• 6 Dinner (D)
• 8 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Afternoon Tea (AT)

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• Premium regional accommodation

• Edinburgh: Enjoy a relaxing dinner at a local restaurant and get to know your fellow travellers. 
• Pitlochry: Atholl Palace, built as a Victorian Baronial retreat over 130 years ago, hosts your afternoon tea. You’ll be welcomed into the banqueting room to enjoy a traditional afternoon tea accompanied by sandwiches, scones, Scottish shortbread and traditional Scottish tablet.
• Glencoe: Your adventure culminates with a wonderful evening enjoying the best Highland hospitality and market-fresh ingredients.

• Edinburgh: Step up to Scotland’s stirring musical tradition in a hands-on masterclass with Roddy the Piper or one of his expert musicians. Practise fingerwork and ornamentation on a practice chanter, then have a go on the Highland bagpipes. Finish by coming together as a mini pipe band, recording a group video as you play a tune in unison.

• Wick: Visit the highly rated Wick Heritage Museum to gain a full picture of this once thriving fishing community and how your visit helps keep the story of this town alive. The Wick Society is committed to preserving and promoting Wick’s proud heritage for the inspiration of future generations. They collect, collate and display the many artefacts that tell the history of Wick and their community ethos is one of welcome and sharing. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities. 
• Wick: Share a wee dram with a master distiller during a whisky tasting.

Visit the Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre to understand the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Exhibits bring the opposing forces and the events of the battle into focus against the landscape where they fought.

The battle in April 1746 lasted around an hour, yet its aftermath profoundly affected Highland life. The visit offers historical context for the Jacobite cause and the enduring significance of Culloden in Scotland’s story.

Insight Vacations

Meet your Travel Director and fellow small-group travellers over dinner at a local Edinburgh restaurant. Scottish flavours and relaxed conversation make this a welcoming introduction to the capital and the people sharing your journey.

Edinburgh’s food culture draws on produce from across Scotland, from coastal seafood to Highland ingredients. This hosted evening offers a chance to settle in and get to know your group around the table.

Explore Edinburgh with a Local Specialist, travelling along Princes Street to see the Scott Monument, the Georgian facades of the New Town and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the King’s official Scottish residence. Venture through the Old Town to visit Edinburgh Castle.

Inside the castle, see Scotland’s Crown Jewels and Mons Meg, a formidable 15th-century siege cannon. The contrast between the medieval Royal Mile and the planned, neoclassical New Town reveals two defining chapters of the capital’s history.

Try your hand at playing the Highland bagpipes in an Edinburgh masterclass with Roddy the Piper or another expert musician. Practise fingerwork and ornamentation on a chanter before having a go on the pipes themselves.

Come together as a mini pipe band to play a tune in unison and record a group video. The hands-on session brings you closer to a musical tradition heard at Scottish gatherings, ceremonies and celebrations.

Watch the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo unfold on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, with massed pipes, drums and performers filling the night with music and movement. The castle provides a dramatic backdrop for this large-scale celebration of military and cultural performance.

Held for a limited period in August, the Tattoo is included on select departures only. Check your chosen departure to confirm whether this evening spectacle forms part of your tour.

Spend time in St Andrews, a coastal university town where old stone buildings meet sea air and sweeping links. Pass the Old Course, closely associated with the development of modern golf, and explore the town at your own pace.

You might walk to West Sands Beach, featured in the opening sequence of Chariots of Fire, or seek out the university’s historic streets. The town’s academic and golfing traditions lend this stretch of Fife coast its distinctive character.

Enjoy afternoon tea at Atholl Palace in Pitlochry, served in the banqueting room of a Victorian Baronial retreat. Settle in for sandwiches and scones alongside Scottish shortbread and tablet, a rich traditional sweet.

Built more than 130 years ago, the hotel evokes the era when Highland scenery drew Victorian visitors north. The setting turns a familiar teatime ritual into a taste of Scotland’s hospitality and resort heritage.

Explore the Highland capital with your Travel Director, taking in the River Ness, Inverness Castle and the scenery surrounding the city. This orientation introduces the landmarks and stories of a place long associated with routes through the Highlands.

Set where the river flows towards the Moray Firth, Inverness has served as a meeting point for Highland communities and travellers. Its riverside setting gives the city an open, distinctly northern character.

Take in the dark waters and steep hills of Loch Ness while your Travel Director shares the stories surrounding its elusive monster. The long, deep loch offers broad Highland views from its shores.

Legend is part of Loch Ness’s appeal, but the landscape has its own quiet presence: wooded slopes, changing light and water stretching far into the distance. This is a scenic encounter with one of Scotland’s most recognisable places, rather than a boat cruise.

Choose a whisky tasting at Old Pulteney Distillery in Wick and share a dram while learning about its coastal-style spirit from a distilling expert. The experience offers a close look at a local craft rooted in this northern port town.

Old Pulteney’s maritime identity reflects Wick’s long relationship with the sea. This is one of two included activities to choose from in Wick; the alternative is a visit to the Wick Heritage Museum.

Choose to explore Wick Heritage Museum and discover the people and industries behind this once-thriving fishing port. Its collections of local artefacts preserve everyday stories alongside the town’s maritime history.

The museum is cared for by the Wick Society, whose work keeps the community’s heritage accessible to future generations. Your visit supports that work. This is one of two included activities to choose from in Wick; the alternative is a whisky tasting.

Explore the Orkney Islands with your Travel Director, visiting the Italian Chapel, discovering Kirkwall’s Norse heritage and entering Skara Brae, a remarkably preserved Neolithic settlement. Walk among the standing stones of the Ring of Brodgar beneath Orkney’s wide skies.

The chapel was created by Italian prisoners of war during the Second World War, while Skara Brae reveals domestic life from around 5,000 years ago. Together, these sites span millennia of island ingenuity and belief.

Discover the Isle of Skye’s rugged slopes, quiet lochs and Cuillin Hills while travelling through the island towards Broadford. Hear the story of Flora MacDonald and Bonnie Prince Charlie as the changing Highland landscape comes into view.

Skye’s mountains and sea-fringed settlements give the island its striking sense of remoteness. This scenic exploration focuses on the views and stories encountered across the island; it does not include a guided mountain walk.

Pause to photograph Eilean Donan Castle, set where three sea lochs meet in the western Highlands. Its stone walls and arched bridge make a distinctive silhouette, especially when calm water catches their reflection.

The castle’s island setting reflects the strategic importance of these waterways. This is a photo stop rather than a castle visit, giving you time to appreciate the exterior and the surrounding mountain-and-loch scenery.

Stop at the Commando Memorial near Fort William, where bronze figures stand against a sweep of Highland landscape. From the hillside, look towards Ben Nevis and the ridges rising above the glen.

The memorial honours commandos who trained in the Scottish Highlands during the Second World War. Its open setting gives space for both reflection and an expansive view of Britain’s highest mountain, weather permitting.

Explore Glencoe’s dramatic Highland setting with your Travel Director, taking in the village near Loch Leven and the mountain ridges surrounding the glen. The landscape provides a powerful setting for the stories associated with this part of Scotland.

Glencoe is closely linked to the 1692 massacre of members of Clan MacDonald. Hearing that history amid the steep slopes adds depth to a place whose scenery is as compelling as its past.

Join a ranger in the Valley of Glencoe to learn how its rare ecosystem is protected. Hear about conservation work, scientific research and efforts to restore indigenous species to the glen’s flora and fauna.

The valley supports habitats for alpine flowers, mosses, mountain hares, red deer and birds including golden eagles. This hosted experience reveals the care needed to protect a fragile Highland landscape as well as the wildlife that depends on it.

Gather with your fellow travellers for a Highland dinner in Glencoe, featuring market-fresh Scottish ingredients. The hosted meal is an opportunity to savour regional flavours together in a setting framed by mountain scenery.

Highland hospitality is at the heart of the experience: generous food, shared conversation and a chance to reflect on Scotland’s landscapes and traditions around the table. Unlike a routine hotel meal, this dinner is presented as a distinct regional dining occasion.

Spend time beside Loch Lomond, where wooded islands sit against open water and Highland hills. Wander the shore, take in the mountain views or pause to enjoy the changing light on the loch.

Long celebrated in Scottish song and literature, Loch Lomond offers a gentler contrast to the country’s rugged glens. The included experience is a shoreside visit; a cruise on the loch is available separately as an optional activity.

Discover Glasgow on an orientation drive with your Travel Director, passing grand public buildings and George Square before seeing St Mungo’s Cathedral. Broad streets and substantial Victorian architecture reveal the scale of Scotland’s largest city.

George Square is a focal point of Glasgow’s civic life, while the cathedral speaks to its medieval origins. Seeing these landmarks together offers an introduction to a city shaped by both historic faith and later industrial prosperity.

Cruise Loch Lomond to see its wooded islands, shoreline and surrounding hills from the water. The low vantage point gives a different perspective on the loch’s scale and the landscape reflected in its surface.

Celebrated for its island-dotted waters, Loch Lomond is a defining scene of western Scotland. This cruise is optional, at additional cost and bookable on tour; the included shoreside visit offers a separate way to enjoy the setting.