How Much Does The West Highland Way Cost?

As much as you want it to, pretty much.

You could do it on £5 a day or you could do it on £205 a day — it all depends on what type of experience you want to have.

Now, you’ll obviously need to have all of the necessary kit ahead of time, so this doesn’t account for the cost of any equipment you might need to buy, because that will vary for everyone. For a quick rundown of what you might need, check out my guide here.

Dollars just look cooler than pounds, don’t they? But they won’t be any use in the Highlands

It will also depend on whether you’re going to be:

• Camping or staying in hotels
• Eating out or cooking for yourself
• Carrying your own luggage, or having it carried for you
• Hiking for 5 days, 7 days or 10 days

So I’m going to try and come up with a sort of choose your own adventure thing which should give you the formula to calculate it for your own holiday.

Our wild campsite at Kingshouse — absolutely FREE

Accomodation

Along the West Highland Way you can stay in all sorts of different forms of accomodation. There will be variation in each category, but the number I give will be about the average-ish.

• Wild camping — FREE (this one is actually completely accurate, to as many decimal places as you like. Unless… you’re in one of the Camping Management Zones, along the banks of Loch Lomond. In which case it will be £4)
• Camping at a campsite — £10-£20pp. For this you’ll get a nice field, a toilet and possibly even a shower.
• Bunk in a hostel — £30-£40pp. No need to worry about the rain
• AirBnb — £80-£100/night. This will probably vary more than the others, and you could really push the boat out on an expensive place if you fancy it, but you should be able to find places in this budget if you look early enough.
• Hotel rooms — £100+. A brief look today shows rooms for as much as £235/night, but if you’re going to be staying in fancy hotels then you’re probably not as fussed about the cash than those hunting in the first few bullet points.

There was some pasta in here too, I swear. Its not just a mug of cheese

Food

This will depend on how often you want to cook for yourself and how often you want to eat out.

If you’re content to fill your days with:

• Porridge — 50p
• Sandwiches — £2
• Pasta — £3
• Snacks — £2

Then you can probably get buy on less than £10/day

If you want to eat out then it’ll probably cost you between £20 and £40

• £7 starter
• £15 main meal
• £7 dessert
• £5 pints

What you’ll probably be doing is a mixture of the two.

Slightly more gourmet than the mug of cheese. Our meals at the Inversnaid Bunkhouse

In terms of buying supplies from the shops along the way, of which there are many, the prices are naturally a bit steeper than in a city.

If there are any protein bars or snackfoods/sweets you really like then I’d advise bringing some along with you, because you might not be able to find everything you want. And sometimes you just really want a bag of fruit pastilles.

And don’t forget to include any rogue pints or coffees you might fancy along the way.

Transport

For the first leg of your journey, I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you because I don’t have a clue where you’re coming from.

But for the way back, I can give you the cost of a bus ride back to Glasgow, which is pretty much where you started off.

We bought on the day and the price was £20pp.

Baggage Transfer

If you make use of a baggage transfer service then the cost is:

• £70 if you use it for the whole 7 days
• £45 if you use it for 3 days
• £15/day if you want to do it on a day by day basis (this is something offered by Baggage Freedom)

My girlfriend’s bag awaiting collection. £30 cash tucked into the croc

The Magic Formula

So there you have it — the magic formula for calculating the cost of your holiday.

If you haven’t figured it out the missing ingredient in this equation is the number of days and nights you’ll be out in the wilderness.

If its 10 your holiday is probably going to cost more than someone who does it in 5, unless they’ve really pushed the boat out in terms of luxury.

Here’s an example… If you:

• Take 7 days to hike the trail (meaning 6 nights)
• Spend 2 nights wild camping (FREE)
• 2 nights at a designated campsite (£40)
• 2 nights in an AirBnb (£140)
• Eat out twice (£60)
• But buy the rest of your food (£60)
• And carry your bag the whole way (FREE, other than the toll paid by your body)

Then you’ll be looking at £300 all in for your 7 day adventure. Not bad at all

Let me know in the comments how much you think you’ll spend using this formula.