McKinlay Kidd Traveller Reviews

Spring tour of the Inner Hebrides. Blessed by wonderful weather we travelled across beautiful landscape staying in lovely independent hotels and enjoying boat trips, hiking and fine dining.

This was a last moment booking where we made a number of specific requests. We found the staff extremely responsive: they understood exactly what we wanted and put together a beautiful package. Balancing our need to cram a lot into a brief holiday with our desire for independence they offered a loose programme rich with suggestions and alternatives. Loved the fact that it had been thought through to the last detail which made all the island hopping even more fun and carefree.

Service from this company excellent as always.We explored several isles on the west coast of Ireland and although we had different ferry/flights all ran very smoothly.We recommend McKinley Kidd very highly and this is the third holiday they have arranged for us. Pity they can't arrange the weather as well!

Fabulous service as always.

We were taken out by (Safari)Steve, he contacted us the day before to arranged our day. he was knowledgeable of locality and all the great wildlife we saw. Ringed plover, Golden eagles, wild goats, reindeer deer, Red deer to mention just a few, he was genually excited to see black throated diver. We had a badger night organised for us. comfortable hide, with double glazing and heaters! John was again knowledgeable and kept his promise of badgers and Pine martens.

Efficient and helpful.

McKinlay Kidd arranged a beautiful 12 day journey through Ireland for just the two of us. While we stayed in the larger cities of Dublin, Galway, Killarney and Cork, we had wonderful a wonderful day trip to the Aran Islands and a driver was arranged for two days to guide us to more remote locations.

This is our second trip with McKinlay Kidd and find their services to be superior. They are responsive to our requests and very individualized. Wish we could find such a company in the states.

My husband and I were blessed with amazing weather for our week long tour of the Outer Hebrides. We flew from Glasgow to Barra on a small plane and landed spectacularly on the beach - which was an experience I recommend to anyone visiting this part of the world. We then slowly made our way, by car/ferries, from Barra up through South and North Uist and onto Harris and Lewis. Apart from enjoying numerous walks on breathtakingly beautiful beaches, we succeeded in visiting the Island St. Kilda - witnessed the nesting gannets and puffins - and walked up the highest sea cliffs in the UK. The locals were all friendly and welcoming, and local seafood was excellent - although as expensive as dining in West Sussex, which perhaps, on reflection, shouldn't have been a surprise. Although the scenery was amazing, I think our experience would have been very different if the weather had been foul!

Having advised McKinlay-Kidd what we were looking for in a holiday to the Outer Hebrides, they did a very good job in arranging our week, booking connecting ferries and pre-booking our memorable trip to St. Kilda. The places we stayed overall were good, especially the last B & B - which was in a stunning location and run by a delightful couple whose attention to detail re service and food was first class.

Isle Of Mull May 2016,We stayed in 4 different accomodations and each was of a very high standard run by very friendly attentive staff.Wildlife experiences in abundance scenery that had the wow factor around each and every corner. Food of very high quality every place we visited.

Kept us informed when plans had to change and even checked in on us by telephone on a sunday.

My daughter and I spent May 23-27 2016 in Orkney, arriving about 5pm on the 23rd and leaving around 3pm on the 27th. We really had a great time, no rain and some sun, fresh and breezy, great weather for seeing as much of Orkney as possible. We spent a lot of time walking, across Hoy to the Old Man and back on one day, around the southern tip of South Ronaldsay another. I'm a moderately keen birder and we chalked up about 65 species, including Sea Eagle from the RSPB vantage point on Hoy. In addition we visited Skara Brae and Skaill House, the Ring of Brodgar, The Broch of Gurness and the Brough of Birsay. These sites are fascinating, well kept and with a lot of interesting information provided. We shared the driving in a hired car. The roads are good, if rather narrow by mainland UK standards, and many are straight for long distances. They are almost unbelievably quiet, and we drove form the south of South Ronaldsay to the north-west of Mainland in about 80mins on our last full day. Visits to the more northerly islands will have to wait for another day. Our hotel, Lynnfield in Kirkwall, really was special - huge rooms, comfortably furnished, good sized modern bathrooms, good food reasonably priced, lots of old books and about 360 different whiskies for the rainy days we fortunately didn't experience.

The holiday was arranged for us by McKinlay Kidd. This was my third holiday with them, and like the previous two was a one-off because of the limited time we had. (My earlier holidays with McKinlay Kidd were in Shetland and South Uist/Barra). It really is a pleasure to sing their praises. Phone calls and e-mails were met with speedy and helpful responses, instructions were clear, a comprehensive package of information was received including, helpfully, a pre-paid ticket allowing access to the sites mentioned above, plus two or three more we couldn't fit in. They even told us how to get a unique reference number so the car hire company could check our driving histories, in line with recent legislation. And the hotel, as stated above, couldn't be faulted.

It was a wonderful journey across Scotland, its astonishing landscapes and its distilleries. We only knew whiskies by their names, and now, we have discovered where they are produced, how they are produced, by whom they are produced. Besides that, our journey was so well organised that we could often divert from our road to stop and visit unexpected gardens or castles, or have a lunch in the pub of a postcard-like village. And at the end of the day, we discovered our hotel, often nested in a small village with amazing views on the seashore, where we were warmly welcome and feel quite at home. Unforgettable!

A few months ago, we sent a description of what we have dreamt of, and when arriving in Scotland, our dreams became true! All the milestones of our journey were carefully planned, all the reservations were made, so that we did not have to worry about anything... We had just to be on time for the pre-booked visits or to board the ferries, and we had plenty of freedom in between. Furthermore, the hotels choosen were ideally located and friendly.

All arrangements made by McKinlay Kidd were fantastic. They booked us the best possible accommodation on each island, took our personal requests into account and provided loads of information to help us make the most of every aspect of our holiday.

See above

We wanted to travel on the Wild Atlantic Way and started at Tahilla Cove which is near Kenmare and has lovely views of lakes and mountains. Our next stop was Lahinch, in a beautiful hotel set on a headland just outside the town, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Our last stop was Clifden in Connemara, again with beautiful views of mountains and lakes. The scenery was spectacular, the weather was, luckily, great and the overall experience was what I hoped it would be.

From the time I first contacted the company they were so helpful. They set up a tailor made itinerary for us which was exactly what I would have chosen myself. The information pack they sent us was very comprehensive with regard to the hotels they chose, the places of interest to visit at each location and general information they thought might be of help to us. We were even upgraded for an issue of which we were unaware to a lovely hotel. Whilst away, we celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary and they mentioned this to the hotel who provided some little treats for us. I cannot speak highly enough of their professionalism and would definitely recommend them to my friends. I hope to use their services when I next visit Ireland.