Getting to Inverness for start of a Rick Steves Tour

....Or even taking a ticketed connecting BA flight to Inverness. Don't ticket it as a separate flight in case of issues with the transatlantic sector.

If the tour ends elsewhere than Inverness, then either take a train back to Inverness Airport (which now has it's own station) or book a multi city (open jaw) return ticket.

If you did want to fly into London, take a buffer day in London then either use the Caledonian Sleeper direct to Inverness or the LNER through service to Inverness at 12 noon from Kings Cross, arrives Inverness around 8pm.

If you fly out of Inverness (even on a connecting flight) Inverness is exempt from air passenger duty.

We are staying in Canterbury for a few days to recover from jet lag before going up to Inverness the day before our May 5 Scotland tour, so we are flying into Heathrow and then a few days later, flying Easyjet from Gatwick to Inverness. Initially we booked an Easyjet flight from Luton, but the one we wanted was cancelled.

Not sure how long your trip is and where you are flying from, but I was going to suggest flying into Glasgow, spend a day or two there to get over jet lag, then train with ScotRail to Inverness. If you are taking the Heart of Scotland tour, it ends in Edinburgh so you could then spend a couple of extra days In Edinburgh. This way, you will cover both Glasgow and Edinburgh. Check out the national Scotland rail site to compare trains from both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

I would not necessarily take a train from London unless you were planning on spending any time in London.

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/

If you fly into Edinburgh, I don't see anything very challenging about getting to Inverness. You can get a train that is either direct or with a single change, depending on departure time. If you fly into London, you either have a long train ride with at least 1 change. Or a flight from one of the London airports. I believe there are a couple of nonstop flights.

If you want to go directly to Inverness, Delta flies SEA-AMS-INV, with about a 2 1/2 hour layover in Amsterdam. I don't know your tour itinerary; I visited Inverness independently in May and found it to be an underrated destination. If you arrive a day or two early you could explore on your own; Fort George isn't far away. There are a lot of companies in Scotland which offer day tours; perhaps there is one that would take you to a site you won't visit on the RS tour.

I really like Den’s suggestion. When going through Amsterdam to the UK you don’t have to go through Immigration for the SchengenZone so that transit at Schiphol is extremely easy! I did this in August going to Aberdeen. Immigration and Customs in Inverness will be easy as there is probably only one international arrival at a time.

Amsterdam is the only International destination for Inverness, apart from Dublin, which is in the Common Travel Area.

Interestingly that flight is the only one in to Inverness on Christmas day as all domestic flights are cancelled.

I like Linda's suggestion !!

I also like Linda’s suggestion. Fly into Glasgow, spend a couple days, then train to Inverness. Glasgow has some great museums, or you could do a day trip to a location not covered by the tour. Then if the tour ends in Edinburgh spend a couple extra days there because the tour will not likely cover everything worth seeing in that city, and fly home from there. I did open jaw into Edinburgh and out of Glasgow, through Amsterdam both ways, it’s a nice airport to transit through.