United Kingdom by campervan: best regions and routes

Areas of the United Kingdom

The regions of the United Kingdom: Highlands, islands, lakes and coast

The United Kingdom is small on a map and slow on the ground. A single track road in Wester Ross and a dual carriageway in Kent are both roads, and one of them takes five times as long per mile. The good driving, the empty ground and the sharpest local rules are all in the same places: the north and the west. Pick the region by how much reversing you are willing to do, and by whether you can stomach a July with midges in it.

Scottish Highlands and the NC500

The Scottish Highlands and the NC500: the best driving in Britain, and the strictest rules about it

Empty, enormous and slow. Wester Ross, Sutherland, Assynt and the road round the top of the mainland that tourism branding turned into the North Coast 500. Inverness is the last big shop for a long way, the roads narrow to single track with passing places within an hour of it, and the light in June lasts past 22:00. It is also where Scotland's access law is most misunderstood, and where the pressure from vans is highest.

Best May, June and September

What it is like

• Inverness averages a July mean daily maximum of 19 °C and 62 mm of rain, so pack for cool and wet even at the peak.
• Distances lie. A hundred miles of single track is most of a day, not two hours.

Where to go

• Applecross and the Bealach na Bà pass
• Assynt, Suilven and the Coigach peninsula

For the vehicle

• The access right does not cover the van. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act excludes motorised vehicles, so a night here rests on parking law, the sign and the landowner.
• Passing places are not parking. Blocking one on a single track road is the fastest way to a angry local, and the Park Authority further south says it in terms.

Scotland's islands

Scotland's islands: Skye, the Hebrides, Orkney and the ferry timetable that runs your trip

Skye by bridge, everything else by ferry. The Outer Hebrides run as a chain of causeways and short crossings from Barra to the Butt of Lewis, Mull and Islay are a morning from Oban, and Orkney is different again, with Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar. Bookings for a vehicle sell out months ahead in summer, and the ferry timetable, not the map, decides your itinerary.

Best May to September

What it is like

• Stornoway is wet and windy rather than cold: 145 mm of rain in January against 69 mm in May, and a July mean daily maximum of 16 °C.
• Fewer midges than the mainland glens, because there is almost always wind.

Where to go

• Harris, for the west coast beaches
• Skye's Trotternish ridge and the Quiraing

For the vehicle

• Book the ferry before anything else. Vehicle deck space is the limiting factor all summer, and length and height set the price.
• Island roads are single track with passing places almost everywhere. A long motorhome is hard work on Harris and on Jura.

The Lake District

The Lake District: England's mountains, England's rain, and England's busiest national park

A ring of lakes, the highest ground in England and a national park that is almost entirely privately owned and farmed. Keswick, Ambleside and Windermere are the bases, the passes between the valleys are the drives, and the whole thing fits inside an hour's radius. It is also the wettest place in this guide: Keswick averages 1,575 mm of rain a year, more than Stornoway in the Hebrides.

Best May, June and September

What it is like

• Keswick's July mean daily maximum of 19.8 °C is the warmest figure in this guide, and July still brings 95 mm of rain.
• December is the wettest month at 195 mm, and the fells are in cloud for most of the winter.

Where to go

• Borrowdale and the Honister Pass
• Wasdale Head, under Scafell Pike

For the vehicle

• No right to camp. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act excludes camping and vehicles from the right of access. Campsites and permission are the answer here.
• Hardknott and Wrynose are signed at 1 in 3, with hairpins and no run-off. They are unsuitable for a motorhome.