Loch Lomond, Stirling and Whisky Tour from Edinburgh

Not worth it!

First we were told that because we booked the last 24 hours before the excursion it was not possible to go to a distillery! We complained and they told us that they will try but there is no chance of a refund even if it doesn't happen! We ended up going to a completely uninteresting distillery in the center of Glasgow instead of what was on the schedule. We didn't see a single barrel of whiskey! Next we went to Loch Lomond. The program said we would stay there for an hour. The driver only gave us 7 minutes (it wasn't raining in case you were wondering) and took us for an hour to an ugly village that wasn't on the schedule. He guided us to a poor quality tourist shop with lousy food. After wasting our time there unwillingly, we went to Stirling Castle which is very beautiful on the outside but the rooms very fake made on the inside. After 1.5 hours there we returned to Edinburgh. We spent 6 hours in an uncomfortable minivan, we saw beautiful nature along the way but we only had the opportunity to walk in nature for 7 minutes out of the 10 hours of travel! Overall a disappointing experience, on a day that was wasted on this tour. Do yourself a favour and don't repeat our mistake of trusting our precious time to these tour operators. The driver was funny.

Good Scottish trip

The trip was great and the guide was very good and knowledgeable. Stirling Castle is definitely a must to visit while in Scotland.

Disappointing.

This tour did not meet expectations and the description of it posted is actually a deceptive business practice which should be investigated. Regarding the latter, the description of the tour clearly states that food and drink are included. They are not...or, I should say, they were not included on Tuesday, April 16 when we took the tour. We arrived on time at the meetup point and the first thing we learned was that the usual "professional guide" was not available for our tour on this day. The guide's substitute was charming and openly admitted he was new to this. Ok. Fine. And he did his best. Then, we began the tour and immediately there audio problems on the bus. There were only 6 of us on the tour: 3 couples. We could not hear what the "narration" from the new guide or the driver, who sort of took turns narrating the trip. Genuine apologies were offered and that's nice, but it doesn't help when you can't hear the tour guide. Next problem was how the tour was structured. We arrived at the Clydeside Distillery a full hour before the distillery tours began. So, an hour wasted. BTW - as a customer, you are on the hook, so to speak, for the costs of the distillery tour, all food/drink/goods you might purchase on every stop of the excursion, including admission to Stirling Castle. These are not hidden charges in how Viator describes the offer but they aren't made very explicit either. Thought it would be good to underscore that what you are paying for is merely transportation, particularly when there's no professional guide provided and you can't hear a single word on the tour bus. Also, regarding tour structure, there is an abundance of time spent at the distillery and the Loch Lomond visit, but not enough time set aside for a proper tour of Stirling Castle, which deserves at least 90 minutes of time to explore. Let me be clear: everyone of the representatives of the tour were very kind and apologetic about the circumstances surrounding the last minute professional guide substitution and the audio problems on the bus. These were 2 very nice men doing the best they could under the circumstances. However, the end result was a tour where nothing was truly guided, not enough time was allotted for Stirling Castle, and no food and drinks were provided, despite being listed as "included' on the website. You have been warned. Think carefully before choosing this particular tour. One other note: Clydeside Distillery is no big deal. I feel certain there are better, more interesting distillery tours all over Edinburgh.

Great day with Dave

I joined the Loch Lomond, Stirling Castle & Distillery tour on 2 nov and it was a great tour. Very small group only 5 of us and was very good. Dave was the driver and tour guide, he was very interesting and passionate, he knows his whisky too which is a nice add on. One member of the bus group was pregnant and he was patient with her as she needed more time. Dave also added a fun little extra 30 min activity as we got to the distillery well ahead of time.

Great whiskey and Stirling Castle tour

This was a great tour. An unplanned photo stop at the Kelpies was nice. Enough time at whiskey distillery and Loch Lomond where we had lunch and a lovely walk to the loch.

Beautiful views and a great guide

Stefan was a great tour guide. I got to see so much and learned history I didn't know. Loch Lamond was beautiful and so serene. The distillery and Transportation Museum was delightful. Stirling Castle and the gardens and the views were absolutely beautiful. Would definitely recommend!

Texas Couple Review

This was perfect addition to our vacation. My husband had been driving most our vacation and the bus tour allowed him to sitesee, rest, and still get to places we wanted to see. Stuart our guide was great. Knowledgable, friendly, and communicated expectations very clearly. We had a fabulous time. I would say that I feel we barely had time to scratch the surface to cover the castle. Initially we were really looking for a castle tour day. Other than that, it was affordable, easy to book, and terrific addition to finish off our vacation. Would highly recommend and do again.

Great time, Paul is a great guide

Loved this tour and would highly recommend. Paul our guide was a superstar, keeping us entertained the whole way and also providing really interesting historical information. Stirling castle is a must see and Loch lomond area is very pretty. We really enjoyed the time at distillery

Belongs

The time for the activities was not enough. Also I bought souvenirs on the wisky experience I left the bag behind the chair when I get in the bus in the last stop and unfortunately I forgot. My mom and me were the last ones that get off from the bus in Edinburg and the bag was lost. According with the driver he did not found anything. My bad, probably I won’t be back to Edinburg. And for sure I won’t get any other tour with highlands company. That is so important sometimes souvenirs for some people like me. So if you take a tour with this company be sure to take your belongs all the time with you, because you won’t see them anymore.

Driver Guide was...

Driver Guide was charismatic and spirited , informative without being boring good timing. Kept the group moving .

Overall this was a great...

Overall this was a great tour. The mini can was a bit uncomfortable and the dropoff point in return was not was started and we had over a mile walk back after a very long day.

Overall a great tour

Great tour overall. The whiskey tour was very good and Stirling Castle amazing. We didn't get to see any of Loch Lomond, just the restaurant and barely had time to eat. The driver, Eddue. had a great attitude but didn't seem to know the route well and didn't keep us on schedule.

Highs and Lows

I wish I could give a better review. Stirling Castle was amazing, best castle we have seen in the UK! You should definitely go there! The whisky tour was fun, even though we were sipping the Aqua Vitae before noon. The teetotalers in our group enjoyed it as much as those who imbibed. The tour guide from the distillery was informative and the whisky was good! The disappointment was with the tour company and the stop at Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond is beautiful, unfortunately we didn’t get to see it on this tour. We were only given 15 minutes and we were standing across the street from the parking lot at an inlet. We were at water level with ZERO view. You had to crane your neck to even get a glimpse. Absolute waste of time to drive all the way there! The tour company was subpar. The timing of the tour was poorly planned. While we waited 30 minutes to go into the whisky tour, we could have used that time at Loch Lomond to get to a higher viewing location. The audio system on the bus was horrible! There was so much echo that you couldn’t understand anything that the guide was saying. The seats were really uncomfortable, just brutal to sit on for 6 hours! Finally, the tour guide, Nester, was arrogant, rude and unhelpful. My recommendation would be to book a whiskey tour in Edinburgh and find a way to get to Stirling Castle on your own. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see Loch Lomond, but I hear it’s beautiful!

Highs and lows on the way to Stirling Castle

I'd hoped for more from this experience. The specific stops ranged from fine (Clydeside Distillery in Glasgow & an unscheduled stop at the Glasgow Transportation museum) to beautiful (Loch Lomond at Balmaha & Stirling Castle). But it wasn't the tour I thought I'd signed up for. In particular, the tour that had been advertised had a different distillery with the possibility of an alternate activity (a hike on the West Highland Way, for people not interested in the distillery). And, it was unseasonably warm in Scotland the day of our tour, and the tour driver did not understand how to keep the bus from getting stifling hot. Either he didn't know how to use the air conditioning, it wasn't working, or there wasn't any; but he never thought to open the ceiling hatch to get some type of airflow. After some seriously uncomfortable time on the bus, the passengers finally begged him to pull over so that something could be done.

Enjoyable day trip

The only reason i give it a 4 star is that it was not well explained that if we walked a quarter of a mile or so we could really see Loch Lomond. We spent too much time at lunch and was not able to enjoy the view. The distillery was excellent and we had time so we went in and visited the Riverside museum (this should be a listed stop - great museum).

Not the Tour I Expected

I was disappointed in this 1-day tour. The best part was visiting Stirling Castle where we did have sufficient time to tour. But I could have taken the train there from Edinburgh and not wasted my time with the rest of the tour. We started with the distillery, arriving an hour before our tour was to start and nothing to do but sit and wait.  It's a fairly new distillery, not Glengoyne, so no real aged whisky to taste. When I signed up for this tour several months ago, Glengoyne was on the itinerary. The distillery was changed to Clydeside in out-of-the-way Glasgow. The distillery tour was well presented, the whisky just so-so. From there we spent a lot of time on the bus.  The next stop was for lunch, not in a village, but at a restaurant on Balmaha Bay. Nice, but not really much of a view. We caught glimpses of Loch Lomand, not spectacular views. The village of Balmaha looked interesting as we drove through it, too bad we had no time to visit it. I'm not sure when the hike to Craigie Fort was supposed to be available, no mention of it was made by the guide, not that we had time for a hike. Finally arrived at Stirling Castle late afternoon with 2 hours to explore, just the right amount of time, the best part of the trip. Our guide, Moray, was not very interesting and did not encourage questions despite his offer at the start to answer any questions. All in all, this was a waste of my limited valuable time in Scotland. I do, however, highly recommend the 8-day tour Highland Experience offers, take it if you can. This 1-day tour, however, just does not deliver.

Family with teens

Great trip!! It was my husband, kids (teens) and I. Perfect small group day outing. Brodie was the BEST! Great stories and info all along the way. Lots to see and the perfect amount of time for reach stop. Highly recommend!

Great experience on day tour

Tour guide Nestor was great. He was humorous and entertained us throughout the journey. Whiskey tour was interesting and we got to try a few samples of scotch Whiskey.

Expectations not met

The tour guide was amazing, I believe his name was Paul. He was the best part of the tour. Stirling castle was the other great part of the tour. Besides that, the parts with Loch Lomond and the whisky tour were terrible. The whisky tour took place at one of the newest distilleries in the country. It was boring and there wasn't much to see. I cam see a modern distillery any time. I'd much rather have sewn an old distillery, where you can see the barley being roasted or barrels being filled. This is Scotland after all. As for Loch Lomond, there wasn't much to see. We were there for just under 2 hours, not enough time to hike to any height that would allow you to see the Loch clearly. We stopped in a tourist trap boat launch area that had no good views of the Loch, just an island. When i think of Loch Lomond, I think of sweeping vista's and magnificent views of the Loch, not a beach where people are launching paddle boards. Overall, I'd skip this tour. There has to be better tours out there.

Fantastic tour, beautiful day and outstanding guide.

Excellent guide, wonderful tour. Ian was a phenomenal guide and driver, and shared great stories. He played a variety of Scottish music too. We visited a whisky distillery, Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle. He even offered to lead us on a short hike to view Loch Lomond - stunning views. We had a gorgeous sunny day at all stops and Stirling castle was amazing. As a bonus Ian stopped at the Kelpies too.

Awesome

My husband and I did this tour and had a wonderful experience. What made the day even better was our awesome guide Ian. He was very knowledgeable about the areas we went to and took us on a short hike to a gorgeous look out spot on Loch Lomond. We had some extra time and he squeezed in a quick trip to the Kelpies. Ian recommended a quaint coastal town for us to visit called New Berwick which was honestly the highlight of our Scotland trip. Thanks so much Ian for the great memories from Team Arizona!

We had a great experience...

We had a great experience going on this tour with Nestor! He was informative, helpful, funny, and attentive. I would highly recommend this tour.

Disappointed

We had a fantastic guide named Jamie. We had originally booked the tour based on a particular distillery however we got to the tour and learned it was cancelled we went to a modern day one. Disappointing we really wanted to see one of the older ones. No decent views at Loch lomand unless you are prepared to walk 30 mins up a steep hill unguided. We arrived at the Stirling Castle too late to have a guided tour had to wander around on our own. Our guide never joined us throughout the day. He literally just drove the bus. He was very knowledgeable however.

A bit of a disappointment

The distillery product wasn’t very good. The trip to Loch Lomond basically showed us the water and then we were booked for lunch. Sterling Castle was great but we arrived at the end of the day when all tours were over. The coach was extremely cramped with very uncomfortable seat belt. The driver tried but it was not his usual route. Timing was off. Nice to see everything but a bit of a disappointment

Dave the tour guide was...

Dave the tour guide was great. Much recommended day trip from Ediborough. Great tour to see Glasgow and sterling castle.

Great Day Trip Out of Edinburgh

This was a great day trip out of Edinburgh and an opportunity to see a glimpse of Glasgow, in addition to the distillery, Loch Lomond and the castle. The stop at the Riverside Museum in Glasgow was an added treat. Our guide Dave was excellent- knowledgable and friendly. There were all age ranges on the trip and he was great with everyone.

Great day trip out of Edinburgh

Dave was a great guide- very knowledgeable on the history of the areas we visited and friendly. We had people of all ages on the trip and he was good with everyone. The tour itself was a great day trip out of Edinburgh.

Thank you soooo much

Such a beutiful country and our tour guide Bob was so marvellous. Our hearts belong to Scotland. With love from Finland

Great day tour!

My husband, son and I really enjoyed this tour. Our guide, Alex was fantastic. He provided us with so much information and was a pleasure to listen to! Stirling Castle was definitely the highlight of this tour. It was so well maintained -it was truly like a step back in time. The distillery tour was informative and the whiskey was delicious. It is hard for us to find inclusive tours with our six year old- we appreciated the fact that kids were welcomed and that it held his attention. The only reason I would give this four stars is because of the area of Loch Lomond we were able to see. It was beautiful but the location we were at didn’t do it justice (despite being close to the visitors center). I will say the food from the coffee shop was delicious! Try the macaroni and cheese pie and hot cheese sandwich with haggis and you won’t be disappointed! Overall, we had a great day and would recommend!!

Great experience for a first visit to Scotland

Alex, our guide was very knowledgeable and always ready to answer questions. Bus was comfortable and destinations very nice. 90 minutes at Loch Lomond was really too short since the place is beautiful.

Andy is the best tour guide

Andy was an amazing tour guide! The tour was fun (Andy made sure of that), informational, and filled with stunning views! Would definitely recommend going on this tour

Great experience

Andy was the best tour guide ever! We had the best time on our trip with him. Thoughtful funny and kind-you have to book this tour!!

Everything you want to see in 1 Tour!

Alex was a great tour guide and I especially enjoyed the History of Scotland stories he told during the bus rides. It not only made the rides go quicker but I felt I was more informed and excited to see things like the castle after knowing more of the back story. This tour had exactly the 3 things we wanted to see on our trip, the highlands, castles and whisky distillery! I didn’t feel rushed at all at any of the steps even though we were on a schedule. I also appreciated the heads up about places that had walking or stairs and heads up about how long it would take to get back up if you chose to go that way. It took away a lot of the anxiety around it which i appreciated! My one note is I wish we were dropped at a bit better location for views of Loch Lomond. I loved listening to the Scottish music on the way home and that he told us stories at the end and more recommendations that made me wish I had done this tour at the beginning of my trip! Definitely recommending this to all my travel friends!

Jaime was a wonderful...

Jaime was a wonderful tour guide with a vast knowledge of Scottish history. Loved all his stories as we drove from site to site.

Loved it

Amazing experience with my partner. Our tour guide Jamie was great. Vast knowledge and easy to listen to. Loved this tour so much and was one of the nicest parts of our holiday.

Sterling is great

Steven B was great tour guide and Sterling Castle was magnificent. Weather made Loch portion of trip a little harsh, so wish we could have stayed a little longer in Sterling. But brilliant trip and highly recommend.

Brilliant adventure

We had an amazing time and our guide Alex was super knowledgable and made it a superb day with his stories and jokes. The whisky tasting tour at Auchentoshan was also very enjoyable and lots of fun was had. We felt this whole tour was very good value for money.

A great day 👍

Great length for a day trip. Beautiful scenery and interesting Scottish historie. Great lunch, and a very nice visit to the destillery. Our guide Steven B made the day perfect.

What a great day 👍

Favorite part was a very friendly experienced guide called Steven B. We had plenty of time for all activities. Best part off course the destillery, and what a great idea to visit Auchentoshan

AJR group in Scotland

A wonderful memorable experience, a very knowledgeable driver about history as well as the region, we got loads of 'stories' and pictures to take home ! The only problem was our group of 9 understood very little English, and when I started translating for them the other persons in the bus got upset as they could not hear the driver as well. An audio would definitely have been a bonus for our group !

Lowland Tour

Lovely sights of the lowlands! Excellent tour guide! And an entertaining visit to a whiskey distillery. Much appreciated!

Amazing Day Trip

Jimie who drove us around was the best thing that happened during this day trip. He made it so enjoyable for us all, with his mesmerising narrations. Sterling castle was an amazing place to visit. Whisky tour was yet another experience of its kind. We've been enjoying drinking whiskies for years but this going through the processing of Euchentosan single malt was great.

Not the Highlands, but Wonderful Nonetheless

Such a wonderful day exploring the Scottish lowlands with our fantastic guide, Jaime. That said, when we booked the tour we understood it to include travel into the Highlands (the name of the company is Highlands Experience!), which it did not. While disappointed with that, what we did see was memorable and fun.

Fabulous Scottish Day trip

Amazing day traveling the Scottish countryside. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable & informative every step of the way. This day long excursion was everything we wanted and could have asked for in a trip. Our tour guide, Michael, explained the history behind our visits to Stirling Castle, Loch Lomond & a whisky distillery as Well as the stories that us tourists would not have known. We highly recommend this trip .. you will NOT be disappointed.

Do it for the guide

Steve B. Was incredible! Had such a phenomenal tour and saw great things but what really made this tour perfect was the guide. Steve B. Was able to explain history better than any video book or site I tried before the trip. Highly recommend

Amazing castle and tour

First of all I want to congratulate our guide, Steven B, who was amazing throughout the trip with his knowledge, humor and happiness. The tour itself it is acceptable, however, I do think the stop at Loch Lommond should be a little bit longer because it doesn’t give time to eat and hike at the same time. I’m very active I had to run to see what I wanted to see while not dying of starvation. Stifling castle time was perfect and precise, I would loved to had time to visited Stierling town at least 30 minutes but it is ok. The castle is perfect. For healthy measures we changed the distillery from Gleygone to Auchentoshan and it wasn’t a problem. The guide in the distillery was absolutely outstanding, totally worth it and recommended. The only thing I didn’t catch was… why we had to pay 15pounds for the visit if is part of the tour? Not sure if it was in the information.

Excellent tour

We had a wonderful experience with William as our driver fir the Stirling Castle Loch Lomond tour. He shared so many interesting facts about Scottish history with us and his playlist was excellent. We would definitely recommend this tour. Stirling Castle was great.

It was a Poorly managed tour

We had long cherished dream of this loch lomond tour but it was spoiled due to harsh weather as well as inhuman behaviour by the driver cum guide of travel agency named highland experience tours on 8 th june 22. Tour was started in bad weather in the morning from parliament square. Driver had no proper plan assigned by the travel agency. Initially self paid sightseeing tour of glengoyne distellary was completed in a very short period. At another main location of loch lomond , we were allowed for taking lunch only whereas we could not go for loch lomond visit due to shortage of time. Finally, we were kept idle for two hours at stirling castle in the afternoon unnecessarlily due to poor planning. Driver cum guide was very rustic, arrogant and inhuman. Since my wife had limited mobility due to acute knee pain, we had reqursted to allow us to remain and take rest inside van only on stirling castle terrace because of ongoing continuous rain but he closed the door of van leaving us outside in the rains unattended and left for somewhere else for two hours. There was also no place for taking shelter in that harsh weather. After waiting idle there for 2 hours , we returned back at edinburg where we were left near castle on the road. There, we kept waiting for taxi for another one hour in that harsh weather under continuous rain. We were very much depressed due to ill behaviour of van driver of the agency. Our tour pleasure was entirely spoiled by poor plan and arrogant and inhuman behaviour of driver. We would never recommend this tour agency highland expereince tour and also request viator to remove such agencies from their listing to save genuine customers from harassment.

Poorly managed tour by highland experience tours.

Out of different tour package of highland tours of scotland, it is very difficult to choose genuine one. Initially, we had booked loch ness tour but finally we had changed it to loch lomond tour, which was conducted by the agency highland experience tour on 8 th june from 1, parliament square at Edinburgh, because loch ness tour was very hectic one whereas loch lomond tour is relaxed one. From the very beginning in the morning, the weather was very harse due to continuous rain going on. Still the tour started in a van with about 14 persons. First sightseeing of glengoyne distillary paid separately by us was allowed to be completed somehow in that bad weather in a very short time by the driver cum guide. Worst part of tour was its driver cum guide. He was completely disappointing and inhuman. His behaviour was non co-operating to the customers. Main attraction was loch lomond, where he allowed us hardly 45 minutes for only lunch and no sight seeing could be done. But he unnecessarily stopped van at stirling castle for 2 hours in the evening in harsh weather. Some of us had no separate booking for castle and my wife is a patient of limited mobility due to knee problem/arthritis and therefore we requested that we may please be allowed to remain inside van at our seat only because it was not feasible for my wife to climb stairs of the castle during rains. But he did not agree and closed the door of van leaving us in the rain outside and he went somewhere else for two hours leaving us unattended in harse weather. There was also no shelter to stay for sometime in open terrace. We were very much depressed with rustic behaviour of van driver. I fail to understand how such drivers are engaged by the travel agency. I will never recommend this worst tour package being conducted by the agency highland experience tours. Viator must exclude such type of bogus and frustating travel agencies from their listing to save genuine customers from harrassment.

Interessant und unterhaltsam

Definitely recommendable, we booked the Stirling Castle, Loch Lomond & Whisky tour and enjoyed it a lot. Many thanks to Robert (Rob or Bob, don’t call him Bobby) our tour guide. He made it interesting, educational, and verry entertaining. Thank you Rob.