We took the 12 hour Loch Ness, Glen Coe & Highlands tour. Check in is in their office located inside Cafe Nero next to St Giles Cathedral on the Royal mile. We had our tickets printed out from the email and had no issues with checking in. Once you check in, they tell you what bus you're on and where to wait. You can also grab some snacks and hot drinks or other food/drink items at cafe Nero before boarding! Our driver/guide was very prompt! We left at 8 am and returned around 830-840pm. His name is Stephen H. (sp?) and he did a fantastic job for us on this long tour! Yes, you spend a lot of time in the bus, BUT there is just so much to see! You travel almost 400 miles in one day! But there are plenty of stops for photos, snacks/food/drinks and bathroom breaks. At the last stop, you have an option to take a 1 hr. boat ride on Loch Ness for an additional 22gbp pp. We opted not to do this and ended up getting to spend a relaxing hour having tea and recharging at the restaurant which was very nice! Overall a great way to see some highland highlights in a short time frame! Highly recommend...thanks Stephen! read more

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We selected this excursion because we wanted to see both Rosslyn and Stirling. This excursion was the one day tour. The stop at Dunfermline was nice but the stop to see the bridges was kind of a waste of time. The tour also includes Bannockburn. It does maximize your opportunities but you will feel rushed everywhere. The basics, it's well organized and the bus was OK if not full. My husband is 6'2" 230 and not built for the seats. Our guide / driver was OK but not the most entertaining and he did take a wrong turn in road construction that cost us maybe 20 minutes in Rosslyn. In Stirling you have a choice castle or lunch. You can't do both properly. There is a café in the castle with reasonably priced and good food to grab and down quickly. Our "40 minute" live tour at Stirling actually took well over an hour. We should have ditched it. Bottom line is that if your primary interest is Rosslyn just find a direct Lothian bus. You will not have enough time to fully appreciate Rosslyn on this tour. read more

We enjoyed the 8 day highlands tour with a trip to Skye and Lewis and Harris. The first four days we toured with Brendan who was full of fun and energy. It included a ferry ride to Skye and a boat trip on Loch Ness. The last four days we toured with Mark and went to the island of Lewis and Harris. Mark was an awesome story teller and made our "adventure" very exciting. Although the weather on Lewis caused a delay on a ferry back to the mainland, Mark made the delay very enjoyable an extra stop at Lewis Castle and the lighthouse. This was a trip of a lifetime! Highly recommend it to anyone! Accommodations were lovely! read more

This is a 12 hour bus trip/window tour. Do yourself a favor and don't, particularly if you have a child/children in your party. Most of the stops were short and in out of the way places where shopping was hurried and limited in scope. The bus passengers spent most of their time waiting in line to use the restroom because the bus lavatory was broken - yes - 50 people on a bus for 12 hours with no restroom. The one place where there was a longer stop was Lock Ness and if you wanted to take the boat trip and castle tour you needed to buy a separate ticket. The tour guide was rude to the people who did not want to buy a ticket. The time allotted at Lock Ness was not enough to get lunch, take the boat ride and tour the castle tour. When to men came back to the bus 5 minutes late the tour guide was rude to them. The Highlands are beautiful and well worth seeing but find another way to go. read more

As someone who has traveled five out of seven continents I've taken PLENTY of tours. This was by far the worst I've ever taken. They are unprofessional, unorganized, they lie, and they hire predators. We chose the isle of Skye tour because we loved the itinerary, yet we hardly followed it. We didn't get to see or go in the Eilean Donan castle, we hardly got to see any of Glen Co or the other beauties of Scotland but the driver Nick made sure we saw his "friends" breweries. When on the Loch Ness tour we met a couple from another HEX bus and they said they also didn't follow the itinerary. They also didn't have my booking when I showed up and they had to call and reserve room for me at BnB's. Which when I arrived to the BnB they didn't have room and they had to move all of their guests around. There was a girl on our tour that Nick the driver preyed upon. My friend and I made it our duty to keep him away from her because he frankly was unpredictable and his temper could be viewed as frightening. He would lash out on people in a childish way for being a couple minutes late back to the bus. He also spoke about how he was just working this job to start his own tour company, well news flash buddy that would be an awful company where you don't follow and itinerary and your passengers don't know where they aren't going to sleep that night. They weren't unorganized and poorly staffed. The driver was rude and lied to use constantly about why we weren't following the itinerary and blamed other passengers when a cup of tea he so desperately needed took twenty minutes at a popular rest stop. When a passenger asked him a question about a Loch or Scottish history he would blatantly lie threw his teeth. We know this because the bus has WiFi and we all have google. He also told us he was too qualified to have this job because he studied history at a private school. Besides the awful driver and communicative errors the isle of skye was gorgeous and the highlands deserve to be visited. All the food we had was great and the trip up was beautiful. The rest stops were usually public toilets with the occasional paid toilet but overall the scenery was breathtaking. Sadly Im sure my experience would have been better if i had a different driver than Nick but unfortunately I didn't. read more

Driver guide Rob Hall make this 3 day tour to the Isle of Skye such a delight. We learned so much history. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge. He is a character with a large and kind personality. This trip was a trip we will always remember. Rob made the tour. read more

We did the 1 day highland tour which turns out to be a bus ride out to Loch Ness and back. You do drive thru Glen Coe, Stirling, Loch Lomond & Cairngorms National Parks. Their are a total of 2 pitstops before reaching Loch Ness and 1 on the way home. Both pit stops are at tourist traps (gift shops and 1-2 food places in the middle of nowhere) where almost every tour bus seems to stop at so expect to wait in line for everything at those stops for which we were given 1/2hr each. The fish'n'chips chop at the 2nd stop isn't too bad, but expect to eat fast or do take-away. The one on the way home stops in a town with a public restroom stop which was closed by the time we got there so we had to go into an establishment in town and buy something to use the facilities, seems planned as there were multiple tour buses having their clients do this. Murray was our driver. He is extremely friendly and knowledgeable. He gave us history lessons and fun facts all along they way. The bus is a 30 passenger van which left much to want for space. I think I've had more space on the most cramped flights I've ever taken. In a van this size you will feel all the bumps, twists and turns, so if you get car sick, you probably should take a Dramamine before hand.....three people were sick on our tour and Murray somewhat joked that that was a success....in hindsight I think he was actually being honest. Also, if you are looking for reading light like I was on the way home because it was dark out and couldn't see any sights, you're in for a surprise...the reading lights for all the seats don't work, everyone's light fixtures when pressed actually fell out, so not even connected. We stopped at a couple of spots to take pictures of the beautiful highland scenery but wish there were more spots. Loch Ness cruise is not included in tour price. read more

To the one day tour of the Highlands and boat tour. I give Mark our guide 5 stars for being a great story teller and truly providing entertainment and information the entire 12 hours. More sitting then expected bur the boat ride was amazing. Beautiful trip that could have been boring if it were not for Mark. read more

We did their 1day Highland tour today. Bus #2 with Tom on July 2, 2018. The bus was excessively hot. We complained to Tom about this, as well as, other passengers complained. Tom would engage in backseat road rage regarding vehicles not pulling over to let cars/bus move forward. He complained about the roads and that we should write the government about. I'm on vacation, I don't think I should be hearing this. Tom stated the passengers wore the wrong clothes. FYI, my pants can convert to shorts and I wore a t-shirt. I was prepared. Tom stated the driver had his small window open. The driver did not have it open most of the time. Matter of fact, the driver wore a sweater as the passengers were miserable. We were told the driver is used to heat and some might have sinus issues. The experience was unacceptable and reflects a severe lack of attention to detail. On the last leg and after I had to post on Facebook something was done. Why should guests have to go to this extreme for action? The tour takes you to tour traps and the best part is not included. The ferry was the best, but this costs £20 extra per person. You are not told this in the brochure. If you opt out of it, you are stuck at another tourist trap for 1.5-2 hours. The tour is a huge ripoff! If you do take a tour with then, buyer beware! No one should have to use Facebook to get action from the guide. I will say once I posted on Facebook the experience, the company responded quickly and contacted the guide about the issues. We believe the company will do the right thing. read more

We booked a 3-day/2-night tour from Edinburgh to the Isle of Sky and Loch Ness. It was a wonderful tour! There were only 7 people on the shuttle so we had our pick of seats. We are a young couple, and were worried the bus would be full of geriatrics, but it was a great mix with mostly people our age and we made friends quickly. The driver, Eddie, was very friendly and knowledgeable. He even went out of his way to book us all a dinner reservation for the second night when we didn't know where to eat. He was also very patient with all the passengers and our questions. The only snag in our trip was our bus getting stuck on an icy road in the highlands. Eddie and the other passengers handled it well and it turned out fine. I suppose that is a risk you take for booking in December. I would love to return in the spring or summer to see the heather in bloom! read more

We took 2 tours with the company, we had a great time, we took the highland whiskey tour and I dont recall the name but it was loch and castle tour. We had an amazing time, both of our guides were very nice and had great stories to tell. We went during November so it was cold, but our buses had storage over the seats to put our coats once we got on the bus. We really recommend it. We have no regrets about our tours. read more

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I can't believe I waited this long to post a review but we took the Loch Lomond tour in August for our honeymoon and it was WONDERFUL. We had Paul as our tour guide and he was the absolute best. Paul was funny, nice and very informative. My husband and I couldn't stop laughing at his jokes. Aside from Paul being amazing, the bus was very nice and a smaller sprinter van so it wasn't overly packed with people. The tour was gorgeous and even though it was raining we had the best time. I highly recommend these tours! read more

This review is for the 3-day tour we went on last week, with Isle of Skye as the highlight. Me and my friend contemplated a lot since it's pricy but we decided to give it a go. Punctuality: On our first stop we were waiting on 2 more passengers when I felt the urge to pee so I got off the bus. When I came back I'm the last one they are waiting on, our tour bus driver James then mentioned about punctuality to all the passengers as a reminder via his mic, of course with the timing of it, I kinda felt embarrassed, after that I made sure I arrive on time. Afterwards still few people arrive few mins late on our next tour stops but he was more lax about it. Tours: In our first day, the weather is rainy and foggy, it limits our experience and scenic views but James did his part, he still brought us to beautiful places. Also, even with the chilly weather, James still wore kilt which gave our tour a little more Scottish vibe! Our second and third day were still drizzling but mostly good weather, we went to various stops with enough time for photo ops. We had lots of interesting places that we went to. Me and my friend enjoyed mostly our stay in Isle of Skye, our cruise at loch ness (at our expense), and our mini stops at lochs and castles. Our fellow tourists are nice. Our tour bus driver James is friendly and approachable. He is knowledgeable; giving us history, myths, facts and recommendations on the places we went. During down times on the bus, he plays Scottish music. Accommodation: It was preassigned by the tour company but luckily the one we stayed on at Isle of Skye is really nice and homely. (The name is Fir Chlis B&B in Isle of Skye). The location is good with nearby restaurants and bars (I recommend Saucy Mary's Restaurant and King Haakon). I will write a separate review for those. Overall: Me and my friend had a great time, enjoyed the lovely sceneries, and met new friends. I recommend James and this tour. read more

Don't take any multiple day tours from Highland experience, they highly overcharge for the accommodation. I took 2 day Loch Ness tour with accommodation, they overall charged me £489 with B&B accommodation. If I would have booked only the tour without accommodation, the rate for the tour would have been £260 (as I was getting a 10% discount online). This means that I was made to pay £229 for the stay at the B&B. I did not get any discount when I booked tour and accommodation together. I was surprised when I checked into the B&B (Loch Ness Guest House at Fort Augustus) as I found out that their per night charge for a family room was £140. All the members of the tour were staying in the same B&B and since they would have made a bulk booking in advance the rate that they would have paid would have been less than this. When I enquired the reason for the heavy overcharge, they told me absurd reasons which were hard to digest. They said that they took median of all the prices for the B&B providers and they provided me pick and drop from B&B. If someone actually paid less for booking the accommodation it is unethical and unprofessional on their part to charge me more for the same that too approximate £90. If someone plans to book a multiple day tour book your accommodation yourself separately. You would save a good amount of money. read more

This tour group deserves a post - but for the wrong reason. We booked a 2D1N LOCH NESS, INVERNESS AND THE HIGHLANDS tour from 22-23DEC12 for my partner and I and we were assigned to Steve on the day we left (22nd). The tour can be simply described as a bus ride up to Loch Ness and back. Where most tour guides would make the difference between a proper tour (i.e. explanations about the history, geology, etc) and a bus ride, For someone who kept harping on punctuality and timelines, Steve showed up late (we were all ready by 8.15am while Steve showed up at 8.45am). While it is good to remind the less considerate tourist(s) on timelines, Steve overdid it, including "jokes" (which can easily be interpreted as threats to some) on leaving people behind. While the weather was partly to blame for the lacklustre itinerary, Steve seem more interested in getting us to watch the "Clansman Show", held at the Clansman Centre and the Dalwhinnie Distillery Tour. In particular, for the "Scottish show" held at the Clansman Centre, Steve collected GBP 8 from everyone - Apparently no price difference for adults and children. What was interesting was that there we spotted not one, but two signs which GBP 5 for adults, GBP 4 for children, GBP 15 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children (see photo). Dishonesty? I leave that for you to decide. When asked by an Indian family with a 13 year old kid if there was a child rate (for a subsequent tour in the Loch Ness Exhibition), he simply replied "I can't tell how old he is", when it was clear to everyone he was a kid. Some of the remarks he passed were extremely rude and borderline racist in nature. When asked by the same family if they could have five more minutes from his suggested timeline of 45 minutes as they need time to order food, his reply was "in this country, we have stipulated time breaks". Comments about Indians being very laid back about timelines were also not appreciated, and as a fellow Asian, I felt that those comments were extremely inappropriate. In summary, what we got was essentially an overpriced bus ride by a grumpy driver who took us to Loch Ness (boat tour at our own expense) with some photo stops along the way; a mysteriously priced clansman show (at our own expense); a distillery tour (at our own expense) - you get the picture. While the bad weather played it's part in severely reducing the activities originally planned for, Steve did little to help. Ask for anybody but Steve - especially if you're Asian. You may (and probably be a lot better off) with other guides, or even tour companies. read more

Over the late May 2013 bank holiday we did the 12 hour Loch Ness, Glen Coe, and the Highlands tour from Edinburgh (£45 per person). We had an excellent tour guide and I feel terrible I can't remember her name! She told great historical stories during the entire ride and made the trip very entertaining. She even handled other tour attendees tardiness politely but strongly. The tour is bus heavy and the seats where very uncomfortable but we made several stops along the way and were at least entertained with the stories as we drove through the beautiful highlands. I would highly recommend this to others who want a quick highlight of the highlands with a stop for a £12 boat cruise through the Loch Ness. read more

I took the 1-day Northern Highlands tour and the 1-day Western Highlands tour, and thoroughly enjoyed both. I was traveling with my mom, and the trips were long (especially the Loch Ness tour) but not strenuous. The real gem was our tour guide, Fergus. A great storyteller and guide, he answered all my questions and more. I was exceedingly lucky to have him for both tours. The Loch Ness tour doesn't have a ton of time for a longer lunch, but Fergus was great about letting us bring stuff on the bus. The pickup location is also great! It's right on The Royal Mile, and easy to get to from most of the Old Town. All-in-all, Fergus made it an amazing tour and you won't be disappointed in the day tour destinations. read more

Just returned from the UK, where I did the 3-day Eilean Donan Castle, Skye, and Lochness tour with Highland Experience. Incidentally, we discovered the night before that we booked the wrong tour, with the wrong tour group! We had originally intended to book a 3-day tour with Highland Explorer, but somehow landed back on the wrong website and didn't realize it until we discovered that the tour didn't include the Jacobite Steam Train when reviewing the itinerary the night before. All that aside, we did not have high expectations when starting our 3-day adventure with Highland Experience. The great news is that this trip truly proved that the tour guide is what makes the difference with these bookings. The morning of our tour, we were greeted by a large, dreadlocked Scot in a kilt named Rob. Over the next 3 days, we were WOWED by Rob's warmth, charm, ability to make a tour group a "mini family", and incredible knowledge about Scotland's history. It was like an AP course in Scottish history in 3 days! There are long stretches in the bus driving to/from destinations, but Rob was able to make it feel like 3 days of storytelling, always picking up right where he left off and bringing the stories full circle. He also knew how to balance the talking and quiet time (sometimes with lovely Scottish music cd's), which is important when you want to catch a nap on a long drive! He squeezed in as much sightseeing as possible, often stopping for "ninja photo shoots", which pleased everyone on the tour. He also provided great insight into what was worth doing/paying for/seeing and even things like which restaurants had wifi if we had a lunch stop and wanted to check email. The 3 day tour ended up being more than we even expected it to be, in large part due to Rob. I would highly recommend this tour with Rob at the helm! If you book, do the B&B options - they were charming and included really nice made to order breakfasts. Also, get the seat in the very back of the bus on the right hand side (right, if you are seated and facing forward)...best leg room on the bus! ;) Scottish Highlands are NOT to be missed! read more

Brendan was our driver, and he had so much energy and knowledge. He shared so many historical and touristy facts with us. He was really great! If I go on a tour again, I would definitely use him! This tour's scenery is well worth the trip! The Highlands are SPECTACULAR! We didn't do the cruise of The loch. There are several pit stops along the drive (both ways), which is nice since the drive to Inverness is quite long. There were scenic stops---truly amazing! Worth the money! read more

I just wanted to leave a review for the girls who work the front desk. They have been so helpful to my grandma and myself! They helped us book taxis from our hotel to the pick-up location for their tours as well as let us use the telephone when we needed to call a taxi service to confirm a booking. Thanks for the help ladies! It was much appreciated! I'll be leaving individual reviews for the tours on TripAdvisor as well (: read more

I really enjoyed the 2 tours I took with this company. We got a nice deal booking 2, the busses were clean and comfortable, and the guides were great! We took the tours that went to Loch Ness and the tour to Sterling. You don't get to spend much time at your stops, but the ground you cover is pretty vast and the scenery along the way is beautiful. It definitely was worth the money! read more

The review from Chef Nomad below has this pegged exactly right. This review is for the 1-day Highlands and Loch Ness tour. Basically a long bus ride to Loch Ness with a couple of tourist trap type stops along the way. Oh by the way, the bus had very poor/no air conditioning on a very hot day. Neither food nor the Loch Ness boat ride are included in the cost. read more

Had a splendid 12-hour Highlands tour from Edinburgh during the week between Christmas and New Year's 2012. Our tour guide, Steve, was professional and entertaining. He filled the hours spent on the road with lots of terrific tales of the Highlands. Loved his excoriating of the BRAVEHEART film, telling us the real story of William Wallace, as well as who Rob Roy really was. We crossed the authentic Bridge of Doane (aka, Brigadoon), and even spotted "Glenbogle" from MONARCH OF THE GLEN. We even got a fascinating hour-long boat tour of Loch Ness. Our driver (Vince?) navigated the winding roads expertly in the dark, rainy weather. Highly recommended! read more

Honestly? This was the most disappointing part of our entire trip. I was so looking forward to this tour and it was a disaster from start to end. Our guide was clearly displeased to have us on board with our children (he actually said "Oh, this will be fun." with sarcasm as we boarded the bus). The itineray was to stop at Glencoe, the Highlands, and Loch Ness. We drove directly through Glencoe in order to stop at a roadside motorcoach convenience store about 30 minutes away. We stopped for approximately 15 minutes for a photo-op in the Highlands where our driver neglected to count passengers before driving away and left 2 of the group behind. We were not informed that declining the additional cost of the boat tour on Loch Ness would mean that we would not be given the chance to view Urquhart castle when the rest of the group was dropped off (our driver instructed us to stay on the coach while he speont 25 minutes getting the "boat" group settled in the castle and ready for their tour) and that we would spend an additional 20+ minutes on the coach only to be dropped at a village where the majority of the businesses had already closed for the day. We were left to hastily purchase ice creams at the last open shop and wander aimlessly among shuttered shops for 30 minutes before spending an additional 25 minutes on the coach attempting to locate a mystery passenger who had "missed the boat" at the castle. There was no passenger who had missed the boat- the boat had failed to scan someone's ticket. Our driver, John, failed to communicate any updates with us during any of theses situations and routinely popped off the coach without a single word, leaving us to figure out if we were expected to stay on the coach or had time to look around at our additional stops. Our last stop for the day was at the beautiful village of Pitlochry where we (along with approximately 70 other people from 2 coaches) were given 45 minutes to queue up for the lone pay toilet and hope to snag a quick pre-made sandwich from the lone cafe with ready made food because there was no time to actually sit at a restaurant or take in the sites. All told, we spent almost 10 hours of the 13 hour day stuck on the coach because of missed communications, failed oversight, or poor itinerary planning. When we booked this trip, I read several mixed reviews complaining about the amount of time spent on the motorcoach. I brushed these off, believing that their authors must have had unrealistic expectations. I can now say that my own experience was absolutely horrible- we spent hours more time on the coach than was necessary, missed out on all of the promised sites because we were either 10 miles outside the site at a roadside stop or because of gross mismanagement of the tour. I rarely write negative reviews but I cannot express enough my dissatisfaction at this experience. read more

I took a 3 day tour to Skye during Christmas and my tour was a bit crowded and accommodation that was not as expected. My tour guide was excellent but everything was booked and she couldn't help me. I filled the survey after the trip and noted my unsatisfactory accommodation. I was contacted by Customer Service within one hour and they did everything in their power to make it up to me and I am very pleased with their service. Thumbs up! read more

Please do yourself a favor and book with the "Hairy Coo." We paid for a tour to Oban (West Highlands) and ended up getting off the shuttle bus in Glasgow and taking a train back to Edinburgh. We lost about $135, so that tells you how bad it was! Several reasons initiated our departure: First, they picked a shuttle bus for this long drive totaling 6 hours. It was uncomfortable to say the least; Second, it was impersonal and annoying; they played a recorded tape the entire hour it took to get to Glasgow (loudly.) Lastly, they took a detour to Glasgow, they said for sights, but we didn't actually see any sites. It was merely to fill up the shuttle bus with two more people. I can understand if there were maybe 10 to pick-up, but 2 people! The bus only had two seats left. It was a complete waste of time to take the detour. I contacted the company to offer my suggestions and they basically didn't care. Now what kind of customer service is that? Anyways, I just wish someone had warned me because I could have used that money for a different tour company. read more