Rocpool Reserve
The Highland capital and the departure town for both day trips to Skye — the base for anyone who wants the island in a day rather than three days on a coach.
Real prices and reviews on Booking.com — booking there costs you nothing extra.
Rocpool Reserve
A boutique hotel in a restored Georgian villa on Culduthel Road, in the centre of Inverness and close to the River Ness. It presents itself, in its own words, as an address for couples rather than for large families, and that is worth taking at face value when you are booking the night before a long day in a minibus. Room counts and restaurant details circulate on third-party sites; the hotel does not publish them itself, so we do not print them either.
Best for: Couples who want one carefully done night in Inverness either side of the Highlands.
Central Inverness, the town both Skye day trips leave from — the departure point is a walk rather than a transfer.
Essential information
Strengths
- Restored Georgian villa in central Inverness
- Close to the River Ness
- Presented as an address for couples
Verify when booking
- Check-in and check-out times
- City tax and payment methods
- Cancellation conditions for your dates
Location
- Inverness, Scottish Highlands
- Central Inverness, the town both Skye day trips leave from — the departure point is a walk rather than a transfer.
- Anyone taking a day trip to Skye, or breaking a Highlands journey.
Good to know
- Both Skye day trips in our selection start in Inverness. Getting here by train takes 3h29 from Edinburgh Waverley on the fastest direct service, with six direct trains a day Monday to Friday, and 3h17 from Glasgow Queen Street (National Rail Timetable, 17 May – 12 December 2026). Transport Scotland still lists 2h45 as a long-term ambition for this line, which tells you what the journey costs in time today.
- Inverness airport handled 796,000 terminal passengers in 2024 — the closest airport to Skye and by far the smallest of the three, with Amsterdam (KLM) the only scheduled link to continental Europe its operator names. Edinburgh, at 15.8 million passengers, is the easy arrival.
- If you plan to carry on to Skye rather than day-trip, watch the last coach: in the summer 2026 timetable, Citylink 917 leaves Inverness bus station for Portree at 06:10, 08:30, 13:15 and 17:45. Nothing has been verified about winter frequencies, so check before you build a plan on them.
Other places to stay
View all hotels
Complete your Skye trip
The tours our readers book with this stay
