UK Travel Planning

Exploring Scotland by Rail: Edinburgh to Inverness Train Travel Tips

• Tracy Collins • Episode 145

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Train journeys through Scotland offer spectacular scenery and connect major cities, but they can present unexpected challenges when severe weather strikes.

• Travelling from Edinburgh to Inverness via the scenic coastal route through Dundee and Aberdeen
• Strategic stops at St Andrews (via Leuchars) and Aberdeen's Maritime Museum
• Weather disruptions forcing schedule changes and an extended stay in Inverness
• Navigating cancellations by using alternative routes and transportation methods
• Comparing the coastal route with the Highland Main Line through the Cairngorms
• The importance of flexible tickets when travelling by train in Scotland
• Essential apps and preparation tips for train travel contingencies
• Accommodation recommendation: Blackfriars Hotel near Inverness Station
• Train travel offering a unique perspective of Scotland's diverse landscapes

For more information about train travel in the UK, check out our UK train travel e-book on the UK Travel Planning website. If you have any questions about train travel in Scotland or anywhere in the UK, leave us a voice message via SpeakPipe.

📝 Show Notes - Episode 145

🎧 Listen to next

  • Episode #73 - Exploring Scotland: Unforgettable day trips from Edinburgh by train
  • Episode #43 - Unravelling the mysteries of train travel in the UK
  • Episode #80 - Planning your perfect UK rail adventure
  • Episode #2 - Tips for travelling the UK by train

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Speaker 1:

Thinking about seeing more of Scotland by train. In episode 145, I'm joined by Doug, who recently took some scenic royal journeys from Edinburgh, including one along the coast to Inverness via Aberdeen and Dundee and a return planned on the Highland main line through Aviemore, pitlochry and Perth, until a storm changed his plans. Doug shares what went right, what went sideways and why train travel is one way to explore Scotland.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, Tracey Collins. In this podcast, Tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns so hi everyone and welcome to episode 145 of the uk travel planner podcast.

Speaker 1:

Now this week I thought I would chat to doug about um some train travel that he took earlier this year in january and early february when we were staying up in sc in Scotland. Because we often get questions about train travel in Scotland, what it's like and also what to do sometimes if things don't necessarily work out as planned when you're taking any train travel um.

Speaker 1:

so this is going to be a a good episode to talk about, because um to talk about those things and for Doug to share some tips about general train travel really, if things kind of go a little bit wrong but also about his experience traveling by train in Scotland, and then to share some tips and ideas and thoughts about about, actually, well, his trip in general, but also about train travel in Scotland. So, hi, doug, good to have you back. Hello, so let's start the beginning. What inspired this particular trip by train from Edinburgh to Inverness and back?

Speaker 3:

Well, easy answer to that one, to start with, is we have an article on our UK travel planning website about day trips from Edinburgh. I've won some Glasgow as well, but this because we're in Edinburgh. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to update the post and just to see how the current services are running and obviously me being me never turn up an opportunity to travel by train.

Speaker 1:

Exactly so you know you chose the coastal route via Dundee and Aberdeen on the way up. Can you describe that journey for us and what stood out for you along the way? And actually why did you choose that journey? I've got to ask well.

Speaker 3:

As you well know, I do like circular train journeys, so, if possible, if there's one direction to go from A to B, I always want to come back a different way. As long as you know time, the cost is realistic and you have the opportunity.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. So. You chose that particular coastal route, so we went via Dundee and Aberdeen on the way up. So describe that particular journey and what stood out along the way.

Speaker 3:

Well, what stood out is the beautiful scenery. When you're leaving edinburgh to start with, you know you're going to cross the, the rail bridge, which is fantastic in itself, but I wanted to stop off at two different places. One I wanted to stop off at lucas lucas, depending on your pronunciation and that's the home of st andrews, the uh home of golf yes so we did that a couple of years back and I just want to double, double check that.

Speaker 3:

Um the services, the bus service from lucas to st andrews was just the same, so it was just a quick bus journey from, uh some lucas train station to st andrews to the bus station and, yes, it's exactly the same.

Speaker 1:

It's better to buy a return ticket and and we actually have got a short on YouTube which shows that journey from Edinburgh to Lucas and then on to St Andrews. So if you listen to the podcast and you think you know actually we actually fancy that day trip. We know that's a very, very popular day trip from Edinburgh to go to see St Andrews A lot of golf fans out there. So take a look at that short if you want to have a look and see what that train journey looks like. And it's actually very easy. It's a very easy trip.

Speaker 3:

It's very easy. I should qualify what I said there. It's not a return bus ticket, it's a day ticket which works out cheap. It's only a couple of pounds cheaper, but it's nevertheless cheaper. So it was a quick journey to there. Then I jumped back on the train. One of the reasons I split the journey as well was different train stops used throughout, which obviously I wanted to experience. The different types of trains and the different classes of trains and the different cost of tickets, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's always really useful, because that means your knowledge is updated and then you can help people who are planning their trips up to date.

Speaker 3:

And that's right. So I traveled from then Lucas to Aberdeen. You go past to Dundee, got great views of the Vidal and the coastline the coast beautiful and then to Aberdeen. Just about a six-minute walk from the station is the Maritime Museum, which I'd never been in Aberdeen, so it was a quick excursion straight to there. Have a look around and back to the station so what was it like?

Speaker 1:

would you recommend it? Yeah?

Speaker 3:

it's a free museum, um, also it's good, but it's all about the local history and obviously their maritime history and also the whole section about the oil rigs out of the North Sea, which actually I know nothing, but I know a little bit more now.

Speaker 3:

So that was worth visiting, and then after that, I went back to Aberdeen Station and jumped on the train to Inverness, which takes the coastal route all the way past Elgin and you also stop off where you can catch the Whiskey Trail train from there, which is worth doing Speyside Whiskey Trail.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's think. So, that trip from Edinburgh up to Inverness and you stopped off at a couple of places along the way how long did that take you?

Speaker 3:

It took me just over six hours, because you choose, obviously, the length of stays that you want to stop off at these places for, but the quickest you can do is about four hours 40 minutes, I believe, and that's one stop off at Aberdeen.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so how many stop offs did you?

Speaker 3:

take Two, lucas and.

Speaker 1:

Aberdeen. Okay, so you arrived at Inverness, so what?

Speaker 3:

was your planned return.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm jumping ahead here.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I was planning on returning that day. I had all my times laid out et cetera, and I was originally going to stay, come back that day after a few hours back in Inverness. But even before I'd left Aberdeen, I thought I had a discussion with you, as we recall, and said you know what, I'm going to stop off in Inverness for the night and then I'll come back the following morning as well, because it was the end of January, it was the middle of winter and there was snow around and we knew there was some rough weather coming. But I still set out anyway. Um, but on leaving Aberdeen, that's when things went a little sideways.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so what happened?

Speaker 3:

So initially, the announcement on the PA or the tunnel on the train said that there was bad weather heading in and there'd been weather warnings for the entire east side of Scotland. Actually, it was countrywide, really, but specifically they were talking it was a ScotRail train service, so they were passing on reports from scott rail and there was going to be delays and cancellations. So obviously, as you can imagine, there's lots of people then wanted to talk to the train crew as regards ongoing journeys, plans etc. Etc. But the train crew were absolutely incredible, I have to say.

Speaker 3:

I'm always seeing the places of uk railways, but the staff on board that train were phenomenal. They spent such a lot of time with everybody. Obviously I've got a lot of experience. I was not pushing the point because I you know, I I knew what I was doing, but the way that they were helping other people was incredibly helpful, and so what they're saying was the weather warnings were saying there was going to be no trains running from scotland, in other words, no trains in scotland past the end of that day right, okay, so we're still running that day, yeah, but then they were going to finish at the end of that day, and I'll also just interject at this point that I was in edinburgh and had kind of been watching this potential storm coming and it was a big storm.

Speaker 1:

This was a big storm that rolled through Scotland, um. So by this point, I think, when we spoke, I was, I was. I had a fair inkling that you were not going to be able to make it, make it back that day, um, so decided to stay in Inverness. So did you. Had you booked the hotel from the conversation, before you'd be already been told that the trains weren't coming back.

Speaker 3:

Yes, because I decided I was going to just spend a bit more time in Inverness, because I do like Inverness as well. So the whole idea was I was just going to stay near Inverness Station. It was the Blackfriars Hotel, if you're listening, thank you, great place. And so then the weather unfolded and so the plan was I thought, well, I'm not going to maybe get away tomorrow. So I thought, well, I'll stay an extra night just to give them a chance to sort things out, because from my real experience, knowing that things don't come back to normal straight away, it takes a bit of time because trains staff in the wrong place. They've got to make sure the line's clear and safe, so I know how long these things take.

Speaker 1:

And obviously, at this point, you didn't know, past the fact that there were no trains at the end of that day, how long this was actually. They hadn't made any announcement about how long they thought this was going to impact for did they?

Speaker 3:

No, that's right. They just said no trains that day, but past that point there was no. They just said no trains that day, but past that point they were not saying well, tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock the trains will start running again. They didn't make that statement either. Only my experience knows that they don't sort these things out overnight very, very quickly. It does take a bit of time. So I was being a bit overcautious in the fact that booking an extra night just in case this was going to take longer. And it was a decision that turned out to be the the right move, because by the time I did get to Inverness and I asked them for an extra night and they said you are very lucky, it's only because I booked the one night before. They've had lots of people coming in, the whole coachloads asking for rooms for the next couple of nights for this reason. So I was very, very lucky actually.

Speaker 1:

So I think what's really important from this is to consider what tips that you would offer any of our listeners who may find themselves in this sort of situation. So this was a cancellation of the trains due to the weather. So we'll say this was a cancellation of the trains due to the weather. So I will say this was in january february. So if you're planning ever to travel up to scotland january february, you do have to really consider potential impacts of the train. And I know I think even maybe 10 years ago we were planning to take the caledonian sleeper and in fact I think it was a west coast, uh, highland line. The west highland line was was hit by a massive storm and um, and so we couldn't actually take that, that, we couldn't take that train. So there's always a potential in you know you've got to kind of have that in your plans if you're trying to travel that far north at that time of year that this can impact. So what would you, what would your tips be for travelers who may find themselves in this situation?

Speaker 3:

well, the the preparation beforehand is, um, while talking to the experts and knowing what are the recommended apps to put on your phone, which websites and I'm not saying predict that there's going to be problems. But being prepared, I had an overnight bag with me, even though initially, when I left, that was not the plan and, as it happened, it turned out to be the right move. So the one is make sure you have a phone that's working. That's a really good point. Most of the trains in the UK have Wi-Fi, but you know you cannot count on Wi-Fi, no obviously no.

Speaker 3:

When you're moving along, you can lose a signal as well, which can be very frustrating if you're depending on it.

Speaker 1:

I want to say that we also have an article, if you're wondering, about accessing Wi-Fi in the UK. We do have an article all about SIMs and eSIMs. We tend to use an eSIM these days when we travel. I know that's what you have on your phone.

Speaker 2:

We have it now.

Speaker 1:

We're actually recording this in Spain and we have eSIMs on our phone as well here, so it's important to ensure that you've got that connectivity.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it is very important to have connectivity, but, I think, knowing what apps to use I use the National Rail Enquiries, live trains and journey planning app because my experience is that it's the most readily updated and accurate and that's the one. But also, I think what particularly with train travel is have an idea in your head of the, the geography. I don't mean every single little station, because that'll be over the top, but have an idea where you're running, to, where your trains are going, just to have a bit more of a root knowledge. That, if you have to which become more evident on the on the journey back is if you have to slightly change your plans. You can't go from a to b, but you've got to go from a to c to d and then come back to b. Have a bit of an understanding of the root knowledge. But well, how would that go if you've got a, if you've got a train ticket, which, and then come back to B. Have a bit of an understanding of the route knowledge.

Speaker 1:

But how would that go if you've got a train ticket? I know you're going to say it depends on what sort of train ticket, but how can you get that flexibility?

Speaker 3:

The best thing to do is to buy an anytime train ticket, because if you, even if you haven't got an anytime train ticket, if you are very impacted by weather and cancellations, that often will cover you on a different, different route, but that's up to the way you bought the ticket from and the operator at the time. But to give yourself that flexibility when you're buying tickets is to buy an anytime ticket so that will cover you on any route between two points. So you're buying a ticket between A and B and if there's two or three different routes between A and B, you can use any of them Okay, whereas if you're buying an advance ticket that's on one route between those two points on that particular train on that day.

Speaker 1:

Well, what happens if you're planning to go 8 to B but you end up having to go to 8 to C to B, because that's the only way to get from 8 to B because of some problems?

Speaker 3:

with the route. That's the discussion you have with the train crews and the stations, and just to double check because penalty fares are quite steep.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so you stayed in Inverness for two nights and you love the accommodation you stayed in, so let's give them another shout out.

Speaker 3:

I'll give another shout out to the Blackfriars Hotel in Inverness. I chose them because it was close to the Inverness train station it's just out to the right and the staff, stephen and Abby the lady that worked there absolutely phenomenal. They were just so lovely, so kind, so accommodating and flexible and they're just wonderful people to talk to really. And the food was nice as well A great Scottish breakfast.

Speaker 1:

Brilliant. Okay, so after a couple of days in Inverness and the storm kind of blew through Ireland well, through Ireland and then through Scotland, and I know because I was in Edinburgh and it caused quite a lot of destruction in Edinburgh and I actually couldn't go out for most of the day because it was too dangerous actually to go out because it was so windy. So you did eventually return to Edinburgh. So how did you manage to do that? What was that journey like and how was the weather on your return?

Speaker 3:

Well, that morning in Inverness there was no trains heading out of Inverness before midday. But I kept checking, I kept checking the live trains on the National Rail and I was also looking on the website and ScotRail's site their own site as well and then they seemed to uncancel one or two services. Okay, so to give the line its proper name, it's the highland main line and that one's literally straight down from inverness. And but they said there was a train heading to perth. So I thought, well, I'll jump on the one heading south. So I had no seat reservations at this point. It was every man for themselves. Luckily I did not have much luggage, but the frame train was freezing so it obviously bought it out from stock up there and it was. I thought it was going to be very, very busy, but it wasn't so and there was snow lying around. As soon as we left inverness you start heading down through the cairngorms and there was lots of snow around and it was icy, cold. The beautiful scenery, mind. As soon as the train warmed up, it was lovely to look at. So I eventually got down and come through Pitlochry and beautiful, beautiful scenery.

Speaker 3:

I was talking to the train crews. They were keeping everybody up to date with trains running from Pitlochry, from Perth. So I had a plan before I got there. I was keeping my eye on trains leaving Perth on Live Trains app and I knew which train I was going to catch. So the plan was I was going to head to Perth. I'd already decided at this point I was going to have a quick look around Perth as well, because the Stone of Destiny is now from I think it was March last year, in 2024, is now returned to Scotland and in the new Perth Museum. So I went to see that that's good.

Speaker 3:

Now the trains coming out of Perth they said there was one running to Dundee, so I was going to not be able to do the line. I was expecting to come straight back down to Edinburgh. So I went cross land and I went to Dundee with the intention of going from Dundee back down to Edinburgh. That did not happen.

Speaker 3:

At some point when I was on the train to Dundee, the trains out of Dundee had been cancelled. There was nothing heading down from Dundee to anywhere at this point. So I arrived into Dundee thinking what am I going to do now? I might have to stay in Dundee for the night. And this is what happened. This is what we talked about earlier is the fact that you've got to be flexible. You've got to think what are your options at this moment in time. And I headed to the bus station thinking I'll just have a look see what buses are out. And yes, there was a bus took two and two and a half hours, two hours, 20 minutes from dundee bus station to edinburgh perfect. And when I arrived into edinburgh, I thought I'll have a quick walk down to Waverley train station and what I found out was there was no trains north out of Edinburgh for the foreseeable because of debris on the line.

Speaker 1:

Right, and I guess that's a point to make as well because even though the storm had passed through, it was still causing cancellations, because there was, you said, debris, branches and all sorts of debris on the train lines.

Speaker 3:

It was still windy, it was still very windy, and you can't run trains unless they're certified that the line is clear and safe to run services, right, right. So, yes, it was an interesting excursion, but with a footnote to all this me being me. The following morning, what did I do? I had to head straight back from Edinburgh to Perth. I wanted to complete the journey by train, by train. Well, I'd started, so you did that.

Speaker 1:

So for anybody listening that are considering this, I'm going to ask you, doug, would you recommend both of those routes, the coastal and the Highland main line, considering this, is heading up to Inverness, so we're talking about kind of that eastern side of Scotland. So we're talking about kind of that eastern side of Scotland. Those are the routes we're talking about from Edinburgh, so we're kind of going north here.

Speaker 3:

We're heading north. Yes, so if you think of it as like a circular route, you come from Edinburgh via Aberdeen, you take the coastal route to Inverness and then the Highland main line is. It says it's the main line, it's the fastest service straight down the middle of Scotland back to Edinburgh or Glasgow so if you were trying to get to inverness quickly, which would be the route that you take.

Speaker 1:

You take the highland main line and if you were considering which was the most scenic, which route would you take?

Speaker 3:

is that a hard question? That's that's a hard question because if you get an answer where they're going, the uh the highland main line through the cairngorms is beautiful, but I also like the sea views on the east side of Scotland.

Speaker 1:

So I'm thinking that you can go up and back in one day doing that circular route.

Speaker 3:

Which was my original plan.

Speaker 2:

Which is what your original plan was.

Speaker 1:

If you want to go from Edinburgh up to Inverness the fast route, because you get, say you arrived in Edinburgh, you've done a few days in Edinburgh and you want to get yourself up to Inverness. Maybe you're picking up a tour in Inverness, Maybe you just want to spend some time in Inverness. What's the quickest, what's the kind of quickest time to do that?

Speaker 3:

It's a few hours. It's much less.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 3:

It's much less. It depends which service you catch, or if you're changing at Perth or if you're changing at Perth, but yeah, it is considerably quicker.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so now, what would be your key tips for anyone considering rail travel in Scotland, especially when travelling between cities like Edinburgh and Inverness, and also, I think, probably considering the time of year is probably something you're also going to cover but I think what would be the key tips for anybody planning their sort of train journeys?

Speaker 3:

What I would recommend is having the most flexible train ticket you possibly can, and that's the anytime train ticket, which will give you that little bit of flexibility if things do go potentially awry. I will add a little footnote to all of that is that don't assume in summer months that there is no delays and things don't happen. There is a different array of potential issues on train lines, but I would always keep the flexible train ticket as you most possibly can. Yes, it is more expensive, but it can save you money in the long term.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now what about if I decide to? Obviously we're talking about day trips here, but if people are kind of doing it at their moving destinations, there's enough kind of luggage storage on those trains is absolutely okay, it's not a problem.

Speaker 3:

Yeah there's not a problem. Yes, I was traveling a lot on this occasion, but we have traveled with luggage on both of these routes. Yeah, there's plenty there, but it's the same. Rules apply is to try not to take any luggage on board that you're not able to lift. Keep as light as possible, keep your personal items, your valuable items, with you in a separate small bag and take. Make sure you have some refreshments, especially drinks, and don't count on them being provided yeah, perfect.

Speaker 1:

So if someone had a few days based in Edinburgh, what are your top recommendations for train day trips?

Speaker 3:

Well, we've covered this before, I believe, in a podcast, episode number 73.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So if you want to figure out or want to hear about the best day trips from Edinburgh by train, we've got an entire podcast episode about that, which will not only talk about the trains that actually doug's talked about this episode, but we'll talk about some other train trips that you can take from edinburgh, because there are quite a few different destinations that you can choose from yeah, most definitely.

Speaker 3:

There's plenty of options there and we've covered them all on the website as well yeah, so we've got articles about train travel, we've got the podcast about train travel.

Speaker 1:

We've got a lot of articles about traveling around edinburgh, whether it's by train or actually, if you want to do it by car. Um, so I would definitely take a look at articles and obviously we've got some podcasts as well. About edinburgh uh, visiting edinburgh, things to do in edinburgh uh tips. Visit in edinburgh, day trips from edinburgh by train or, if you want to just do them by tours or by car.

Speaker 3:

And equally from Glasgow. We've also covered similar itineraries and recommendations from Glasgow and from Inverness.

Speaker 1:

So I'm going to ask the final question, because this is the question I always ask at the end of every episode and you've probably kind of covered it. But I just want to go over this again. What would be your one tip for someone planning a train trip in Scotland? Have as flexible train ticket as you. Over this again, what would be your one tip for?

Speaker 3:

someone planning a train trip in scotland. Have as flexible train ticket as you possibly can perfect.

Speaker 1:

So thanks, doug, for sharing both the highs and the lows well, not really lows, but the unexpected challenges of the scottish train adventure not a problem, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Speaker 1:

You've got to be flexible and I had a great time brilliant now, if you're planning to explore the uk by train, don't forget to check out our UK train travel e-book, which Doug wrote. I did Free resources and more over at uktravelplanetcom. Any questions leave us a voice message via speakpipe. It's been brilliant. We've had some great questions come through and it's been so lovely because we can respond verbally to you and send you a message back. So if you've got any questions about train travel in Scotland or train travel in the UK, get back to us via the SpeakPipe link. You have to just make sure that you leave your name and email so that we can respond to you, but then we'll be able to get back to you straight away. That link to the SpeakP pipe is in the show notes.

Speaker 3:

This episode, but as always, uh, I think that just leaves us to stay until next week.

Speaker 1:

Doug happy uk travel planning thank you for joining us on this episode of the global travel planning podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always happy global travel planning. Thank you.