Rant time.
The lad and I have just been away for four days in the Highlands and I've never seen such blatant profiteering in my life.
Take Fort Augustus for example. For those that don't know it's bang on the main road between Fort William and Inverness so hardly the arse and of nowhere but the some of the prices would make your eyes water.
Firstly was the supermarket. Enough food for a BBQ for two, Breakfast pack for the morning and a couple of cans of beer each? £24 to you sir. Beer in the pub by the canal? £3.80 a pint. The words tourist and rip off spring to mind. To put things in perspective the following day In Inverness be bought almost the same amount of food (without the beer) and it came to £7 something.
Places like Applecross, that is in the back end of nowhere, I can accept there are additional costs in getting deliveries but not in Fort Augustus when suppliers lorries are thundering past the door every hour.
There was some good points though. The campsite was excellent value at £6 each for one person with their own tent and the pub on the main road sold better beer at £3 a pint and it was while I was there I was told that the locals get a discount in the supermarket which just reinforces the fact that the owners are just profiteering at the expense of the tourists. Fish and chips at the local chippy were excellent and reasonable which just shows it doesn't have to be so expensive and you can run a business without shafting people.
The prize for biggest rip off was the Ice Cream at the Old Fudge Shop in Callander (which is not even in the Highlands) who stiffed us £6.50 for two single scoop ice cream cones. It's clear they have an abundant supply of tourists and don't need return business.
I feel sorry for those who don't know any better and think prices are really that high everywhere and not just at the rip-off merchants places.
Rant over (for now).
The lad and I have just been away for four days in the Highlands and I've never seen such blatant profiteering in my life.
Take Fort Augustus for example. For those that don't know it's bang on the main road between Fort William and Inverness so hardly the arse and of nowhere but the some of the prices would make your eyes water.
Firstly was the supermarket. Enough food for a BBQ for two, Breakfast pack for the morning and a couple of cans of beer each? £24 to you sir. Beer in the pub by the canal? £3.80 a pint. The words tourist and rip off spring to mind. To put things in perspective the following day In Inverness be bought almost the same amount of food (without the beer) and it came to £7 something.
Places like Applecross, that is in the back end of nowhere, I can accept there are additional costs in getting deliveries but not in Fort Augustus when suppliers lorries are thundering past the door every hour.
There was some good points though. The campsite was excellent value at £6 each for one person with their own tent and the pub on the main road sold better beer at £3 a pint and it was while I was there I was told that the locals get a discount in the supermarket which just reinforces the fact that the owners are just profiteering at the expense of the tourists. Fish and chips at the local chippy were excellent and reasonable which just shows it doesn't have to be so expensive and you can run a business without shafting people.
The prize for biggest rip off was the Ice Cream at the Old Fudge Shop in Callander (which is not even in the Highlands) who stiffed us £6.50 for two single scoop ice cream cones. It's clear they have an abundant supply of tourists and don't need return business.
I feel sorry for those who don't know any better and think prices are really that high everywhere and not just at the rip-off merchants places.
Rant over (for now).