Inverness
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-> InvernessTours and cruises
Inverness is the departure point for a range of day tours and cruises. Guide Friday run an open-topped double-decker tour of Inverness itself (May-Sept daily every 45min; 30min; £5.50), which you can hop on and off all day; the bus also goes out to Culloden (1hr 20min; £7.50). You can buy tickets on the buses, which leave from Bridge Street near the tourist office, or at Guide Friday's office in the train station (May-Sept daily 9am-6pm). An entertaining if slightly bizarre Terror Tour takes groups on foot around Inverness town centre (daily 7pm from the tourist office; £5.50), with grisly tales told along the way of ghosts, torture and witches. There are various Loch Ness tours leaving from the tourist office, the most original and personal of which are Tony Harmsworth's Discover Loch Ness (tel 01456/450168 or tel 0800/731 5564, www.discoverlochness.com). Longer boat trips on Loch Ness are run morning and afternoon by Jacobite Cruises (April-Oct; tel 01463/233999).
To explore the northwest, Dearman Coaches have a daily service to Ullapool, Lochinver, Durness, Smoo Cave and back which stops at several hostels en route (June-Sept Mon-Sat; £17.50; or you can buy a £25 rover ticket valid for six days).
Enjoyable trips up to John O'Groats and back in a day, with the chance to see puffins and visit prehistoric sites, are run by Puffin Express (tel 01463/717181, www.puffinexpress.co.uk), who also put together a package which includes an overnight stop on Orkney. You can get to the islands and back with a gruelling full-day whistle-stop tour on the Orkney Bus, which leaves Inverness bus station every day during the summer (£44; advance bookings may be made at the tourist office or on 01955/611353).
Listings
Bike rental Barney's, 35 Castle St tel 01463/232249.
Bookshops Leakey's, Greyfriars' Hall on Church Street, is a great spot to browse for second-hand books, with a café inside and a warming wood stove in winter; James Thin, 29 Union St, has an excellent range of Scottish books and maps; and Waterstone's is at 50-52 High St.
Car rental Budget is on Railway Terrace, behind the train station (tel 01463/713333); Europcar has an office on Telfer St (tel 01463/235337); Arnold Clark is at 47-49 Harbour Rd (tel 01463/236200); Thrifty is at 33 Harbour Rd (tel 01463/224466); and Sharps Reliable Wrecks is based at Station Square (tel 01463/236684) as well as the airport.
Cinemas The Eden Court Theatre and the attached Riverside Screen, on the banks of the Ness, host touring theatre productions, concerts and films; La Scala (tel 01463/233302) on Strother's Lane, just off Academy Street, has two screens; Warner Village (tel 01463/711175), on the A96 Nairn road about two miles from the town centre, boasts seven screens.
Hospital Raigmore Hospital (tel 01463/704000) on the southeastern outskirts of town close to the A9.
Internet MTC, 2 Grant St (Mon-Thurs 9am-5pm, Fri 9am-4.30pm). There are also two terminals in the tourist office.
Post office 14-16 Queensgate (Mon-Thurs 9am-5.30pm, Fri 9.30am-5.30pm, Sat 9am-6pm; tel 0845/722 3344).
Taxis Culloden Taxis (tel 01463/790000); Rank Radio Taxis (tel 01463/221111).
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