Day Tours of Scotland (from Edinburgh)

Matt - My wife and kids used timberbush tours for a tour of Loch Lomond, The Trossachs & Stirling Castle out of Edinburgh in July 2009. I was playing golf that day.

Toni from Charlotte recommended them and they were fine.

Matt, you can get a taste of the highlands without going all the way to Inverness. I would recommend looking into exploring the Trossachs or Perthshire. Both have beautiful lochs and mountains and can be done in a day. The Trossachs would be the shorter trip. There are lots of castles near Edinburgh and Glasgow. You might want to check out Castle Doune on your way to the Trossachs. I've not taken any tours, but you could easily do this with a one day car rental.

Pam

We did a day trip that left Edinburgh, went all the way up to the Great Glen, Loch Ness, and came back by way of Inverness and Pitlochery (spelling?). It was easily the highlight of our trip to Scotland, though it was a very full day.

There are quite a few companies that do a big varitey of day trips from Edinburgh. I'd encourage you to look into them. Then decide if you are concerned about how "big" the trip is= ie- do you want a private tour (good but expensive), a small "van" type tour (my personal preferance most of the time) or a "coach" tour- what americans would call a big bus- not bad at all and often the best 'cost vs. value' choice. I'd suggest one that includes Inverness, Great Glen or Glen Coe, and maybe a few other stops. I love the picture opportunities on most of these tours. If the weather is good, you can get some awesome shots and a good taste of the highlands. We did this on our first trip to Scotland and it helped us fall in love with the country. We've been back many times since, and are now comfortable "doing" most of it on our own.

I've got two tours booked for this weekend... at the moment I'm not impressed with the company as I've gotten three different emails saying that the tour is off, on, then possibly off again. Will see what happens on Sunday, before giving the name. I'm actually doing their Highland tour on Monday.

Well, I'd recommend the trips, not the company I used. I did two through Heart of Scotland, one south to Bamburgh and Alnwick, and the other north to Loch Ness. South, the guide had never done it, got lost several times, and knew nothing about where we were going. North, he was an aggressive driver who got made at anyone going slower than he wanted, didn't bother to talk for a few hours, and then got us back almost an hour early due to speeding and rushing us. The lunch stop was at a hotel with NO other choices, and an odd stop at Pitlochry considering that very little was still open.

Among the vehicles we passed was a Rabbies van, they seem to travel at a safer pace.

JumpinBug, do write of your concerns and wishes for a different kind of tour to the company. Customer feedback is the only way the company would learn of disappointments with a particular driver.

I did a day tour with Heart of Scotland and also one with Rabbies; both were great tours for me because I had great drivers. Either one could have been a different story with a driver who got lost or was surly.

I am very glad to have only happy memories from my trips. I hope I would take my own advice if not happy on a future tour.

Thanks to all for the feedback. At this point, I'm considering one of the full-day tours to Loch Ness by either Rabbies or Timberbush, or possibly renting a car in Edinburgh and making my own, winding way to Inverness, where I'd take an evening train back to my hotel in Edinburgh. I've found some good rates for a one-way rental, including a GPS. Six weeks until my trip: I'll let you know how it turns out.

We did a tour through Heart of Scotland and were quite pleased. The driver was a bit aggressive, but our impression was that he needed to be in order to get us to all of our destinations and back on time.

Matt, if you do rent your own car, be sure and get off the A9 a few times. Get a good map and plot a few side trips. Or use viamichelin and then get the good map. Queensview is quite beautiful and there are some loops you can do that let you feel the countryside. Pam

Rather than going straight up the A9, I'm considering a winding route using roads such as the A84/A85 and then the A82. Since I have a full day to drive (taking the train back from Inverness in the evening), I'm considering an itinerary that passes by Linlithgow Palace, stops for Stirling Castle/Wallace Monument (possibly Bannockburn), west to the Trossachs, and eventually up the A82 to Urquhart Castle before it closes for the evening. Stops at Glencoe and (at the end) Culloden only if I'm making good time. Drop off car at Inverness Dalcross Airport and then make my way to the train station. As I don't know the condition of these roads, I'm open to other suggestions. Thanks.

I'd highly recommend St. Andrews. It's 1-1:30 away from Edinburgh by train. Get off in Leuchars and take the quick and convenient public bus from the train platform to the heart of town.

If you're a golf fan, this is probably obligatory. The home of golf. If you have time and are a USGA registered player with official handicap, you can rent clubs and play one of the newer courses. The famous Old Course is often impossible to get tee times for however. Still, it's a chance to play St. Andrews.

If you're not a golf fan, the town is still a quaint, and beautiful Scottish town on the North Sea. Walk around the area near St. Andrews University, and through the old streets, popping into little shops, and picking up a scotch pie for lunch. Walk down the to water and meander through the errie and beautiful ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral.

If you go on a Sunday, the golf courses are closed, and the famous Old Course becomes a public park. You can walk around the course as you please, and even have a picnic on the 18th fiarway.

To me, when in Edinburgh, a day in St. Andrews is a must!

Matt, we are going to do our tour of Loch Ness sometime during the week of Sept 14, and I will try to remember to report back which tour we choose. We are considering the following: Highland Experience, Highland Explorer, Rabbies, Timberbush or Haggis (if I could just get more info on this one, it sounds quite entertaining...) These are all tours that are conducted in mini-coaches. I like this because it's more intimate... If anyone on here has more info on any of these, do tell!

I'm definitely going to contact Heart of Scotland now that I'm back home and can (somewhat) rationally compose an email. Especially after reading their website and finding that the tour did NOT match the information given on the site (different locations, we didn't go to what they said we would). My primary concern was safety, secondary being the false advertising.

If I hadn't done other tours on the trip, I might have written it off as happening all the time, but did some other fantastic day tours (I cannot recommend Coach Tours of Ireland's day tour of Wicklow more highly!).

Even with my experience, I would highly recommend doing even just a day tour to the north, it's amazing, lovely, and easily makes one want to spend much more time there.