Kimkim Trip Reviews for Scotland

Best Staff, best food, best ambience.

The reception desk was hard to find. The vibe was for a much younger crowd than us. We had room 16. The lampshade was broken. The lights weren't dimmable so they flickered. One of the chairs had a broken bottom. The mini-bar was ridiculous. And worst of all, we were charged double for our stay. This was the only hotel I wouldn't stay at again. The high points were the breakfast staff, housekeeping, and the bartender.

This one was my favorite. We had a suite and our windows in the sitting room looked out on High Street while the windows in the bedroom looked on the castle and the old church. Lots of stairs, be warned. 100% worth every bit of it. We were here for 4 days; I wanted to move in permanently.

We had one night here. I would've liked more. It's directly in the city center, right off the river. You can walk to lots of things and the train is an easy walk.

Parking was incredibly difficult but worth it. They did an amazing job with the remodel. Again, you're going to have stairs and there's no getting around that. The food was fantastic, so make reservations for dinner ahead of time.

We had only 1 night here. I wish we'd had more. We had room 3, on the corner with the most amazing view. Do check out Highland Pottery just up the hill.

I felt like I was staying with friends. The Hawthornes are incredibly kind and welcoming people. Please do ask to meet the canine family members. They're lovely.

It's a great old house with a wing where you can get a ground floor room-- no stairs! The real jewel here is the staff. They are warm, lovely people who make you feel very welcome.

There will be stairs. You can't get around them but they're worth it for the excellent service and great food. The location is directly across the street from the steam engine trip and within walking distance of everything.

We had fun on this one. Our tour guide, Veni, was great. After 2.5 weeks of tromping up and down castle stairs and hills and so forth, I was able to keep up. I'm definitely in better shape now than I was before this trip.

This was not exactly what I thought. I thought we'd be going to the top of yr Wyddfa, but this was a van ride around the area, hitting 4 castles along the way. By this time, I was pretty much castled out, having realized that unless you were into castle design, one castle was pretty much the same as another. However, this one had a Welsh designed castle which was very different and the guide was very nice.

Scotland is just a ridiculously beautiful country. Point your camera anywhere and you'll get a beautiful photo. Loch Lomond was no exception. We went to the church yard to see the Viking burial. That was very cool.

I like whiskey so I truly enjoyed this. My husband is more a rum drinker. Our tour guide was great, I loved the look behind the scenes, and the whiskey was good.

We missed the Summer Islands. A road closure/construction in Castletown made us look for an alternate route. The GPS, bless it, sent us down a two-way one lane road for 80mi. One we realized we weren't going to make it, we called and canceled (no refund) and relaxed and took our time. We ended up at Dunrobin castle in Goldspie. Sometimes going off script is better. Once you get to Ullapool, check out Highland Pottery.

See the Welcome to Orkney review.

Christina: Kieran was an amazingly knowledgeable and personable guide. I can't recommend him enough. There was so much here! Skara Brea was closed for high winds so we went to Gurness instead and I'm glad for it. We saw the Italian cathedral which showed the incredible talent of the Italian prisoners of war, and this is where I saw the Highland cows in person. We went to St Magnus Cathedral and it's as fine as any other I've seen anywhere.

We got there late for our original boat ride so the folks there worked out something better. We did the cruise and then got tickets for the castle at our own pace. It took of all of the pressure to do the castle within the time allotted.

It's a necessary trip. Consider it a a pilgrimage, even if it is sad. It's a beautiful field watered with a lot of blood over a family feud between cousins.

Lots of narrow spiral stairs. Beautiful view of Stirling Castle and the river.

This was a great way to start our trip.

I liked rooms; I wish they were more clear on services like breakfast times

We had sufficient time to review the castle - it was great but Stirling castle is very commercial

Amazing - I didn't watch Outlander but our Rabbie driver made it come alive and explained things She was amazing!

I learned a lot but I think the Johnnie Walker tour might be a better one for you to consider (we didn't do it but heard from others on our Rabbie tour that it was much better)

Great driver

I lvoed that we had enough time at the castle to really explore

I felt very rushed going thru the castle - we didn't get enough time for the admission price Also I felt like many of the stops were "tourist traps" that Rabbie's gets paid to take people - not really much to see - more "buy stuff" Also lunch was stressful at Skye as so many people - we had very little time to find lunch and walk around

This is fantastic hotel. It blends the best of the old world charm with New world amenities and modern features. Excellent new large elevators. Great view from the higher floors. Clean and comfortable rooms that felt newly remodeled. Friendly helpful staff. Excellent Bar and restaurant with a great complimentary breakfast.

Wonderful staff in a great location. Rooms are very inconsistent and some are really rundown. The location is very nice but the hotel rooms need to be completely redone. There is no AC and our room was damp and very musty. There are No lifts, porters and it’s a 3 story hotel with no handicap accessibility.

Scotsman is in a perfect location to the Royal Mile and the train station. The stay was fantastic and very helpful. They provided great recommendations and service. The breakfast was good and the room was very clean and comfortable. Don’t bring oversized bags the lifts are typical small European lifts. Overall a very nice hotel

Glasgow is a wonderful city with a tremendous amount to see. Our driver Robert changed our tour to a full day in Glasgow and we were happy he did. We saw Glasgow Cathedral, the burial grounds and he took us all around town. We ended the day at the Kelvingrove Museum. You could kill 4 hours there easy.

Isle of Skye was amazing. Donnan Castle is a Must see Castle. The scenery and castle are fabulous. I would highly recommend a private tour with a small group in a Sprinter Van. This is a trip that is far better with the visibility you get in a smaller van without worrying about driving

Great tour with lots to see and do. Castle, Coos, Sheep and Hay bales!

Nice spot for a drink. No need for the tour.

Beautiful views. Urquhart Castle is not a must see. Loch Ness is a nice Lake but also not a must see in my opinion. Spend the day in Stirling or St Andrews. Watch Rick Steve’s episode and skip this if you’re strapped for time. We would skip it had we known.

Great trip. I would tell anyone to spend 1 Full day in St Andrews. There is too much to see in a few hours. The day was great. Fife and the Castles and site are a must see.

It’s a fantastic castle with incredible history. Our guide was awesome.

Nice room. Nice staff. Good location. Very good breakfast. Cool bar.

Rooms were a bit small. There is no lift. Friendly, helpful staff. Nice bar and great location.

Great location. Helpful, pleasant, nice staff. Good breakfast. Great location

Robert took us to wherever we wanted to go. Very professional. Dressed in an incredible kilt. Very pleasant. Very knowledgable.

Amazing sites. Keith was a great driver and an exceptional guide.

We skipped this but stopped in for a drink. It was the best beer we had on the trip.

Very organized amazing trip our driver, Linda was an extremely funny, knowledgeable guide.

We had an incredible guide . Derek was very knowledgable and extremely pleasant. Couldn't have been better.

So much history

Quite an uphill walk with bags. The site was easily one of the most handsome hotels we stayed in. wonderful little nice things like candy bars, chips, flavored water, etc in the common area of the four rooms. VERY comfortable beds and space. One thing that surprised us about ALL the hotels we stayed in....no USB ports for charging phones. Seems odd since cell phones are so ubiquitous that there are no ports on lamps/tables/wall that we are used to seeing in the USA and other destinations. This hotel also had an excellent restaurant.

Parking was a pain. The walk to the garage was not a big issue but driving to the garage was a challenges with google maps. It was just weird. The umbrella rental stand was very welcome. It really came in handy. Room was comfortable. But the restaurant in the hotel was not their strong point.

Staff was amazing and easily had one of, if not the best, breakfast and dinners. Great beds. Wonderful rooms

Just a beautiful comfortable luxury hotel. This was so welcome after the last experience. Beautiful big comfortable soundproof rooms. Breakfast was great, staff very accessible. Would stay there again and again .

The B&B is in a beautiful setting with wonderful views. If not for that, I would 1 star it. When you walk in, the foyer smells of damp and mold and there is no information on what to do. When we booked, we received a confirmation email that told us very little. When we arrived we had no idea what to do as there was no one on site. The first number we called went to automatron hell and we got no where. We finally called the emergency number (and got scolded) but he begrudgingly gave us our room number and the lock box code for our key. You would have thought that he might have given us some more info as we told him our email said basically nothing. The next crisis was arranging breakfast-again calling numbers that sent us into VM cyclones. Once we did reach someone, the only times left for the breakfast were after 9am. Since we are early risers so we walked the mile to town to get coffee and pastries from the bakery(which was amazing) and then the mile back for our actual breakfast, only to find out that, breakfast is not served at Greenacres, but at The Rosedale, a hotel, a mile back into town. The second morning, we could not have breakfast until 9:30 but our ride was scheduled to pick us up at 9. So we walked to the bakery again, but it was Sunday and there were closed, So I went to the Rosedale and explained our situation and asked it we could eat early- it was about 8am. We still had walk the 20 minutes back to the B&B to meet our driver. They did let us eat, but again, they were not very nice about it, as if we had upset their whole day. There were about 4 other patrons in the restaurant at the time, so I’m unsure why we were so hard to accommodate. At any rate, other than the beautiful view of the sea, the place was run down and not pretty. The room was fine, clean, but there was about a 2 foot clearance around each side of the bed. It was just not a great place to stay. I would avoid at all costs. I think, if the people had been nice to us, I don’t think I would have been so negative. But their attitude was not at all service oriented, as if we were asking for so much. A key to our room and breakfast at time we were able to make it should not be seen as demanding. Overall, a big thumbs down to Greenacres! Oh and if you don’t ask for a seaview room, it could be even more horrible, because that was the only thing that made it bearable to stay there. The rooms facing the road looked abysmal.

This hotel was fine. Good location and the accommodations were clean and nice. The breakfasts were also great. But it was just like a strip hotel without any real character. We were in a “suite” that was in a separate building. The room looked out over the parking lot and the back of the other part of the hotel, so you basically had to keep the curtains shut the whole time, or the guests of the hotel were looking directly into your room. You also had to walk outside to get into the main hotel and drag your suitcase up a pretty big set of cement stairs to get to the room. Thank goodness we were on the 2nd floor and not the 3rd. Location was good. Staff were ok, although not anxious to do anything extra. It was a nice functional, clean hotel, but not memorable.

Small 4 room B&B. The owner Brodie, was great-very helpful and friendly. The only thing here is thst it is far from all but 1 restaurant and you need transport to go anywhere. We were only them for a day, and he dropped us at a trailhead so we could have a lovely hill walk, but then we walked the 3 miles back to the B&B, which was fine for us, but might not be for others. Luckily, the only close restaurant-Loch Lomand Inn- had great food and wine and we ate there both nights. But overall, it would be best if you had a car in this region. The B&B is so pretty, with nice comfortable rooms and amazing breakfasts. Highly recommend staying here.

Pretty hotel, nice breakfast, great location. VERY small room with terrible view.

The best and most personal tour of the trip. I wish I could give Catherine 10 stars. She was energetic and amazing. Took us to the best places and knew all the local characters. The best

Nice little tour of Inverness. Funny guy, not amazing, but good enough.

We found out 30 inures before the scheduled departure thst the train was not running due to repairs on the track. This was planned in advance. I guess the Jacobite people didn’t tell out tour company who kept trying to get us tickets. This was a little bit of a big deal, because if we had know in advance, we prob could have skipped Fort William, or at least,planned other things in advance, like a distillery tour. We were lucky and had great weather and went on a nice hike, but if given the choice in advance would have probably chosen to spend more time in Skye.

It was a nice boat and the guide was funny and informative. It was good to get in to the harbor to be able to really see Ben Nevis, but it was a little bit of a time filler. The eventual destination of “seal Island” was a tiny rock with about w0 seals laying on it. A little underwhelming. If you had kids it would be fun I guess.

Great walk and I formative guide.

This hotel was the best out of all eight we stayed in. It was roomy and they had a nice fan. Big bathroom. Elevator! The only bad thing was we arrived at night and it was not clearly marked. The sign had the name on the same color of brick and it was not illuminated. After going around the block a few times one of our passengers got out and walked to the area where we thought it should be and confirmed we were at the right place.

Hotel was nice in an older building with a nice restaurant. This time we had to lug our luggage downstairs. The room was nice but small. The bathroom and shower were extremely small.

Nice hotel with a view of the lake across the street. Second floor with lots of steps to lug luggage. No elevator.

Hotel was nice but once again involved lugging luggage up steps. Only staying one night I don’t recall specifics of this room. There was a lake nearby that we walked down to see.

The hotel was nice but the logistics were strange. We came in the back door from the parking lot. We had to walk through the restaurant with our luggage. We had to carry our luggage up many steps and that was laborious. The restaurant had a Sunday roast that looked good on line but the roast was dry, overcooked and tough. The potatoes could barely be cut with a knife they were hard as rocks (over-baked).

This was a nice hotel. One downfall was that there was no parking and there was no where to unload the luggage due to restricted parking for cabs. There was a policeman out front when we arrived and he let us pull up and unload quickly. When you went in the front doors there were several steps that we had to lug our luggage up. Nice on the main level there was an elevator to take us up to the 2nd floor. The hotel room was roomy and had air conditioning that was a welcome feature!

A nice hotel with a nice size room and on the first floor. We really weren’t here very long, arrived early evening and left early the next morning.

This hotel was in an area where we could walk to find a variety of restaurants that were close by. The room was warm and had trouble adjusting the temperature to cool the room. The included breakfast bar was nicely stocked with a variety of food.

The River Ness Hotel was okay, but it felt a bit on the shabby side compared to the other accommodations. It was a last-minute arrangement, so I understand these things happen. However, it wasn't as impressive as the other places we stayed.

Unfortunately, the Clan Macduff Hotel in Fort William was my least favorite. It felt more like a motel, and the location wasn't ideal for exploring Glencoe, which we missed out on. It was a last-minute addition to our itinerary, and I wish we had stayed somewhere further into Glencoe to better enjoy the area.

The Alamo Guest House in Glasgow was another highlight of our trip. The accommodation was cozy and beautifully decorated. The service was outstanding, and the staff made us feel right at home. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Glasgow.

Right expérience hôtel for location

This hotel felt so upscale in downtown Edinburgh! We loved the chemex coffee in the room, the high ceilings, comfortable bed, and the restaurant downstairs was so lovely!

This was one of our all time favourite places to stay on our holiday. The view from the chairs in our room will forever live in our memories as one of our favorite spots in Scotland. Our hosts were so friendly and had great recommendations of places to visit and a great hike. We cannot recommend this guest house strongly enough!

The food was absolutely incredible- location was perfect, and our accommodations were great!

Our accommodations were amazing!! We loved the space, the big beautiful room and bathroom, and our host was so thoughtful! The on site massage was a lovely added touch!

Excellent accommodations, attentive staff, delicious breakfast!

We loved the boat ride, the guide and information about the loch, and the time on the shore exploring the castle is highly recommended!

Very comfortable and spacious rooms. It's a bit far away from some of the main tourist sites but we were able to walk everywhere. Breakfast was good. Bar was ok. One of the bartenders was rude and refused to make us a martini. The next night the bar manager was there and did make us one, but would not do so according to our specifications. He insisted he had his own secret recipe and that we would love. But we really didn't love it and would have preferred the simpler version that we requested.

Convenient location right on the edge of the tourist section. We experienced some problems though - including sidewalk and road work happening right outside the front door, which made foot and car traffic tricky. The air conditioning in the hotel rooms couldn't keep up with the summer heat, so two of our 4 rooms were unbearably hot at night. Also, two of our rooms on the back side of the hotel experienced terrible noise all night long from the homeless population that were camped out behind their rooms. They got no sleep! We were told at the front desk that they had security who would run off the homeless people if they bothered anyone, but we didn't know to ask them to do that until it was too late. Seems like if they know it's a problem for guests they would take care of it proactively. We would not stay there again and would not recommend it to anyone.

We loved this hotel and was within walking distance of most things in Killarney. It was beautifully appointed and so comfortable. Staff were gracious and so helpful. We loved the restaurant and especially the bar. They made the best martinis we had in Ireland.

This was a great activity for our family of 11, ranging in age from 73 to 7. Everyone got to handle the birds, and we learned so much about them.

Our guide, Amanda, went above and beyond. We were not expecting her beautiful musical performance, but enjoyed it so much.

Our driver, Steven, was outstanding. He tailored the tour to suit our family so well. We couldn't have been happier.

Really modern, great location right beside the Loch with a private beach

Helpful staff and a great location

Good location with excellent views

We arrived at the end of shopping week in Stromness and had a good time mingling with the locals

Hotel and staff were great. Location was excellent for getting in and out of the city

We had a tour with Ebenezar to Skara Brae, it was incredible. . The best thing was his knowledge and passion of the area. Cannot recommend him highly enough

Nice big room and bathroom. Very good location and nice breakfast. Very friendly and helpful staff. Good value.

We were on the top floor from what appears to be a transformed attic. No elevator, but we got help with luggage. The ceilings in the room were sloped on both sides so you really had to watch out to bump your head everywhere. No shower, no hot water. For Ireland, very weak breakfast

Nice large room and bathroom. Good breakfast. The front desk woman was not friendly or helpful. No elevator and no one to assist getting luggage up a flight and a half of stairs. The breakfast was good and the waiter was very friendly. Note: there isn't any dinner options at the hotel. You need to go to the sister hotel, where they provide transportation (about a 10 min drive). The meal and service is excellent but it is a prefix menu and it's pricey (about 100 pounds per person with drinks).

Nice hotel, good location. There were elevators but you still had to take stairs which defeated the purpose of having an elevator for luggage. Also, it wasn't obvious that there was a ramp to enter the hotel so we also took a flight of stairs with the luggage...and there wasn't anyone to help. Breakfast was good, with a made to order hot entree.

We aren't whisky drinkers but "when in Scotland" we really wanted to have a tour and not just a tasting. Our guide was excellent, the tour was really interesting, the facilities very nice and the tasting (which was the minor part of the excursion) was very nicely done. This is a boutique distillery and it was a curated experience, which we loved.

This is such a unique experience and it's really worth it. The man who owns the dogs was super nice and patient. He also had some "hairy coos" which was a bonus. We all really had fun.

It's a self guided excursion but well worth the visit. I've been to a lot of castles but nothing like Edinburgh. It's basically a city vs a single building.

It is wonderful. It is a must place to visit in Edinburgh

Very interesting . The guide was very good.

I loved it. Highly recommended