Day Trip - Tour group or rent a van?

You definitely don't want to drink and drive so someone would have to be a designated driver. I don't suppose though that any wants to abstain.

Rabbies gets a good rating on this forum and on TA. Also, maybe what you need to do is hire a driver a tour guide. Here's a link to the Scottish Tourist Guides Association. I tried searching for bespoke distillery tours on VisitScotland and didn't get anywhere. Anything custom is called bespoke in Brittish. :) Just plain googling bespoke distillery tours brought up this place.

You do have four hours of driving on this tour. Are these particular whiskys that you want to taste or are you more about scenery?

Pam

Thank you Pam!

I probably shouldn’t say this...but here goes...
Love Rabbies tours.
Especially loved the ones that stop off in a town for lunch or dinner.
On one tour we had an average lunch in a pub...but the bar was amazing in this one pub.
Was fun to slither back onto the bus knowing we didn’t have to drive. The rest of the bus slept through the rest of the tour.
I’ll always remember... was the best beer and scotch I ever had.

We always use Rabbies for our tours wherever we are. Love having someone else do the driving for us.

I did that very tour last summer with my brother and friends as a part of his 60th birthday celebrations . great tour but you actually have to pay for the distillery tours once you are at the distillery. They stop at the Oaktree inn for lunch (again you have to pay )and it is a very short walk from there onto the banks of Loch Lomond.We had a wonderful summers day and shared the tour with a Japanese couple, German couple and a couple of guys from Canada,great fun.
Spent over £100 on 2 bottles of whisky and a few other souvineers.

I have not taken any of these tours. But I've recently been looking at the Edinburgh guides in Rick's book and (given the size of your group) would at least check price and availability with Kenny Hanley at http://www.small-world-tours.co.uk/ToursDriver.htm. 250 pounds for a full day but extra for using his van, so I don't know the total price. He certainly has an affinity for whisky.

That's great to hear about Laura! Since I usually travel solo I don't use personal guides myself, but they seem like a option worth exploring if you are a decent sized group.

Great advice, Laura! I'll be sure to look at that link. Thank you!

Being able to split the cost 6 ways makes a lot of things more reasonable.The advantage of a tour or having a driver is that opportunity to talk to the driver adds a lot that is unavailable if you drive yourself selves. That is beyond the basic tour stuff that he tells you.