I'd generally avoid messing around with trains and bike boxes if you can. It'd be a bit of a nightmare schepping from the airport into a city centre then catching a train - so if you were just coming for the cycle, I'd fly into Inverness, although it's not the easiest connection.

However, if you wanted to combine the trip with a city visit, you could go to London for a couple of days either end, and get the Caledonian Sleeper. Or into Edinburgh which is also well worth a visit.

If you wanted to combine with a bit of a drive you could fly into Glasgow and rent a car and drive from there over a couple of days. It's pretty scenic up the West coast. Or you could do a loop... Glasgow - Inverness - Edinburgh - (Glasgow). You could probably do one way car rentals as well.

If you're coming from Houston, you should make sure you've watched Local Hero to get you in the mood, if you haven't already!

If your priority is riding your own bikes, with your own bike boxes, I’d suggest flying to Inverness from London and not getting involved in other forms of transport. Bike boxes on UK trains is potentially doable but not an easy proposition. And you still have the problem of what to do with your bike boxes when you get to Inverness (sorry I have no good suggestions here … assuming that any facilities at Inverness airport won’t cater for something as large as that but worth checking).

A friend of mine is an ex-pro triathlete and he swears by the cardboard box option for travelling with bikes (best bet is to sweet-talk local bike shop for cardboard box that a new bike arrived in). His logic is that you can protect the bikes pretty well with bubble wrap and airport luggage handlers are less likely to throw it around because it looks more fragile than a hardcase box. If you did this and sweet-talked an Inverness bike shop to put cardboard packaging aside for you for the return trip it would give you some flexibility for travel once you get to the UK (basically you would offload the cardboard … hopefully into a recycling bin … at the end of the flying part of your journey (whether at Heathrow or another city in the UK) … and keep the bubble wrap in your luggage for the return journey). Travelling with bikes rather than bike boxes is quite a bit easier (smaller car required and/or can book bike slots on UK trains although note for the latter often there are relatively few slots available so best to book early).

If you are open-minded about hiring bikes (google NC500 or Inverness bike hire) then this makes doing a few other things on your trip much easier. Not sure what your connection with Scotland is but if you’ve not visited before and wanted to see more than NC500 you’ll find that by train or car it’s pretty easy and quick to get around (esp compared to Texas!).

Good luck!

Can't help beyond what others have already suggested regarding the travelling to part, but FWIW, most of the official East coast part of the route isn't very nice (AFAIK, the NC500 was designed with primarily cars in mind..), the A9 road in particular isn't the best for riding a bike on, with the primary aim of enjoyment... (I was brought up just North of Inverness in Easter Ross..). If you really want to stick to that exact route, I'd at least do it anti-clockwise, save the best part (West coast) for later in the trip to keep the better memories... If you don't mind alternative more scenic, less busy, back roads up at least the first half of the East coast, then will be happy to point out a few options... Either way, hope you both have fun!

100% agree with this. When I did Lands End to John O’Groats we headed from Inverness through Bonar Bridge onto Lairg and then directly north past the Crask Inn towards Tongue (where you can pick up the NC500 route again) - it depends a bit how much you want to ride each day because that route is quite isolated - but that route would be my recommendation rather than the A9/East Coast.

You might want to consider this: https://www.wildernessscotland.com/...lidays/road-cycling/

Thanks for all the help, that last post is the outfitter we are looking at. Hopefully they have chosen some back roads to keep us out of the traffic. It looks like there is left-luggage at the train station and Ticket to Ride Highlands will store your bike box for you. I got multiple people telling me to avoid trains if you are carrying bike boxes and that makes sense.