LCBoniti

yestravel, we began booking in September2015 for our trip in May2016 and found that places were already not available.

janisj

>> I dont know why everything was booked, I'm not even there on a weekend.<<

>>at the end of May<< explains it. Middle of the month would have been much easier - practically empty. But at the end of the month is a bank holiday and schools are on break the last week of may/1st week of June.

yestravel

Ah, so that would be it. I had looked for holidays and school schedule in Scotland and never saw that.

LCBoniti

Just to add, we were there on the bank holiday - and it happened to be amazingly beautiful weather.

But, although parking at favored hiking places was busy and there were definitely more "holidayers" around than at other places on our Scotland trip, we never felt the effects of crowds. That may be because we are used to much worse here in So Cal, of course. But it never felt intrusive.

Skye is amazing and well worth whatever time you have for it.

historytraveler

Some smaller places don't start taking bookings until after the New Year, but Skye has become extremely popular as a tourist destination, and places do fill up quickly especially at certain times like bank holidays.

yestravel

We are looking forward to our couple days on Skye. It sounds beautiful and the photos I have seen are gorgeous. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

janisj

Skye absorbs the visitors very well - it is large and the scenery is everywhere - very spread out. So crowds won't be a problem.

But the accommodations can't really handle the busiest times of years -- there simply isn't all that much.

yestravel

I love Skye! It is simply gorgeous. It was crowded and some of the major sites were quite busy late in the afternoon. We had an interesting time with our booking. The cabin we booked got sold and we lost our reservation . So about 1 month before departure on our trip we were back searching. We were given a FB page, Skye rooms , where you can put your needs on it and owners will get back to you. We got alternate lodging right outside Portree through the FB page.

Everyone who lives on Skye that we talked to lamented the huge number of tourists and the resulting crowds. The infrastructure is just not able to accommodate the crowds.

massimop

Interesting. Which "sites" are you talking about? The only time I ever felt "crowded" in Skye was on a walk in the vicinity of the Old Man of Storr -- more tourists than I'd encountered in other parts of the isle -- and maybe when I made the mistake of stepping into a sweet shop two minutes before school let out in Portree. But otherwise it was mainly me and the sheep. However, I was out on one end of the Trotternish, and didn't go to distilleries. Only had lunch in Portree (plus an unforgettably butter bit of shortbread!). That was in September.

yestravel

Old Man of Storr for sure and the circuit north of there. We did it backwards leaving in the am. By the time we got to Kilt Rock, there was a tour bus, several mini buses and lots of people. We followed that to Portree. We went back to Old Man of Storr one evening and it was blissfully empty.
On another day Sligachen was crowded but not packed. We stopped on a rainy day and talked with a photographer. We were thinking of going to the fairy pools. He mentioned it would be crowded even in the rain. We skipped. It was difficult to get into any restaurants in Portree -all booked up. You could go like 5:30.

This is relative -say compared to Yellowstone in the US, Skye would not be considered crowded. And we plan to go back as it wouldn't be a deterrent to us.

historytraveler

I've been going to Skye for almost 20 years and it is certainly more crowded now than it was then. Several years ago, there was so much traffic at the Fairy Glen cars were double-parked. At Neist Point the people walking out to the light house looked like a trail of ants. I arrived at my hotel about 7:00 and the restaurant was fully booked until 9:00. After trying every every restaurant in Portree, I finally found a place at 8:00. Everyone " loves " Skye and it's fast becoming the most popular place to visit in Scotland. There are still a few quiet, secret places but I'm keeping those to myself.

Underhill

We spent only a day on magical Skye, with a friend from Inverness who had the use of his uncle's ancient Bentley. It was complete with a leather picnic hamper that included cut-glass whisky glasses and decanters. His mother had packed us a cold lunch of pheasant sandwiches and other delights, which we ate while sitting on the grass looking out at the water. That was a perfect day.

We went over and back on the ferry and had an encounter with Jonathan Livingstone Seagull on the way. A pleasant one, though.

massimop

Thanks. We didn't know anything about the Isle of Skye when we went, except maybe that "Local Hero" had been filmed there. So we just booked a cottage in the Trotternish, and then we just hung out there. (First time I'm hearing of "fairy" anything!) When we told people we went out hiking once or twice a day, people kept asking if we'd seen the "Old Man of Storr", so we finally went. But we decided against the distilleries.

I'm not surprised it is drawing ever more tourists, but I feel pretty confident saying that if somebody avoids all the "must sees" (whatever they are) you'll still love the Isle of Skye. With the exception of a few spots with gas stations and other utilitarian necessities, everything we say was charming. Including all the sheep who stood in my way and stared at my car like they had never seen such a thing before. (One of the reasons we didn't go all that far is because sheep slowed us down a lot.)