Absolute Escapes Traveller Reviews

My family and I spent three weeks in Scotland starting July 20th, 2022. The focus of the trip was hiking the West Highland Way, but we were able to spend four quality days in Glasgow before, an extra day in Fort William at the end of the Way, and another four days in Edinburgh after, culminating with the Tattoo and Fringe events. Glasgow is a great working-class city with a fascinating story to tell. Our highlights included the Glasgow Cathedral, Kelvingrove Museum, Riverside Museum and Necropolis, all highly recommended. The social life is also spectacular with a great live music scene. The West Highland Way is a bucket list item for anyone who enjoys a multiday hiking adventure. It can be done in as little as five days, but we chose an eight-day option with a rest day in the middle. Every single day held amazing views and interesting people. The two days along Loch Lomond were the most troublesome hiking, with the trail degrading into scrambles frequently, but also held some of the most spectacular views. We hiked from south to north. After leaving the Loch behind the trail opens into Highland vistas. Incredible views and great open spaces with the occasional farmhouse, spectacular waterscapes and waterfalls line the entire route. The accommodations were always adequate or better and the service friendly and attentive. Highlights along the route include dinner at the Clachlan Inn in Drymen, drinks and appetizers at the Drover in Inverarnan, the accommodations at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, and if you book at the Forest View Guest House in Kinlochleven, the porridge is a must try for breakfast, it is spectacular. Trail highlights include Conic Hill just before Balmaha, the Glencoe Mountain resort just before Kingshouse, and of course the Devil’s Staircase between Kingshouse and Kinlochleven. We chose to take a rest day in Tyndrum, taking the train to Oban for the day. Again, highly recommended, if you make the trip book a distillery tour in advance. Quality rain gear is a must, but our experience was short, intense rain, so gear that can be quickly deployed and removed works best. Pick up a couple bottles of “Smidge” and you can avoid head nets. Edinburgh is a spectacular city with a continental feel. Highlights of our time there, a hike up to Arthur’s seat, a tour of Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, Mary King’s close, Holyrood Palace and park, and of course the Tattoo. Edinburgh, like Glasgow, deserves as much time as you can give to her and will keep you entertained, to the point of being almost overwhelmed.

Absolute Escapes made our hike arrangements, accommodations, baggage transfer, hike preparation, recommendations for meals and time in Oban, Fort William, and Edinburgh. Their arrangements were perfect in every conceivable way and their recommendations were spot on. We are very happy with their service and intend to use them again soon. As a special note I want to thank AMS Scotland, not only was their service reliable to the point of being transparent, but when my daughter left her wallet at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, they made sure it was delivered intact to our next stop at Glencoe. Excellent service from both Absolute Escapes and AMS Scotland, both are highly recommended.

We spent a week walking round Loch Ness, carrying our day packs, and with our luggage transferred between accommodation. Very relaxing, with good accommodation and food en route.

Absolute Escapes organised everything for us, and they went out of their way to ensure our holidays ran smoothly. From the planning stage through to the actual holiday, it was completely stress-free.

I walked the Borders Abbeys Way, a circular route starting and finishing in Jedburgh. Absolute Escapes booked excellent accommodation and ensured that my luggage was waiting for me at the next night's stop.

Absolute Escapes arranged everything I needed. The baggage transfer each day went without a hitch.

Great walking, lots of variety (as we expected) and excellent selection of accommodations. Followed Absolute Escape's advice to make dinner reservations well in advance and we were glad we had. We met some wonderful people along the way.

The team at Absolute Escapes were knowledgeable, professional, helpful, quick to respond and a pleasure to work with.

Walked the Rob Roy Way in Scotland.

Excellent operator. Everything they had arranged for us worked out perfectly fine. Great communication prior to the trip. Highly recommended.

All arrangements perfectly organized again by Absolut Escapes. Luckily we had decided to have a guide for the 2nd day to get us over the Trotternish Ringe in a terrible weather. I can warmly recommend the Skye Adventures, great young guides who made us to feel absolutely safe up there! The Seadrift at Staffin and Seaview at Elgol B&Bs I will remember forever for their very special locations and great hosts. The tomato pasta and haggish made by the Seaview host were the best meals I had at Sky.

We have used the Absolut Escapes for years (never change the winning team) for their expertise and devotion to good service. And now they managed to change our reservations several times over the pandemic years!

Such a wonderful trip, from start to finish. 2 weeks in the Hebrides and Orkney, Our travel agent (absolute Escapes) gave us a 30 page itinerary on where to visit, best places for food that was our itinerary for each day.. So many highlights but Langass Lodge in North Uist, had to be the highlight of our trip. People we met were fantastic, so many happy memories.We even played Askernish Golf course in 40km/hr winds. A truly memorable holiday

Absolute Escapes was absolutely incredible from start to finish. Booking, attention to detail and they even sent a 30 page itinerary to our home in Vancouver by FedEx . (We used that every day as our itinerary on Places to Visit, best restaurants.) All our ferries, accommodation were all exactly as booked, directions on every aspect of where to go and what time to show up. Availability was exceptional when we needed to contact them were unable to go to one of the B&B due to Covid and immediately they booked us in at another venue. We recommend this amazing travel agency to all our friends in Canada. Thank you for an exceptional job- Sheila, Daisy , and James

As our personal goal for this trip was to see as much of the Wall and other Roman ruins and archaeological sites as possible we spent one day taking advantage of the AD 122 Hadrian's Wall Bus instead of walking from Once Brewed to Chollerford so that we could spend time at Mile Castle 37, Housesteads, Brocolita, and Chesters. Those places were all worth the extensive time to tour them.

We had a fantastic time on our walking holiday. We really appreciate how Absolute Escapes makes it so easy for us. The information packet is invaluable and all of our lodgings were perfect.

Everything worked beautifully: bags, hotels, route signage, connections. It was really nice to have everything lined up and pre-paid. We're glad we did the slow route and took the extra days because it gave us time to explore more and pay attention to geology, botany, zoology, and beauty but now understand how the faster versions are possible. Even the long hikes are not as physically demanding as much of the hiking we do in the US and Canada where we often have double the elevation change and are starting at higher elevations too. We went with making sandwiches each morning for lunches and found your comments one resources available a reliable guide to where we'd be able to buy bread. A loaf generally lasted us 2-3 days and a small block of cheese was fine unrefrigerated for that long. Walking to our hotel (despite some slightly bad advice from google maps about cut-throughs that were not public gardens/parks) was easy in Edinburgh (much better than waiting for a taxi in the very long line at Waverly). Tram to airport was easy from the Edinburgh hotel. I find it impossible to pick a favorite and to the extent that favorite implies beautiful views that will depend on weather for each day as much as on the geology. Thank you all for your patience in delaying and revising the itinerary for us.

Absolute Escapes set up our lodging and baggage transfer based on our preferred timetable (including extra days on both ends and one in the middle). They provided good directions between the trail out our lodging plus useful recommendations for food each evening.

We had a great time in Shetland and Orkney enjoying scenery, archaeology and wildlife. With car hire, accommodation and ferry links all taken care of, we just concentrated on making the most of the trip.

Absolute Escapes made all the travel arrangements meaning we had little to worry about. The selected accommodation and car hire worked well for our needs, and the information on possible locations, places to eat out, and useful facts all made things very easy.