Absolute Escapes Traveller Reviews

I had wanted to walk the Ridgewayfor some time. I had walked all or part of several other Long Distance Paths but this was the longest walk over the greatest number of days which I had attempted. I was fortunate enough to have friends who were happy to join me for individual days but I could see that the key would be arranging good accomodation at the right places to enable me to complete the route in the time available and not having to carry all my gear for 7 nights. The event was a great success, the scenery was wonderful,the weather (relatively) kind and we raised quite a bit of money for the MS Society.

Absolute Escapes made the arrangements very easy. They did exactly what they said that they would do, arranged great accomodation, eficiently transported my luggage, provided comprehensive and largely up to date and accurate information and were flexible enough to make a few changes after I had booked the trip. I would thoroughly reccomend Absolute Escapes to my friends, fellow walkers and anyone thinking of doing a similar walk.

Absolute Escapes were tasked to develop a schedule of locations in Scotland to fill 2 weeks, allowing at least 2 nights per location, & including Edinburgh, Glasgow & a whisky distillery location. They added Fort William, Isle of Skye, Inverness & Pitlochry. Accommodation to specific criteria, & where possible first class rail travel, were to then be added. Early train departure times were discouraged :) The specification was influenced by my having Scottish ancestry, but neither I nor my partner have visited Scotland during visits to the U.K. We sought a visit programme that gave a helicopter view of the Scottish people & country, & allowed a visit to my grandparents’ town of Galashiels. Cost for 2 people evolved to be around GBP7,000 plus meals & incidentals.

We came to Absolute Escapes following unsuccessful interactions with two previous operators. Locating Absolute Escapes on the web, we investigated their web site, looked at Trip Advisor comments about them & Googled for complaints. We then dealt with James Fathers & Andy Gabe, who I suspect were supported by strong back-office folk. Despite our providing clear specifications on activities & accommodation quality, the itinerary & choice of hotels needed to be developed interactively, for example including advice to reverse the direction of travel to avoid a sporting event in one town. Absolute Escapes then made the transport & accommodation bookings. They also produced a 35 page itinerary that included the mix of optional & specific train times, the essential related transport methods (taxi, boat, walking), & details of the accommodation booked. Their itinerary included the added, unexpected bonuses of restaurant options & critiques for each destination, & a suite of sightseeing & activity options in each location – both for daytime & night-time. Focussing us on key eating & activity options turned out to be particularly helpful when we were tired or short of time, & provided the icing on the cake for enjoyment. Dealings with James & Andy probably involved 100 emails over 3 months. It allowed assessment of their competence, willingness to assist, promptness, interpersonal sensitivity & interpersonal sophistication. My assessment is that both men score unusually highly on all dimensions. Having now completed the travel, we have undertaken the recommended travel & experienced the accommodation, transport & recommended activities & restaurants. The programme was faultless, the experiences delightful, & our satisfaction is high. A surprise finding is that Scots are unusually friendly and that the food can be as outstanding as any around the world. We strongly recommend Absolute Escapes to future travellers.

Everything went exactly the way that it should. Each B&B was wonderful with great hosts; the bags were always where they needed to be; the arrangements to get to the B&B from the trails worked just as promised. All in all, we couldn't be happier. We were talking about this on our trip, that really everything worked out perfectly. We ran into a hiker who had done lots of her own arrangements and had put days and days of her time into finding places, getting her bags moved, etc. We were quite happy we had gone with Absolute Escapes.

Prompt and courteous responses to all queries. On top of their game.

We hiked the West Highland Way in June 2016, booking the trip through Absolute Escapes. Everything was flawless. We were well prepared for the venture by the materials provided, and the accommodation was excellent. Great views on this trail...even when it is cloudy.

Absolute Escapes made trail arrangements for 15 of us, coming from the US. Great communications. Emails were quickly returned. Sine was the best!!!!

I was walking the Great Glen Way. The accomodations were very nice, the hosts and staff, too. The Transport of my luggage (and me) was always in time. Thank you!

I booked with Absolut Escapes. Excellent Service and I was alwayss informed about their activities. Thanx!

We asked for first class accommodation throughout and that is exactly what we got. All the information in our pack was well thought out and pointed us in the right direction for everything, eating out, amenities and what to look for. We would certainly use Absolute Escapes again and will recommend them.

Absolute Escapes were helpful from the outset, listened to what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go and booked everything accordingly. Our holiday was perfect! They even arranged the weather to be brilliant! Cannot fault them.

The weather was great considering what it could have been. Most days we had minor drizzle and only 1 day of bone chilling soppy wetness. The accommodations were a mix, many of them were charming with great hostesses. A few of them were quite disappointing with deteriorating rooms - most especially the Edinburgh Regency Guest House - I guess with that name and being in a large city we expected more - it turned out to be very run down and in a poor location - it would have been nice to be closer to town. You might note that the Killin Cottage in Helensburgh - Franca - our host doesn't really care for Americans (the other hostesses may not have as well, but they hid that sentiment if they did feel that way). The Ravenous Beastie in Queensferry - we thought with that name it must be a happening place - it had the smallest of rooms and the cafe closed pretty early. But for the most part the accommodations were good, the hostesses were pleasant and the locations were fine. Our favorite accommodations Gowonlea Guest House in Balloch, Strawberry Bank House in Linlithgow, and Devine B&B in North Berwick. Not only were the rooms good but the hostesses were exceptional. The most frustrating part was the trail markers - or I should say lack of trail markers - having completed other treks - in comparison there weren't enough markers and at times the placement of the markers made them difficult to find. It would have been nice to have the markers confirm - you are on the right trail - since many times there would be no markers for a LONG while which just created some apprehension that maybe we'd made a wrong turn. A few times the markers with their arrows were ambiguous as to which way to go. The most challenging one was from Queensferry to Edinburgh: it had a - no stair diversion (which was unclear where the stairs were) and going on the diversion it never had another trail marker - we went passed about 1/4 mile, luckily we backtracked and guessed where to go - but when you are walking 15 miles a day - adding even a little more gets to be frustrating.

The amount of information - side trips, detailed info, maps provided - was superb. Your customer service when asked a question - outstanding.

To celebrate my 65th birthday and to raise funds for Jersey Mencap, myself and my faithful walking partner chose a 5 day self guided walk of Hadrians Wall. We had a small window in time when it was possible for us and very limited opportunity for training so the 'easy to moderate' description had a certain appeal and indeed turned out to be very realistic. We walked east to west and I enjoyed passing through Newcastle as I had never visited before. On the second day after some very long straight paths, running close to the road, the countryside began to open up and our third day through the National Park was stunning and very memorable albeit I found one of the crag descents a little challenging! Day four was a fabulous ramble through beautiful meadows and farmland, ( you certainly see a lot of sheep on this walk!). We walked at the best time to see all the beautiful flora. Our final day took us down to Bowness on Solway, again some rather straight walks at times but with wonderful vistas. The weather was very kind to us,, it was really special to see The Wall and many more Roman ruins and everybody we met was so very friendly - a great time was had by us both!

We used Absolute Escapes for walking the West Highland Way two years ago. They were so helpful then that we automatically returned for this trip. Their very personal service was really appreciated on both occasions. Every detail of our itinerary was perfect. The accommodation was ideal and we could not have asked for a better service in any way. Thank you Absolute Escapes!

We started with 3 nights in Edinburgh and highlights of our stay included Holyroodhouse Palace, the Royal Yacht, Rosslyn Chapel, and the real Mary Kings Close experience. We then began our rail adventure and the first leg was to Fort William. Wonderful scenery which we were to latter discover was all along our trip. Beautiful clear waters of the lochs and the stunning mountainous backdrops. Not having a car meant we did a lot of walking and used the public transport networks. At Fort William we visited the start of the Caledonian Canal and the brilliant engineering feat of Neptunes Staircase. A planned loch cruise didn't eventuate as the boat was under repair. From Fort William we took the Jacobite steam train to Malliag, then the ferry to Skye and a taxi to our next overnight stop at Portree. We has a Scot Rail pass and our travel agent provided details on times to catch each service. We had 2 nights at each stop. On Skye we did a half day minivan tour of the north - seeing Uig, Fairy Glen, kilt Rock and Old Man Storr. Another activity on Syke was a morning cruise. From Skye it was bus then train to Inverness. Highlights here included Cawdor Castle and the Culloden Battlefield. The visitor centre at Culloden is exceptional.. By train we then went to Pitlochry. Up to here we had enjoyed great weather, but the rain eventually came. It curtailed getting out somewhat. Blair Athol distillery tour, the fish ladder and a folk band band at the Festival Theatre headlined our stay. Back to Edinburgh by train, over the Firth of Forth bridge. Two more days in the city ended our Scottish trip. We visited a wet St Andrews (by train) and Edinburgh Castle. We had a great trip, all our travel went very smoothly, some excellent meals and even a taste of Black Pudding.

Extremely happy with Absolute Escapes. All our arrangements with them were made while we still at home in Australia. Suggestions they made on where to stay and the comprehensive notes on things to do and dining suggestions were great. Answered my queries promptly. In summary they delivered a product with which we were very satisfied. We wanted a leisurely self guided tour, but without having to drive.ourselves.

I would like to Thank for the support and the way you have organised my walk. After a exhausting walk it was good to hit the bed in such an awesome accommodation, I would like to thank for arranging wonderful accommodations at all the days. Thanks once again. Hope to get with absolute escapes for any other trip and I would definitely refer AbsoluteEscapes to my friends.