Day 1 - Edinburgh
Arrive in Edinburgh and transfer on your own to your centrally located hotel. Get acquainted with your tour manager and fellow travelers this evening during a three-course meal at the hotel. Overnight Edinburgh.
Includes
- Dinner
2024 Tour code: GR-SOSA-24
About the tour
Experience another side of Scotland on a journey to Shetland and the Orkneys, some of the most impressive destinations across the Scottish Isles. This immersive journey explores these remote locales, presenting their wildlife, heritage and customs as we travel from one historic destination to the next. Beginning in Edinburgh, travel by train through the spectacular scenery of the Scottish Highlands to Aberdeen. A walking tour introduces us to the unique architecture and layered history of this thriving port city, and then we join an overnight ferry at the harbor to sail through the North Atlantic to Shetland. Our time in Shetland is filled with adventure ranging from castle ruin-viewing to watching Shetland ponies and puffins romping in their picturesque natural environments. Enjoy a visit to the capital city of Lerwick and excursions to places like Brae and Jalshof, a town that has seen nearly 4,000 years of human life. Another ferry ride takes us to the remote Orkney Isles, where Neolithic history is as bountiful as natural beauty. Marvel at the preserved past as a guide leads us between four incredible sites: the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar, Maeshowe and Skara Brae. We return to mainland Scotland by ferry and explore Castle of Mey. Our memorable exploration of Scotland's off-the-beaten path destinations concludes with a rail journey back to Edinburgh.
Highlights
What’s included
Itinerary
Arrive in Edinburgh and transfer on your own to your centrally located hotel. Get acquainted with your tour manager and fellow travelers this evening during a three-course meal at the hotel. Overnight Edinburgh.
Additional information
Reviews
4.6 / 5 · 7 reviews
JANE
Submitted 25 May 2023
This was a good way to get to the Shetlands and Orkneys without spending the money for a cruise. The prehistoric sites were amazing. It would have been better with two days in the Orkneys. The food was OK, but not great, except the two lunch spots and the dinners at Ferry Inn and Palace Hotel. Land accommodations were fine and the two nights sleeping on the ferry were good. My main complaint was that the itinerary said we would see sights on Orkney that we didn’t see (Barnhouse village, Iron Age Brough of Gurness, and Maeshowe Visitor Center). We saw Brough of Birsay from a distance - it’s only accessible by foot at low tide- so it should not have been listed). We spent a lot of time at the St Magnus Cathedral which wasn’t on the itinerary at all. Also, the printed itinerary differed from the final one sent out by our Tour Manager - the original one said we would visit the Maeshowe tomb. Since our primary reason for visiting these distant islands was to see the prehistoric sites, it was disappointing that we missed seeing the ones we expected to see.
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Judi
Submitted 20 May 2023
The tour guides in each locality really knrw their stuff!!!
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JEFFERSON, CHRISTINA
Submitted 20 May 2023
Everything was well organized and the guide was fantastic
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BELL, ALAN D
Submitted 20 May 2023
Fair at best. Transportation on rail rail was extremely crowded with inadequate luggage storage. At times I had to sit on my suitcase because of lack of seat. Hotels with no lifts so had to carry luggage up stairs. Food at some locations was fair at best.
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ALIFF, MICHAEL LESLIE
Submitted 19 May 2023
Loved the trip but hated dragging my luggage
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PeggyandBob
Submitted 13 May 2023
Love love love Shetland. Would have liked an extra day there with more free time to explore Lerwick. Orkney very nice too but a lot was packed into the one day we had there.
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