I have family & friends in the Borders. & in Orkney. I go there roughly once a year. So three times a year. When I go to the Borders I’ll take my wee van on the DFDS overnight ferry IJmuiden-South Shields. I’m usually ordered
to take some stuff along - both ways, a good excuse for using the van
. It takes me longer to drive to IJmuiden than from Newcastle to Gala. Getting there by train would involve me being picked up in Berwick or Tweedbank. No chance (but I have been on the Borders line, up & down to Edinburgh
).
As for Orkney, I fly - simples, to quote the daughter of the manse.
The ferry from/to Aberdeen is no use, it doesn’t run every day. & it arrives & leaves just before midnight (hopefully).
There isn’t a decent connection to the Stromness-Scrabster ferry - a lifeline service? Transport Scotland should do something about that
.
& then there is Pentland Ferries of course, not subsidised - but profitable all the same. So TS can’t be bothered to stipulate a connecting bus service Inverness-Gills bay.
If (lol) there were a sleeper to Thurso (sometimes misnamed Wick sleeper
) with a proper ferry connection I for one would be tempted to use it, as time is not really a constraint. But it would allow people - including me - to get to one of the other islands.
In fact I have done it once, quite a few years ago now, when there happened to be a connecting bus service from Inverness (one change - but straightforward).
But airport lounges - yuk. Seen too many of those, both big & small.