Skye first came onto my radar after I ordered a kebab.

I wouldn’t say I was an unhealthy eater but on Wednesdays – the day I used to work from home – I liked ordered a kebab and chips online.

My treat to myself. MY FILTHY KEBAB SECRET.

There was a place nearby that delivered and each time a really friendly guy who would come and drop it off.

He liked to stay and chat at the doorway and one time, after explaining that he also sold chicken, burgers and pizza, we got round to talking about travel.

He asked if I had any plans that year and after waffling for some time I asked him the same question.

He told me he was heading up to the Isle of Skye with a group of friends in a couple of weeks and that he did the same thing every year.

“Really!? What is it that keeps drawing you back?”

“We just really like it up there. Beautiful landscapes, very different to home.”

It was a surreal scenario. The kebab guy painting a wondrous picture of a windswept corner of the Highlands.

It stuck in my mind and was enough to pique my interest.

I did a few Google image searches after he left. Even though I knew the name ‘Skye’ (and thought it would be a lovely name for a child) I’d never really seen the landscape.

And it looked stunning.

I had to stop myself looking in case the reality didn’t match the overly saturated images online.

I chatted about it to Kat – leaving out the part about my kebab fetish – and she was up for an adventure so that was it!

We made a plan to go to the Isle of Skye later in the year in September.

September is a great time to go to Skye. No school holidays. Slightly cheaper accommodation and – if your lucky – some calm weather lingering from the summer.

It didn’t disappoint.

Skye is now one of our favourite places in the world.

Top tips for Skye

Bring lots of layers and – it really pains me to say this – feel free to go crazy on the outdoor ‘technical’ clothing.

You know, the trekking clothing that you find in outdoorsy shops which makes you look 20 years older than you actually are.

This is proper Scotland and you will experience mountain weather and mountain temperatures.

One minute it could be hurling it down with rain the next it will be hot enough to wear a t-shirt.

So the key here is to bring layers of clothing that you can take on and off and shove into a day pack if you need to.

Thin layers of merino are great.

My go to (for pretty much any trip) is to have a merino t-shirt and a merino long sleeve I can put over that.

Then if it gets cold you can add a microfleece and of course an outer shell (a windproof, waterproof, breathable jacket) to go on top is essential.

By outer shell I mean something like Gore-Tex or an equivalent. You want it to be a breathable material, especially if you are planning on long walks. It means you won’t sweat yourself into oblivion.

(Honestly, if you’re clambering around expending a lot of energy you’ll want to make sure your body temperature is regulated, so this is important).

So basically warm gear that’s light and flexible and that you can take off easily.

For footwear you’ll want either a pair of boots, or if you are tight on space, a pair of decent hiking trainers or trail running shoes, but boots are better.

Something that’s going to be waterproof and prevent you stubbing your toe on rocks ideally.

I know often joke about people (myself included) wearing what I call ‘technical clothing’ and turning up to places looking like crispy highlighter pens.

But Skye is actually one of those places where you’re going to want to be outdoors all at the time getting muddy and immersed in the landscape.

And because the weather is so unpredictable and you’ll be using your knees a lot stuff jeans and sweaty acrylic jumper probably won’t cut it.

Slightly stretchy but protective hiking trousers are ideal in this environment.

You won’t look silly. When you go to pubs people expect you to be wearing clothes that will protect you from the elements. You’re not going to stand out or look stupid.

It’s also packs well. This type of gear is also lighter and folds up more easily. That means that if you’re coming from the UK or Europe, for example, it’ll be easier to get through the stingy hand baggage allowance on the low cost carriers.

Pro tip: wear everything on the plane like Michelin man

Put on your hiking boots, all of your layers and jacket for the flight out.

Shove as much as you can in your pockets too.

That way you should be able to get everything you need for your trip onto hand baggage and not get stung with extra charges.

Yes, you will look like Michelin Man but you can take her surprisingly large amount of stuff using this technique.

I took a flight from Namibia to Germany once where the guy next to me was wearing a massive pair of ski boots.

He looked and walked like the Terminator but it seemed to work out just fine.

As soon as you get through that last checkpoint, and you are walking up to the plane, you can start disrobing. Just shove whatever you feel like in the overhead compartments because no one’s going to check at this stage.

Be mentally prepared for any weather

I’m repeating myself a little here but I think it’s really important.

Expect a mix of weathers and embrace it.

And I mean mentally prepare yourself, not just physically. This is not Ibiza in June.

I read so many blog posts and TripAdvisor reviews about Skye where people moan about the weather.

“I went to Skye and it rained the whole time…”

“Scotland is this that and the other…

“The weather is miserable…”

I really really don’t get it.

This is one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.

It is pristine and untrammelled by human muckery for the most part.

But it is also exposed to elements, high up in places and you are always close to the sea.

Part of being immersed in this wild landscape is being at the mercy of the skies.

That’s one of the things I love most about this place.

If it was perpetually sunny the whole time, some of the drama would be lost.

You can go to the same spot a thousand times in Skye and have a completely different experience

Maybe I’m partly talking through a photographer’s lens here. The sky and the light can change in an instance and it’s awe inspiring.

But I think the key here is that it isn’t a perfectly manicured environment.

You won’t be molly coddled with safety railings or greeted with tea shops at the tops of peaks.

When you go out walking in Skye, you earn your views.

And I think this is something we have lost as humans.

We have been told that we need to feel comfortable and temperate and satiated at all times.

We’ve become these pampered creatures that cannot tolerate even the slightest discomfort.

Highly processed food, polluted air and lack of exercise is  causing all sorts of chronic illness and immune conditions and it’s having a huge impact on us mentally.

Think of your mental state when you have worked hard for something you are passionate about and completed it. Now compare that to when something just falls into your lap with zero effort.

It’s why shopping often feels like such crushing disappointment.

You wander around shiny shops looking at shiny things and maybe you buy an expensive piece of clothing, something that you didn’t know you wanted and you don’t need. BUT YOU WANT IT AND NEED IT NOW.

You can’t afford it and don’t have the money but its ok because you can just put it on credit card.

There’s a hint of a buzz. That anticipatory exhilaration of looking at nice things and imagining what it would be like to have that nice thing.

It lasts for as long you’re looking at it and trying it on… and even while you take it up to the counter.

But the moment you hand over your card and it goes in the bag you feel kind of empty and a bit sick.

Guilt sets in. Maybe you berate yourself. Why am I buying something I cannot afford? Now I’m going to have to pay interest on it!

That’s how I feel when I am travelling somewhere.

If there’s no effort involved in travel and you’re just ‘presented’ it, it loses it’s sparkle

I remember getting on a cable car in Lake Tahoe in the United States.

The landscapes here are surreal and beautiful. I was sat in this cable car with some of my favourite people in the world being winched over mountain tops.

But even though the views were impressive the experience left me feeling quite numb.

We didn’t have to do anything.

We were just kind of sat there in a cage passing it by.

My body felt sluggish. I wasn’t tasting the alpine air. The views were the same 10,000 others would see that year grinding up this regimented route.

If we had gone to Lake Tahoe to hike and spent a few days there it would have been a different story.

If we’d trekked through strange weather conditions… if we’d seen the landscape slowly change and blossom… if we’d exhausted ourselves hiking… if we’d cooked a meal and camped under the stars… then it probably would have been a memorable life experience.

But it just felt like a postcard.

Too often in life we’re told to take shortcuts. To go from A to B in a millisecond. To look at paradise through a TV screen or cable car or visitor cafe.

That’s one of the things we’ve been robbed of as modern humans.

Technology and advertisers keep telling us to ‘hack’ the human experience. It’s making our lives more meaningless, more painful even.

Skye doesn’t let you do that.

It’s wild and beautiful. To enjoy it you have to get out there. You have to use your feet and embrace whatever it throws at you.

Apologies if that all went a bit dark for a moment. What I’m trying to say – IN AN ABSURDLY NIHILISTIC WAY – is to enjoy Skye for all it’s natural, bracing experience and other worldly glory.

(With that said… I hope you get lucky when you’re there and it doesn’t rain the whole time).

We’ve always enjoyed a sample of every weather imaginable on our visits. Wind, rain, hail, light showers, heavy showers. Bright sunshine, big clear skies and everything in between and it has been fantastic.

And remember the reward: world beating views.

That sense of smug satisfaction.

When you spend several hours trudging through rain and mud nothing beats a tired body, a cold pint / G&T / wine / dram of whisky and a warm, crackling fire.

So how do you go about getting to and travelling about Skye?

Inverness is the nearest airport (and also has the largest supermarket)

If you are flying into Skye, then Inverness is your best bet.

From the UK some of the low cost airlines fly here direct from London relatively cheaply.

It is a STUNNING drive from Inverness airport to Skye.

In parts perhaps one of the most stunning road journeys on the planet.

There are some decent sized Co-Ops in Skye itself (Broadford and Portree) where you can buy fresh food and supplies but if you want to save money head to the Tescos in Inverness on your way.

We usually drive through Loch Ness and stop at one of the picnic areas for a snack on the way.

As you head further up the terrain gets wilder and wilder and some of the views are truly breathtaking.

You are looking at a travel time of anywhere between 1.5 hours and 3 hours+ depending on where you are staying on Skye.

If you are heading to Kyle of Lochalsh or the Southern regions it’s going to be faster. Portree is about 2.5 hours and the further north you go the longer it will take.

Rent a decent sized car (rather than a city runaround)

You don’t need a big expensive car to travel around Skye, but you also don’t want something that’s only built to handle wide lanes and tarmac roads.

The roads are pretty good in Skye but…

And this is a big but.

There are also a lot of single track roads.

That means every now and then you are going to have to back up onto some grass or gravel to let someone pass.

When that happens you’ll be glad to have something a little higher off the ground.

You don’t necessarily need a four-wheel drive (although if you have one great) but certainly something a little more hefty than a Fiat Cinquecento.

Locals are friendly and used to these roads (so don’t panic too much)

The biggest hurdle most people face out on Skye, which I’ve just touched upon, is those single track roads.

By single track I mean two-way roads that don’t have the space to accommodate two cars passing each other at the same time.

The solution is something called passing places.

You’ll find these every few hundred yards or so on single track roads. They look like little indentations on the road where one car can park to let the other pass by.

It’s a clever little workaround, but it can be quite scary if you’re not used to them.

(And it can be especially stressful in a place like Skye which tracks bus loads of tourists at peak times).

But I don’t want to scare you unduly.

Local residents seem to have a special radar that detects tourist drivers.

It’s hard to describe but their aura seems gives off a polite sigh as if to say “don’t worry young padawan, I will take care of this” if there’s a particularly tricky spot.

I’ve seen people reverse with 100 yards with Formula 1 precision to solve a deadlock.

We really appreciated this. It didn’t happen often as we’re cautious drivers and always try to go into the passing places ahead of time where possible.

It was just on a couple of occasions where we weren’t quite sure what to do where we were thankful of the local folk’s innate ability to navigate these tiny roads.

The other thing to bear in mind is that people do tend to drive quite fast here.

They know these roads like the back of their hands and here to appreciate the views. Expect some of the more hasty drivers to whistle past you.

It can be a little unnerving but after a couple of days you’ll get used to it.

Accommodation is super expensive so book well in advance

Skye is now Scotland’s Worst kept secret.

It’s popular with Americans (all of whom claim ancestry). and it’s popular with people in Europe and the UK. EVERYONE wants to go here.

There’s not a great deal of accommodation on the island so that means there’s usually a bottleneck and prices reflect this.

I don’t even want to put an estimate of what you’ll pay out here because it’s so eye watering and seems to go up exponentially every time I look.

You can expect to pay roughly what you’d pay for nice accommodation in central London. It really is bonkers money.

But here a couple of tips so that you don’t pay too much over the odds.

Come to Skye out of season

If you come out of season (not summer, no school holidays) you will make some savings and may find it easier to make a booking.

And if you don’t mind a bit of drive you pick somewhere less popular, further from the towns, and enjoy the solitude.

We met a lot of people who stayed in fancy hotels or lodges or in the main city, Portree.

I definitely get the attraction of this, but you will pay a lot of money to do this and you might miss out on one of the great pleasures of staying in this part of the world if, like us, you appreciate getting away form the hustle and bustle.

We really enjoyed staying in the traditional bungalow long house style accommodation.

Views out into the landscape, a wood fire and your own kitchens to prepare meals.

You do pay quite a lot of money for this, but the experience is perfection in our book.

Visit tourist hotspots at weird times so that you can park

If you don’t have to navigate school holidays then come to Skye out of season.

It will be a more pleasant experience and as I just said previously I’ll be easier to book accommodation.

But the biggest benefit is that there will be less tourists.

Skye’s infrastructure really isn’t built for mass tourism.

It doesn’t take much for the roads to get clogged and for traffic jams to appear and this can be stressful and frustrating.

It can also be really difficult to find parking at many of the attractions.

There are some world beating sites in Skye that only have space for about 4 or 5 cars to park at any one time.

So you could spend an hour and a half driving somewhere only to find you can’t actually stop the car anywhere.

If you do have to go during peak times consider getting up very early in the morning to visit attractions and avoid the rush.

The other trick, if you are a good walker, is find a spot where you can take in a few different attractions at once.

Park your car in one place and plan a circular route which incorporates two or three sites. The area around Talisker is a good place to do this.

Obviously if you are getting absolutely battered by the weather this technique doesn’t always pan out, but we found a number of routes which allowed us to do that.

The Point of Sleat was another.

There’s is sort of a cab service on Skye (but not really) so plan ahead

Most people come to Skye with their own car or a rented car.

But sometimes you might want to go out for a meal and that means that one person can’t drink.

There really is zero tolerance on drink driving in Scotland so it’s not even a case of just having the one.

There is no such thing as Uber out here just some independent taxi guys offering a service.

Maybe things have changed but we found we had to book WAY in advance.

We also had to pay through the nose.

This wasn’t because we were being ripped off in the slightest, it was because our driver had to go 45 minutes to pick us up before even starting the fare.

So all the costs mount up. You’ll also need to tell well in advance when you want to be picked up and taken home.

This part isn’t great because you might find, like we did, that you’re having a lovely and then suddenly your cab is here.

Tip: in some of the restaurants they may be able to organise a staff member to drive you home if you don’t live too far away but make sure you check in advance.

There are two main hubs in Skye: Broadford and Portree

Both of these towns have their charms but to be honest they are not really why you come to somewhere like Skye.

However, they do have all the mod-cons and you will need them at some point if you want to top up your car with petrol or get supplies.

They’re also well furnished with restaurants, pubs and cafes.

Broadford has a big Co-op which has a fantastic range of fresh food and is well stocked on drinks.

Portree is the main town and, as you would expect, is even better provisioned.

It’s also the place to go if you don’t want to cook during your stay or eat out each night without having to drive anywhere.

I’d advise booking any restaurants in advance because things can get full very quickly.

These are some of our favourite places on Skye

Bla Bheinn (pronounced Blevin)

This is one of the highest peaks on Skye and it’s a real beauty.

On the last 15 or 20 minutes driving here you’ll be rubbing necking because the landscape becomes impossibly beautiful.

Rugged hills and lakes as far as the eye can see. Shadows creating magic on the horizon.

I didn’t know such a thing as a double rainbow existed until I came here.

Bla Bheinn is a long hike and will take you about 5 or 6 hours but it’s worth it.

I wouldn’t say it’s particularly easy, but the main thing we found challenging the staying on or finding the path.

They haven’t gone all out on signposting out here. This is part of the charm because you retain those beautiful untrammeled views at all times.

(But sometimes you might find yourself scratching your head as to where to go).

We found the Walk Highlands website really helpful here.

Kinloch forest

Kinloch is a really beautiful, easygoing walk close to Kinloch Lodge.

It has its own car park so you don’t need to head all the way down to the hotel.

What can you expect?

You’ll walk through lots of forest, eventually clambering up above the skyline to get really spectaculars view over the surrounding area.

Lochs and lighthouses and the tops of trees.

It’s a different landscape here. So much of Skye has that beautiful baron aspect. Here the trees run things and it’s a magical place to be.

For any historians you’ll also find the ruins of an ancient settlement.

Because this is quite an easygoing walk and because you can do this even if the weather’s not great we find ourselves taking this walk most times we visit Skye.

Fairy Glen

Not to be confused with Fairy Pools.

Fairy Glen is a beautiful other worldly little place, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

It’s not well served with car parking spaces so you will need an element of luck if you head out here.

It’s also a small place and there is arguably not that much to see.

BUT…

It’s the stuff of fairy tales.

It lives up to the name.

Think Tellytubby Land and Mordor and Hobbiton all rolled into one. It’s hard to describe but it really a stunning little oasis.

We really enjoyed clambering up the mogul like mounds and whiled away a good hour at least.

I will add more to this list in time but hopefully that’s enough to get you started.

Have you been to Skye? What did you make of it and are there any tips you would pass on to other? Or maybe you haven’t been yet. What do you make of beautiful place sometimes referred to as ‘Scotland in Miniature’?