We loved the chance to touch real history without the crowds.
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Brand: Great Rail Journeys
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It was one of the best tours that I have experienced. The scenery was fantastic, but it was the neolithic sites that impressed me the most.
It was a brilliant experience from start to finish. Really well organised,brilliant guides.
Great trip.
Absolutely wonderful trip. Would thoroughly recommend it
An excellent week with a full itinerary. Some long days involved with plenty of travelling, but worth the effort. Very good hotels in Edinburgh and Inverness, hotels in Shetland and Orkney were ok but nothing special - both would benefit from having some cash spent on them, including some staff training at the Brea.Food was generally the ‘normal’ tour group standard, with the usual poor vegetarian options. Must be noted though, that the fish n’chips in Scalloway were exceptionally. Shout out to the tour manager, Andy, who was excellent throughout.
Wild, beautiful . Great tour manager. Altogether a fantastic holiday.
Excellent tour and a very good leader nothing was too much trouble for him also very knowledgeable.
Excellent.
Great, well organised holiday. Tour manager and local guides were excellant. All hotels were good. Fish and chip lunch on Shetland was the best ever.
Very full, varied and interesting programme. Good company and excellent Tour Manager.
wonderful sites, but very full-on holiday
A wonderful adventure exploring the Shetland and Orkney Islands. Plus we were extremely fortunate to have good weather
This was a very enjoyable holiday in a remote location of the UK. The itinerary is very comprehensive with essentially no free time during the trip and involves a reasonable amount of walking in rural areas in potentially quite extreme local weather, so good mobility is advantageous as is a resilience to wind and rain. The 3 sea crossings on Northlink Ferries were enjoyable but in each case the seas were rough and this made the journeys quite bumpy. Local hotels in Shetland and Orkney were fine but have limited facilities and no lifts or porterage available so be prepared to carry your own luggage up and down stairs. Meals were generally good throughout the tour. Our local guides and tour manager, Carolyn did good jobs but their time management sometimes lapsed so we missed some elements of the itinerary. The hotels in Edinburgh and Inverness were a bit of a let down both in quality of meals and also location. More centrally located hotels would have been much more accessible and enabled a walk into the respective cities.
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Peter,
Thank you for your review and for posting such beautiful photos.
I'm glad to hear that you had a very enjoyable holiday overall, though I appreciate you taking the time to illustrate how the tour can be further improved and your comments will be forwarded on to our Product Team.
Best wishes,
Richard
Great trip
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Steffan,
Thank you for your review.
Beautiful photos! I'm glad to hear that you had a great time in Orkney & the Shetland Isles.
Best wishes,
Richard
What a fantastic trip! It was fast paced and we were fortunate the weather held out for us. The guide we had on Shetland was exceptional and being a native, he shared so much history. Our tour manager (Maggie S.) was so organized and she did a great job keeping everyone on track. Maggie reached out to us well in advance with a timeline for each day and it took guesswork out of the mix. I highly recommend this tour and Great Rail Journeys!
It was great with good tour leader and guides but it was an exhausting pace.
The idea of this holiday was good but the time management was not well thought out.In Shetland for example we spent far too long at the Shetland pony experience and on the last day we did not have enough time in Jarlshof, Sumburgh and we never got to experience Lerwick on our own. As for great rail journeys, the trains were very overcrowded and unpleasant to sit in .It would have been better by coach
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Jacky,
Thank you for your review.
I will relay your feedback on the structure of the itinerary to our Product Team who can review this for future tours. It is disappointing that you didn't enjoy the rail journeys on this occasion. I do hope that you enjoyed other aspects of your Orkney & the Shetland Isles holiday.
Best wishes,
Richard
Fast paced tour. Excellent tour guide Denise and local guides to Shetland and Okney
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi Kate,
Thank you for your review.
I am glad you enjoyed your holiday to Orkney and Shetland, and found yourself in the company of an excellent Tour Manager!
Best wishes,
Richard
Ticked all the boxes
Reply from Great Rail Journeys
Hi David,
Thank you for your review.
I'm delighted to read that your Orkney and Shetland Isles holiday met your expectations!
Best wishes,
Richard