8-Day Orkney Skye and Highlands Tour from Edinburgh

Posted By : Expedition779807
I promised myself the tour of a lifetime as a gift to myself and revisit my beautiful Scotland . I took this 8-day tour which proved to be fantastic! I loved every minute of it.
We spent the first 4 days with Chris, our Tour Guide/driver, who was lovely. He had plenty of tales and facts for us throughout the trip. We visited so many beautiful places and he allowed us ample time to enjoy them. We always felt safe with him, taking head counts every time, before driving off to the next place. Thank you Chris.
The remaining 4 days we spent with Iain, the other Tour Guide/Driver. Iain was exceptional! He also had plenty of tales and facts for us which were both funny and informative. I loved the fact that He played old and modern Scottish music most of the time but not all the time, giving us time for rest. It put us in the right mood throughout the trip. Knowing that I am an "Outlander" fan, Iain always took the trouble to point out to me specific details and locations linked to the series, which was a very sweet touch and very much appreciated. Iain also, very kindly, played "The Skye Boat Song" on my request, when I mentioned I would love to hear it whilst in Scotland. He is so accommodating. Nothing was too much trouble...a true people's person. He always followed us everywhere we stopped making sure all of us were safe and back on the bus.
Keep up the great work Iain!! THANK YOU Iain.
I spent the most amazing time of my life with Highland Experience Tours.
All accomodation chosen by them was of very good quality. I shall certainly return for more tours with them. If you really want to see what Scotland is all about, THIS is the best Tour for you!
Yvonne from Malta
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Posted On : 2024-05-29 10:57:55

Posted By : donaldk16
So I want to say I loved our tour guides Brodie and Andy. They were helpful informative and entertaining. What I didn’t like was the hotel accommodations the company booked. We reviewed all of them separately. Many had lots of steps. Three in our group are mid 70s and one mud 60s. All of the hotels required us to drag our bags up to our rooms. The longest was four flights. One in our group uses a cane. We saw folks much younger getting lower floors. Breakfasts were hit and miss. We had two nights at a place with self serve cold cereal. While we listened to others who had beautiful view rooms with fabulous rooms. It was interesting because the same people were not booked onto the same places. We booked this tour in January 2023. Well before many on our tour booked. We would have paid more for expensive rooms had we known. The first five days were with a group of 32 the Orkney was 12. It’s a good way to cover a lot of ground. The scenery was beautiful and worth seeing. Food is on you as are admissions to sights. We have done other tours which included admissions, good hotels and great breakfasts. It’s a long eight days on and off buses lug your bags. I would do it though. Just know what you are getting into and the expense. If you get car sick do get drugs. A must on the winding roads.
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Posted On : 2023-09-18 07:52:48

Posted By : A1779CWjenniferr
Had a wonderful time, Iian and Eddie were great tour guides, Scotland is beautiful place and we saw the best of it. Our accommodation was Bed and Breakfast style and all were quite comfortable and spotlessly clean.
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Posted On : 2023-08-22 10:12:37

Posted By : Q2426XDjanes
If you have time to do this 8-day tour, do it. A wonderful mix of Scottish history, pre-history, castle ruins, beautifully restored castles, and fabulous views. Every day was full and our guide for the first 4 days, Chris, kept us all on schedule and entertained with just the right amount of stories, but enough quiet time, too. And great driving Chris! Having a full day to explore Skye and Orkney was fantastic. I can't image how other companies can rush people through these magical places in less than a full day. Andy was our guide for the last 4 days and the expert on Orkney. This tour involved a lot more walking than I anticipated, but well worth it! The boat ride on Loch Ness to Inverness was very enjoyable. I could have done without the train ride from Ft William, that was the only waste of time on the tour, though. All in all, excellent tour.
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Posted On : 2023-06-29 07:59:45

Posted By : 889orvilleg
This tour took us all over Scotland and included incredible scenic vistas, castles and ruins, waterfalls and whisky, ferry rides and a two-day stay in both Skye and Orkney, remnants of the Neolithic age, and ample time each night to eat, drink, and explore for ourselves. We had excellent B & B en-suite accommodations at each stop. Our drivers, Andy (Days 1-4, Edinburgh to Highlands and Skye) and Eddie (Days 5-8, Orkney to Edinburgh) were kind, patient, informative, witty, and helpful. We traveled with Highland Experience in 2018 and had such a great time, we decided to book with them again during this trip. So glad we did! Definitely the trip of a lifetime. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿♥️
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Posted On : 2022-09-27 09:41:10

Posted By : psi_overtake
Half our trip was ruined by a tour guide being routinely aggressive, even to the point of making my wife cry, on top of an uncaring company who will do absolutely nothing to rectify the situation. We also got COVID during the tour, though due to UK laws the company can't be held responsible for their lack of safety measures (which the company made sure to point out, of course).

Our guide for the first half of our trip (Andy) was great. If you get the chance to have him as your tour guide for any other company, you should take it. He's friendly, knowledgeable, will keep you updated, and goes out of his way to ensure everyone's having a good time, even with problematic guests.

Graham, however, at first seems easygoing, but has a very short fuse, and was aggressive to the point of making my wife cry. This is detailed later on in the review.

Highland Experience said they were sorry for the experience, but did nothing about it. They were slow to respond (even before the trip when I had some questions), and every time they did, they gave the typical "we're looking into it," but always added that they were going to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for us or anyone else. We have not been reimbursed with anything, given a discount, or have our situation rectified in any way whatsoever.

Halfway into the trip for the Orkney leg, we picked up a couple passengers - one of whom coughed frequently into her fist on the bus and didn't use hand sanitizer. On the ferry over to Orkney, we (my wife, another guest (Christine - see her 2-star review Beautiful landscapes, but big mistake to go for this agency), and I) sat down with Graham and talked with him about the issue. At first, he said that he took our advisement seriously (especially my wife, who is a laboratory scientist who works for a company that researched COVID, and the guest, who works in biotechnology), but pushed back against disinfecting the bus or asking the woman to take preventative measures like wearing a mask (which we offered as we had brand new extras on us). He defensively said that "no one ever cancelled a trip just because they had the cold," which I understand, but it's also not what we were saying. We were asking for additional measures to be taken for the safety of everyone on the tour, which we explained to him, but we have come to learn that he frequently hears one thing and turns it into another while behaving aggressively to it.

On the ferry back to the mainland, my wife asked him around what time we'll be getting to Inverness so we can plan on when and where to eat (since unlike Andy, Graham rarely updated us on ETAs and places to eat, so we largely had to figure this out for ourselves, especially with many places being closed or closing early due to staff, etc.), and he lashed out at her in front of the other guests on the ferry, saying that it's not his fault that places weren't available. She was shocked at his tone and said that's not at all what she meant, but he cut her off and carried on, which made her cry. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE.

There were several other incidents that highlighted his callousness. For instance, he told us he knew ahead of time that we would have to walk 30 minutes from the center of Kirkwall uphill back to our B&B, but didn't tell us until the end of the day, figuring at first "it wouldn't be so bad - (another couple) enjoyed walking," like the rest of us (especially the seniors, which was half our group) shouldn't mind it? Just before leaving the bus to explore Pitlochry, he announced "Be back on time. I WILL be leaving at 2:30." Any time something came up, he became curt, and his tone aggressive. He talked so little that we ended up listening to the same playlist of songs 3-4 times, and didn't offer to load or unload my bags the past few times before the tour was over. Further, *he hadn't even been to some of the places we visited.*

Yes, Highland Experience can give you a tour guide who HAS NOT EVEN BEEN TO SOME DESTINATIONS, so don't expect half of the point of having a tour company to begin with.

Highland Experience said his behavior is atypical, but when it happens before our eyes (and those of other guests) for several days in a row, we expected the company to do something about it. They did nothing for us.

So that's a recap of our experience. It started out well with Andy (aside from Highland Experience putting the guests in half a dozen different accommodations, but that isn't Andy's fault), and when we switched to Graham, it went terribly. And despite us having to stay in Scotland longer due to getting COVID *possibly* during the tour, and *possibly* due to a lack of Highland Experience's health and safety measures (opinion, for legal reasons), the company did not even cover our forced extended stay of 2 days, which was spent locked in a hotel room due to COVID.

Stay away from this company, because they do not take responsibility for anything, and will leave you on your own to pay for their mistakes and neglect.
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Posted On : 2022-07-02 13:04:11

Posted By : christine_Basel
We were 32 people during the first 4 days with the experienced, professional and uplifting guide Andy making sure we all good a good impression of Scotland.
Then the group was split and others joined bringing us to 11 for the second half of the trip (also 4 days). That part turned out to be way below expectations overall. Bringen these 11 people to their accommodations at night took far longer then appropriate (once even over 1 hr). The new “guide” was more like a bus driver rushing us in every scenic stop but adding smoking stops for him. He was unnecessary aggressive and negative all the time making one of the ladies traveling with us even cry and spoke to a bathroom cleaning lady in such a way that she responded “you do not speak like this to me”. I felt so ashamed to be on his group that I excused to that cleaner myself. Just to give some examples.
This part of the trip was a loss of my time and money. As this would not have been bad enough I contracted covid during it (test done the day after tour ended). What is particularly bad about it is that we have informed the driver that a person with an obvious active infective disease (coughing all the time at a certain intensity) is on the bus with us and at the very minimum she needs to wear a mask. He did not ask her to do so as it might would have made her feel uncomfortable risking all our safety.
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Posted On : 2022-06-07 14:45:41

Posted By : nguyen234115
Is there any way to add the Callanish standing Stones and fairy pool and fairy glen to tour.

Very good tour

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Posted On : 2020-02-02 18:01:27

Posted By : Jacqueline_w
Had a great time. Saw so many wonderful places with really good your guides/drivers. B&B's were very nice and will look to use this type of accomodation again in the future. Highly recommend this trip!!
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Posted On : 2019-09-13 02:04:32

Posted By : Savvytravellers201
Great trip, fabulous B&Bs, great company and one amazing tour guide. Thank you Steven A for the introduction to your beautiful country and interesting history...will return.
Kim & Dani
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Posted On : 2019-08-24 06:22:08