For our itinerary, we decided to take the Caledonian Sleeper train overnight from London to Fort William. This is a 14-hr journey, departing at 20.00 from London Euston and arriving in Fort William at 10.00 the following day. The train is an experience in itself! There are a variety of booking options, and some of the nicer cabins have restaurant carts where you can enjoy socialising in the evening, and after a reasonably restful sleep, breakfast is enjoyed chugging through the highlands with views of epic mountains, lochs and wildlife. If you can afford this option, it looked a wonderful experience – the food and drinks were good quality and reasonably priced. We were however in the ‘reclining’ seats (cheapest option), which are a little larger than a standard train seat, with arm rests and the ability to tilt a little (although not exactly reclining)! For operational reasons, the reclining carriages are woken up at 3.30am and told to wait on the platform in Edinburgh for an hour whilst the train is separated for different destinations within Scotland. This felt a little brutal in the chilly Scottish air, even in May! Let’s be honest… if you get more than 7 hours sleep in this carriage you have done well…
After the journey, we felt we wouldn’t recommend this option to a friend, so decided to re-visit some of the potential travel options. These have been listed in the table below. However, with the experience of the journey, and the factors shown in the table below, our preferred route for this adventure would be either:
+ Caledonian Sleeper (affordable, easy, low carbon, albeit a bit tedious and tiring)
+ or the ‘combined’ journey broken with a night in Edinburgh (again, affordable, easy and low carbon – there is clearly additional expenses but this is the least tedious and fun to enjoy Edinburgh en route) Table:
| Transport Option | Approx. Time (1 Way) | Approx. Cost (return adult fare) | Carbon |
| Caledonian Sleeper | 14 hours | 110 | |
| Train: London > Glasgow (stay over night) > Fort William | 5.5 hours + 4.5 hours = 10 hours total (plus overnight in Glasgow) | 160 | |
| Coach: London > Edinbugh > Fort William | 10 hours + 4.5 hours = 14.5hrs total | 100 | |
| Combined (Train + Coach): London > Edinburgh > Fort William (coach) | 4.5 hours + 4.5 hours + 1 hour contingency changing stations = 10 hours total | 160 | |
| Driving | 9 hours (520 miles) | 140 (/ by number of people in car) | |
| Flying: London > Inverness > Fort William (coach) | 1.5 hours flight + 2 hours coach + 2 hours contingency = 5.5 hours | 100 |