While visiting Scotland, one of the most popular things to do is to visit the famous Loch Ness. The second largest loch in Scotland by surface area, it’s a gorgeous example of natural beauty. We chose to do a Loch Ness cruise from Inverness including a visit to Urquhart Castle. We looked through different tours on Get Your Guide but ended up choosing this one: From Inverness: Loch Ness Cruise and Urquhart Castle. It had lots of great reviews, something we look for when browsing different tours. Because of that, we’ve written a detailed review of this tour so you can see if it’s right for you!
In this post:
Tour Overview
The Loch Ness Cruise and Urquhart Castle tour picks up from Inverness bus station, right in the centre of town. From there you’ll drive a short distance to a ferry terminal on Loch Ness. You’ll then board a small boat and have a lovely little cruise down to Urquhart Castle. Here you’ll have one hour to look around before hopping back on the bus and driving back to Inverness. The whole tour is only 3.5 hours long so is a great little half day trip out.
If you’re doing this tour from the 10th of November 2025 to the 29th of March 2026, it will also include admission to the Loch Ness Centre at Drumnadrochit. During this time the tour will be slightly longer at 4 hours to include extra time for this.
Cost and Inclusions
There is only one option for the Loch Ness Cruise and Urquhart Castle tour. However it changes based on when in the year you’re going:
- From Inverness: Loch Ness Cruise and Urquhart Castle. This tour starts at 9:15am at Inverness Bus Station. It goes for 3.5 hours, runs in all weather and costs £51.44 until the 9th of November 2025 and from the 30th of March 2026. It also doesn’t include any food or drink however there is some you can buy on the boat.
- From Inverness: Loch Ness Cruise and Urquhart Castle. Between the 10th of November 2025 and the 29th of March 2026 this tour costs £64.17. It runs the same as the one above, however pickup is 15 minutes later at 9:30am. It also runs for 4 hours and includes admission to the Loch Ness Centre at Drumnadrochit.
Highlights
Firstly, we loved how easy it was to get from Inverness to Loch Ness with this tour. While there is a public bus, once there there’s nothing to do but wander along the lake. However we loved getting to hop on the boat and go out on Loch Ness to enjoy it from the water. Another thing we loved was getting to visit Urquhart Castle, which has heaps of great things to look at. The view over the lake from the castle is also great!
The boat to get to Urquhart castle was comfortable and had both indoor and outdoor sections if you wanted to go out and enjoy the fresh air. They also had someone on the boat telling us fun facts and had a little sonar screen so we could keep an eye out for Nessie during the journey. Onboard you can get a whisky hot chocolate on board if you want to enjoy some Scottish whisky (and you’re over 18 of course).
Lowlights
Similar to our review of the Cliffs of Moher day trip, this tour relies heavily on good weather. As the majority of the tour is outside or on a boat, you’d want good weather to really make the most of it. If it was rainy and overcast you wouldn’t be able to see much of the Loch, which is what you’re there for!
Because of this we’d recommend taking advantage of Get Your Guides 24 hour cancellation. This means you can book your spot on the tour, then wait until closer to and see what the weathers looking like. If it’s not looking good, just cancel with more than 24 hours notice and you’ll get a full refund to rebook for a better time.
The other lowlight for us was that we didn’t think we had enough time at Urquhart castle. Once you’re off the bus and wandering around you only have about an hour. It didn’t feel like enough time to walk around the castle and see everything and also to enjoy the view and take photos. There’s also a little visitor centre with a café so if you want to visit those too, you really won’t have much time at all.
Would We Recommend It?
Even with a short amount of time at the castle, we still think the Loch Ness Cruise and Urquhart Castle tour is worth it. Firstly it’s the cheapest Loch Ness tour from Inverness. You can actually book just the return boat trip to Urquhart Castle from Clansman Harbour which is cheaper, but you’ll have to make your own way there from where ever you’re staying. Because of this, we think it’s good value for money and for the ease, it’s definitely worth it.
Also while the time at the castle wasn’t long enough, we did like that the tour was only a half day trip so it didn’t take up a full day of our time in Inverness. We also really enjoyed our time at the castle and thought it was really cool. Overall, along with the comfortable boat trip and getting to enjoy Loch Ness from the water, we really would recommend doing this tour!
To see our experience (and other things we got up to in Scotland), check out our vlog: