I'm wondering if anyone can offer their experience with Go Rail Travel company. If so, would you use them again? My sister and I want to travel via train for our Scotland trip. We want to travel to Skye, Orkney, Inverness, and arrive / depart from Glasgow or Edinburgh. This will be our second trip.
I'm also researching ScotRail.
Thanks.
I’m not familiar with them but I’ve been to Orkney twice. What are they telling you the arrangements will be for Orkney since there are no trains there?
Are they just a 3rd party travel agent who tries to book your rail tickets for you! Do they book hotels as well?
Scotrail is the national rail company. I typically book direct for trains. Now that Scotrail has fixed their website, it is quite easy to use. Sounds like you and your sister will be traveling together. Look into the Two Together Rail Pass.
There is a thread on Trip Advisor about them dated February 2026 which you may find interesting.
As already mentioned - there is no rail service on Skye or on Orkney. What arrangements do they make for you to get around either of these places?
No experience of using them, much experience of using internet.
I looked at the website, really looked at it. The number of possible tours across all those countries is absolutely massive - they seem to be much bigger than RS Travel. Clearly targeting (or preying on) Americans with dollar pricing and a 1-800 phone number, but not an American company because if you scroll down there's their address "Kilroys House , Patrick Street , Mullingar" - so that would be in the Republic of Ireland!
So, I put that address into Google Maps and then switched to Streetview to see how big their corporate HQ is. You can do the same. It's a tiny little cottage. So I put that address as a phrase ( include quote marks) into a Google search. You can do the same. On just page 1 of results this tiny cottage is home to Go Euro Tours, Dreamtrip Scotland, Go Asian Tours, Go Iceland Tours, Go Irish Tours, Go Scottish Tours, GoNewZealand Tours, Go France Tours. And a company call DG Ventures https://dgventureslimited.com/brand/
Adding a bit of european knowledge to the matter, the Go Rail Travel site doesn't mention any consumer protection in case of company failure which an EU company of this sort should have. Nor does it show any Irish company registration details - probably because it's not a registered company. But DG Ventures has at least 5 variants of company registration, sadly Irish records aren't as open as in the UK so I can't check actual people.
So how do you feel now about handing over money (they seem to prefer wire transfers....)?
Mr Crewe’s comment raised all sort of red flags to me.
I’ve just been looking at their website (not the easiest to use and that put me off) and itineraries. The one for Scottish Towns and Countryside has a stunning image of a train passing through a medieval castle.
It looks dramatic, but unfortunately it is AI generated and definitely nowhere in Scotland. That was enough to make me wonder just how much else of the website is computer generated...
that AI train is actually in the welsh livery! DG Ventures have a side line in AI services......
There are photos of GRT staff on one page, one is wearing a company logoed shirt whilst standing on front of Tower Bridge in London - seems a long way ot go for a photo. I don't think that's real either..
To All: Thank you for your advice and taking time to do research on this company. I'll be doing our own research and bookings directly with bed and breakfasts and ScotRail. Many thanks!
you're welcome - some of the stuff was so bad it was entertaining!
Anyway, add these to your research list
for travel to Orkney: https://www.orkneyferries.co.uk/ and https://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/
for Skye, and possibly reaching ferry terminals for above https://www.stagecoachbus.com/about/north-scotland
for travel to Orkney: https://www.orkneyferries.co.uk
No, they are the inter island Orkney ferries, the other company from the mainland (at Gills Bay) is Pentland Ferries- https://pentlandferries.co.uk/
Gills Bay is pretty much equidistant between Thurso and Wick.
But Northlink are the better company to Orkney because both Scottish Citylink and Ember bus run direct to Scrabster Terminal from Inverness, rather than having to get from Thurso Rail Station to Scrabster,
The Citylink service is really run by Stagecoach North Scotland so the buses are not usually Citylink liveried- they are either Stagecoach yellow distance or Megabus livery.
Stagecoach won't get you to any mainland Skye ferry terminal- that is Shiel Buses from Fort William to Mallaig, or Scottish Citylink for services over the Skye Bridge (and soon Ember Bus as well).
Stagecoach just run services on Skye so to the three ferry terminals on Skye.
