NC500 with Kids: Best Family-Friendly Things to Do & Places to Visit (2027)
Planning to drive the NC500 with kids? Scotland's North Coast 500 is one of those road trips where getting out of the campervan is every bit as important as the drive itself. Huge beaches, caves, castles, waterfalls, dolphins, rock pools and some brilliantly unusual adventures make the NC500 a fantastic route to explore as a family. We have travelled the North Coast 500 with our children in our campervan and this guide brings together some of our favourite family-friendly places to stop along the route, including beaches, campsites and activities that genuinely worked for us.
If you're still planning the actual route, start with our Tips for Driving the NC500 in a Campervan with Kids. Then come back here when you are ready to fill your itinerary with things the kids will actually enjoy.
Planning Your NC500 Family Road Trip
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when driving the NC500 with children is trying to squeeze too much into each day. A three-hour drive might sound perfectly reasonable when you are planning at home. Three hours into a campervan journey with tired children is a different matter entirely.
Build your itinerary around regular stops where everyone can get out, explore and burn off some energy. A beach, waterfall or short walk halfway through the day can make a huge difference.
And for the stretches when you do need to cover some miles, have a look at our 25 Screen-Free Road Trip Ideas for Children of All Ages. We have included everything from classic car games and audiobooks to road-trip bingo, drawing and activities for younger children.
If you would rather have the route planned for you, our NC500 Ultimate Road Trip Guide includes a 7-day family itinerary, interactive Google Map, recommended campsites, family stops, beaches and practical driving advice.
Family-Friendly Campsites on the NC500
Choosing the right campsite can make a huge difference when you're travelling the NC500 as a family. Sometimes you want facilities, somewhere to deal with the mountain of wet clothes and muddy shoes, and enough space for the kids to get outside after a day in the campervan. These are three campsites that work particularly well as bases for some of our favourite family stops.
Location: Fortrose, Highland, IV10 8SE
Fortrose Bay makes a great first stop when leaving Inverness. The shoreline location gives the kids plenty to explore, but its biggest advantage is how close you are to Chanonry Point, one of our favourite places for dolphin spotting. You can walk along the coast, explore the rock pools and head to Chanonry Point around the incoming tide to see if you get lucky. We did and watching dolphins from the shore was one of those moments the whole family remembers!
Location: Clachtoll, Lochinver, Sutherland, IV27 4JD
If your children think the best campsite is one with an enormous beach next door, Clachtoll takes some beating. The campsite sits beside beautiful Clachtoll Beach, giving you sandcastle building, paddling, rock pools and plenty of space for the kids to burn off energy without having to load everyone back into the campervan. The journey along the B869 is part of the adventure too, although it's worth being prepared for the narrower roads before setting off.
Location: Gairloch, Wester Ross, IV21 2DL
Sands is a brilliant base for exploring the west coast, with plenty of space and easy access to the beach. There is a shop, laundry and restaurant on site, which can be very welcome by this point in an NC500 family road trip! A short walk takes you to the beach, where younger children can spend ages hunting for tiny shells. We have included more places to stay in our Ultimate Guide to Family Camping on the NC500: Top 10 Sites Revealed.
Travelling elsewhere in Scotland too? Have a look at our 10 of the Best Family-Friendly Campsites in Scotland.
Planning to drive Scotland’s North Coast 500 with kids? Take the stress out of planning with our downloadable NC500 Ultimate Road Trip Guide, created specifically for families exploring the world famous route.
Follow our 7-day NC500 family itinerary from Inverness around the North Coast 500, packed with beautiful beaches, waterfalls, castles, family-friendly attractions, scenic stops and recommended campsites.
What is Included?
✓ 7-Day NC500 Family Itinerary – A day-by-day route with family-friendly places to visit, things to do and suggested overnight stops.
✓ Interactive NC500 Google Map – Keep campsites, beaches, viewpoints and family stops handy on your phone while you travel.
✓ Family-Friendly Campsites & Beaches – Recommendations for some of our favourite places to stay, play and explore with kids.
✓ NC500 Driving & Planning Tips – Practical advice for single-track roads, passing places, the best time to visit and planning your route.
✓ International Visitor Advice – Helpful information on driving in Scotland, campervan hire, fuel, mobile coverage and planning ahead.
✓ Extend Your Scottish Adventure – Ideas for adding the Isle of Skye, Orkney or the Inner Hebrides to your road trip.
Follow the complete itinerary or use the interactive map and recommendations to create an NC500 road trip that works for your family.
Instant digital download: This 17 page PDF guide is available instantly after purchase and can be saved to your phone or tablet, or printed before your trip.
✓ Updated for 2026 ✓ 7-Day Family Itinerary ✓ Interactive Google Map Included
This is a digital product. No physical item will be posted. Due to the digital nature of the guide, refunds are not provided. Please contact us if you experience any technical problems accessing your download.
Best Beaches on the NC500 with Kids
Some of our best NC500 days involved very little more than finding a beautiful beach and letting the kids explore. And there are a lot of beaches to choose from.
Farr Beach (Bettyhill)
Farr Beach feels wonderfully wild. There is a short walk to reach it, which helps keep it quieter than some of the easier roadside stops, and you're rewarded with a huge stretch of sand. Pack a picnic, let the kids explore and don't be in too much of a hurry to leave.
Balnakeil Bay (Durness)
Balnakeil is enormous. The combination of white sand, dunes and rocks makes it a brilliant place for kids who want to explore rather than simply sit on a beach. It is also close to several other family stops around Durness, so it's easy to include in a day exploring this section of the NC500.
This is another spectacular beach and is easily combined with Smoo Cave. We stayed at Sango Sands Campsite, which gives you convenient access to the beach, although the campsite itself wasn't one of our favourites.
Gairloch Beach (Gairloch)
Gairloch was a lovely stop when our girls were younger because of the tiny colourful shells scattered along the beach.
Sometimes you don't need a big attraction. Give younger kids a bucket and a beach full of interesting things to find and they'll happily entertain themselves. If beaches are a big part of your Scottish road trip, you might also want to extend your adventure to the Isle of Harris and Lewis or the the Isle of Coll and Tiree, where you'll find some of Scotland's most spectacular stretches of sand.
Best Family-Friendly Things to Do on the NC500
Beaches are brilliant, but there are plenty of other ways to break up your driving days. These are some of the NC500 stops we'd put on a family itinerary.
1. Look for Dolphins at Chanonry Point
Chanonry Point on the Black Isle is one of our favourite stops near Inverness. You can watch for bottlenose dolphins from the shore, with your chances generally improving around a rising tide. There are no guarantees - wildlife has a habit of ignoring holiday itineraries, but when dolphins do appear close to shore, it's absolutely magical. Fortrose Bay Campsite also makes this really easy to incorporate into the beginning or end of your NC500 road trip.
2. Take a Dolphin Boat Trip from Inverness
We also took a Dolphin Spirit boat trip from Inverness. The trip gave us the chance to learn more about the wildlife of the Moray Firth while looking for dolphins, seals and otters. We didn't see everything we'd hoped for on our trip, but that's wildlife for you. The experience itself was still brilliant and gave the children a completely different perspective from watching from shore. It's also another reason not to rush straight through Inverness on your way to the NC500. We've put together more ideas in our Five Reasons to Visit Inverness.
3. Go Nessie Hunting on Loch Ness
If you're starting or finishing your NC500 adventure in Inverness, add some time for Loch Ness. Searching for Nessie automatically makes sightseeing considerably more interesting when you're travelling with children. You can explore the loch from the shore or turn it into a bigger family day out with a cruise and visit to Urquhart Castle. The castle ruins give kids plenty to explore, and approaching them from the water makes the whole experience feel much more like an adventure.
4. Explore Smoo Cave
Smoo Cave near Durness feels like exactly the sort of place children expect to find on an adventure around Scotland. The huge sea cave is reached via a series of steps, and inside you'll find an impressive waterfall chamber. Go earlier or later in the day if you can, particularly during busy periods. There are quite a few steps, so bear that in mind with very young children. Check out our video experience here.
5. Visit Dunnet Head
Dunnet Head gives you a great family-road-trip milestone: standing at the most northerly point of mainland Britain. There is a lighthouse, huge coastal views and plenty of opportunities for wildlife spotting. The cliffs are particularly known for seabirds, although what you'll see will depend on the time of year. And on a clear day, look north. Those islands in the distance are Orkney.
Which leads rather nicely to...
6. Add an Orkney Adventure
If you have got enough time, Orkney makes an incredible extension to an NC500 family road trip. Instead of simply looking at the islands from Dunnet Head, you can add a day trip or spend several days exploring them. Ancient settlements, standing stones, dramatic coastline and beaches make Orkney feel completely different from the mainland. Read our Why the Isle of Orkney is a Hidden Gem for NC500 Campervan Families before deciding whether to add it to your route. If you don't want to organise the sightseeing yourself, this is also somewhere I'd consider a guided experience.
7. Brave the Golden Eagle Zip Line
This was one of the more adventurous stops on our trip. The Golden Eagle Zip Line at Ceannabeinne Beach near Durness sends you soaring above one of the most spectacular coastal settings on the route. It is the sort of activity that older children are likely to remember long after they've forgotten which viewpoint you stopped at on day three. Check the current opening arrangements, weather conditions and participant requirements before building your day around it.
8. Explore Dunrobin Castle
A castle immediately makes a road trip more interesting for kids, particularly one that looks as impressive as Dunrobin. It is an easy attraction to work into the eastern section of an NC500 itinerary and gives everyone a proper break from driving. Explore the castle and grounds and allow enough time that it doesn't become another rushed stop on the way to somewhere else.
9. Walk to Duncansby Stacks
John O'Groats might get the famous signpost, but we'd make time for the coastline around Duncansby Head too. The dramatic sea stacks make the walk feel like there's actually something to discover at the end, which always helps when persuading children that a family walk is an excellent idea. Pack waterproofs and keep everyone well back from cliff edges.
10. Chase Waterfalls
Waterfalls are excellent road-trip stops. There is a destination to aim for, the kids get out of the campervan and most don't require you to commit an entire day to an attraction. Clashnessie Falls is one to consider along the route, while Corrieshalloch Gorge and the Falls of Measach make another memorable family stop further south. Sturdy footwear and waterproofs are worth having in the campervan.
Don't Forget the Simple Stops
Not every day needs a ticketed attraction. In fact, one of the reasons we loved exploring the NC500 with kids was the amount of fun we had without spending anything.
Stop at a beach.
Look for shells.
Walk to a waterfall.
Find somewhere for a picnic.
Watch for wildlife.
Let the kids climb over rocks.
Pull over somewhere safe simply because the view looks incredible. Those stops also help prevent the NC500 from becoming a holiday where the children spend most of their time strapped into the back of the campervan.
Keep the Kids Entertained Between Stops
Even with a sensible itinerary, you are still going to spend quite a lot of time driving. And spectacular Highland scenery doesn't necessarily impress a six-year-old for quite as long as it impresses you. Before you leave, have a look at our 25 Screen-Free Road Trip Ideas for Children of All Ages. There are ideas for different ages, including classic car games, audiobooks, memory games, road-trip bingo, drawing and simple travel activities. We'd still take the tablets. We're not that brave. But having other ideas ready can make those longer driving stretches much easier.
Planning Your NC500 with Kids?
You can absolutely plan the NC500 yourself. But if you are currently staring at a map of the Scottish Highlands with 47 tabs open trying to work out what you can realistically fit into a week, we've already done most of that work. Our updated NC500 Ultimate Road Trip Guide has been created specifically around exploring the route as a family. It includes a 7-day family itinerary, interactive NC500 Google Map, campsite recommendations, family-friendly beaches and attractions, driving advice, tips for international visitors and ideas for extending your Scottish adventure. Follow the itinerary, slow it down over a longer trip or use the interactive map to build your own version.
More NC500 Family Planning
Working out where to stay? Read our Ultimate Guide to Family Camping on the NC500: Top 10 Sites Revealed.
Nervous about the roads? Head to our Tips for Driving the NC500 in a Campervan with Kids.
Spending time around the start of the route? Read our Five Reasons to Visit Inverness.
Thinking of extending the trip? Our Orkney family guide and Isle of Harris and Lewis guide will give you plenty more ideas.
And don't forget our 25 Screen-Free Road Trip Ideas for Children of All Ages before setting off.
The NC500 is an incredible drive, but when you're travelling with children, the best memories probably won't be the miles you cover. They'll be the dolphins that suddenly appeared from the water, the enormous beach you had almost to yourselves, the cave they couldn't wait to explore and that random stop you hadn't planned at all.
