2021 Scotland's Four Corners Tour
Here’s a chance to travel the length and breadth of Scotland – quite literally!
We’ll go to four significant places that, astonishingly, few travelers think to visit – mainland Scotland’s southern, northern, western and eastern extremes (well, as close as we can get to them on public roads), plus adding extra quality time enjoying plenty of the beautiful sights and experiences “in the middle” too.
With pre and post tour options to extend your experience further, and a chance to combine it with our Wild Wales and Overlooked England tours, this tour gives you a depth of immersion, and time in “real” Scotland that few other travelers are privileged to enjoy.
This page tells you what you need to know about the tour in general, and we also have a detailed day by day itinerary so you can understand everything that you’ll get to see and do during your lovely Four Corners tour.
Start Date & Options
The tour starts on Saturday 28 August in Glasgow.
If you prefer, you can join the tour part-way through, on the date of your choice, anywhere on our touring route.
We will meet at the Glasgow Central Railway Station at 9.00am. You can take an overnight or early morning train from elsewhere in the country to get there by that time, or perhaps you might arrive a day or two earlier, maybe taking advantage of our optional Pre-tour experience and/or our Wild Wales tour immediately beforehand.
Optional Pre-tour Extension
Firstly, we always recommend you should arrive at least a day early when joining tours internationally. This gives you a day to unwind after the flights, and also gives you an “emergency” day in case of problems with flights en route.
Secondly, if you’re coming over early, why not use your extra days to good purpose, and consider joining our pre-tour optional extension – possibly in Cardiff, Shrewsbury, or Glasgow, and enjoying a stay at a 235 yr old World Heritage site. These options are detailed on the day-by-day itinerary page.
End Date & Options
The tour finishes on Monday 6 September, in Dundee or Edinburgh.
If you prefer, you can leave the tour part-way through, on the date of your choice, anywhere on our touring route.
We will arrive into Edinburgh at mid-day, and then our extension will continue to York after a lunch break in Edinburgh, getting in early evening. In both cities, the tour ends at the main railway station.
You can take a train or plane onwards from either city (including the easy under-one-hour train to Glasgow if you want to return there), or consider adding our Overlooked England tour that follows.
Optional Post-tour Extension
We will be offering a post-tour extension that takes us on to York on Monday afternoon, and then continues on the next day to Salisbury by coach, stopping in Stratford upon Avon for lunch on the way.
That then connects, the next morning, with the start of our Overlooked England tour in Salisbury, on Wednesday 8 September.
This optional extension is detailed on the day-by-day itinerary page.
Look at Everything We Include
We’ve balanced the opposing concepts of including lots of activities and also allowing you free flexible time on this tour.
We’re also reasonably flexible about adding to or varying the tour ‘real time’ as we are traveling. As long as the group as a whole agrees and the schedule allows, we’re happy to make changes to enhance the experience for all group members.
Accordingly, while including accommodation every night, breakfasts and two dinners, touring and sightseeing, we’ve left plenty of time open for you to choose exactly the experiences, meals, and other activities you personally wish.
Everything is optional, so if you want to spend a lazy day strolling around one of the lovely towns we stay in rather than an active day out and about sightseeing, that is of course totally possible. It is all up to you.
Some of what the tour includes comprises
On the Coach
Large luxury coach so there’s always an average of at least 1.5 seats per person, giving you best views and comfort while touring
Personal travel-sized bottles of hand-sanitizer (refills available)
Bottled water, soda, and beer available for purchase at modest price
On-board rest-room, reclinable seats, and plenty of space for carry-ons and purchases
David Rowell (the ‘Travel Insider’ himself) as tour leader
Where we visit (in order including pre and post tours – see the itinerary page)
Glasgow – Scotland’s largest city, formerly a European capital of culture, and these days with a beautifully restored and imposing central downtown area.
Stirling – High on a craggy hillside, Stirling has seen some of Scotland’s most important battles waged nearby.
Falkirk – the Falkirk Wheel connecting two canals is an engineering marvel, and the Kelpies statue is an extraordinary creation.
New Lanark – A World Heritage site, originally a cotton mill and now beautifully restored with a lovely hotel on site.
Dumfries – A market town and former Royal Borough that is nicknamed “The Queen of the South”. Prominent in Roman times, and associated with the Arthurian legends.
Rothesay – We go by train and ferry from Glasgow to the Victorian seaside town of Rothesay on the Island of Bute.
Glencoe – An eery and evocative but very beautiful valley, site of one of the most infamous events in Scottish Highland history.
Oban – A lovely town and busy ferry port with a strange creation on the hill above the town.
Tobermory – One of our favorite island villages (on Mull). As pretty as a postcard, full of character, where we’ll enjoy two nights.
Iona – The Holy Isle of Iona, where many Scottish and Viking kings are buried, is Scotland’s holiest place.
Fort William – The second largest town in the Highlands, a popular spot for tourists, located at the base of the UK’s tallest mountain (Ben Nevis).
Loch Ness – A beautiful long narrow loch, the reputed home of the Loch Ness monster, and adorned by the evocative ruins of Urquhart Castle.
Inverness – The “capital of the highlands”, a nice city with lots to see and do around it.
Culloden – The battlefield that ended the Jacobite rebellions and Scotland’s hope for independence for 250 years (ie until now).
Clava Cairns – A mysterious ancient burial site and stone circle set in a beautiful woodland clearing.
Munlochy Clootie Well – A strange place with alleged magical healing powers.
Beauly – A beautiful place (ie “Beau Lieu” – which it got its name from) and home of the ruins of a lovely priory, a nice sleepy Scottish country town.
Glen Ord Distillery – Little known in the US, here’s a chance to visit, tour the distillery, and sample a whisky you’ve probably not come across before.
Thurso – The main departure point for the Orkney Islands, a nice but plain town that is the northernmost town on the British mainland.
John O’Groats – The notional northernmost point of Scotland and a traditional place to get your photo taken. We also go to the true northern-most point (of course) and to the north-western point as well.
Peterhead – A fishing town little known for much, but is Scotland’s most Easterly point
Aberdeen – Scotland’s third largest city, with a history dating back 8,000 years, and known for its grand granite buildings, the cost of which bankrupted the city in Victorian days.
Dundee – Scotland’s fourth largest city, a UNESCO city of design, 5th on the WSJ’s 2018 list of worldwide hot destinations, and named “the coolest little city in Britain” by GQ in 2015.
Scone Palace – One of the earliest recorded settlements in Scotland, and for 1,000 years, the place where kings of Scotland were crowned (including Macbeth), and the home of the Stone of Stone. It is one of the finest examples of Georgian Gothic architecture in Scotland.
Pitlochry – One of the first towns to create and then benefit from the popularity of Scotland during Queen Victoria’s reign, still prosperous and stately today.
Edinburgh – Scotland’s capital city, and a World Heritage site.
And of course – Scotland’s Four Corners
Food and Drink inclusions
Cooked breakfasts every morning
Welcome drinks the first night
A group welcome dinner on the second night in Glasgow to accelerate the getting to know each other process, with a drink or two also included
Group farewell dinner – a sad experience for sure, but we try to make it as convivial as possible, and, yes, of course there’ll again be a drink or two on offer
An occasional additional libation
A Scottish snack at some point
A Distillery Tour
A Whisky Tasting Workshop with at least four different whisky styles explained and for you to sample and sip
Of perhaps equal importance in understanding the distinctive and special nature of this tour is not just what the tour includes, but also what it omits.
What the tour proudly does NOT include!
NO Early starts
NO Crowded coaches (maximum group size 24 people on a 40+ seater coach)
NO Characterless hotels on the outskirts of cities
NO Checking in and out of hotels every day
NO Series of long days of endless travel on a bus
NO Huge groups being rushed through tourist trap after tourist trap
NO ‘Shopping opportunities’ at over-priced trashy souvenir shops
NO Group meals, at fixed times, with limited fixed menus, in generic cafeterias
NO Regimented inflexible schedules and mandatory events
NO Obnoxious inexperienced ‘out of their depth’ first time travelers
NO Crowded schedules leaving no flexible free time
Responding to Covid-19
At present (we will update this section any time there are significant changes) we can not yet confirm and guarantee this tour will operate, because we don’t know what will happen with the virus and how Britain will continue to respond and open-up or lock-down.
We will make a go/no-go decision as soon as we can, but this depends on Britain (and the virus). We hope to be in a position to confirm with a high degree of confidence (or cancel) by early June.
We discuss these complexities in detail in this article, but for now, there are two essential elements needed before we will operate the tour.
1. The UK must allow vaccinated visitors from the US to enter without needing to be quarantined upon arrival.
2. The UK must allow reasonable opening hours and operating conditions and internal travel for hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, and tourist attractions such that we can enjoy a relatively normal vacation experience.
For our part, we have adopted four strategies :
1. We will not ask for your deposit until we are reasonably certain the tour can proceed, at which stage we need deposits as a show of participation by people who have registered interest.
2. You must be able to show that you have had the two vaccinations (or one in the case of Johnson & Johnson) at least two weeks prior to departure.
3. If you display symptoms of Covid while on the tour, you agree to leave the tour and not rejoin until obtaining a negative “no Covid infection” test result.
4. Our hired coaches will have at least 50% more seats than people in our group, and group size will be restricted to a maximum of 24 participants.
Please ask if you have additional questions or concerns.
Tour Cost
As we generally do with our tours, we’ve created variable pricing depending on how many people come on the tour. With the small-sized groups we offer, but with full-sized coaches, the cost per person is quite sensitive depending on the people traveling, so rather than set a price that is unfairly high or unrealistically low, we set it fairly based on how many people are traveling.
The price for the main tour is shown immediately below. Note that if you choose a second or all three of our 2021 Britain tours, we subtract a “quantity discount” from the total sum. We will not operate the tour with fewer than ten people, and will not accept more than 24 in total.
So encourage your friends to come, and not only get the special savings (mentioned next) but the growth in numbers also brings the tour price down for you, for them, and for everyone else, too.
To give you an indication for possible total tour numbers and therefore cost, our last few British tours each had in the high teens or low twenties of people participating. Hopefully we’ll get somewhere in that range again for this tour.
| Group Size | Main Tour Price per person |
|---|---|
| less than 12 | to be determined |
| 12 | 2595 |
| 13 | 2595 |
| 14 | 2595 |
| 15 | 2575 |
| 16 | 2575 |
| 17 | 2525 |
| 18 | 2495 |
| 19 | 2445 |
| 20 | 2395 |
| 21 | 2395 |
| 22 | 2395 |
| 23 | 2375 |
| 24 | 2345 |
We offer this tour to you with a choice of three accommodation levels. In addition to the regular prices above, you can :
Add $249 for one level of upgrade
Add a further $150 for a second level of upgrade
Rates are per person, share twin. Upgrades are not always available, and we only charge you for the actual upgrades we can secure on your behalf.
We will help to match together singles if you’d like to share with a compatible fellow single traveler but can not guarantee this.
No Hidden Extras
There are no extra charges.
While you are free to tip our coach driver as you might wish, there are no envelopes passed around at the end of the tour nor ‘recommended’ tips that you are asked/expected to pay.
Other Price Comments
All these prices reflect a 3% discount for cash/check.
A $500 per person non-refundable deposit will be required to confirm your place on this tour once the tour is guaranteed to proceed.
Tour does not include the costs of travel to and from the tour start and end points, or anything not specified as included.
Special Savings
Why not bring a friend or two with you, for more shared fun and fellowship.
To encourage you to do this, and your friends to travel with you, we’ll offer a 1% discount for each extra person you bring with you (other than anyone you are sharing your room with to start with).
Bring another couple, and they get a 2% discount – and you get the same 2% discount too! Bring two couples and all of you get a 4% discount, and so on (up to a maximum of 10%).
Singles Save Too!
Travel Insider tours always have a large number of singles – our groups are friendly, inclusive, and welcoming, making them ideal for singles as well as couples and larger groups.
We do our best to make our tours not only as friendly as possible, but also affordable and fair for singles, too.
We have managed to cut the single supplement down to only $695, about one-quarter of the per person price.
More Helpful Information
You will save money and gain flexible convenience if you arrange your own air travel. These days airlines seldom give discounts to groups, and sometimes even charge more, while also adding extra restrictions to the tickets.
You can choose whichever carrier has the best fare and the best schedules for you, and you can also choose your preferred carrier that you wish to earn miles with. You can even cash in miles and fly on frequent flier awards.
We’ll be pleased to answer any questions you might have about arranging your air transportation, of course. We’re here to help, every which way.
Glasgow is Scotland’s main airport, and is also a major rail hub.
You could arrange your flights to and from Glasgow, or you could consider flying to another hub (such as Edinburgh, Manchester or London) and then taking a train.
Of particular interest might be flying in to London and taking the lovely new overnight sleeper train from London to Glasgow.
If you’re not doing the post-tour option that continues on from Edinburgh, you could fly out of Edinburgh, take a train from Edinburgh to Glasgow or anywhere else in Britain, or of course, depart from anywhere else.
We are visiting Scotland in late summer.
So we expect moderately warm weather with hopefully not too much rain. Plus we will have long daylight hours to enjoy our travels every day, and some pleasing warmth in the sun without becoming excessive.
Pretty much every tour we operate sees someone potentially benefiting from travel insurance – either to offset cancellation costs prior to travel, or to assuage costs/losses while traveling. For that reason, we recommend you should at least consider travel insurance as prudent protection.
Rather than attempt to sell you some policy ourselves that may or may not suit your needs, we recommend you go to this insurance shopping site, which offers comparisons between something like 100 different policies offered by 18 different insurers, giving you all the options you need.
For more information about travel insurance than you probably ever thought you’d want to know, please click the link to read our three part series on the subject.
Please click here to visit our detailed day by day itinerary page.
If there’s something we’ve not answered on that page or this page, or if you’ve any other question and need more clarification, please go ahead and ask. Feel free to send us an email.
Join and Leave at Any Time
We always design our tours around you, not vice versa. If you have other commitments so that you need to arrive after the tour has started, or leave before its official end, that’s fine. We’ll work with you to meet you somewhere on the way.
Similarly, if you wish to only have one or two of the multi-day options before/after the main tour, that’s possible too. (Or if you want more days, that’s not a problem either.)
Tell us when you’d like to arrive and leave and we’ll work out an adjusted price to reflect this. Typically expect about a $200/day credit for days you miss.
See the itinerary page for details of where we are each day.
Register Your Interest Now
As soon as your application is received, we will advise you of your position on the list of potential participants, and keep you regularly updated between then and the tour’s go/no-go decision.
Tour Terms and Conditions
Our standard terms and conditions apply to this tour.
In addition, please note these extra terms :
1. Deposit will be required within seven days once the tour is officially confirmed. Full payment is due on or before Thursday, 1 July 2021.
2. US, Canadian, and many other citizens require a current passport that will not expire until after the date of their planned return from Britain in order to be admitted to the UK, but do not require a visa. Citizens of other countries should check with the airline that will transport them to the UK to determine what passport and visa requirements may apply. Note that if you’re including Europe, the EU requires a passport to be valid for at least three months after your planned departure from the EU.
3. Tour price is based on a wholesale Pound/Dollar exchange rate in the range of 1.35 – 1.41 (as shown, eg, in Yahoo Finance/Money – on 31 March 2021 it is showing a rate of 1.38). If the exchange rate moves outside this range, and prior to full payment having been received by you, we will adjust the price up or down to reflect the change in underlying tour costs. We will advise you if the exchange rate is materially changing and you can always lock in the price by sending in early full payment.
