Footage: "Hollow By The Bay" by North Sea Air (CC BY)

Where whisky adventures
begin

Islay, planned by people who've driven every one of these roads.

Plan your trip

, staying for , and I'd like to see .

If you’d rather not build it yourself

Four journeys, already planned

Each one costed from the tours it books.
Or take one day at a time

Days, ready to drop into a trip

Built from what you said upstairs. Flick through, or open the full list.
Browse and filter all sixteen→
Day 1 of 16
Relaxedwest

Kilchoman and Machir Bay

Islay's only farm distillery, then two miles of white sand that's swallowed more ships than almost anywhere on the island.

Tours, per person
£30
Car needed
See the day →
Moderatepeated south

Two Miles Apart

Laphroaig's tar and iodine against Lagavulin's smoke and dried fruit — two miles apart on the pathway, and further apart than that in the glass.

Tours, per person
£44
Nobody has to drive
No car — two miles on foot
See the day →
Moderatewest

Farm to Bottle, Rhinns Peninsula

Two farm-to-bottle tours out west, with a leisurely lunch and a sunset over Machir Bay to close it.

Tours, per person
£55
Car needed
See the day →
Moderate

Bowmore to Port Ellen, Old and New

Islay's oldest working distillery in the morning, then the one where the man who filled the last cask in 1983 watched the stills run again in 2024.

Tours, per person
£275
Car needed
See the day →
Packednorth east

Three Distilleries, Three Characters

Unmistakably peated at Caol Ila, brand new at Ardnahoe, traditional at Bunnahabhain — three character studies down one road.

Tours, per person
£56
Car needed
See the day →
Relaxednorth east

Bunnahabhain, Back from Silence

Islay's one great unpeated outlier, at the end of a single-track road built for passing places, not traffic.

Tours, per person
£50
Car needed — single-track at the end
See the day →
Moderatenorth east

Ardnahoe, Worth the Wait

Five years between opening the doors and bottling the first single malt — today you taste exactly what the wait was for.

Tours, per person
£60
Car needed
See the day →
Relaxedwest

Bruichladdich, by the Loch

A working Victorian distillery with no computers anywhere in the process, then an afternoon that slows right down by Loch Indaal.

Tours, per person
£25
Car needed
See the day →
Relaxedpeated south

Lagavulin by the Bay

The walk in from Port Ellen passes the ruins of Dunyvaig Castle; the two hours that follow end with a bottle you've filled yourself, straight from the cask.

Tours, per person
£130
Nobody has to drive
Bus, taxi, or two miles on foot timetable →
See the day →
Packedpeated south

Three Legends, One Road

Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg, back to back, all within a few miles of Port Ellen and of each other.

Tours, per person
£66.50
Car, or walk it from Port Ellen
See the day →
Relaxedmiddle

Bowmore, Unhurried

A pool heated by the distillery next door, then a seated tasting that ends in the Harbour Inn's own bar.

Tours, per person
£100
Nobody has to drive
Doable by bus timetable →
See the day →
Relaxednorth east

Caol Ila, Hiding in Plain Sight

Islay's largest distillery spent 156 years filling casks bound mostly for Johnnie Walker — five cask-strength drams, drawn from the barrel in front of you, are poured nowhere else.

Tours, per person
£60
Car needed
See the day →
Relaxed

Jura, Across the Water

258 people, one single-track road, and the Port Askaig to Feolin ferry — the quiet opposite of a day on the distillery trail.

Car and a ferry
See the day →
Relaxedpeated south

Port Ellen, Rebuilt

Rebuilt in 2024 after four decades silent, and priced like it — there is no cheap way through this door, only a free one that pours nothing.

Tours, per person
£250
Nobody has to drive
No car — it is in the village
See the day →
Relaxedpeated south

Ardbeg and the Kildalton Road

The coast road out with the sea beside you, lunch on Ardbeg's own pier, and the Kildalton Cross at the end of it if the legs hold.

Tours, per person
£22.50
Nobody has to drive
No car — four miles on foot
See the day →
Moderatepeated south

Laphroaig and the Mull of Oa

A three-month summer job in 1934 that ended with Bessie Williamson owning the place, then a clifftop loop with Ireland on the horizon if the day's clear.

Tours, per person
£90
Car needed
See the day →
Or straight to
Twenty-five miles end to end

Islay has four moods

Where you stay decides what the week feels like.
Real coastline · four zones · your base marked
The peated south — 4 distilleriesThe middle — 1 distilleryThe west — 2 distilleriesThe north east — 3 distilleriesYour base: The MachrieYour base · The Machrie1the peated south2the middle3the west4the north east
Coastline © OpenStreetMap contributors

  1. The peated south

    The smokiest corner of the island, its distilleries strung close together along one shore road above the Kildalton coast.

    Ardbeg · Lagavulin · Laphroaig · Port Ellen

  2. The middle

    The island's oldest distillery, on Loch Indaal — and the shortest way back from wherever you spent the day.

    Bowmore

  3. The west

    Farm distilling out on the Rhinns, where the barley is grown, malted and bottled within sight of the Atlantic at Machir Bay.

    Bruichladdich · Kilchoman

  4. The north east

    The far shore, above the Sound of Islay, with the Paps of Jura filling the window opposite.

    Ardnahoe · Bunnahabhain · Caol Ila

Browse every distillery

Once you know the shape of the trip

Where to stay

four featured hotels — or pick an area:Port Charlotte Port Ellen Bowmore
The MachrieYour base
Machrie · the middle

The Machrie

Golf on your doorstep by day, a firepit and the whole Atlantic sky by night — The Machrie doesn't try to be anywhere else.

A links course at the door, and an AA rosette in the restaurant

Check availability →
Port Charlotte Hotel
Port Charlotte · the west

Port Charlotte Hotel

Nine of the ten rooms look straight out over Loch Indaal, and the bar downstairs pours more Islay and Jura whisky than most places twice its size.

In the Michelin and Good Food guides, and live music twice a week in season

Check availability →
Ardbeg House
Port Ellen · the south

Ardbeg House

Twelve rooms each built around one of Ardbeg's own stories, a complimentary distillery tour, a nightly Whisky Hour, and a restaurant built on what Islay itself produces.

Whisky Hour at 6.15 nightly, and the distillery tour is included

Check availability →

1 of 4 · your base first

ten you can visit today · thirteen in all

Every distillery on Islay and Jura

See all distilleries →
Filter by region, peat level or tour price
Cheapest door in:
Ardnahoe, £15
Only unpeated:
Bunnahabhain
Cafés on site:
Ardbeg, Ardnahoe, Kilchoman
The decision that comes before all the others

When to go

Islay’s year, in one line.
Apr & Sep · the sweet spot

Everything open, nothing full, and light still long enough for three stops in a day.

Jun – Aug · busiest

Light until ten in midsummer and every tour running, but distilleries book out weeks ahead and so do the beds.

Nov – Feb · quiet

Dark by four, reduced tours and some distilleries closed altogether — the island at its most itself.

MayLate

Fèis Ìle — the island's own week

Every distillery takes a day of its own, opens what it never opens, and bottles something you can only buy standing there. The best week of the year to be here — and beds go roughly a year ahead.

Fèis Íle 2027 is eight months away and Islay is already filling up. If that’s your week, book the bed before anything else.

Book the bed first →Plan for Fèis Ìle→
If your dates are flexible

What’s on

All year →
The things that catch people out

Before you go

Three things worth knowing before you book anything.
01Getting here — read this one first

Port Ellen’s ferry terminal is closed until 2029.

That changes more than people expect — everything sails to Port Askaig instead, at the other end of the island, and car spaces go months ahead.

What you really need to know →

What three days on Islay actually costs

Checked August 2026 · ranges, not quotes
£127
Ferry, two adults with a car, return
£160 – £450
A room, per night, off-season to peak
£15 – £70
A distillery tour, standardpremium experiences run to £900
£72 – £85
Car hire per day, on the islandstandard, premium available

These are our own numbers, not estimates.We’ve driven every road on this site, queued at the Old Kiln, and missed the last tour at Bunnahabhain more than once. Who we are →

Pete and Mark outside the Ardbeg warehouse on Islay, July 2022
Who’s behind this

Two friends, five days, and a month of planning

We’re Pete and Mark. We came to Islay for five days in 2022 and left with rather more than we’d bargained for — and with the knowledge that Pete had spent the best part of a month working out where to go.

DramStory is the thing we wanted before we went.

Read our story →