Orkney, Skye, & The Far North

Customer Reviews

• BB

  Barbara

  · September 23rd, 2022
  The tour was very well organized and contained just what we were looking for. The vans were clean and comfortable. The overnight accommodations were anywhere from good to excellent. The stops on the tour were all interesting and enjoyable and followed the itinerary that we were given ahead of time. We had two different tour guides for the 8-day tour and were not equally pleased with them. Our first guide was Jamie Stewart. We couldn't have been more pleased with his guidance and attention to safety. He was very knowledgeable about the places we visited and gave us additional information about Scottish history and geography and folklore while he drove us from place to place. He has a great sense of humor and related well to the various age groups that comprised our tour. Jamie created a theme for his part of the tour which included Scottish music he played and talked about. He was sincere and seemed committed to giving us the best experience possible. Our second guide was Andy. Overall, his performance was good most of the time but only adequate at other times. He spent time telling us about himself and his life when we were more interested in learning more aspects related to the tour and about Scotland. His knowledge was more general than Jamie's. Because I had done research prior to the trip and brought some information along, my husband and I had some knowledge of the sites that we visited and also Scottish history. What Andy told us didn't always agree with what we had in writing. He often skirted the questions that were asked and gave answers that weren't always related to the questions. He was friendly and has a good sense of humor, but the kidding that he did with one of the female travelers was borderline inappropriate at times. The music he played was often American pop and not related to Scotland. What we saw in the Orkneys was spectacular, and our reaction to what we saw was not diminished by the comments about Andy made in this paragraph.
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  Trip date: September 2022
• CP

  christine

  · June 7th, 2022
  Please note that the agency is not responding to my emails at all. I finished this tour yesterday and tested positive for covid today. First time so far! This possibly could have been avoided. There was no ask for wearing masks or temperature measure prior departure as indicated in writing to me before. Even as a person with an obviously active infection boarded she was not asked to wear a mask despite multiple people explaining the intrinsic safety risk to the decision of the driver to tolerate it without acting protective of the group at all. Well, despite getting a hit on my health and wellbeing, the second driver (last 4 days) was disorganized, openly aggressive and cannot be considered as a guide considering the minimal information he shared on what we were visiting. I am truly dissatisfied with this offer and consider it as a loss of my time and money. Hope you have measures to protect others from having to experience things like this. Everybody deserves enjoyable holidays!
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  Trip date: May 2022
• 

  Deepa

  · May 22nd, 2022
  I had the most amazing 8 days exploring Scotland. The tour was fantastic, the places enchanting, the people were lovely and Graham, our tour director made it memorable for everyone by seamlessly bringing us all together and making sure we had a good time with patience, humour, knowledge, experience and skill. I had a magical time and can’t wait to visit again!
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  Trip date: May 2022
• 

  Marie

  · October 7th, 2019
  The tour of Scotland was thoroughly enjoyable and provided many highlights. The guides went out of their way to provide relevant background information about all the areas we passed through and took every opportunity to find extra sites to visit. The guides maintained great rapport with all the participants and were very well organised.
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  Trip date: September 2019
• DK

  Donna

  · August 1st, 2017
  When I booked this tour I was hoping for a memorable experience....I DEFINATELY got that!!!! I cannot fault Neil our bus driver/guide he was brilliant........ Of the 6 nights I was on the tour 2 nights there was NO accommodation for me....the first night to be told the Head Office had rung through that day to where I was meant to be staying to cancel my booking. Eventually Neil organised something for me. 2nd and 3rd nights I stayed in a beautiful B&B but was meant to have my own bathroom, not so... I had to share with others from another tour company who didn't give a dam how they left the bathroom. 4th night once again no accommodation booked for me so Neil gave me another persons room. Day 5 we swapped to another bus driver Alan who was new to the tour and was expecting a tour guide who unfortunately couldn't come as his wife was taken sick. This meant we had no tour guide for the next 3 days....What was the name of that Castle? That river? etc, We paid for a guided tour which we didn't get for the last 3 days. Some of the restaurants/cafes in the towns we stopped for lunch turned us away as they couldn't cater for all the tour buses in town so we didn't get lunch. These people should be used to having tourists and cater for them. Overall I was VERY disappointed in the organisation of this tour. Neil was absolutely brilliant and i felt very sorry for him as each night someone's accommodation was messed up and he had to sort it out. On our bus there were people from a 5 day and 7 day tour...another bus followed us with the same people doing both tours- Why not put all the same tour on the one bus? Crazy as the other driver was dropping people off at the same place as Neil of a night - Would have been nice to have been staying with fellow passengers especially when travelling alone. I was VERY disappointed in the tour especially for the money we paid. I definitely wouldn't recommend this company to anyone.
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  Trip date: June 2017