Circling back around to do a recap....
Keep in mind that most of these towns along the way are SUPER small, from both a lodging standpoint and from a food standpoint.
There are several ways to structure your lodging.
You can backpack the whole thing and tent camp - either wild camping for free or at campgrounds. The wild camping is easier in some places than others. The campgrounds usually have showers.
You can book rooms along the way. Some towns have a hotel (a lone hotel, so book early) and some have hostels and most have a campground which usually have microlodges or small cabins.
We did a combination of the two....I think we tent camped at two different campgrounds, stayed at two microlodges, stayed at two hotels, and stayed at one B&B. When we do it again, we will just stay at accommodations - lugging all our tent gear half way around the world for two nights of use was more hassle than it was worth.
You can also book baggage transfer. There are two or three companies that will do this for you. We used Baggage Freedom and they were fantastic. You leave your bag at your accommodation in then morning and it's waiting for you at the next accommodation by the time you get there in the afternoon. You can't do this if you're wild camping as the drop locations generally don't let you use their storage unless you're staying there.
Started in Milngavie (mull-guy)....we stayed the night there, had a great meal at Garvie & Co. and then started the trail in the morning. Would highly recommend doing this - it alleviated all the stress of getting from Glasgow to the start of the trail and then immediately getting on trail....and it allowed us to get a good early start to the day. It's a cool little town to boot.
First day we hiked to Drymen - it was probably the easiest day - a good warm up. Stopped along the way at Glengoyne Distillery and then ended the day at The Clachan for dinner (I'd recommend making reservations in advance).
Second day was tougher than day 1....went up and down Conic Hill (easily the most tourists/day hikers of the trip). A lot of hikers stopped in Balmaha at the bottom the Conic Hill for the night but we pushed on to Rowardennen. The stretch from Balmaha to Rowardennen was along Loch Lomond....lots of ups and downs, rocks and roots.
Glengoyne Distillery
The Clachan, the oldest licensed pub in Scotland. Started by Rob Roy's sister.
The view from Conic Hill looking down on Loch Lomond
The first day along Loch Lomond
Third day was from Rowardennen to Inverarnan. The entire day was along Loch Lomond again. It was probably our least favorite day on trail - Loch Lomond was pretty on day 2 but we didn't need another day of it. My wife did something to her hip and it put her in a lot of pain and slowed us down a lot. The only lunch option was at the Inversnaid Hotel but they weren't serving lunch that day because they were short staffed. This was a bad thing for us, so plan ahead. My wife's hip was still bothering her so I started mentally mapping out an exit plan for us (the next day we could get a few miles in and take the train from Tyndrum back to Glasgow). We limped into Beinglas Campground way later than we expected, hungry and exhausted and got our tent set up juuuuust as the sun set - and got eaten alive by midges (I think it was really our only issue with them on the trip). Thankfully, the campground had a bar/restaurant called The Stagger Inn and I truly think that it saved our hike. It was a super cool place - packed with hikers, warm and cozy, and the food was great. Just an awesome vibe.
We woke up the next morning fully rejuvenated and the Mrs's hip was in great shape (thanks to the magic stew from The Stagger Inn just before bed?). A mile or so in we came to Falloch Falls, which were beautiful and then we hiked to Tyndrum. When we do it again, we're going to stop our day in Tyndrum - it was probably the biggest town on the trail and had a number of places to eat and stay and it breaks up the hike better. We ended up going all the way to Bridge of Orchy, which made it nearly a 20 mile day, and was just too much to be enjoyable. The stretch just north of Tyndrum was my favorite of the whole trail - our first glimpses of the big green monroes - we sat in the grass just off trail and enjoyed it for an hour or so. That being said, when we got to Bridge of Orchy we were so wiped out that when we sat down for dinner at Bridge of Orchy Hotel we didn't even eat our food - didn't have an appetite. The couple seated at the table next to us said we looked like we had a 1000 yard stare and were exhausted - and I think we were really, really dehydrated. We did stay at the tiny B&B next door to Bridge of Orchy Hotel, called Greenstone Lodge. It was the best night stay of the whole trip - we will absolutley stay there again. Can't recommend it enough.
Cool tree along Loch Lomond
The second half of day 2 and all of day 3 was up and down trail that looked like this
Sheep just before Tyndrum
Enjoying the afternoon, just north of Tyndrum
Just north of Tyndrum
Hiking down towards Bridge of Orchy
Day 5 was to Kingshouse, we stayed at Glencoe Mountain Resort in a microlodge. All day the views were exactly what you think of when you think of the Scottish Highlands - it was beautiful.
Day 6 was the first day we had any real weather - it lightly rained on us the first half of the day - we were really lucky with the weather on the whole hike. The day was another of just all big sweeping highland views. We ran into the 2nd most day hikers of the trail - going up along the Devils Staircase (name sounds much worse than it actually was). It was probably our shortest day overall - we stopped in Kinlochleven and were there before our bags and before we could check into the hostel.
Day 7 was the final stretch to Fort William. We had a train booked back to Glasgow so we had a hard stop time we had to hit. The first half of the day was still beautiful highland scenery but the second half was road hiking and then navigating through town.
More sheep
Our microlodge in Kingshouse
The worst of the weather we had
Just over the Devil's Staircase
The Weary Walker....the official end of the West Hoghland Way in Fort William.
If I just had a couple days and wanted to hit the absolute highlight, I would go from to Tyndrum to Kingshouse....or tack on the stretch to Kinlochleven if you have a third day. But if you have the time, do the whole trail - it is an amazing way to just get away from the world and disconnect. I would not recommend trying to do the whole trail in 4 or 5 days - its not a race and you will be going too fast to truly enjoy the heart of what makes the trail so wonderful. 7 days was ok but we'll do 8 when we do it again.
My wife and I have been fortunate to have forged some amazing trips but this was probably our favorite.
