p.1 #1 · Solo or Small Tour Operators in Scotland?
Anyone have any companies they might offer for a solo (up to 4 in our group) trip to Scotland?
Fall 2027 with 75% of our time in the Scottish Highlands (or thereabouts). Cities are okay but we'd like to see ancient castles, Lochs, landscapes, farms, small villages.
p.1 #2 · Solo or Small Tour Operators in Scotland?
I know this isn’t what you asked for, but on the chance it might be useful: We’ve been to Scotland twice, for a total of about a month. We worked out our own itinerary and reserved our own accommodations. (One exception: When we did the Great Glen Walk we let someone else take care of accommodations, though we then self-guided the walk.)
No matter what you do though, you’ll love Scotland!
p.1 #3 · Solo or Small Tour Operators in Scotland?
gdanmitchell wrote:
I know this isn’t what you asked for, but on the chance it might be useful: We’ve been to Scotland twice, for a total of about a month. We worked out our own itinerary and reserved our own accommodations. (One exception: When we did the Great Glen Walk we let someone else take care of accommodations, though we then self-guided the walk.)
No matter what you do though, you’ll love Scotland!
About the only plan I have at the moment is a general direction (N & NW) of Edinburgh. Everything else will come later.
Question: How difficult was it finding lodging? Some NP's here in the US (and Canada) are well booked out at least a year. Is it that way in Scotland?
p.1 #4 · Solo or Small Tour Operators in Scotland?
Al Trujillo wrote:
About the only plan I have at the moment is a general direction (N & NW) of Edinburgh. Everything else will come later.
Question: How difficult was it finding lodging? Some NP's here in the US (and Canada) are well booked out at least a year. Is it that way in Scotland?
My wife is the expert on finding lodging over there — she books everything for us on her own.
To some extent it depends on where you are going. For example, if you were to try to find something on Skye for this summer, I think you’d have a challenge unless you were willing to pay terribly high amounts and/or get something pretty far off the beaten path. (We did the latter, and actually prefer it to being in, say, Portree.)
If you are interested in giving it a try, I’d recommend spending an evening or two checking our accommodations where you intend to go, in the same way that you’d do it if you were traveling in the US. With online search and booking these days, you can actually book your own accommodations just about anywhere.
Having someone set up a tour for you does relieve you of having to deal with these logistics, and it means that you don’t have to figure out where you want to go. But it does sort of lock you into their schedule and, in the end, the costs can be higher. It is a trade-off between investing your money or your time… and I can understand going either way.
p.1 #5 · Solo or Small Tour Operators in Scotland?
gdanmitchell wrote:
My wife is the expert on finding lodging over there — she books everything for us on her own.
To some extent it depends on where you are going. For example, if you were to try to find something on Skye for this summer, I think you’d have a challenge unless you were willing to pay terribly high amounts and/or get something pretty far off the beaten path. (We did the latter, and actually prefer it to being in, say, Portree.)
If you are interested in giving it a try, I’d recommend spending an evening or two checking our accommodations where you intend to go, in the same way that you’d do it if you were traveling in the US. With online search and booking these days, you can actually book your own accommodations just about anywhere.
Having someone set up a tour for you does relieve you of having to deal with these logistics, and it means that you don’t have to figure out where you want to go. But it does sort of lock you into their schedule and, in the end, the costs can be higher. It is a trade-off between investing your money or your time… and I can understand going either way.
By now people of a certain age (us?) know all about traveling during shoulder seasons to avoid crowds. Wondering when you visited Scotland? I'm giving some consideration to a trip in October as we generally like fall weather over other seasons and there are usually smaller crowds then.
