Orkney

There are three ferry routes, with several daily sailings. Pentland Ferries from Gill's Bay to St Margaret's Hope, Orkney (one hour) is the quickest sailing, and the most environmentally-friendly passenger ferry of its type in Scotland, thanks to the new purpose-built catamaran MV Alfred. 

You can also sail with NorthLink Ferries for 1.5 hours from Scrabster to Stromness in Orkney, or from Aberdeen to Kirkwall, Orkney for 7 hours and onto Lerwick in Shetland. 

During the summer, there is a fourth ferry route for foot passengers from John O’Groats to Burwick. 

Planes also fly direct to Kirkwall from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness with Loganair, with flights lasting up to one hour. There are connections from Birmingham, Belfast City, Bristol, Exeter, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich and Teesside. 

Bike hire is widely available in Orkney. Bicycles can be hired in both Kirkwall and Stromness and outer islands such as North Ronaldsay and Stronsay.

Prefer to travel by bus? Orkney's local bus services will help you reach most corners of the Orkney mainland. The network can be used to visit iconic sites such as the Ring of Brodgar and Italian Chapel. The outer islands often have local bus services too.

Looking to hop around several islands? Check out services from Orkney Ferries which are accessible from four ports on the Orkney mainland.

For an exciting sightseeing adventure, you could even hop onboard an inter-island flight with Loganair. These flights reach six islands from Kirkwall Airport, including the shortest scheduled flight in the world, between Westray and Papa Westray.