Is there anything more relaxing than spending the Spring weekend on a Scottish Island? After spending the Easter weekend on the Isle of Arran with my parents and Iain, I can safely say: This is the ultimate way to calm down when life gets stressful. Although I travel on a budget, this trip could have been made cheaper. This is because the trip was a Christmas present for my parents and we did not want skip activities to save money.
This is a breakdown of all costs:
Train & Ferry:
Iain and I took the train from Kilwinning to Ardrossan Harbour to meet my parents at the ferry terminal. A single ticket was £2.35 per person which includes the Scotrail Card Discount.
A return ticket for the ferry is £8.40 per person and we paid £34.20 return for my parents car. If you need a ticket for a campervan or caravan, then the car ticket will cost more.
Tip: As with any ferry trips, there can be some disruption when the sea is rough and ferries do get cancelled. From past experience, I prefer taking morning ferries as the sea tends to be calmer and it’s less likely that the ferry gets cancelled.
Experiences:
When arriving on Arran, we drove to Lochranza to play Pitch & Putt. We paid £8 per person and you get the golf clubs and 2 golf balls – so you don’t need to bring anything. This is a fantastic activity for the whole family and as it was a 10-hole course, we finished after about 1 1/2 hours.
In the afternoon, we headed to Arran Botanical Drinks. You can simply walk from Brodick along the coastal way which takes about 35min. The views from the beach were stunning and the cocktails were very tasty. We had 2 cocktails each which came to £18 per person. As a budget traveller, this is a lot of money to pay for drinks. However, the weekend trip was a Christmas present for my parents and we saw it as a wee treat. 😊
Hotel:
We stayed for 2 nights at the Douglas Hotel in Brodick and it is one of the best hotels I have stayed at to date (this is NOT an ad). 😊
I got a special deal which included breakfast in the morning. As this was included in my parent’s present and I know they will be reading the article. I won’t mention the price. But if you look at the hotel website, you can see how much rooms cost: https://www.thedouglashotel.co.uk
This was our beautiful room (please don’t mind the mess)! 😃
Tip: Make sure to book well in advance as the hotel is popular. I booked in December for the Easter weekend in April.
Food:
This is the most important category when travelling, isn’t it? We did bring snacks as we had the car and space wasn’t a big issue. However, we did buy more snacks at Co-op which was £6 per person. We also got pizza from the Parlour in Brodick which we was £10 per person. The pizza was extremely tasty and again, one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had!
Cost Overview (per person) – Day 1
Transport: £19.30
Experiences: £26
Food: £16
Total: £61.30
If you’d like to see how beautiful Arran is, you can watch my video 🙂