My wife and I did it in September 2020 between the Lockdown waves as part of a trip around the entire GB coastline, which we did in 36 days.
DON'T just go up the West coast at all. The highlight of our trip was the single day we covered a dozen stunning beaches between Thurso and Ullapool across the North coast. It was not a nice day but the beaches and scenery in Sutherland were fabulous and we didnt even get to see Sandwood Bay which is a long trek by foot.
We did the coastal part of the NC500. People say take other roads when they haven't been. There are very few options and stay closest to the coast.
We also left Inverness and went around the Black Isle (not an island and over the Kessock bridge from Inverness) before going around the NC500 route. In truth there isn't much to recommend there and the beaches are nothing much.
Melvich, Torrisdale Bay, Ceannabeinna/Rispond, Sangobeg, Sango Sands, Balnakeil, Oldshoremore, Polin, Clachtoll, Achmelvich are ten of the best beaches you will see on this island.
Smoo Cave and Drumreg are other lovely spots.
What we did in a very long day, we will return to do in three.
We will then take in a trip to Cape Wrath, the Cliffs of Clo Mor and Sandwood Bay which require an organised trip to get to, or a fair hike.
A night in Thurso, then a day to Durness area and overnight; then a day to Polin/Oldshoremore area and overnight; and then a day to Ullapool covering the Scourie, Drumbeg, Stoer, and Clachtoll, Achemelvich beaches.
September was not heaving with traffic, weather was hit and miss, the midgies very limited.
As an aside, the East Coast is massively looked down on for reasons we didn't understand at all.
Lunan Bay north of Arbroath, St Cyrus north of Montrose, Newburgh Seal beach north of Aberdeen, Cruden Bay south of Peterhead, St Combes south of Fraserburgh, and then Cullen, Lossiemouth and Nairn are all part of a lovely route up the easy coast from St Andrews up through Dundee, Aberdeen and along to Inverness. There are coastal harbours too (especially Fife) and castles with the highlight the stunning Dunnottar Castle, south of Stonehaven.
Dornoch, Embo, Golspie, Keiss and Dunnet beaches then help link from Inverness up to Wick, John o Groats and on to Thurso.
There are lovely aspects to the north west coast and a few good beaches between Ullapool and Gairloch; we loved Firemore on the Melvaig peninsula and the beach south of Gairloch is a nice spot, but overall we preferred the north coast by a huge margin. Much of the west coast can't be driven around and is not covered on the NC500. The parts that are are beautful and it is well worth driving the Applecross coast and Pass of the Cattle.
South of Lochcarron the west coast is again without roads and just stretches to outlier harbours.
There are some nice beaches between Mallaig and Arisaig with an absolute cracker at Camusdarach which was used with much artistic license by the film Local Hero set in Pennan way over in the north east and with nothing like the beach. (We did Camusdarach and Arisaig the year earlier on a trip that included lovely Arran, the wonderful Mull and very disappointing Skye)
It depends what you are after, there is some great scenery in the west of course, but for mainland beaches, the north coast is best and the east has better.
The Firth of Clyde and Ayrshire are the most disappointing coasts we saw. We preferred Dumfries and Galloway in the south west.
The Welsh coast line has some equally fabulous highlights on the Llyn Peninsula, Pembrokeshire and Gower Peninsula.
Cornwall was our favourite coast overall, beautifully flanked by Devon.
But everywhere we travelled, there wasn't far to lovely stretches of coast. It was a magical trip, of which the coastal part of the NC500 was a real highlight.
Northumberland is lovely, so to the Yorkshire coast. Even County Durham is unrecognisable from the Black Sea eyesores of the past, and lovely.
I don't care for pebble beaches and there are only 3 sandy beaches on the south coast between Bournemouth and Dover, so the south coast was without doubt my least favourite coast in GB followed by Lancashire. But even along these stretches there is so much to smile at (Seven Sisters coastline in Sussex and Ainsdale Beach below Southport)
Writing this makes me want to do the trip again, but we won't, we will just return to the highlights or bits we saw on bleak days and spend a little more time.
Enjoy the NC500, but enjoy our wonderful island wherever you head to.