Absolute Escapes Traveller Reviews

Four of us (two from Canada and two from England) walked St Oswald's Way in September 2018. We very much enjoyed ourselves and plan to repeat the experience with another walk soon.

Absolute Escapes organised our walk and accommodation, and everything went perfectly. The accommodations were well selected and many of our hosts spoke very highly of Absolute Escapes. It is clear that they are good to work with as well as good to book with. Absolutely excellent!

My wife and I like long walks...really long walks. With the incredible assistance of Absolute Escapes, we completed the West Highland Way, The Great Glen Way and The Speyside/Moray Loop...back to back! We hiked over 450 miles over 28 days and the information and logistics provided by Absolute Escapes was critical to our success and enjoyment of this awesome experience through the Scottish Highlands.

We found Absolute Escapes from a web search of operates in the UK. This is the first time we have used a tour company to handle logistics for one of our non-guided adventures. From the first contact, they were responsive, insightful and gently "guided" us toward the perfect itinerary based on what we were hoping to accomplish. Their suggestions were spot on and the accommodations they arranged for us could not have been more inviting. The written material provided by Absolute Escapes also proved essential to our immersion into the history and culture of the Highlands and its people.

We spent a day each on four islands. We stayed in excellent B&Bs and enjoyed the scenery in the various different weather conditions! Everyone was welcoming and helpful, especially when we had to change plans due to a storm causing our ferry to be cancelled.

Arranged all the places to stay and provided us with lots of useful information about local sites, visitor attractions and eating places. They were exceptionally helpful when a storm caused ferries to be cancelled and last minute changes to accommodation were needed.

My new husband and I chose to head to Scotland for our honeymoon in September 2018! This year was a very busy one for us, both personally and professionally and, while we were very excited for Scotland, we both knew that we wouldn't be able to spend the time needed to plan the trip fully. I am so grateful that we turned to Absolute Escapes to help us! Event planning is a big portion of my job, so I appreciate and understand how much work and planning goes into making events (or trips!) a success. For that reason, I really appreciated the level of detail that was provided in our packet, from the descriptions of the guest houses to restaurant recommendations. Throughout our trip, we had meals at several of the recommended restaurants (two of our favourites were Cafe Fish in Tobermory and the Seafood Ristorante in St. Andrews) and took part in a number of the listed activities (Calgary Bay, Duart Castle, tour of Loch Ness). We both loved the guest houses that were booked for us; all of the hosts were friendly and welcoming! At our first guest house (The Gil Dun Guest House in Edinburgh), the hosts bought us champagne to celebrate our honeymoon! It was a really special way to begin the trip. Edinburgh was one of our favourite stops and we would love to go back and spend a full week in the city, as we felt like we only got to scratch the surface! Some friends of ours had recommended that we take in the Military Tattoo, so we had booked tickets several months in advance. We loved the show! Isle of Mull and Tobermory was also one of our favourite stops. My husband is a McLean, so he was very excited to have an opportunity to visit Duart Castle, home of the MacLean clan. We spend a long time wandering the grounds and my husband had an opportunity to sign a special guest book reserved for MacLeans/McLeans. The owners of the guest house told us that there is a MacLean clan reunion every five years, which we would love to come back for! St. Andrews was our third favourite stop. We loved wandering the town and enjoyed a round of golf at Strathyrum. We also adored our guest house in St. Andrews (our hosts Margaret and James at Braeside House were absolutely lovely). Overall, we could not have asked for a better trip. It was so well planned and we truly felt that Absolute Escapes went above and beyond for us. Scotland is maybe my favourite country I've ever visited and we're already talked about going back!

I could not have been more impressed with Absolute Escapes. We worked with Caitlin and she was fantastic - she provided timely and thorough responses and fantastic recommendations. We had some questions halfway through the trip and she was so helpful. Absolute Escapes took care of everything for us, which took away any stress of planning a trip. We would highly recommend the company!

Our 7 day walk was an amazing experience. We were thankful for the help and advice provided by Absolute Escapes before and during our walk. It helped us choose the right itinerary and prepare ourselves for what we should bring and what to expect on the way. Their choice of accommodation was excellent: friendly, comfortable and very good value. We only met nice people on the walk, whether local or on vacation. The memories of West Highland Way will remain with us for years to come.

Absolute Escapes are a very professional outfit. Our holiday ran smoothly and they were on hand when we had any questions. I really liked the planning support they provided. I don't think it would have been as enjoyable if we had tried to do this on our own. I recommend them to anyone who is considering the West Highland Way.

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Two friends and my wife and I walked the Skye Trail this past summer. We had a wonderful experience: the trail was beautiful, and the accommodations that Absolute Escapes set up for us were comfortable. When we were not lodged near the trail, Absolute provided us with transportation. We also called the office in Edinburgh a few times to ask questions, and everyone in their office was very friendly and helpful. Skye is crowded, but it's incredibly beautiful, and walking the trail is a great way to experience the island and avoid the crowds. I will absolutely use Absolute Escapes again if and when I go on a walking holiday in Europe.

Absolute Escapes is a top-notch company. They are organized, friendly, and extremely helpful. My wife and I should have stopped in to meet them when we were in Edinburgh, but we got busy sightseeing. I give them five stars as a tour company, virtually no criticisms.

I booked a tour for my mother (age 77) and me for a tour with Absolute Escapes around Scotland. The day before we were to leave on a bus trip, we accidentally learned our baggage allowance is 15kg. ??? I searched all of the travel information, packing instructions, etc. and there was no mention os a 15kg baggage allowance. Turns out the Absolute Escapes had sub-contracted our bus tour to another tour operator and Absolute Escapes had NO IDEA that this tour operator had this policy. I spent most of my day trying to figure this out. It was stressful, unnecessary, and a very bad start to our trip. AE did offer to pay for our dinner that evening and they paid a portion of our meal. The other problem was on the Isle of Skye where we were somehow placed in a B&B that was at least 20 minutes walk from any restaurant. After a long day of touring and walking, we go to our B&B in the middle of nowhere (outside Portree) around 6pm and the bus operator was nice enough to come and pick us up. We got to Portree and walked around a long time before finding a tiny table from a nice lady who felt sorry for us. After dinner, we called several taxi companies to take us back to our B&B who said they were already too busy. We finally found a taxi and decided we would not take the chance the next night. On night 2 in Portree, we sat in our room and ate cheese and crackers because we didn't want to risk getting stuck in Portree. It was not a nice experience. Absolute Escapes took no responsibility for this. It was my fault because I had told them my mother didn't need a wheelchair or walker, so they assumed she'd be more than happy to walk in the cold dark Scottish night along a main road filled with traffic.

IN this case I'm giving this rating of POOR to Absolute Escapes for the two very large mishaps that occurred with our trip. We walked to some others along the way who had booked driving trips with Absolute Escapes and they seemed happy. I would NEVER recommend someone book anything other than driving trips with them. They are inexperienced (or not very smart) when it comes to setting up non-self-driving tours.

We enjoyed a fantastic 8-day self-guided walking tour along the Fife Coastal Path. As our first introduction to Scotland, this was a wonderful way to slow down and get to know a corner of this beautiful country. The scenery was varied and lovely, and because we were setting the pace, we had lots of opportunity to chat with people we met along the route, and to experience the communities we were travelling through. Each day our luggage was moved for us to a different B&B, and each night we were welcomed at our new accommodation. We were extremely happy with all the B&Bs, which always offered a warm welcome, very comfortable room, and full breakfast the next morning to start us off on the next day of walking. This trip left us looking forward to our next self-guided walking tour!

We chose Absolute Escapes because of their experience offering tours along the Fife Coastal Path, and because the reviews we read were very good, and we were not disappointed! We found them very efficient and easy to deal with. They were quick to respond when we had questions or asked for further details about attractions along our route, and the whole booking and payment process was straightforward and efficient. We were very happy with the range of accommodation booked for us along the route, and found the maps and other information provided to be just what we needed. We would not hesitate to book another holiday with Absolute Escapes, or to recommend them to other travellers.

We rented a car through our tour company and they arranged all of the lodging, mostly at B&Bs per our request. We are 2 senior ladies who are very particular and wanted to tour on our own so this was perfect for us. We started out visiting a friend who lives on Arran Island and then to Glasgow, Ft. Williams, Inverness, Banchory, Stirling, and then Edinburgh. Our total number of days was 15. We toured the castles and other sights that we were most interested in. We were thoroughly delighted with everything.

Charlotte with Absolute Escapes was very helpful and thorough with details. She tailor made our adventure to ensure we did what we wanted.

Four of us from the US traveled to the Scottish Highlands to walk the Great Glen Way in early October. The landscape was absolutely beautiful, the walking was peaceful and invigorating, and we enjoyed the trip immensely. Over seven days of walking we had two with sunshine, even the wind and rain made the trip memorable.

Absolute Espaces provided excellent service in securing accommodations, walking notes/guides and transferring our luggage, and the logistics all went off without the slightest hitch. Fantastic. They were excellent communicators and as someone booking from the US, payment was easy to handle too. We loved them.

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