The Guardian Travel is running its tip-of-the-week competition again, and this round has a distinctly Highland flavour: readers are being asked to share their favourite wild escape in Scotland, with the winning entry bagging a £200 voucher for a stay at a Coolstays property — the company lists more than 3,000 quirky and off-grid places to stay worldwide.
The brief is broad. Anything that counts as getting properly away from it all in Scotland is fair game: a night in an off-grid cabin or a traditional bothy, a solo walk on a trail that barely sees another boot, a tackle of a quiet mountain, or a windswept romantic break on one of the remoter islands. Basically, if it involves Scotland's mountains, lochs, ragged coastline or island fringe, the travel editors want to hear about it.
The rules are simple. Tips should run to roughly 100 words, and photos are welcome — though the judges will be scoring the writing, not the photography. Each week a winner is picked by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet, and the best entries get published in the Guardian Travel section and on its website, which is a decent bit of exposure for any aspiring travel writer.
There are a couple of catches worth knowing before you start drafting. Entries close on Monday 2 November at 10am GMT, so there's a firm deadline. And for legal reasons, the competition is only open to UK residents. Full terms and conditions are on the Guardian's site, along with its standard terms of service and privacy policy, and there's help available if the entry form misbehaves.
Even if you're not eligible to enter, the brief itself is a handy nudge. Scotland is arguably the easiest place in Britain to find genuine solitude: the Highlands and Islands are criss-crossed with long-distance routes like the West Highland Way and the less-travelled Cape Wrath Trail, and bothies — basic, free shelters scattered across remote terrain — offer nights out that cost nothing but the effort of reaching them. Islands such as Coll, Jura, Barra and Fair Isle deliver wild coast and big skies without the crowds you'll find on Skye in August. Off-grid cabin operators have multiplied in recent years too, so a phone-signal-free weekend with a woodburner is easier to book than ever.
Why it matters: if you've got a favourite Scottish hideaway or a hard-won walking story, 100 words could turn into £200 of accommodation credit — and possibly a byline in a national paper. And for everyone else, keep an eye on the published tips when they land; they're a reliable source of under-the-radar places from people who've actually been there. Whether you'd rather wake up in a bothy after a day on the hill or watch Atlantic weather roll in from a cabin window, this is a good excuse to dig out those notes and get writing before the deadline passes.
Tip submissions close Monday 2 November, 10am GMT. Source: The Guardian Travel.
