Are you starting or finishing your North Coast 500 family road trip in Inverness? Don’t be too quick to load up your campervan or motorhome and head north!
Inverness is often treated as little more than the start and finish point of the NC500, but there is loads here for families. You can hunt for Nessie, explore a ruined castle, spot dolphins from the shore, take a wildlife boat trip and discover some pretty gruesome Scottish history which always a winner with our children. It is also a great place to slow down for a day or two before tackling the longer driving days of the North Coast 500 with kids.
We loved exploring Inverness and the surrounding area as a family, and it gave us some completely different experiences from those we found further around the NC500. Here are five reasons to give Inverness some proper time on your family campervan trip around Scotland.
1. Go Nessie Hunting at Loch Ness
You can’t bring the kids to Inverness and not go looking for Nessie!
Loch Ness is an easy trip from the city and makes a brilliant family day out. There are viewpoints and walks around the loch, boat trips to get you out onto the water and, of course, plenty of opportunities for the kids to keep watch for the Loch Ness Monster. Combine your visit with Urquhart Castle, which sits right on the shores of Loch Ness. Ruined castles are always much more fun with kids than perfectly preserved stately homes. There are towers to climb, walls to explore and plenty of space for imaginations to run wild. The views across Loch Ness aren’t bad either!
If you are driving the NC500 with children, Loch Ness is also an easy adventure to add at the beginning or end of your route without creating another huge driving day.
If you’re still working out your route, our Cruising the NC500 Route in a Campervan: Top Tips for the Ultimate Road Trip has lots more advice for planning the journey.
2. Spot Dolphins from the Beach
This was one of our favourite family experiences around Inverness. Head over to the Black Isle and Chanonry Point, one of the best-known places in the area to watch bottlenose dolphins from the shore. There is obviously no guarantee that the dolphins will appear - kids and wildlife don’t always cooperate with carefully made itineraries, but that’s part of the fun!
Pack some snacks, take binoculars if you have them and see who spots a fin first.
We also took a trip with Dolphin Spirit on the Inner Moray Firth and thought it was fabulous. Our trip was family and dog friendly and Debbie, our guide, was full of fascinating facts about the local wildlife. Getting out on the water also gives everyone a welcome break from sitting in the campervan, particularly if Inverness comes after several days of driving the North Coast 500 with kids.
3. Give the Kids a Dose of Gory Scottish History
History becomes considerably more interesting to children when battles, castles and rebellious Scots are involved! Just outside Inverness you’ll find Culloden Battlefield, where the final battle of the Jacobite Rising took place on 16 April 1746. It is a fascinating place for adults, but there is plenty here to bring the story to life for older children too. Walking across the battlefield gives them a much better sense of the scale of what happened than simply reading about it in a book.
You can combine Culloden with some of the other historic places around Inverness or head back into the city for a wander along the River Ness. And if your children have reached the stage where every castle has started to look suspiciously like the last castle, mix the history up with dolphins, beaches and outdoor adventures!
4. Enjoy a Proper Family Adventure Outdoors
One of the best things about visiting Inverness with kids is how easy it is to get outside. There are walks, forests, beaches, wildlife trips and plenty of places where children can burn off some energy after being strapped into their seats in the campervan. That is something we have learnt to prioritise on family road trips.
A spectacular three-hour drive might sound wonderful when you are planning an itinerary at home. It can feel rather different when you are 45 minutes in and someone needs the toilet, someone else is hungry and you’ve already been asked “Are we nearly there?” fourteen times.
Building proper stops into your NC500 family itinerary makes the whole trip more enjoyable.
Inverness works particularly well because you can spend a day actually doing things rather than simply sightseeing through the campervan windows. And because this is Scotland, being prepared for the weather and its smallest residents makes outdoor days considerably easier. Have a read of our Guide to Midges in Scotland: 5 Essential Tips for Campervan and Motorhome Travellers and Don’t Let Scotland’s Midges Ruin Your Vacation – Here’s What You Need to Know before you go.
5. It’s a Brilliant Place to Start Your NC500 with Kids
Inverness is the traditional start and finish point of the North Coast 500, but families have even more reason to spend some time here. You can stock the campervan with food, fill up with fuel, pick up anything you have inevitably forgotten and give everyone a fun day before heading into the more remote parts of the Highlands.
This is also a good time to check you have got everything you need for Scottish campervan life - waterproofs, outdoor gear, midge protection and all those little things that suddenly become very important once you’re miles from a large shop.
Then comes the exciting bit: heading north.
The NC500 with kids is a fantastic adventure, but our biggest tip is not to rush it. Distances can be deceptive, particularly on single-track roads, and children generally don’t care that the next viewpoint is supposedly one of the finest in Scotland when they’ve spent half the day in a car seat. Keep driving days manageable. Stop at beaches. Get out for walks. Let the kids explore. And don’t worry if you don’t manage to tick off every single place on your list.
Those unplanned stops often end up being the ones everyone remembers.
Staying Near Inverness in Your Campervan or Motorhome
We stayed at Fortrose Bay Campsite on the Black Isle and loved its peaceful location and views across the Moray Firth. Book a shoreline pitch if you can. It is also brilliantly positioned for Chanonry Point, so you can head out dolphin spotting without adding another big journey to your day.
Finding campsites that work well for the whole family can make a huge difference to an NC500 trip. If you’re planning a longer Scottish road trip, have a look at our 10 of the Best Family Friendly Campsites in Scotland or The Ultimate Guide to Family Camping on the NC500: Top 10 Sites Revealed for more places to stay.
Is Inverness Worth Visiting with Kids?
Definitely.
Don’t think of Inverness as somewhere to get the shopping done before starting the NC500. Give it a day or two and make it part of the family adventure.
Nessie hunting, ruined castles, dolphins, boat trips, Highland history and plenty of opportunities to get outdoors make Inverness an easy place to keep children entertained.
More importantly, it gives everyone a chance to have some fun before you start clocking up the miles on the North Coast 500 driving route.
Planning Your NC500 Family Road Trip?
If Inverness is just the beginning of your adventure, we’ve got plenty more to help you plan the rest of your Scottish campervan trip.
Start with Cruising the NC500 Route in a Campervan: Top Tips for the Ultimate Road Trip for practical advice on tackling the route.
For places to stay beyond the NC500, check out 10 of the Best Family Friendly Campsites in Scotland.
And before heading into the Highlands, make sure you know what you’re dealing with when it comes to midges. Our Guide to Midges in Scotland: 5 Essential Tips for Campervan and Motorhome Travellers covers the practical preventative measures we use.
Most importantly, don’t try to cram the NC500 into as few days as possible.
You’re travelling it with kids. Stop. Explore. Get muddy. Hunt for Nessie. Watch for dolphins. Eat ice cream on the beach.
That’s the NC500 they’ll remember.
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