Absolute Escapes Traveller Reviews

I walked the West Highland Way from Glasgow to Fort William taking eight days. The weather for the first few days in the Lowlands was sunny and warm, in the Highlands later in the hike it was mostly cloudy with drizzle a couple of days. My luggage was taken from hotel to hotel along the route by AMS so I only had to carry a daypack. This gave me the opportunity to leave the trail a couple of times and hike up a Munro (hill over 3.000' ft). The walk is 100 miles long but with off-trail excursions and a couple of hotels off the trail I ended up doing 127 miles. I had hiked much of this area as a student over 40 years ago so it was a wonderful nostalgia trip. Great scenery, met some interesting people and ate way too much. What more could you ask for!

Arranged the walk through Absolute Escapes. They did a fantastic job or arranging hotels along the walk and for AMS to handle my luggage which was waiting for me every day when I got to my hotel. After booking the trip I decided to extend the walk from seven to eight days to give me more opportunity to go off the trail when I saw something I wanted to do. Absolute handled the rearrangement at late notice so special kudos to them.

Glorious weather on Kintyre, a very well way-marked route, varied scenery and a well-organised trip.A special mention for Tommy Graham of MacDonald's Taxis, who was very helpful: he went out of his way to accommodate us and our requests! The accommodation, however, was variable in quality. Elizabeth Ball at Dunaltach was wonderful - lovely food, comfortable beds and a genuinely friendly welcome, with many 'little extras'. Rosemount House, too, was a very comfortable place to stay, with another excellent breakfast and friendly hosts, as was The Warren at Machrihanish, where we were made to feel very welcome.The most disappointing was the Argyll Arms in Southend - there had recently been a flood, the rooms had a peculiar smell and supper was poor quality pub food.Breakfast was fine.At the Carradale Hotel, there was no hot water other than that supplied by the electric shower: the food here was good, though.

The trip was well-organised - plenty of information and the taxi transfers worked brilliantly.Queries beforehand were dealt with promptly and fully.The company did its very best to accommodate our wishes.

I had spent a year in Scotland as a university student. And so I brought my university-aged daughter with me to visit Scotland for the first time since I'd graduated. We asked your agency to plan our cities, hotels, and driving routes. You did a wonderful job of choosing interesting places to visit, hotels to stay in, and restaurants to recommend. Renting our car was quite easy. And the hotels were expecting us. Really great vacation!

NA....we toured Scotland independently

Best vacation ever! Can't wait to do another walking trip.

Very responsive and detailed. Told us everything we needed to know. Not a single glitch in the planning.

Well organised walk: taxis etc arrived promptly and maps etc v clear. Two lots of accommodation were poor: Carradale Arms had good enough food but was a tad chaotic. Rooms were OKish, but hot water didn't work at all in wash basin and place was tired. Argyle Arms was truly dire, although staff tried hard as they knew it was bad. It had recently been flooded, but was drying out. However, our two rooms stank of damp, not, I suspect, from the flood as there were damp patches on the walls. Food was poor, even for pub food. I accept accommodation is difficult and Kintyre is in desperate need of investment, but poor old Argyle was beyond the pale. Taynloan was also poor in that it had a shared bathroom with a poorly functioning shower door and no toiletries; the company's promise of excellent food was not fulfilled as it is now just a café. Our first night in Tarbert was in a B and B up for sale - I felt the owner could no longer be bothered - breakfast being particularly dull.The other accommodation was good, with Clachan outstanding - excellent host in Liz with superb food, little extras and truly friendly approach. I think it was expensive for the accommodation we got - would have been hugely cheaper to fix it up ourselves - the taxi company knew the ropes and would have been easy to deal with.

The trip was well organised and worked well with good information though not up to date maps, which we had fortunately bought.I rate Absolute Escapes as average because it didn't really represent value for money - the accommodation was below par in many instances for what we were asked to pay. We would not do it again, but would revert to booking it ourselves.

We met our driver in Edinburgh after a night in a comfortable hotel near the city centre. The first day we drove to Oban and stayed in a wonderful B and B overlooking the bay. The sun shone constantly from now on!We caught the ferry to Iona the next day, and after a smooth crossing we had the day to explore. Wild life and bird enthusiasts like us would never fail to enjoy this island but add to that the calm serenity of the Abbey and the wonderful local fish lunch, we were in heaven!Mull was a lovely island in sunshine and we had many opportunities to stop and look around on all our drives between places. Castles, bridges, villages and gardens: nothing was too much for Audrey, who accompanied her informative commentary with fairy stories from the past and humorous anecdotes galore. After the dramatic scenery of the last day, through the Great Glen, we returned for our last night in Edinburgh. We all want to do the holiday again.

Absolute Escapes who organised the week were professional and thoughtful in all their dealings with us. We would recommend them to our friends - in fact, we already have. Well done Andy and all of you!The driver, Audrey, from Rabbie's Tours was the best companion we could have had for the week. We felt she was a good friend after the week in her company!She taught us much and gave us food for thought.

We were lucky enough to walk in the most wonderful weather and the bluebells and other flowers were out in abundance. Even hardened West Highland Way walkers said that the flowers had never been so beautiful. The walk up the side of Loch Lomond was tranquil and so pretty. It was well worth taking the extra day at Rowardennan to climb Ben Lomond and would highly recommend going up on the ptarmigin trail as the views are stunning all the way up.

The guide book and information provided by the tour operator was of a high standard and gave history to the route and details of the route. Accommodation was as expected, luggage transfers went smoothly and eating recommendations were very good

Sine at Absolute Escapes was extremely helpful. We wanted the freedom to travel on our own schedule instead of a tour, but I did not have time to spend hours researching hotels and points of interest. Sine helped me come up with a timeline, excellent hotels and B&B's and a detailed driving route with recommended sights and restaurants. Our trip was fun and hassle free!

Absolute Escapes planned a wonderful self drive of Scotland. All of our accommodations were excellent.

Our holidays were very professional organised so that we could relax to enjoy our way. With each step of the walk nearer to the sea we felt more and more better and recovered.

We had very friendly people for the organisation of the tour and everything passes under perfect conditions.

myself and my step dad decided to walk part of the Offa's Dyke trail from Chirk to Prestatyn, a fair trek for our first ever walking holiday, but a real challenge. coming into Prestatyn four days later was an incredible experience, relief that we were at the end, but so proud that we gave it a go1 we passed through some incredible landscapes of the most amazing natural beauty. such a variety of colour, from the purple heather bogs, to grasslands, to rolling hills and valleys, then into the dark forset1 was just a really awesome experience

from the moment I contacted Absolute escapes with my initial enquiry, they were fantastic, coming up with a fantastic itinery, lots of really helpful information, they were also really enthusiastic about my up coming trip! all communication was also excellent