Highland Hospitality – the contrasts This past week it hasn’t felt like being in the Highlands at all. The sun has shone and there has been warmth in its rays, out of the breeze. The birds are singing, daffodils are bursting into joyous colour, and there’s a feeling of hope in the air. Spring weather… Read more »
Posts Tagged: Tourism
Through the eyes of others
Holiday friends, with benefits. This week, good friends from Manchester have come to stay. In more normal times this would hardly be news, but it’s the first time since last March that anyone other than our immediate family has spent the night, and it’s the first time we’ve welcomed these friends to the Highlands. In… Read more »
Freedom under a leaky tarpaulin.
Have you tasted it yet, that tiny little fragment of freedom we’ve been given? I can’t quite believe how much I have ‘socialised’ this past fortnight. Three times, at least. And it’s given me a taste for a tiny bit more. Last Friday was a friend’s birthday. At lunchtime I popped round on my bike… Read more »
Celebrating our first Vanniversary.
While the world and their partners were getting loved up and soppy last weekend, Mr Marr and I had celebrations of our own to get busy with. We didn’t ditch St Valentine completely – cards were, after all, exchanged – but far more exciting was that last weekend was our first ‘Vanniversary’ – a whole… Read more »
Yes please to Tourist Tax and for Motorhomes too!
I’m writing this in our motorhome on the shores of a wee Highland loch. Mr Marr and I stayed here last night – blissfully we had the place to ourselves. It was a low-key evening, just as we liked it. Arriving late yesterday afternoon, we lit a fire in a well-used ring of stones by… Read more »
5-star experiences need 5-star staff.
I am just back from a week’s skiing in France. Not to rub it in, but the snow was fantastic, the sun shone, and we had a blast. There’s nothing like a week’s fresh air, exercise, cheese-heavy food and 10pm bed-times to recharge the batteries. One of the undeniable highlights of our holiday was the… Read more »
Motorhome life is magic…
Last autumn Mr Marr and I got an offer we couldn’t refuse; the chance to drive a motorhome around the north of Scotland. Motorhome life was something we thought we might try after we had retired, and this would give us a taster. We blanked a long weekend out of our diaries and got the… Read more »
Over-tourism? Here’s an idea…
We adopted Slow Food, are we ready for Slow Adventure? Set up in 1980s Italy, the Slow Food movement promoted eating more thoughtfully; thinking about where food comes from and preserving regional traditions, flavours and ingredients. It was the antidote to fast food. Had the word ‘mindfulness’ been around in the 80s it might very… Read more »
Tourist Tax? Yes Please for Highland!
With the Highland Council set to debate again the question of a Tourist Tax, many hoteliers and B&B owners are eagerly awaiting the outcome. If the Council go for it, they won’t be the first. Edinburgh City Council have already voted to impose a £1 a night Transient Visitor Levy, a move which they believe… Read more »
Bergen Inspiration. Time to get a little more Scandi?
So where can I get to within an hour and 20 minutes of my house in Inverness? If I walk I can get as far as North Kessock. The views of the Beauly and Moray Firths as I head over the Kessock Bridge are Insta-worthy. When I get there there’s the reward of ice-cream or… Read more »