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Inverness is the departure point for a range of day tours and cruises . Guide Friday run an open-topped double-decker tour of Inverness itself (May-Sept daily every 45min; 30min; £5.50), which you can hop on and off all day; the bus also goes out to Culloden (1hr 20min; £7.50). You can buy tickets on the buses, which leave from Bridge Street near the tourist office, or at Guide Friday's office in the train station (May-Sept daily 9am-6pm). An entertaining if slightly bizarre Terror Tour takes groups on foot around Inverness town centre (daily 7pm from the tourist office; £5.50), with grisly tales told along the way of ghosts, torture and witches. There are various Loch Ness tours leaving from the tourist office, the most original and personal of which are Tony Harmsworth's Discover Loch Ness (tel 01456/450168 or tel 0800/731 5564, ). Longer boat trips on Loch Ness are run morning and afternoon by Jacobite Cruises (April-Oct; tel 01463/233999).

To explore the northwest, Dearman Coaches have a daily service to Ullapool, Lochinver, Durness, Smoo Cave and back which stops at several hostels en route (June-Sept Mon-Sat; £17.50; or you can buy a £25 rover ticket valid for six days).

Enjoyable trips up to John O'Groats and back in a day, with the chance to see puffins and visit prehistoric sites, are run by Puffin Express (tel 01463/717181, ), who also put together a package which includes an overnight stop on Orkney . You can get to the islands and back with a gruelling full-day whistle-stop tour on the Orkney Bus, which leaves Inverness bus station every day during the summer (£44; advance bookings may be made at the tourist office or on 01955/611353).