Trip Review 11 -18 Jun 2023
We just returned from the Week in Scotland tour. It was an excellent tour. Our TD was friendly and knowledgeable. The weather was amazing with temps in the 70s & 80s and little rain. This was a bit of a different tour for us as another couple joined us on the tour itself plus additional travel plans we had beyond the Tauck tour.
Day 0 – We arrived 1 day early checking into the Kimpton Blythswood Sqr hotel at about 11am and luckily our rooms were ready. We headed out for a short walk over to Sauchiehall St nearby to find an ATM and lunch. While lacking luxury stores it is a nice pedestrian only street with shops useful if you forgot something. We also walked to the Pipers Center nearby which has a tiny museum (£2.50 for srs).
Day 1 – Breakfast at the hotel was excellent with hot/cold buffets plus hot items to order. For those who arrived early Tauck provided your choice of either reimbursement for tickets on the Hop On, Hop Off bus or a walking tour to two pubs for beer. We opted for the bus which gives a good overview of Glasgow. Using it we got off to visit both the Riverside Transport museum and the Kelvingrove art museum. Both free and both excellent. We also had lunch at the Kelvingrove – good choice. The welcome reception & dinner were at the hotel. This was a Classic sized tour and we had 37 travelers. A very mixed group both in ages and origins. One large Indian family (some lived in India and some in the US) who had taken many Tauck tours. Another smaller family of 4 that included 20 something cousins who had been taking Tauck tours since they were 10 and 12. The meal and the wine were excellent.
Day 2 – Today we headed to Stirling Castle. I was happy to see our coach had the signature Tauck logos and photographs of Scottish sights. I feared these were another casualty of covid. My husband and I have been to Stirling before on the ESW tour. I love the location of this castle high above the surrounding countryside. Would have liked more time there. Then off to the Glenturret distillery tour. Following that lunch at Creiff Hydro hotel and a falconry demonstration. Food was soso, the demo was very interesting and funny. A very warm night in Glasgow which the hotel AC couldn’t keep up with. Many complained they hadn’t slept well.
Day 3 – We hit the road heading north first with a 1 hour cruise on Loch Lomond and drive thru Glencoe where we had lunch at Ballachulish. Glencoe is a beautiful valley with a sad history. From there we headed north thru Ft William and drove along Loch Ness. No monster sightings but maybe because it was during a thunder storm. Checked into the Kingsmill golf resort where our group was in the Kingclub building with “Retreat” rooms which are large with private patios and thankfully AC that worked. That night we had our Scottish Highland evening with bagpiper, haggis, and a lesson in clan plaids. Very fun. I did not eat the haggis as I’ve had it before and I’m not a fan.
Day 4 – Was spent at the Culloden battlefield and a visit to Cawdor Castle. Both Interesting. Cawdor is actually an occupied castle and what you tour is actually how it is when they are there. It also has beautiful gardens. Instead of the standard lunch we had Scottish High Tea with hot savory dishes, small sandwiches, scones and sweets. Those who are into this tradition liked it while others not so much. For the rest of the afternoon you could have a rest at the hotel or go into Inverness for a walking tour or time on your own. We all met at a pub for a drink before heading back to Kingsmill
Day 5 – Another longish driving day as we headed south towards Edinburgh. Enroute we stopped at Leault Farm for a working sheepdog demo and the chance to feed baby lambs. They also have a Hairy Coos calf (Scottish long hair cow) whose’s a bit of a pet. Next stop Blair Castle and lunch. It felt like touring Downton Abbey. Then the final push to Edinburgh and The George. The rooms were nice but definitely small especially the bathrooms. Our TD arranged for drinks and nibbles at the Forth View suite with great views. Instead of dinner in the hotel as expected we were given £50 each to find our own. Our group found a place on Rose Lane with outdoor seating to enjoy the weather. 
Day 6 – The basic city tour including a bus ride around, guided tour of Holyrood palace and Edinburgh castle then free time for the rest of the day. Our group had lunch at a small place called Deacon’s House Café across from Deacon Brodies Tavern. We spent a fair amount of time walking the Royal Mile and had dinner at Makars Mash Bar nearby. Excellent choice and reservations are easy to make.
Day 7 – The choice was Edinburgh on your own or heading to St Andrews about an hour away. Once there you could join a guided tour of the Old Course or the town (castle, university, and abbey). Everyone enjoyed their choice. It’s a lovely small town. Farewell dinner that night at the hotel was a bit disappointing. It was supposed to be at the Balmoral. It included apps and drinks beforehand, salad and vegetables served family style and beef or salmon en croute at a carving station. Not awful but not impressive either. Lots of chatter and laughter.
Dress/Packing: I tried really hard to bring the right clothes expecting a mix of warm and cool temps and rain. We got almost entirely warm temps and almost not rain. Some of our group wore shorts and tshirts. I had so few short sleeve tops I stopped at the Primark in Glasgow for a £3 pound top to supplement what I’d brought. It’s a very casual tour where comfortable walking shoes and a layered wardrobe are important. As to dressy cloths, of the 15 or so men only about 6 wore jackets to the welcome dinner and only 1 to the farewell dinner. Very few dresses.
Group size: There’s been lots of talk about this on the forum - Classic vs Small Group starts. Our group of 37 got along just fine and I didn’t notice any problems with loading of people or luggage on time. I’m still not sure what happened about the farewell dinner at the Balmoral. It’s possible that’s only offered on Small Group starts.
I'll post about our post-tour activities separately and try to add more photos.
Comments
Because the Week in Scotland doesn’t cover as much territory as we wanted we added extra time to this tour.
At the end of the tour we stayed 2 extra days at the hotel which gave us the time to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia using the newly opened Edinburgh tramline to Leith. Its was an easy and smooth way to get here. (Edit - military gets half prices admission including U.S. members. You just need to bring some proof.). We also had lunch in the tea room on board the vessel which was excellent and provided great views of the firth.
The next day we took the 37 bus to Rosslyn chapel. It was interesting even if you aren’t a DaVinci Code fan. Coming back into town we got off the bus near the National Museum to spend time there and across the street at Greyfriars churchyard. The church sells a 50 pence map of the Harry Potter sights – the graves that JK Rowling used for names in her books. We made another stop at Deacon’s House café for tea and scones.
Rosslyn Chapel
The next day we all headed to Oban on the train. We were a little nervous on the logistics of this but it turned out very easy. Rather than the standard transfer service the TD gave us pounds for each couple and the hotel called cabs. It's about a 4 1/2 hour trip including a transfer in Glasgow. We had reservations at the Oban Perle hotel which we loved even though it lacked a few standard amenities like room safes, refrigerators or AC but we had lovely large rooms with a view of the harbor, the staff was wonderful and the breakfast a definite improvement over the Intercontinental in Edinburgh. From this base we took a Three Island day tour that included ferry rides, a drive across Mull, time on Staffa to see puffins (we didn’t) and time on Iona to tour the Abbey. The climb from the boat dock up on Staffa was scary especially when the rail I was gripping gave way. The seas around Iona were lovely.
Oban Harbor and the Perle hotel.
The terrifying climb up Staffa.
Lovely Iona.
The next day we toured nearby Dunollie castle, spent time in the town and climbed up to McCaigs tower.
Because we had 6am flights out of Glasgow on Sat would took the train back there on Friday afternoon and stayed at a Holiday Inn next to the airport.
If anyone wants the logistic details of all this, send me a private message and I’ll fill you in.
Great review and beautiful pics! Glad you had a good trip and good weather!
Thanks for this great review, Claudia. It seems we follow each other around! We head for this tour (small group) in August. We are doing a private tour out of Inverness before the Tauck tour. We will travel to a few sites where relatives lived then on to see Skye. I hope it will be a little cooler by then! It sounded like quite a bit of just driving by places. I guess this will be a good initiation to Scotland.
We want to see more of the islands too. I talked to our TD about wanting a longer tour with more of the islands and she said the main reason they don't is there aren't hotels that can take Tauck group sizes. I wrote on the comment card that I would have liked to see more of the highlands and islands. The scenery driving across Mull was beautiful.
There was plenty of stops along the way even on the two big driving days.
Hope you have a great time.
We are scheduled for this small group tour the first week of August. Ours includes the Tatoo. Thanks, Claudia for your review.
Skye has a very bad midges problem in August so be prepared.
There were news stories while we were there that this year's midge population was bad because it's been a warm wet year. We were fortunate and never got attacked even during our time in Oban thankfully. It was warm there and the hotel had no A.C. and no window screens.
I’ve never seen a window screen in The UK, you just have to put up with flies in your home when you open the window in good weather. Same with garage door openers, maybe my favorite American experience when we moved to the US. 😀
On last year’s tour, day 4 included a 1 1/2 or 2 hour cruise of Loch Ness. It was pretty repetitive after the nicer Loch Lomond cruise the day before. I would have much preferred walking around Inverness. We and several others included that on the comment cards. I know from the Forums that Tauck pays attention to those, and it was nice to see confirmation of that from my own experience.
Just fyi, and hope this doesn't earn me a flag: Natl Geo has Voyage to Scotland’s Wild Isles: Shetlands, Orkneys and Inner Hebrides. I took NG Lisbon to Bordeaux and was quite impressed; we even had a photographer from Italy onboard as an additional informal TD.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/destinations/europe/ocean/expedition-cruise-dublin-ireland-scotland/
Market Art - mentioning another tour group is ok but they'd prefer you not include links to their website.
Anyone seen Mickey or Minnie on a NatGeo cruise? (Disney owns NatGeo)
Thank you Claudia for sharing this detailed review. I saw your comment in a FB group that you had recently put one up. I came running over. It has been a few months since I last check the Tauck forum, so I had not seen this. Thx
Claudia - I was on the terrific small ship Tauck last year, up to Shetland and down the Aisle side, and that tour gave us a day in Glasgow. I loved both the Transport museum and the Kelvingrove - so glad you got to them both! And I’ve actually been surprised that a day touring Glasgow is not part of this tour - I thought it was a great and fun city on the day tour.
Concur that there's a lot to see in Glasgow. Glad we gave ourselves at least one day touring there.
Okay - I’ve just ordered some botanical bug stuff that I hope will deter midges! Thanks for the above posts on that - I hate bites! And I’m amazed, actually, at the temps Claudia’s group got (70s and 80s and little rain) - I’ve been watching for some weeks, and do have a bit of time (my gift of time is 8/1, tour is 8/2) - weather.com and other sources uniformly show highs in the very low 60s - and yes, rain. But it will still be great - I’m just packing layers, as i did last year this time for the small ship around Scotland…
We were in Ireland the same time that Claudia was in Scotland. Our weather was very similar to hers. We kept looking at the weather app while we were there and looking out a week most days showed rain. However, as we got closer to the actual date, the probability of rain decreased. Even when it did rain, they were brief showers which did't have much of an impact on our travels. I wouldn't put much faith in a weather app for two weeks from now.
And...as we were told when we were in Wales four years ago...there is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing!
Was just talking to friends in nortjern England this week, temps have been what they describe as Autumnal this past couple of weeks and lots of rain. You know why the British always talk about the weather, you never know what you are going to get.
We are leaving for Ireland on August 2 before joining the Tauck tour "Cruising the Seine" plus London and Paris". The weather in Cork, Ireland has highs in the sixties and has been raining every day for weeks. Living in Tucson this is going to be a nice change.
Trying to guess the weather is impossible these days.
Luckily we never had to use our bug repellent - Skin So Soft wipes which are easy to pack.
Were were told when in Ireland, if you don't like the weather, just wait 15 min.
JASS we are also on the Week in Scotland August 2-9. Just started pulling layers out to pack. This trip has been rescheduled since 2020 and 2021. Third time is the charm. See you there!
@jass and @LsMiller I was wondering if you would be willing to share more about your trips. This thread was already helpful. Would love to hear more. And I am happy to add when I get back from mine in October.