03 Sep 2026 Catgeory1
The North Coast 500 starts and finishes in Inverness. That single fact shapes the whole trip, and it is worth thinking about before you book anything, because where you spend the night before you set off makes more difference than most itineraries admit.
Most people arrive in Inverness having already travelled a long way, by road, rail or air. The temptation is to press straight on north and start the route the same day. It is usually a mistake. You end up driving the first leg tired, in the dark half the year, and rushing the part of the coast you were most looking forward to.
Staying in the city the night before means you start rested, with the shopping done, the car packed, and a full day ahead of you instead of half of one.
Inverness is small enough to walk across. The River Ness runs through the middle of it, and the Ness Islands footbridges are a short stroll from the centre. Inverness Castle looks down over the whole thing. Loch Ness begins just outside the city, with Urquhart Castle on its shore about half an hour away, so if you want to see the loch without adding it to the route itself, the evening before is your chance.
We have a self catering apartment in Inverness with two bedrooms, both with king size beds, one en-suite, two modern bathrooms, and an open plan kitchen and living area. It sleeps four.
For an NC500 start, a self catering place beats a hotel room for practical reasons. You can cook a proper breakfast before you leave rather than waiting for a dining room to open, you can do a supermarket run the night before and load the car, and if there are four of you the cost per head tends to work out better.
The route ends where it began, and a lot of people find they want a night at the end as much as at the start, before a long drive or an early flight. It is worth checking dates for both ends when you book.
If you would rather finish somewhere quieter than the city, Nairn is about fifteen miles east along the Moray Firth coast, and we have two cottages there as well.
You can see the apartment and more about the city on our Inverness page.
