Shetland on a budget

If you cancel, you’ll get a full and prompt refund, provided that you contact NorthLink before check-in for your sailing opens. Nor is there any charge for amending bookings, and NorthLink staff will help you.

Broadly, peak season runs from mid-June until around the end of August. Low season covers November through most of March, except the Christmas and New Year period, which is charged at mid-season rates. In most of spring and autumn, mid-season rates apply.

In peak season, the basic fare, without any accommodation, is £46 single, £92 return. That drops to £38 single, £76 return in mid season and £29.50 single, £59 return, in low season. A 10% discount is available for those with a disability, those over the age of 60, and students in full time education. The discount is available to all nationalities but, if claiming the student discount, you’ll need to show your student card at check-in. These concessionary fares are available to all nationalities.

If you want any form of accommodation, you need to add the costs below to that basic fare. There are many options, including for example pet-friendly cabins, but we’ve focused on the most popular choices here.

The simplest is a reclining seat, which costs £3.50 each way, but there are also more elaborate recliners – known as sleeping pods – costing £18 each way. Recently, some of these have been replaced by more comfortable ‘lie-flat’ pods, which cost £30 each way. These prices don’t vary seasonally.

If it’s within your budget, the best option is a cabin; these are priced like hotel rooms, so the price per person depends on how many of you are splitting the cost. It’s no longer possible to buy an individual berth in a cabin direct from NorthLink, but you can sometimes find informal offers, or make a request, on a Facebook page, Share a Cabin on NorthLink.

There are several different kinds of cabin. All of them feature a shower and lavatory, hanging space for clothes, tea and coffee making facilities and a television. Almost all cabins have twin beds; if it’s a four-berth one, there are also two pull-down bunks.

The least expensive cabin option is an inner 2-berth, priced at £118 in peak season, £98 in mid season and £80 in low season. However, there are only three of these on each ship.

A four-berth inside cabin costs £153 each way in peak season, dropping to £139 in mid season and £98 in low season. A two-berth outside cabin in peak season costs £157 each way, or £143 in mid season, £102 in low season. Since these prices are per cabin, each of four people in a four-berth will pay £37.25 each way.

Several travel permutations are possible. Starting from Aberdeen, you can sail four evenings a week to Orkney, then take an overnight sailing from Orkney to Shetland, and return from Shetland to Aberdeen; or you can do that the other way round. On the fast, evening sailings from either Aberdeen or Lerwick, you’ll arrive in Kirkwall by 2300, so you probably won’t want to book accommodation, other than perhaps a reclining seat.

From Orkney, you have three options heading south: the overnight NorthLink crossing to Aberdeen, the daytime NorthLink ones to Scrabster, or the daytime Pentland Ferries service from St Margaret’s Hope to Gill’s Bay. Travelling to or from Scrabster or Gill’s Bay, you have the chance to take in some of the northern Highlands, perhaps exploring the wonderful scenery of Assynt and Wester Ross. There are bus services to Inverness from Scrabster, or you can take a train from nearby Thurso, but do check timetables carefully.

Coach fares vary by operator, but travel by Ember, Flixbus or Scottish CityLink is likely to cost between about £9 and £20 single; you may qualify for age-based or student reductions, or free travel if you live in Scotland and have a national entitlement card.

If you book early, the cheapest (non-flexible) Advance rail tickets from ScotRail start at around £15 single; booking later, or on a more flexible ticket, will cost more. All fares will be 33% lower if you have a Railcard; if there are two of you travelling together, one Two Together Railcard (£35) gives both of you the discount, though you’d need to be covering greater distances by rail to make a big saving.

On itineraries that include travel around Scotland, it may be worth considering the ScotRail Spirit of Scotland Pass, which gives 20% off NorthLink fares as well as free rail travel and, on some routes, free bus travel. Again, though, the best value comes from making several longer rail journeys.

The least expensive fares are usually from Aberdeen to Sumburgh; these start at around £214 return, but booking at short notice can push that price to well over £500. From Edinburgh to Sumburgh, the cheapest return ticket, bought several months ahead, is likely to be priced at more than £300; bought later, the fare can exceed £600.

These are clearly not budget options, but a couple of tips may help. Firstly, if you’re travelling from farther afield, and especially if time is short, it may be worth checking prices on the British Airways website. It’s not unknown for the price of a flight from London to Shetland to be lower than a flight on the same day from Edinburgh to Shetland.

Secondly, that codeshare agreement gives you some protection if things go wrong, and both Loganair and British Airways should re-book you if, for example, fog causes disruption at Sumburgh. However, if you book with another airline to Aberdeen, then a Loganair flight to Shetland, you’ll not benefit from that protection. What you might consider doing, if flying from London or elsewhere, is buying a ticket to Aberdeen on a low-cost airline, then taking the ferry north.

Just as with any journey, anywhere in the world, things can go wrong. It’s always a good idea to have travel insurance.

In the budget category, the possibilities include two youth hostels. The one in Islesburgh House in Lerwick is affiliated to the SYHA and, a few years back, it won the accolade of Best Hostel in the World. The other youth hostel is the independent Gardiesfauld at Uyeasound in Unst, and it, too, is comfortable and well-equipped. You can camp in the sheltered garden, too.

Despite what you may read in guidebooks, several of the Camping Böds that used to offer low-cost accommodation are no longer available. However, some community groups have either taken on their management or are considering doing so. You can check the latest position and find booking details on the Camping Böds website.

The Böds are interesting historic buildings that have been sensitively converted. Their size and facilities differ, but at a minimum they have a dry place to sleep, a solid fuel stove, some kind of cooking facility, a cold water supply and a toilet. To stay in them, you should bring everything you’d normally take on a camping trip, except for the tent. At the time of writing, those available were the small Johnnie ‘Notions’ in Eshaness and the larger Aithbank in Fetlar.

The third option is to bring a tent. There are well-equipped places to camp around the islands, all of them associated with caravan sites, including Levenwick in the south mainland; Bridge End in Burra Isle; just north of Scalloway, in the Tingwall valley; Skeld in the West Mainland; Brae in Delting; Eshaness in the north-west mainland; Burravoe in Yell; and Gardiesfauld, beside the Youth Hostel, in Unst.

If you follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, you can enjoy wild camping on unenclosed land, allowing you to experience some of the remotest corners. Your access rights include responsible lightweight camping in tents, in small numbers and for two or three nights in any one place, keeping well away from buildings and roads. You must leave no trace of your campsite, deal with waste responsibly and avoid creating any fire risk. If you do want to camp in or near a settlement, it’s courteous – and often productive – to ask for advice at the nearest house.

It's important to bear in mind that, under the access rules, ‘wild camping’ doesn’t extend to sleeping in a vehicle.

Other options include ‘wigwams’ or ‘glamping pods’. Several of these have been created in recent years, including those in a very scenic setting at Rerwick in the south mainland, at Brae (very attractively set in woodland on a working croft) and on the campsite at Eshaness, (with a great view over the coast). These are a step up from any of the previous suggestions, and prices naturally reflect that, but there’s a lot to like about these cosy cabins, very comfortably fitted out.

There’s no question that having your own transport gives you much greater flexibility. If you would like to bring a car on the ferry from Aberdeen, it costs £157 each way in peak season, £149 in mid season or £120 in low season. These rates also apply to motorhomes and camper vans under 6m in length. Longer vehicles, and car-caravan combinations, are charged by adding a cost per extra metre to the basic charge.

Motorcycle fares are £38.50 each way in peak season, £35.50 in mid season and £31.50 in low season.

If your stay is short, or if you’d like to have a car only when you really need it, it may make sense to hire one for just a few days.

The main road network in Shetland is mostly two-lane, with single-track roads serving smaller communities. The roads are well-maintained.

Another increasingly popular option is to travel around Shetland by bike. You can bring a bicycle on the NorthLink ferry for free, but it’s also possible to hire bikes – including electric models – in Shetland. Bear in mind, though, that on major roads, traffic moves fast, and young, inexperienced or nervous riders may not be safe or feel comfortable. It helps that some stretches have an informal hard shoulder, which can offer a refuge, and short sections of dedicated cycle track are beginning to appear.

For contact details for all these rental possibilities, we have a list of operators; it also includes motorhome and coach hire, in case you’re planning to bring a group. One tip: do shop around if you want to rent a car, because hire rates vary considerably.

If you want to visit any of the islands, you’ll need to make use of our inter-island ferries or – in the cases of Fair Isle and Foula – perhaps take a flight.

Inter-island ferry timetables can be found on the same website or on the Shetland Islands Council ferry timetable page. When planning your travel, it’s important to note that all the times shown are departures. No arrival times are given.

A ferry fares schedule is also available; on most routes, fares at the time of writing were £2.80 return for an adult and £16.50 return for a car up to 5.5m long. Motorcycles pay £13.00 return and motorhome prices start at £23.50 return. To Foula, the return fare is £5.60 and to Fair Isle it’s £39.

The flights to Fair Isle and Foula are operated on behalf of Shetland Islands Council by AirTask Group Ltd., using Britten-Norman Islander aircraft. They operate from Tingwall Airport, about six miles from Lerwick.

There are two or three daily flights to each island on Mondays to Fridays, with one to each on Saturdays. You can find a summer timetable here. The flight time between Tingwall and Fair Isle is 25 minutes: for Foula, it’s 15 minutes.

Return fares in 2026 were £118.76 to Fair Isle and £112.02 to Foula.

On either service, the views of Shetland are spectacular.

But there are others which are definitely worth the price of a ticket, for example admission to the archaeological site at Jarlshof, the ferry fare to visit the Broch on Mousa or perhaps a wildlife cruise.

So, Shetland on a budget is possible and we have lots of information about the islands on our website, including area guides. Or, maybe you know someone who’d really fancy seeing the islands, perhaps a student who’ll be thinking of the next summer vacation and may be in need of an adventure after finals? If so, by all means forward this article to them.

Whenever and however you come, we look forward very much to welcoming you!