I want to say a few things before summing up my overall experience:
1. One thing I would have liked - when we were on the Isle of Skye we were around 20 miles from Dunvegan Castle, that is my ancestral home. When I was looking at this trip, part of the appeal was going to Skye. I called before I booked and asked if I would be able to go to Dunvegan on my own. I was told that as long as I was where the bus was supposed to be when it was leaving, I could do whatever I wanted, however, I was not sure how to make that happen as we went to the Fairy Pools and then to Portree.
I would have liked the morning on Skye to be an option - go to the Fairy Pools or go to Dunvegan.
2. Some people on the trip complained that the group didn?t ?bond?. They felt there was not enough time together to get to know each other and that meals on our own in the evenings gave us too much time by ourselves. I booked the trip because there was so much free time and I was not expected to spend all my time with the group. I took the trip to see Scotland, not to make friends (that may sound harsh, but that was my goal).
3. I would have liked to spend more time in Portree and Inverness, they both seem like cool little towns, but we didn?t have time to explore. I booked time before in Edinburgh and after in Glasgow, I am glad I did as the time we were scheduled for the tour would not have been enough.
My overall experience:
I had a fantastic week exploring Scotland with the group. I saw almost everything that I wanted to with a wonderful group of people. James (CEO) provided the commentary and talked about the history of all the sites we saw (and some we didn?t) in a friendly, conversational manner, while keeping us laughing, on time, and safe (he stood in front of the door of the bus, so no one stumbled into oncoming traffic!). Colin (driver) was confident and just amazing and guiding our bus through the streets of the cities and the mountains in the Highlands. They make a good pair.
The trip was wonderful. I liked that we had group activities but also more than enough time to explore on our own. I also liked that we had breakfast as a group but lunches and dinners (except for a couple) were on our own.
