Compact
Vauxhall Corsa or similar · 5 seats · Manual · 1–2 luggage
from£61.60incl. VAT
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Car hire on the Isle of Lewis
Lewis is the largest island in the chain and the one where a car changes the trip most. This page covers where you can arrive, what the driving is actually like, and how to choose a vehicle for it.
Getting there
Three ways onto the island
Most people arrive by air into Stornoway or by ferry from Ullapool into the ferry terminal. Both have a Car Hire Hebrides desk, and both are a short step from being on the road.
The third way is from the south, arriving into Harris and driving north. If that is your route, Tarbert is a collection point too, and a one-way hire ending at Stornoway saves driving the length of both islands twice.
What the driving is like
Distance is not the useful measure here
Lewis roads are a mix of reasonable two-lane road and long single-track sections with passing places. On single-track, your pace is set by oncoming traffic and by how willing you are to reverse to the last passing place, not by the distance on the map.
Add weather that changes quickly, sheep with no interest in your schedule, and short winter daylight, and the honest guidance is to plan generously and stop when something is worth stopping for. Anyone who tells you a fixed journey time for the west coast has not driven it in a headwind.
Planning fuel
Fill up before you need to, not when you do
Fuel is straightforward in and around Stornoway and progressively less so as you head west and north. The practical habit is to treat a half tank as the point to start thinking about it rather than the point to ignore it.
We would rather say that than publish a list of fuel stops that goes out of date without anyone noticing. Opening times and provision change, and a stale list is worse than no list.
Heading south
Lewis into Harris
Lewis and Harris are one landmass, so no ferry is involved in going between them: the boundary is a change of name and a very obvious change of landscape.
That makes a Lewis-and-Harris trip natural to do in one hire, and it makes Tarbert a genuine alternative endpoint if you are sailing onward rather than returning north.
Choosing a vehicle
Vehicles for Lewis roads
Intermediate
Volkswagen Golf or similar · 5 seats · Manual · 2–3 luggage
from£65.63incl. VAT
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Family Automatic
JAECOO 7 or similar · 5 seats · Automatic · 3–4 luggage
from£84.31incl. VAT
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Single-track sections reward a car you can place accurately. Boot space matters if you are staying a week. Availability is decided by the booking search, not by this list.
Drive Lewis properly
Book a vehicle you are comfortable placing on a single-track road and give yourself the time the island asks for.
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