Aviemore

Aviemore is the gateway to the Cairngorms, Britain's largest national park and its biggest area of high, arctic-like plateau. It is Scotland's best-known outdoor resort town: a ski centre in winter, a hub for hillwalking, mountain biking, watersports and wildlife the rest of the year, all wrapped around the Strathspey valley and ancient Caledonian pine forest.

The town is more resort-strip than charming village — a run of hotels, outdoor shops, cafés and the funicular railway up Cairn Gorm nearby. But the setting is superb: the Northern Corries and the vast Cairngorm plateau above, Loch Morlich and Rothiemurchus forest below, and some of the wildest, most serious mountain terrain in Britain within a short drive.

The Cairngorm plateau is genuinely arctic in winter and demands respect — navigation, weather and cold catch people out even in the "gentle" rounded hills. In summer it is a paradise of long ridge walks, big skies and rare wildlife.

Winter (roughly December to April) brings skiing at Cairn Gorm and serious winter mountaineering on the plateau. Late spring to autumn is superb for hillwalking, biking and watersports, with long daylight in June. The Cairngorms hold snow late and turn wintry fast — always check the forecast and avalanche report before heading high.

Aviemore sits right on the A9 and the Highland Main Line railway, about 45 minutes south of Inverness airport and roughly three hours by train from Edinburgh or Glasgow. It is one of the easiest Highland basecamps to reach without a car, though a car helps for the further trailheads.