Booking a tour for Mull, Iona and possibly Staffa

Only to say that it may take them a few more days to reply because during the off season they may only work a few hours a week.

We also will be booking with either West coast tours or Staffa tours, but have not done so yet. It is still a bit early, me thinks. Plus, I’m torn whether to wait until we get to Oban to book because I want to go on the best possible weather day.

We did the Three Isles Tour in June last year. Staffa Tours and West Coast Tours are either the same company, or work together. When you pick up the tickets at the offices, you are issued about 6 tickets, and you hand in a ticket at the beginning of each leg. On the Three Isles Tour, everyone takes the huge ferry to Mull. There, a West Coach Tours bus picks you up, and the driver gives a narrated drive across the island to Fionnphort, where you board a small boat. There was a small food truck there where a few people bought sandwiches. A small boat brings you to Staffa, and says when they'll be back for you. More people did the walk out to see the puffins and take pictures of them than climbed down to Fingal's Cave, but there is a good view of the cave as you approach the island. Some did both, but you'd have to move along. The puffins were amazing! The come right up to people if you stay still and wait for them. The next boat brings you to Iona, and there are a few lunch places at the port--soup and sandwiches, etc. When you're done, you get another small boat back to Fionnphort, then bus to ferry, and ferry back. You move at your own pace, within the confines of when the boats go. It's a long day, but we really enjoyed it. I believe that if you book ahead you can change the date if the weather will be bad on your day. When we picked up the tickets the night before, as they strongly suggest, we inquired about changing since it was pouring buckets at that time, but they checked the weather for the next day and said it would be fine. There were some showers while on the ferry on the way over, but then it cleared and was lovely.

If you are staying in Oban, I strongly suggest making dinner reservations for that evening before you go as it's after 8:00 when you return. Luckily we did, and others that came off the ferry with us were turned away. We found the restaurants filled up with reservations in Oban on the other evenings, as well.

West Coast Tours "early bird" 3 island tour gets you back to Oban a little earlier in the day. Purchase your tickets through west coast tours and they will include Staffa tours automatically. Just go to their website.

Loved this tour and highly recommend it.

The Early bird tours only run on certain days, and not on the day we were going, unfortunately, or we would have done it.

We booked a couple of boat trips once we arrived in Oban. I looked up information in advance, so we knew which trips we wanted. If you like birds - you may want to take the Gordon Grant tour to Lunga to see Puffin breeding grounds. If you do, take food and water with you. (Backpack time) You will be going to islands that are preserved for nature and have no buildings. There are multiple wildlife tours from Oban.

I already booked for the 3-island tour for early June with West Coast Motors as we have assigned 2 nights in Oban, taking one whole day to tour the 3 islands. So rain or shine, we are going! We received a booking confirmation with a voucher (for redeeming the tickets there) in a few days' time.

Thanks to everyone!