usual mix of people in pubs. The crime rate in Inverness ...
Lad 22.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Inverness (Scotland)
Advantages: Best of both worlds Disadvantages: Mabey the weather in the winter
Having just returned from visiting this wee town for a weekend which was over all to soon, I have to advise anyone who loves Scotland to pay this a visit. It has everything you could want in a small town with plenty of shops, pubs, resturants. The surrounding area has some of the most spectacular scenery you will go home with a sense of wellbeing and appreciate what life is all about.
I have traveled to quite a few places in Scotland and this is ... ...many times. People who live in this town should appreciate what they have and never, never think that life is better in THE BIG SMOKE, because I can assure you, you will be wrong.
Even the weather was great when I was there, which was a lot different to the weather in the south (Oh what a shame!!)
It may be getting a bit colder now, but wrap up well and on you go - pay it a visit - you wont regret it. ...
Firebird 04.11.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Inverness (Scotland)
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Advantages: hmmm lots to choose from, ill say.....the scenery. Disadvantages: the remoteness
Maybe i shouldnt write a review of Inverness as im somewhat biased. I visited the Highland capital on 4 occasions and loved it so much i now live here.
The visits we made were all in the winter, which is the season people dont fancy up here, visions of being stranded, more snow than the rest of the UK combined, generally horrible weather. Well if thats what you expect you will be pleasantly disappointed. The weather is actually pretty good, yes it snows but its a beautiful snow, not your dirty slushy big city snow. And the roads are cleared very efficiently, i was nearly run over by a snow plough clearing pavements ! It does rain yes, but having come from south Manchester im used to it, there it was always grey, here even when raining its still quite bright, rainbows a plenty !
Enough of the weather though, us brits are obsessed ...
Advantages: Majestic exterior, great food. Disadvantages: A bit compact. A bit scruffy in rooms.
First things first. Why was I there? My brother was finally getting married at the grand old age of 32 and this was the chosen location for both the ceremony and the reception.
The Ben Wyvis Hotel is in the lovely old Highland spa village of Strathpeffer which is about 20 miles north of Inverness. It is affiliated to the Crerar Hotels Group and has been awarded a three-star rating (ie very good quality). Unlike England's Crown system, the Scottish and Welsh Tourist Boards award one to five stars with four and five being excellent and exceptional respectively.
Six weeks before the big day, I was passing the hotel on the way to another destination so popped in to book rooms. You turn off the main A834 road, which passes through the town, between stone pillars and up the winding drive to the hotel with its very impressive grey ...
Advantages: Very good value Disadvantages: Poor service
There are a few pizza places in Inverness but this is the only one that I take my 5-year old son into as the selection for kids is far better than the others.
When you enter Pizza Hut you normally have to wait for a moment to be shown to a seat and then you are left for a few minutes to decide what you want.
The selection on the menu is fab - a wide range of starters and pizzas and, if you don't want pizzas, there are pasta dishes. Pizza come in deep pan or traditional and you can get ones to share as well as individual ones. There are also various toppings that you can have, as well as side dishes.
Kids menu is good - not just pizzas on it, my son absolutely loves the chicken goujons and potato wedges.
There are also a wide selection of drinks, sweets and the ice cream factory.
What I love about Pizza Hut is that ...
