Aviemore

People enjoy visiting colourful Aviemore for a variety of reasons. You’ll never go short of a tasty hot meal, a decent cappuccino and free wi-fi hotspots should you so desire. The biggest town in the Cairngorms National Park, Aviemore was the first town in Scotland to set up its own ski resort.

Aviemore offers everything you need to ensure your trip to the Cairngorms is as perfect as can be. In fact, you could come to the Cairngorms empty handed and kit yourself out in one last minute fell swoop from the town that caters for your every need.  Everything is on offer here, from binoculars to bobble hats. In Aviemore, you can enjoy a delicious hot dinner, get a hair cut, some bedtime reading and a tank of petrol without breaking into a sweat. You can get it all here, in this one-stop shopping dream come true. For those who like nothing better than setting off on a last minute trip to the Highlands, stopping over at Aviemore means you don’t even need to concern yourself with packing a bag!

People come to Aviemore and the Cairngorms for a variety of reasons. The more adventurous among us who prefer the skiing and snowboarding type of challenges in life gravitate here despite variable weather conditions. Others who prefer a much slower pace to life have a vast expanse of wild unkempt scenery to explore. Bird and wildlife lovers head over here to glimpse the ospreys and the crested tits in their natural habitats as well as pine martins, red squirrels and red deer roaming about the countryside. Photographers and artists love the Cairngorms for the dramatic landscape, the unkempt solitude of the land and the freedom to enjoy it at close quarters. It is one of the most exhilarating environments you can ever imagine and one, that once tasted, proves difficult to resist!

Aviemore is perfectly situated for touring the region and ideal for visiting several local sights and attractions including Lake Insh, Boat of Garten, Rothiemurchus Estate and the Cairngorm Mountains. The busy city of Inverness, north of Aviemore, can be found at the end of a twenty mile drive. Why not travel up to Inverness by train?  Aviemore Railway Station can be found lurking behind WH Smith. Look out for the Strathspey Steam locomotive tooting its horn and coughing out its smoke and grab a ten mile scenic train ride across to Broomhill!

Fancy something to eat? Aviemore bursts at its seams with variety. Choose from healthy food at the Organic Cafe where you can enjoy vegan, gluten free foods, revitalising smoothies and too hard to resist home baked produce; a variety of cafes including Cafe Mambo and the Mountain Cafe as well as Harkai’s Fish Restaurant, the Spice of India Indian Restaurant and Snow Mountain Chinese takeaway. Eat, drink and be merry while meeting like-minded skiers at Roo’s Leap for veggie and Australian cuisine as well as at Ski-Ing Doo the snowboarders chilli and steak cafe.

You’d have trouble eating them, but other equally useful places in Aviemore include a WH Smith, a Waterstones book store, a small computer workshop, a chemist, a craft shop, a petrol station, a Tesco, clothes boutiques and outdoor and ski wear shops. Look out for the Olympic monument in the gardens which were opened in 2007 by Sebastian Coe. It celebrates with pride the achievements of local Olympic athletes.