Orkney & Shetland tours

Hi George -

We were up there - the Orkneys - last year and flew in from Edinburgh, picking up a rental car at the airport. We had an AirBnB at St Mary’s and although we were out and about every day for the full week we were there, we barely covered the ‘mainland’, not needing to visit the other islands, or indeed not having the time.

I thoroughly recommend doing your own thing as having a car allows to to visit the more inaccessible points as and when - for instance we made a second call at the Ring of Brodgar in the evening and the weather and in particular the light, was stunning. Not something you’d probably have the option to do if you were on an organised tour. Feel free to contact me if you want more info on how we filled our time.

It’s a very long time since I was last in the Shetlands and back then, again, we hired a car. I would think it virtually impossible to cover the Shetlands as we did without a hire car, and I’m pretty sure nothing much will have changed.

Hope you get something sorted!

Ian

George
I would agree with ianandjulie about organising your own 'tour'. We were in Shetland the last two years, with our own car and didn't really see any evidence of tour groups (except one day when a cruise ship was in). If you want to see our trip report you will find it under the Trip Reports section on the forum.

You could either take the overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick as foot passengers or you could fly using Loganair. Then rent a car using a local company such as Bolts. The ferries to take you between the various Shetland islands are bookable via the local council website and while the site is not that easy to navigate, it's possible to phone up to check schedules and make bookings.

There are quite a few B&Bs spread across Shetland and a few small hotels. It would be pretty easy to plan your own tour based on your interests, be they hiking, history, the local yarn and knitting craft businesses, or a combination of all those.

The same applies to Orkney, although my sense is that Orkney is much busier than Shetland.

Yes! I am doing tours of Orkney and Shetland in July with a small group tour company called Seymour Travels. Mark Seymour is a former Rick Steves guide. The tours are limited to 10 people. This year he has divided Orkney and Shetland and is doing 2 separate tours although previously he's combined them. I did the combo tour in August 2023 and was blown away by these islands.

https://www.seymourtravels.co.uk/2025tours

If you are interested, here is my Trip Report from 2023.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/seymour-travels-scottish-island-tour-orkney-and-shetland

I've done 3 tours with Mark, all excellent. I did Northern England first which got me to Lindesfarne which most tours don't include owing to the timing of getting across the tidal causeway to the island. I did the Orkney and Shetland tour and then in October I did his Loire Valley, Brittany and Normandy tour.

I agree with IanandJulie and Skyegirl that if you do this on your own you really would need to rent a car. There is some public transit but it is not frequent and is of course aimed at the schedules the locals want instead of being a tourist infrastructure.

I did Orkney and Shetland in 2023 on a self-guided tour with McKinley Kidd. We were on our own with a rental car on the main islands, but McKK made all of the arrangements. This is a big deal because getting there and then getting to the smaller islands (which you really should try to do) requires a lot of transit and there is not a lot of capacity. Also, with weather, flights and sails can be canceled. I loved knowing that if anything was canceled, McKK would take care of rescheduling. Fortunately for us, nothing was canceled, but it does happen.

McKK has many different options for visiting both island groups, both guided and self-guided. We took the Complete Orkney and Shetland self-guided tour and loved it. You might want to check out their website; if nothing else, it will give you ideas for itineraries.

I agree that a rental car is pretty much of a necessity to see everything. We never rent cars anymore, but we did there. There is practically no traffic, so it is easy driving. No interstates, LOL!

We always rent a car and roll our own itineraries, but especially in Orkney/Shetland. When you get a tour with people with diverse interests, the guide has to cater to all. If you like walking, someone else will like whiskey tasting. If you like Neolithic ruins, someone else will prefer cathedrals. And then there's the issue of being able to time some visits for when the tide is best, not when it is most convenient.

With a rental car, and an early start, you can cover the Shetland mainland in three full days. We spent three nights in Lerwick in 2022 (2.5 days) and saw everything from Sumburgh Head to Eshaness to Bressay to St. Ninian's. Returning for 8 days in 2026
for Fetlar, Foula and Fair Isle.

Again, with some hustle, you can cover the Orkney mainland in three full days, and a few more days can add some islands.
We spent three nights (only 2.5 days) in 2022) and didn't get to Stromness or South Ronaldsay, both "mainland". We're returning for 10 days next trip, to catch the various islands.

If you like to sleep in or you visit during shorter daylight hours, add days. If you come by ferry, add time to adjust.

Making your own way is by far the better option in my opinion.

Most of the tours I have seen to Orkney seem to concentrate mainly on the Prehistoric stuff and the predictable easy to reach bits of the wartime history.

They seem to pay little regard to the other parts of the rich tapestry of Orkney- the very unique town of Stromness and it's deep maritime history being one. The Isle of Stronsay- once one of the most important herring ports in Scotland being another.

On the wartime bit everyone gets to the Churchill Barriers and the Italian Chapel- but few seem to get out to the Kitchener/HMS Memorial at Marwick Head (and now even more impressive than when it was built) or across to Hoy (very, very easy to get there). Besides wartime there is quite a lot more on Hoy.

People go to Rousay, again for the Prehistoric remains, but few follow the St Magnus trail (the religious history behind Kirkwall Cathedral) to Egilsay and Wyre. Each of the out isles (the northern ones especially) are very distinctively different from each other with the star to me being North Ronaldsay-but I doubt you will ever get an organised tour going there. I have not gone to Orkney (even on the briefest of visits) without including at least one island- even if that is 'just' Shapinsay- which is almost the cheat's island experience.

Much the same could be said about Shetland- tours will take you to their perceived highlights- not necessarily where interest you and will always omit some or most of the more interesting islands.

"Making your own way is by far the better option in my opinion. Most of the tours I have seen to Orkney seem to concentrate mainly on the Prehistoric stuff and the predictable easy to reach bits of the wartime history."

I don't want to sound like I am being defensive about tours (I guess I am, though) but when you have a group of 8-10 the guide can do some tailoring for the group. Mark does make an effort for his tours to be immersive so people can understand the locale as well as the locals, lol.

Yes, on Orkney we did do the main Neolithic sites of Maeshowe, Stones of Stenness and the Barnhouse Settlement plus Ring of Brodgar (with a Scottish National Parks Ranger assigned to Ring of Brodgar - It was his day off be he apparently enjoys educating American tourists, lol). We also did Unstan and Cuween Chambered Cairns. We also spent a few hours one morning with a local teacher who's had to branch out to make a living (writes children's books) and helps her Dad on their farm. The farm is in a fabulous site...overlooking Scapa Flow. She was breeding Highland/Shorthorn cross cattle. We did a number of cliff top walks, Yesnaby plus a few hours on the Broch of Birsay based on the tide tables. And yes, we walked to the Kitchener Memorial and did some birding along the cliff walk there.

Honestly for me, I'm not going to drive in UK. I did so when I was 35, not doing it as a solo traveler at 75. I'm also not going to futz around with trying to make public transit work on one of these islands. I'll do public transit in other areas but here the schedules are set for the locals and not for people who want to do sightseeing. I did think I was going to take the local bus from the airport out to the tour hotel on Burray but the bus schedule said it would take 1.5 hours. I got a cab and was there in 20 minutes, which gave me more time to walk on the nearby beach looking for groatie buckies (cowrie shells).

I can read an itinerary and decide if the sights listed are of interest to me. Now that I've traveled with Mark 3 times I know that he will throw in some interesting surprises. I trust his instincts and his experience in formulating a plan that Americans are likely to be interested in. And yes, on the last tour I did with him that included Brittany, one afternoon when there was free time, he took 2 of us out to a Neolithic site where we were the only ones there. It was pouring rain, no one else in the group wanted to go and the 3 of us had a fantastic time walking about a mile and a half out from the parking area along a line of site after site of different stones, cists, circles, chambered tombs. That tour also included 2 wine tastings which I'm not really interested in. I enjoyed the time with the group and learned some things I didn't know.

OP should do what will work for them, not necessarily what will work for me or anyone else.