Argyll and the Isles — close to Glasgow — are marketed as Scotland’s ‘adventure coast’, and I recently saw them up close and personal with a folding bike, a bus, and a bunch of ferry tickets.

I was following cycling routes devised by a German guy who so fell in love with Scotland he moved there. Eighteen years later, he now writes books and shoots videos of his adventures showing the world why this part of Scotland is heaven for those who love travel — and gravel. He’s a big fan of the relatively new category of bicycle built for adventure called the gravel bike.

‘A gravel bike is somewhere between a road bike and a mountain bike,’ Markus Stitz told me.

In other words, a gravel bike is good on both dirt and asphalt.

‘You can ride them from your front door. They’ll get you almost anywhere,’ he added.

I rented one for a day at the end of my four-day trip to Argyll and the Isles, but I followed most of the routes Markus suggested on my Brompton. This iconic folding bike was handy for tucking away on public transport.

I arrived in Scotland on the night train from London. It’s always a thrill to wake up in the glorious Highlands after eight hours tucked up in a gently rocking Caledonian Sleeper bed. I opened the blinds to a grey dawn, but through my private little window, I could see the Arrochar ‘Alps’ foothills, mottled with various browns and vivid greens.

Within an hour, I was in Fort William, where I switched to a West Coast Motors coach. This bus trip along the A828 was also scenic and included a cracking view down to the imposing Castle Stalker (not a crime scene, the name is Gaelic for ‘hunter.’)

This medieval tower was ‘Castle Aaargh’ in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

‘I wave my private parts at your aunties,’ French castle guard John Cleese taunted Graham Chapman as King Arthur, adding: ‘You cheesy lot of second-hand electric donkey-bottom biters.’

Beyond Castle Stalker, just out of sight, was Port Appin’s famous seafood restaurant, which I’d visit three days later.

The borrowed Brompton in the bowels of the bus was the new and pricey titanium version. It’s almost a full kilo lighter than the steel version I use at home. It folds and unfolds the same way as a standard Brompton, and 15 seconds after getting off the bus, I was riding towards the first of several ferries on this car-free island-hopping micro-adventure.

Caledonian MacBrayne — or CalMac — is the UK’s largest ferry operator, running 29 routes to over 50 destinations across 200 miles (322km) of Scotland’s west coast. It has a fleet of 33 vessels, and I’d later have one almost to myself, but there were a few other passengers on the ferry to the Inner Hebridean island of Coll. The crossing — through the Sound of Mull — took a little over two and a half hours.

Landing on treeless Coll, 10 miles (16km) across the Atlantic from Ardnamurchan Point, the westernmost part of the Scottish mainland, I rode uphill to the tiny village of Arinagour, where half of the islanders live. 

I stayed in a comfy private room in the 14-person Coll Bunkhouse next to the island’s surprisingly modern community centre, An Cridhe. Princess Anne opened this in 2012. An Cridhe means ‘the heart’, and the brightly-lit, the multi-purpose building is at the heart of life on Coll, a hub for social gatherings throughout the year. Folks were using the gym, music was coming from a dance class in the hall, and I whiled away some time looking at a diverse selection of local products, from jams to artworks. Payment is via an honesty box.

Coll might only be 13 miles (21km) long by four miles (6.5km) wide, but it has 30 beaches, some with golden white shell-sand, others have resident RSPB-protected Corncrakes. The beaches I visited were deserted. I put my drone in the air, and from above, Hogh Bay’s dunes and emerald green waters appeared positively Caribbean. Looks can be deceiving: I was glad to be wearing a warm fleece and a waterproof.

Fighting against a stiff breeze, I rode over to the dour Breachacha Castle, a 15th-century tower house standing guard over a sandy cove. 

The mansion next door — a 1750s replacement for the draughty tower — is where essayist and dictionary author Dr. Johnson and his biographer James Boswell stayed when stranded during a Highland tour in 1773. 

Johnson first described the mansion as a ‘neat, new-built gentleman’s house’ but when later driven from the island by its fierce weather, he revised his description of the house to it being a ‘tradesman’s box’ and, digging the knife deeper, sniffed that being on Coll was a ‘waste of life’. (Johnson had a high bar for what tickled his fancy. His most famous quote is – ‘when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’.)

What the island misses on the entertainment angle, it makes up for it on the gawping-at-the-Milky-Way front. Coll is the only Scottish island to have been awarded International Dark Sky Community status by the International Dark-Sky Association, one of only 22 worldwide locations to be similarly selected. 

This designation, granted in 2013, resulted from work by a small group of astronomy-minded locals.

Coll’s lack of light pollution is noteworthy, and there are two other key omissions — there’s no petrol station on the island and, unlike so much of Scotland’s West coast, there are precious few midges (the pesky bugs are no doubt grounded by the wind).

I had a cooked breakfast in Island Cafe (there’s also a pub on Coll). When the young man asked for my order, I stated I’d like the ‘full English’ even though the menu clearly said the hearty choice was a ‘full Scottish.’ I sank into my chair, blushing with shame.

Later in the day, I left on the ferry back to the mainland and hopped on a smaller ferry to the island of Lismore, north of Oban. Aside from the crew, I had the 12-car ferry to myself.

Lismore is 10 miles (16km) long, and one mile (1.6km) wide. It has one minor road and several gravel tracks.

Landing at Achnacroish I turned right on the narrow tarmac road towards Port Ramsay but diverted through a gated farmer’s field to climb the grassy, sheep-poo-strewn slope to the ruined Tirefour Castle, an Iron Age fortified tower or broch. Perched on a cliff edge overlooking the Lynn of Lorn, this broch has views over to Ben Nevis to the north and the Paps of Jura to the south.

Somewhere along the way, I’d picked up a sharp as my front tyre had developed a slow puncture, but I had a rendezvous to make so, instead of fixing the flat, I legged it to Port Ramsay, inflating the tyre several times as it softened.

Across the water in Port Appin I knew that Markus was on his way over with his girlfriend Louise and their gravel bikes on the smallest ferry of the trip, a council-operated service that takes ten minutes, just enough time to fix my puncture.

Markus was keen to show me the gravel bike ride on the island, part of the Wild About Argyll’s bike-packing trail, a round-the-islands route he devised and which the local marketing board promotes. Dodging rain showers, we rode on dirt down to the deserted village of Salen, abandoned in the 1930s. In the 19th century, this was a busy port shipping lime for fertiliser from adjacent quarries. The derelict lime kilns are impressive but offer little shelter from the rain.

Soggy, we headed back to Port Ramsay and took the short ferry back across to Port Appin for lunch in the Pierhouse Hotel‘s seafood restaurant by the shore of Loch Linnhe. We were too late for one of the restaurant’s famous £160 platters (lobster, langoustine, scallops, oyster, house-smoked salmon, kipper rillettes, and mussels), but we were glad of some delicious Cullen skink haddock soup served with oat and treacle soda bread.

I left Markus and his girlfriend at the hotel and hooked up with the Caledonia Way cycle trail, a former railway line that ran from Connel to the slate quarries near Ballachulish. It was my traffic-free route back to Oban to stay at the Whisky Vaults hotel, where guests qualify for a wee dram in the whisky bar.

The next day, stashing the Brompton and renting a gravel bike from the Rusty Cycle Shed in Oban, I rode the Maelstrom loop, a short circular gravel ride picked from Markus’s new book, Great British Gravel Rides. Returning the rental, I had plenty of time to make the Highland Explorer, a bicycle-friendly service between Oban and Glasgow.

This service is so cyclist-friendly that it can accommodate any size, shape, or weight of cycle — just so long as you can heave it on board (the staff aren’t allowed to help). My featherweight Brompton was no bother.

I didn’t need it, but this train car has a power socket to charge an electric bike as you gawp out of the windows at the rolling scenery beside Loch Long and Loch Lomond.

The bike car is the third portion of a three-car service. The Highland Explorer stops at stations along the West Highland line. It isn’t a fast train — the 97-mile journey takes a little over three hours — but as this is one of the world’s most scenic train journeys, that’s hardly a problem, for tourists at least.

The Highland Explorer started in July 2021, and a ticket costs more than on one of the unbranded, same-line services that run between Glasgow and Oban but which don’t have space for 20 cycles. 

The spruced-up carriage has room for 24 passengers who can spy their bikes at all times. Cyclists with bike reservations get first dibs on these seats, which, depending on staff availability, benefit from complimentary at-seat refreshments.

In effect, this is a first-class service. Passengers without bikes have to pay a £10 supplement to sit in the snazzy seats, which can lead to murmurings because the carriage isn’t flagged as first-class.

Converted from a British Rail Class 153 Super Sprinter diesel train built in the early 1990s, the Highland Explorer’s refresh included a colourful exterior designed by Scottish artist Peter McDermott. 

This vinyl wrap features cyclists, Highland cattle, and landmarks such as the Glenfinnan ‘Harry Potter’ viaduct and the Skye Cuillin mountain range.

The Highland Explorer runs twice daily to and from Scotland’s ‘adventure coast’ – but is a joyful adventure in its own right. 

Follow Carlton on Twitter – twitter.com/carltonreid. Click here for Carlton’s Highland Explorer video.

Saint Lucia was recently voted Best Island in the Caribbean by Global Traveller magazine. 

So it was the spur to visit and see if it deserved such a lofty accolade. 

It is an easy eight-hour flight from London and the descent to St Lucia’s Hewanoora airport offers a bird’s-eye view of the most spectacular volcanic peaks in the Caribbean – the mighty Pitons, a Unesco-designated World Heritage Site.

CHOCOLATE HEAVEN

Saint Lucia’s volcanic soil is rich in minerals and the local cacao industry produces some of the finest chocolate in the world. When I first heard that there was a chocolate-themed hotel in the island’s rainforest, the ‘Rabot Hotel from Hotel Chocolat‘, I imagined we would find an eccentric Willy Wonka type and a theme park-like factory of delights, complete with a gently flowing chocolate river. 

In actuality, it was founded by the charming British entrepreneur Angus Thirlwell, who freely admits that chocolate is an obsession. It’s only a 45-minute scenic drive from the airport. With 25 stunning Lodges in a lush rainforest overlooking the Pitons, the Rabot is a heavenly oasis, whether you are a chocolate lover or not. We feel like golden ticket winners being able to spend a couple of nights here. Our delightful Luxe Lodge has an expansive veranda and a vast rainforest shower.

The 50-foot infinity pool, lined with black quartz, overlooking the Petit Piton is the perfect way to while away the day. The hotel’s restaurant has a chocolate-infused menu that seemed gimmicky at first, but in the hands of the talented chefs, is inspired. Our morning hot chocolate and banana bread are the best we ever had. In fact, every course is divine and imaginative, especially the freshly caught wahoo fish, glazed with coconut and cacao butter sauce, and the Rabot Chocolate Lava dessert, inspired by the Soufriere volcano behind the hotel. 

If actor Timothee Chalamet is looking for inspiration to get into the mindset of an eccentric chocolatier for his upcoming Wonka movie, the hotel chefs here have all the mouth-watering chocolate dishes to get him into character.

We walk off lunch by taking a picturesque Jurassic Park-style ridge walk through the plantation. A truly magical experience. The next day we take the hotel’s Tree to Bar experience, a walking tour through the rainforest, culminating in an enjoyable chocolate-making class at the high-tech cacao farm, Project Chocolat (once visited by a sweet-toothed King Charles III who officially broke the ground a few years ago).

MUD BATHS

The Rabot Estate is a five-minute drive from St Lucia’s most-visited tourist attraction – what’s billed as the world’s only drive-in volcano.

After a guided tour around its dramatically spewing sulphurous hot springs and boiling geysers, we walk a couple of hundred yards down to the mineral mud baths. 

There is something life-affirming about spreading black volcanic mud all over the body, letting it dry off and then soaking in the naturally heated sulphur mud springs. 

We have the baths to ourselves as we arrive first thing in the morning to avoid the cruise ship crowds. Resting in the mud springs makes you feel rejuvenated and ready to explore the rest of the island.

We are next dropped off at the spectacular Toraille Waterfall. 

Being underneath it has the pleasant feeling of a powerful hydro massage. Although we already feel like superheroes emerging from the water after a restorative swim in the natural plunge pool, we head over to Superman Falls, a waterfall that is a little more off the beaten track and less crowded. 

In Superman 2, Christopher Reeve flies off to a tropical island (an uncredited Saint Lucia) and picks some exotic plants to bring back to his sweetheart, Lois Lane. The establishing shot of Saint Lucia’s Pitons was filmed from a peak, 1,000 feet above sea level, where the ultra-luxurious Ladera Resort now stands.

LADERA RESORT

Ever since Oprah Winfrey stayed here leaving a giant tip in the 1990s, it has been a celebrity haven. 

Amy Winehouse loved it here, as did the late St Lucian Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott, who always celebrated his birthdays here. 

Each of the 37 luxurious suites has its own plunge pool and comes with a butler who is only too happy to whizz guests around on his golf buggy. 

The absence of a fourth wall in the suites allows for a panoramic view of the Pitons and the sparkling Caribbean Sea below. Even without an outer wall, our spellbinding suite still feels sheltered enough and provides a calming night breeze. The romance is heightened by the swing in the plunge pool and the hand-crafted four-poster beds and hand-tiled mosaic walk-in showers.

Ladera is the perfect destination for lunch or dinner or just a sunset cocktail on the terrace where Harrison Ford used to enjoy watching the sun set behind the Pitons. There is something mesmerising about gazing at its peaks. 

We take the Ladera Ridge walk and have some freshly cut coconut at a dramatic treehouse moulded around a massive 300-year-old mango tree that still bears fruit.

Later, dinner at Dasheene is imaginatively overseen by the charming local chef Nigel Mitchel, who creates sensational dishes such as the chilled asparagus gazpacho and the shellfish tagliatelle with homemade creole sauce. 

This is a truly extraordinary romantic island paradise that feels authentic, where all the staff are local and genuinely want to please guests. A pool-side yoga session with Anson is exceptional. There is a beach shuttle for Ladera guests to Malgretoute Beach, not far from Sugar Beach – our next destination.

SUGAR BEACH

‘Sugar Beach – A Viceroy Resort‘ is a breathtaking utopia. Designed in the colonial Plantation style, it has 130 villas, cottages and luxury beachfront bungalows, spread discreetly in a 100-acre rainforest that was formerly a sugar plantation. The resort has two gorgeous white-sand beaches. The smaller and quieter one is called Glenconner Beach after the notorious Lord Glenconner, the friend of Princess Margaret, who decamped from Mustique to spend his last days here.

With its own pool and garden and a rich canopy of trees to provide soothing breezes, our amazing Luxury Cottage is a tranquil and romantic place to stay. While it is possible to walk down to the dining areas and beach, every suite comes with a super-efficient butler who ensures that a shuttle is waiting just in case. The resort has great water activities, a brand-new fitness centre and a lush rainforest-style spa where the treatment rooms are in treehouses built on stilts. The Sugar Beach is equally suitable for honeymooners and families, as Gwyneth Paltrow will attest, as she enjoyed a family holiday here a few years ago.

The fine dining restaurant Saltwood is excellent, while the beachfront Bonté restaurant is more casual. Bonté means ‘good times’ in Creole and good times were certainly enjoyed here by Matt Damon and his wife when they renewed their vows on the beach here in front of guests Chris Hemsworth, Ben Affleck, and Stanley Tucci. He booked the entire resort for his friends and family and to keep it under wraps, booked it under the name of Mr and Mrs Naff. (Damon had made an exploratory trip two months previously, arriving by yacht.)

The best breakfast on the island is the green fig and saltfish creole breakfast at the Terrace Restaurant on the ground floor of the elegant Great House, which is served with local cocoa tea, Johnny bakes and fried ripe plantain. Banana was and still is an important part of the St Lucian economy and is known as ‘green gold’.

SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND

Next stop is the unmissable Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens, Waterfall and Hot Mineral Bath Springs on the outskirts of Soufriere town. A walk through the lush six-acre Botanical Gardens is simply breathtaking. It’s a haven for gravity-defying hummingbirds as they peck at tropical flowers and plant life. The therapeutic effects of these wonderful mineral baths, originally built in 1784, were enjoyed by Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, who bathed here as a child when holidaying at her father’s nearby plantation.

ANSE CHASTANET

Jean-Pierre, our friendly guide from Soufriere (and father of 10 kids), takes us over a bumpy track to an island oasis, Anse Chastanet, one of the Caribbean’s most breathtaking hotels, perfectly situated above an enchanting beach.

It has 49 individual bedrooms and reveals itself over a steep jungly hillside.

The architect and owner Nick Troubetzkoy bought the 600 acres of land from sceptical local owners in the early 1970s and spent 10 years developing it.

Our stupendous Premium Hillside suite has a four-poster bed and a terrace with a stunning panoramic view of the Pitons and of the twinkling lights of the bay below. As the sun glistens through the louvred windows, the setting is reminiscent of Ian Fleming’s captivating villa at Goldeneye in Jamaica.

The resort has a fun sunset jazz cruise and the best dive centre on the island. We snorkel in Anse Chastanet’s protected marine reserve just off its picturesque main beach and see colourful corals and incredible marine life including lobster, trumpetfish and a hawksbill turtle.

For those pining for Blighty, a daily afternoon tea is served at the Piton Bar. 

We have a wonderful dinner at Anse’s stylish Treehouse restaurant – the chef’s tarragon roasted mangrove red snapper with grilled citrus, west Indian chow and shrimp salsa is outstanding. 

We spend the next morning at the hotel’s smaller, but delightful, Anse Mamin beach where the Jungle Grill serves lovely fish fillet burgers. One of the highlights of the trip is a sunset cruise on the beautiful hotel sailboat, the Suzi Q. As we sail past the Pitons, unexpected visitors in the form of a school of dolphins begin to jump playfully in the surf at the bow of the boat – a regular occurrence according to our cheerful local skipper, Kerwin.

Next stop is Anse’s stupendous sister resort, Nick Troubetzkoy’s Jade Mountain – possibly the Caribbean’s finest hotel. 

Removing the outer or fourth wall allows each of the spellbinding open plan 29 suites to have an eye-popping view of the Pitons, with its own private infinity pool and hot tub.

After a restful sleep in the four-poster bed, the uninterrupted view of the Pitons feels even more cinematic and more mysterious as they become shrouded in cloud or disappear in the early morning mist and emerge glistening in a tropical sun shower.

This is honeymooner heaven. 

A host of obliging and cheerful local major-domos will respond to the slightest whim. It is no surprise to learn that guests have been known to go five days or more without leaving their ‘sanctuary’, as the suites are called here.

Jade Mountain’s classy Club restaurant, meanwhile, has panoramic views and an inventive menu that changes every day – the breakfast emerald chocolate crepe, the Caribbean lobster bouillabaisse, and the lemon and curried spiced Mahi Mahi will all live long in the memory.

Above the restaurant is the Celestial Terrace, a great place for a sundowner and one of the island’s most popular venues for marriage proposals.

Charmaine’s deep-tissue massage in the wonderful Kai En Ciel Spa is another highlight. Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain provide the greatest hotel experiences in Saint Lucia, if not the whole Caribbean. They are resorts that hold themselves to the highest standard of impeccable but friendly service with a flawless attention to detail that are almost unmatched in the region. It’s hard to leave this paradise behind.

WHY SAINT LUCIA IS THE BEST ISLAND IN THE CARIBBEAN 

Saint Lucia is exotic with its tropical rainforest, stunning corals and cocoa plantations. Its English-speaking people are the friendliest and most welcoming in the Caribbean. There is no aggressive hawking of goods, everyone is good-natured, and we feel safe in every public space. Derek Walcott wrote that Saint Lucia’s ‘mountains tinkle with springs among moss-bearded forests… and a volcano… has made it a healing place’. Saint Lucia is indeed a healing place for the soul and after a week on the island, I can confirm that the travel accolades are deserved – Saint Lucia is indeed the best island in the Caribbean.

ST LUCIA JAZZ AND ARTS FESTIVAL

The rapper Shaggy once described Sting as the brother that he didn’t know he needed. Such brotherly love will be on display at the Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival when Sting and Shaggy will headline the closing night on May 14. 

They follow previous headliners Rihanna, Wyclef Jean and Amy Winehouse, and all the hotels we stay in are preparing themed events around the festival, such as Jazz Au Chocolat at the Rabot.

Frank Mannion is an award-winning director and his latest film, Quintessentially Irish, will be in cinemas at the end of the year.