The North Coast 500 with Three Kids and No Plan

We booked the rental car, packed the three kids in, and pointed north from Inverness with no fixed itinerary and a vague plan to follow the North Coast 500. What followed was two weeks of wrong turns, unexpected pubs, and the best family holiday we have ever had.

The kids — ages 9, 12, and 15 — had been skeptical. Scotland was not their first choice. They wanted a beach resort. By day three, when we crested a hill and the whole of Loch Torridon spread out below us in the afternoon light, even our teenager put down his phone.

We wild-camped twice, stayed in a converted barn, and spent one glorious night in a castle hotel that the kids still talk about. We ate fish and chips wrapped in paper on a harbor wall in Ullapool while a seal watched us from the water below.

The Isle of Skye was the highlight. We hiked to the Fairy Pools on a drizzly morning — the kids convinced it was haunted — and emerged at the top of the Quiraing ridge into sudden sunshine with the whole island laid out below us. Our youngest cried. She said it was because of the wind. We let her have that.

We crossed to Ireland for the final five days and drove the Wild Atlantic Way south from Donegal. The Cliffs of Moher on a clear afternoon were staggering. We stood at the edge and felt very small and very grateful. That feeling is what travel is for.