August 2023

I love visiting the major cities in Europe, but the huge crowds of sightseers encountered in such places can be overwhelming. I wanted our next destination to be less of a tourist hotspot so I focused on the Scottish Highlands.

The problem was that we wanted to get out of the cities and into the countryside, but we didn't want to drive on those narrow twisty roads that we had seen during our trip to England and Scotland in 2018. The solution seemed to be to sign up for a multi-day small group tour. It was easy to find an appealing 6-day tour from Edinburgh, and in the course of my browsing I was also attracted to a company that operated small group tours in Ireland.

The group on the Irish tour posed together for several pictures. Here we are at the end of our journey just before we went our separate ways.

The group on the Scottish tour never managed to get together for a group shot, but here is a picture of Walt beside the big yellow bus that took us to many interesting places.

So how did the small group tour experience compare to bumbling around on our own? Although traveling with a group has its advantages, overall I still prefer to venture out on our own when possible. We did have a lot of fun, though, and although the guides had very different personalities, they were both excellent.