Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Plenty activities, good nightlife at weekends, safe, scenic, |
| Disadvantages: |
weekday evening entertainment can be a bit poor, |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
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
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