Coach Tours and Escorted Holidays in Scotland
Scotland asks for time rather than mileage. The pleasure of it is a morning in a walled garden, an afternoon beside a loch and a long light evening afterwards, not a dash between landmarks. On our holidays the driving, the parking and the map-reading are somebody else's job.
Most of our Scottish tours settle into one or two hotels and travel out from there each day: the Hydro at Pitlochry for Perthshire and the Cairngorms, the Tinto at Biggar for Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Winnock beside Loch Lomond, the North West Castle at Stranraer for the Galloway gardens.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Scotland Tours
Enough to see things properly, and rarely more than that. A typical day means a coach drop close to the entrance, then whatever pace suits you inside a castle, garden or gallery. Scottish sites do involve gravel paths, slopes and old staircases, and gardens such as Glenwhan or Arthur's Seat are on hillsides. If you are unsure whether a particular itinerary suits you, ring us and we will talk through the specific days.
Yes, and on many of our Scottish tours a set number of single rooms are held at no supplement at all. Where a supplement does apply it is shown on the individual tour page along with the price per person sharing. Singles at no supplement are limited in number and go early, particularly on the Tattoo and Burns Night departures, so it is worth asking as soon as you are thinking about it.
The Tattoo runs through most of August on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, with performances on all but Sundays, and the Fringe fills the same weeks. Our Edinburgh Tattoo holiday includes the Tattoo itself; the Fringe and Tattoo tour lists it among the excursions. Check the tour page for what is ticketed and where the seats are, or ask us before you book. August in Edinburgh sells out early.
On our Scottish coach holidays the price covers private coach travel throughout, the services of your driver, hotel accommodation on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis, and the excursions listed on that tour. Cancellation protection is included. The Fred Olsen sailing works differently, with meals and transfers to Southampton included but shore excursions not. Each tour page lists its own inclusions, and anything not on that list is not in the price.
On our two Galloway garden holidays, entry to National Trust for Scotland properties such as Threave and Broughton House is covered if you are already a member. If you are not, there will be admission to pay at those particular gardens. Bring your membership card with you. Ask us when you book and we will tell you which properties on that itinerary are affected and roughly what non-members should expect to pay.
Yes. Any of these itineraries can be run as a private group for a gardening club, U3A branch, church group or a set of friends, with the coach and the hotel to yourselves. Our Scottish tour prices are generally based on 30 passengers, so group size affects the figure. We can also adjust the excursions to suit a particular interest. Tell us your dates and numbers and we will quote.
Castles and Great Houses in Perthshire
Perthshire has more grand houses within an easy drive of each other than almost anywhere in Scotland, which is why we base a tour there. Blair Castle, whitewashed and turreted above the Garry, is the seat of the Dukes of Atholl and home to the Atholl Highlanders, the only private army in Britain, licensed after Queen Victoria stayed in 1844. Its Hercules Garden is a walled nine acres of fruit trees, ponds and long herbaceous borders.
At Scone Palace you stand on Moot Hill, where Scottish kings were crowned on the Stone of Destiny. The estate also produced David Douglas, the gardener's apprentice who went to North America and sent back the fir that carries his name.
Glamis, just over the border into Angus, was the childhood home of the Queen Mother and the birthplace of Princess Margaret. Perth itself is worth an afternoon on foot.
Gardens and Botanic Collections
Scotland grows things that will not grow further south. Rainfall, a mild western coast and the Gulf Stream produce gardens quite unlike anything in the Home Counties, and two of our tours are built around them.
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh — founded in 1670 as a physic garden, now seventy acres with a rock garden and Chinese hillside.
- Dawyck, in the Borders — mature conifers, some planted more than 250 years ago, with blue Himalayan poppies in early summer.
- Logan, on the Rhins of Galloway — tree ferns, cabbage palms and southern hemisphere planting outdoors all year.
- Castle Kennedy — avenues and monkey puzzles laid out between two lochs.
- Malleny at Balerno — clipped yews said to date from the early 1600s.
- Dr Neil's Garden at Duddingston — made by two doctors on the slope below Arthur's Seat.
Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Clyde
Edinburgh is two cities side by side, and both hold World Heritage status: the medieval Old Town running down the ridge from the Castle, and James Craig's Georgian New Town of straight streets and neoclassical fronts. Holyrood Palace sits at the foot of the Royal Mile, and the Royal Yacht Britannia, in service from 1954 to 1997, is moored at Leith. In August the Castle Esplanade becomes the Tattoo arena and the whole city fills up with the Fringe.
Glasgow is the richer city for galleries. Kelvingrove holds Dalí's Christ of St John of the Cross beneath a hall with a working pipe organ; the Burrell Collection sits in Pollok Country Park; and the Hunterian keeps the reassembled interiors of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's own house. Upriver, New Lanark preserves Robert Owen's cotton-mill village on the Clyde.
Lochs, Highlands and Western Waters
Loch Lomond is the largest stretch of fresh water in Britain by surface area, and the boundary between Lowland farmland and Highland rock runs straight through it. Stirling guards the crossing, with its castle on the crag, the Wallace Monument opposite and Bannockburn just south.
Further west and north the roads get slower and better. Oban is a working ferry town with McCaig's Tower above the harbour and boats leaving for Mull and the Inner Hebrides. Fort William sits under Ben Nevis at the end of the Great Glen, near the Glenfinnan viaduct on the West Highland Line.
Pitlochry makes a good Highland base: the Queen's View over Loch Tummel, Blair Athol Distillery, which has been working since the end of the eighteenth century, and the Strathspey heritage railway running out of Aviemore.
