One of the greatest things about a visit to the Isle of Skye is its ferry ride. If you enjoy sailing slowly on ferries, island-hopping through the entire Hebrides chain can be a real blast, and a great way to spend a day exploring.

A network of small boats link the Isle of Skye to the mainland. The primary ferry services provider is CalMac or Caledonian MacBrayne. You can get the ferry services in Mallaig to reach Armadale, Skye, which takes only about half an hour. The Skye Ferry uses a tiny vessel for short crossings between Glenelg and Kylerhea. The vessel sails every 20 minutes, the crossing time is five minutes, and operates from 9 AM to 7 PM daily. In 2008, the ferry services prices from the mainland were significantly reduced thanks to an experimental scheme known as the Road Equivalent Tariff and also a policy by the Scottish Government.

Scottish Citylink runs a bus service to reach Portree from Inverness (twice daily, 3.5 hours) or Glasgow (three daily, 6.5 hours). The Isle of Skye was tethered permanently with the mainland when the Skye Bridge was opened in 1995. Luckily, in 2004 the controversial bridge tolls were abolished and the crossing is entirely free. You can drive directly onto Skye over the bridge on the A87, located at the Kyle of Lochalsh. The bridge is connected to a primary road used to reach the Isle of Skye. Gas stations can be found in Portree, Armadale, Dunvegan, Uig and Broadford. While, the First ScotRail runs a train service to the Kyle of Lochalsh and terminating at the Skye Bridge.

Getting around the Isle of Skye can be a little difficult if you want to use public transportation. To explore the Uig-Portree-Kyleakin main road, you can use a bus, but these services are mostly unavailable during weekend and public holidays. Contact Highland Country to know all available bus routes and its service time. You can buy its Skye Roverbus pass for £6 to get a 24-hour unlimited bus service. To rent a car or order a taxi, call Kyle Taxi Company. The car rental cost is about £35 a day and you can arrange to have it waiting at the train station in Kyle of Lochalsh.

Located in the scenic coast of Lochalsh, the Skye is one of the best places to begin your tour of island hopping over the Hebridean archipelago. It is located at the very heart of the archipelago, and has four road based entry and exit points, at Kyle of Lochalsh, Armadale, Glenelg, and Uig, which makes it the perfect central base and start-out point for exploring the unparalleled beauty of these chain of islands.

One of the best public transport systems available to you is the ferry, which just happens to have on offer a comprehensive selection of tickets for island hopping any which way you want to go about it- whether it is with your family car, motor home, backpack or cycle. Look no further for the perfect way of exploring the Hebrides in the widest, most adventurous possible way.

The Island of Skye offers the perfect kind of ambience for both adventure and romance. There are many outdoor activities lined up- since Skye is bang in the middle of the archipelago, it is the destination of choice for kayakers and yachtsmen to explore the islands and coasts. There are also several classic tours, expeditions and events for the same to be enjoyed along the way. There are festivals held every evening for those who just wish to relax and spend some quality time with their special someone… The Island of Sky has something for everybody.

So come to Skye… and escape from the world for as long as you want.

In the past visitors looking for Isle of Skye travel options were fairly dependent on the regular ferry services which traveled to and from the island from various mainland locations (including Mallaig and Glenelg). The ferry services still run today but, in 1995, however, the Skye Bridge was opened which made things easier for visitors to the island.

The bridge links Skye directly with mainland Scotland. It initially opened with a toll payment system in place. Locals and visitors, however, were not happy with the charges made here and the Scottish Executive bought the bridge out of private ownership in 2004 and removed the toll payment system so crossing it is now free of charge. This bridge really has opened up Isle of Skye travel and access routes for both locals and visitors.

Visitors can also access the island via airplane as there is an airstrip near Broadford. This does tend to be used for private planes, however, and most will come to the island either via ferry or by vehicle over the bridge. There are also a variety of bus services into the island from many major mainland towns and cities. These use the bridge which, again, has broadened the options when it comes to deciding which Isle of Skye travel routes to use.

Most of these services will run into Portree. If you are using the train as part of your Isle of Skye travel itinerary then most people will head for the Kyle of Lochalsh to access the Skye Bridge. Some will then pick up a bus on to the island itself or, indeed, simply walk across it.

The main road on the island itself is the A87 trunk road. Visitors looking for Isle of Skye travel options when they arrive on the island without a car have a variety of options. Most will opt to use one of the local bus services that run on the island. Some only concentrate on major routes and towns whilst others run local services across the island itself.

If you want to use a car when visiting the island but don’t want to drive into the area then you can hire cars from a variety of locations. One particularly popular way of really experiencing the best of Isle of Skye travel opportunities is to hire a bike. You can do this in Portree and Broadford, for example. There are also plenty of taxi firms on the island and some coach operators do guided tours of Skye if that would be of interest to you.