In early March, I had the fortunate opportunity to be invited by Visit Britain, Visit Scotland, and Connection Tours on a 7-day familiarization tour of Scotland and London. The visit was more than an introduction to the destinations, but it also became an inspiration to look differently at our tour product and how we present it.
The tour itself was made up of travel representatives from across Canada and included both travel agents and tour operators, like ourselves. We were 10 people on a 16 passenger Mercedes mini-coach and our driver guide was Andrew Jones from The Highland Experience, who was fantastic. More about Andrew later.
Our tour started in Glasgow, Scotland with overnights in Oban, Inverness, Stirling, and Edinburgh before ending in London. In between these cities, we experienced the unprecedented scenery, cuisine, and hospitality. I was fortunate to try a traditional Scottish breakfast including haggis and black pudding! These two meals are musts when you come to Scotland.
Something I found unexpected about my visit was the terrain. The Highlands are quite mountainous with many peaks still snow capped, including Ben Nevis which is over 4000 feet. This leads to a lot of hiking opportunities and stunning photo ops no matter the type of traveller you are.
The one thing that made this trip unlike any other was the commentary and story telling of our driver/guide, Andrew. Andrew gave us an accurate depiction of the places we visited and answered all our questions on life in Scotland, but the one area he excelled at most was storytelling. As we drove along the countryside and through the Highlands, he delivered an animated history lesson. More than just rhyming off facts from a history book, Andrew made sure we were emotionally engaged in the story. This made the stories stick in our brains and we looked forward to visiting the subject of the stories as we drove towards them. When Tour Guides are able to bring history to life in this way it adds value to your trip in ways you may not have expected. It also made the numerous visits to the different castles far more fascinating than they would have been without the context.
The other aspect of this trip that impressed me the most was the small group on a 16 passenger mini coach. For an area like Scotland, a small group has some specific advantages. Firstly, the vehicles are a little more nimble and can make better time. This allows for a later start time in the morning and more leisure time while visiting sights. You also get to visit places that may be challenging or impossible for large motorcoaches to visit (remember, many of these sights were built back in the time of horse and buggy!). And with a smaller group, the driver/guide can make changes if time permits to enhance the tour experience at the request of participants.
As with some of our current 2017 tours like our Canadian Battlefields tour and our Alaska and Canadian Rockies tour you will notice we are offering smaller group departures. When visiting these bucket-list destinations we hope to bring similar experiences as the ones I referenced above to these tours by keeping the group small.
Ready to visit Scotland yourself? Stay tuned for two new Scotland programs coming in 2018: Highlights of Scotland and The Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Want to receive info when they are released? Sign up for our e-newsletter or send us an email at [email protected].
-John Dunphy, Owner & Tour Planner
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