Scotland route 500 sat nav advice

[derektrotter]

Hi All

This sat we're planning a road trip to the highlands to do the first half of route 500 (Inverness to Bettyhill), I heard this part is the most scenic out of the whole route, hopefully thats correct?

Has anyone done this before who can advise a good way to stay on track on route500 using sat nav, e.g. are there any routes or apps I can download? I did a quick test on Google maps however it seemed like hard work to try and follow the route as it tries to cut thru a quicker route rather then follow route 500..

Advice appreciated

 

[Teego]

Just get a good road map and bin the satnav.

 

[Piff]

How to import a Google maps route to COMAND | Electronics and Audio

From what I read in all sorts of places I should be able to download to my COMAND Online (NTG4.5) a route that I've previously configured via Google Maps using a PC. The manual tells me to send the route to the Mercedes-Benz server and then download to COMAND Online. But I'm suffering brain...

forums.mbclub.co.uk

post 39 onwards. I used it to plan routes for NC500. There were limitations as it asked me to do a u turn at every point I had dragged the google route to suit my requirements. There was also a road across the mountain to Applecross not recognised by COMAND so car thought it was off-road.
Have used a later version of the software since to plan a grand tour of Italy and not found it as good.

 

[Piff]

We did the whole route from Inverness clockwise. Last leg down the east coast less interesting than the rest.

 

[Neiltodd]

Hi All

This sat we're planning a road trip to the highlands to do the first half of route 500 (Inverness to Bettyhill), I heard this part is the most scenic out of the whole route, hopefully thats correct?

Has anyone done this before who can advise a good way to stay on track on route500 using sat nav, e.g. are there any routes or apps I can download? I did a quick test on Google maps however it seemed like hard work to try and follow the route as it tries to cut thru a quicker route rather then follow route 500..

Advice appreciated

Most scenic is the bit from Durness to Ullapool. If you are going Inverness to Bettyhill up the East coast definitely not the best bit, I would recommend up the middle Bonar Bridge to Alt na Hara to Tongue at the top before going west to Durness.

 

[derektrotter]

Thank you all, below is the route we're doing highlighted in blue, clockwise from inverness to bettyhill:

 

[Neiltodd]

Thank you all, below is the route we're doing highlighted in blue, clockwise from inverness to bettyhill:
View attachment 101122

Thats all the best bits, just go South from there back to Inverness missing out Thurso Wick Helmsdale etc as I said above but in reverse ,(I assumed anti clockwise route)

 

[KennyN]

Did it last week , used Google maps on the mobile phone and only suffered minimal signal loss mainly in the North West of the country.

We did it anti clockwise saving the best scenery for the last couple of days.

Inverness - Wick - Tongue - Ullapool - Applecross - Inverness.

The road from Unapool - Clachtoll -Inchnadamph is a bit tricky , more so than the (in)famous road from Applecross over the moor.

If you are only doing half of the route do the West coast as it is far more scenic than the rugged East coast.

Inverness -> Applecross -> Ullapool -> Bettyhill.

How are you planning on sleeping as most of the B+B`s / hotels are full , or they were last week ?

K

 

[Deleted upon users own request member 138506]

Thank you all, below is the route we're doing highlighted in blue, clockwise from inverness to bettyhill:

Here's the NC500 route in GPX format that I've converted for NTG4.5 if it works for you? It starts from Inverness Castle going clockwise so should be good for the part of route you're doing.
Have a good trip.

 

[derektrotter]

Thank you all, we have all hotels booked and also couple of tickets for the Jacobite steam train.

The car we're taking has no built in nav, I'll see if I can find a app which supports gpx import, thanks again for all the input so far

 

[Dryce]

The car we're taking has no built in nav, I'll see if I can find a app which supports gpx import, thanks again for all the input so far

Just get a map.

There are hardly any roads up there. It's not complicated.

 

[Deleted member 150136]

The best part of the NC500 isn't on the NC500, its the part between Ullapool and Lochinver.
If you're vehicle is less than 28ft I think you can do it, its not suitable for large motorhomes etc so its not on the route, if you're in a car or bike then do that bit.

 

[Mr. B]

Scotland - one of the best if not the best scenic places in the UK, love the place.

 

[derektrotter]

The best part of the NC500 isn't on the NC500, its the part between Ullapool and Lochinver.
If you're vehicle is less than 28ft I think you can do it, its not suitable for large motorhomes etc so its not on the route, if you're in a car or bike then do that bit.

Ah, any chance you can put a screenshot of Google maps? We're going in a small car so should be fine to go to the bit your talking about

 

[W1ghty]

Any decent petrol station sells large scale AA maps for a few quid . How anyone can think of driving some of these remote areas without a map is beyond me .

 

[derektrotter]

We've got 2 phones with Google maps downloaded offline so not reliant on data and a backup map, we've just always use nav (maybe a age thing!) So wanted to stick with what we're comfortable with, worst case we have a map which we will use.

 

[Deleted member 150136]

 

[Deleted member 150136]

The grey bit is the NC500, the blue bit isn't.
Its worth the detour.
The way you're going the first road is a bit boring, but once you turn right its spectacular.

 

[Deleted member 150136]

You don't need maps, you can gwt NC500 maps from most little shops.
If you get lost up there with a basic map a big map won't help

 

[derektrotter]

Thanks Cabriomat, to clarify are you saying skip the grey bit and detour via your blue bit or do both?

After zooming in your right theres hardly any roads so even following a map looks pretty straightforward