Highland Explorer Tours

We were concerned about the duration of the tour but found it entertaining and worthwhile throughout. Well worth a day to see what other things Scotland has to offer besides Edinburg. Caitlin’s constant explanations, energy and stories as well as her general knowledge made a big difference. We recommend that if you have two days in Edinburgh/Scotland, you invest one of those days in this tour.

We worked with Highland Explorer on and off for over 18 months to plan our group trip to Scotland. Our original plans were cancelled due to COVID, unfortunately, but we were able to keep our original itinerary when the UK opened up to US travelers in September. The company was great to work with - very responsive and helpful in planning a more customized tour for our group of 11. They even helped us navigate some of the issues with the CV19 test requirements in the UK. Our Scottish driver/tour guide, Rich, was very friendly and knowledgeable.he kept us safe, on schedule and made sure we got the most out of our travels around Scotland.

We went on the Kelpies, Loch Lomond, and Stirling Castle 1 day trip. It was a great way to see the Highlands, and learns a ton of stuff about Edinburgh and Scotland history. Our tour guide and driver was named Scot, he really knew his stuff and kept it fun. He taught us a couple of famous Scottish songs, shared lots of amazing Scottish stories, and told us all about how Edinburgh was first formed. The whole day trip was so much fun, and if we are lucky enough to go back again we would definitely do one of their 5-7 day trips.

Absolutely worth booking, really great experience overall, and a perfrxt way to start or end your time there.

To start, the content of the tour was lovely, the sites were perfect and our guide was the right mix of funny and knowledgeable. If we were not in the middle of a deadly pandemic, this would have been the perfect day out. I booked with Highland Explorer because I was assured they were taking steps to keep people safe in the pandemic, but this was very far from the case. The bus itself had no ability to open the windows, so we were basically in an enclosed tube that had circulating air conditioning. Though the guide stated we were to wear a mask the entire time inside, there were 6 people (three of which were sitting right behind me (immunocompromised) and my mother (71 years old) who WOULD NOT comply no matter how many times they were reminded. They just kept laughing, talking, and coughing behind us, and we were uncomfortable the entire time we were in the bus (about 8 hours total). I think that if a company says they are compliant with gov regulations, they need to actually comply - our kindly guide should have been empowered to tell those breaking the rules, that if they did not comply they would be let out (and then be able to follow through). I felt very unsafe, and it really ruined the day for us.

The tour guides were very nice and knowledgable at the beginning. Everything was well organized. I think this tour is good for families or just people who just want to see a bit of the what the tour provides.

My problem was that we barely had any time to truly enjoy the most important attractions, our tour was supposed to end at 5:30pm but the tour guides seems very rushed and we ended up being back by 5pm. I know that seems minimal but the tour guide gave us a really hard time for being 10-15 minutes late when coming back to the bus (because we only had one hour to explore and enjoy the loch). This left a bad taste in our mouths because instead of just warning us once, they told us off multiple times throughout the whole trip for that same incident and kept reminding us that they would leave us behind if we did it again. I understand that being on time is important and we shouldn't have been late, but repeating the same thing multiple times just for the sake of repeating it made this feel more like a school trip, especially when we ended up getting back home 30 minutes earlier, which means we could have used those 30 minutes to explore more of the tour.

If you are just a calm little family who want to sit down and take a couple of pictures then go ahead you will have a lot of fun. If you are a group of young adults that want to have fun and truly explore the wonders of Scotland I would recommend trying another tour company or maybe just planning a trip independently.

I was initially apprehensive about this small group bus tour as we usually prefer the flexibility to manage our own itinerary.

I'm so glad that we were wrong! Our driver, Owen was extremely engaging and knowledgeable and had an encyclopedic knowledge of Scottish history. You could see that he loved his job and sharing stories with the group.

The bus is modern and comfortable and we felt safe on the roads, even when they were icy and it was dark.

The itinerary for the 5 Day Isle of Skye tour was great - I felt as though we had the right amount of time to explore our stops and Owen took great care in considering the itinerary for each day, ensuring that we had adequate stops for toilet breaks and sight seeing - no small feat considering there was only about 7ish hours of sunlight each day (we did the tour in early January 2023)

I would highly recommend this tour for anyone who would like to explore the highlands.

What a great way to appreciate some of Scotland's finest! I highly recommend this tour for those who want to admire Scotland's beauty together with its rich history and culture. The whole tour crew will make you feel comfortable, safe and will shower you with all the essential historical facts, folklores and trivia you need to know even for just a "wee" bit of time (yes, 3 days is not enough!). I assure you that they will take you to the most breath-taking of views and spots with lots of photo opportunities. They even arranged a whisky tasting session on our 2nd day which is nice, especially to those who are whisky-curious!

I personally want to thank Tom, Owen, Laura, Louise (hope I got the spelling of their names correctly) for being the best tour guides for our group and for going out of their way just to make sure we are all having a smashing time!

More power to you guys and I hope more tourists or even locals will be able to enjoy the quality service your team is providing! Cheers! Or should I say, "Slàinte Mhath"!

We went on the Harry Potter Jacobean train ride full day tour from Edinburgh. Our tour guide Owen was very professional, friendly and full of interesting stories about the history of Scotland.

The day itself took us through Edinburgh city out across the Firth of Forth and through to the highlands. Owen kept us entertained with perfectly timed stories and his own curated playlist of Scottish inspired music!

We had a few stops along the way. Notably at Glenfinnan where we saw the famous viaduct featured in Harry Potter and the valleys which were used as backdrops for Hogwarts. Owen directed us to the best viewpoint for the viaduct - thank you!

The train ride was a fun journey through the valleys of the highlands to Fort William where Owen was waiting to collect us for more scenery, stories and history.

We can highly recommend this day tour even if you’re not particularly fond of Harry Potter and the films. You’ll hear so much about the history of Scotland and see the most beautiful mountains and valleys. All from the comfort of a coach and with none of the stress of organising.

Special thanks to our driver and your guide Owen who was fantastic!

We went on the 1-Day Moray Coast, Puffins, & Speyside Whisky Explorer tour on May 6th with Iain. We had a bit of a mixed experience, as we enjoyed many of the locations we went to, but felt that the tour itself was poorly organized and that our tour guide was not knowledgeable for this particular tour. The beaches and cliffs that we were able to see were absolutely beautiful, and we would highly recommend going to visit Findhorn beach. We were very pleased with the choices of the coastal areas, though we wished we’d had more time there. The tour description states that we would “learn all about single malt production at a Speyside whisky distillery”, and although we did go into a distillery, we were only offered menus from which we could purchase whisky and not provided with any information on whisky history or production from either our guide or the staff at the distillery. Our guide pointed out distilleries as we would pass by them but did not seem to have anything to say about them or about the process of making whisky. We also feel that this tour should remove the “puffins” in the title, as when we got to the bird sanctuary it was quite clear that puffins don’t seem to nest in that area at all, even though we went at the right time of year. After discussing puffins with another tour guide, it became clear that this coastal region is not actually known for having puffins in the first place. What was particularly disappointing is that our tour guide claimed that he had seen puffins the last time he came, only for him to admit later on that what he thought were puffins were actually razorbills (cute, but not puffins). He only admitted this once one of the members of the tour pointed this out to him. We made the best out of the trip, however, as we did enjoy seeing the cliffs, but the sheer lack of knowledge on our tour guide’s part was upsetting. This tour would be much better off simply advertising for gannets instead, as they are definitely present on the cliffs. In terms of safety, we did feel that our tour guide was driving a bit recklessly. We weren’t sure if this was simply due to the roads, but after having taken many other tours on our trips, we did observe that our other tour guides did a much better job navigating the roads. Unfortunately, we also didn’t feel that we had enough “comfort” breaks to go to the washroom, which was never an issue on the other tours we took. We were quite disappointed when we arrived back at 6:45pm rather than 7:30pm, as that extra 45 minutes could have been used for more time at some of the beautiful locations we went to, such as Findhorn beach. Overall, we cannot say that we would recommend Highland Explorer tours, especially when compared to the other tour companies we used over the course of our trip. This may have been due to an unexperienced or unprepared tour guide, but either way we felt that the tour’s title and description were misleading and should be changed.

Great company really enjoyed the tour ..it’s the people who make the experience enjoyable and worthwhile. A Big Shout out to Fraser who was our guide & Driver. His passion for Scotland really makes his tour so enjoyable. The kids loved his commentary and he was very keen to engage with them. They’re still talking about Fraser!!!