Inverness Private Tours, Highland Day Trips, 2-3 Day Tours from Puffin Express

HOME

PRIVATE TOURS
Puffin Express

This page will be considerably modified for 2012

Private tours are available to:

any of the destinations listed in our scheduled programme;

the destinations listed below;

a destination of your own choice;

And are available most days of the year.

Private tours for parties of 1-4 are available for a day or sometimes even a half-day;

For groups of 5-8 persons minimum period of tour is 2/3 days.

Vauxhall Vectra (below) - max 4 pax.

The above vehicles are air-conditioned; equipped throughout with 3-point lap-&-diagonal seatbelts; and carry full private hire insurance.
Prices given below for the cars include VAT (UK sales tax) of 20%. These prices are a guide; if the trip you request has unusually high mileage then price may increase accordingly.
Prices are based on meeting clients in Inverness. If you wish to be picked up elsewhere there may be a positioning charge. This depends on where you are staying, and which itinerary you wish. If for example you are staying north of Inverness, anywhere on or near the A9, and wish to do our Go-Orkney MegaTour there is of course no positioning charge since that is on our route anyway.

Vectra (above). Price for 5-hour tour: £ 250; for 9-hour tour £ 360-430 depending on mileage and time of year.
Carries 3 large, tall people in comfort, 1 in front and 2 in rear. Rear bench seat is 54" (137 cm) wide allowing 18" of width for each passenger when 3 are carried (4 passengers in total) and has seat belts for all 3.

The Vectra (or similar sized car) is hired in from a local agency. Consequently if your tour starts very early (see especially Go-Orkney MegaTour, below) or finishes very late the agency may class this as a 2-day hire, increasing the price.

Guided trips - your driver/guide (usually Sinclair or Kathleen Dunnett) interprets the route as you go. Whether it's one of us or another guide, we all have wide interests. During your tour we cover the social, political, and natural histories (including basic geology) of your route; prehistory - our area is rich in Neolithic, early Bronze Age, and Pictish sites; and the general situation of our area - the economy, transport links and so on.
Please tell us your requirements and we will give you a quotation.
We also do multi-day trips.
If you do not know your exact route and need help with itinerary design we will normally give you, gratis, one or two e-mails with suggestions. After that fees apply for help with itinerary development. Most of our scheduled tours are available on almost any day of the year as private tours, at the prices noted below. Private tours are also available for larger groups, prices on application.

Some suggested Journeys

Orkney day-trip from Inverness, or Orkney MegaTour. In Vectra or similar car cost for 3 persons (2011) was £ 650, £ 680 for 4. Add £ 25 in July & August.
These prices include return [round-trip] road and ferry transport from Inverness to Orkney, with guidance, and guided tour within Orkney. Entrance fees to Skara Brae and Maeshowe are not included - both these monuments are in the care of Historic Scotland. This trip is not available on public holidays over Christmas and New Year when there is no ferry service. In July and August ferry timings allow an extra hour in Orkney and price is then £ 485 for 2 people with adjustments for 1 or 3 persons as noted above.

Lewis MegaTour. Any Wednesday or Friday from late June to late August. We cannot give exact dates for 2012 until CalMac publish their summer timetables.

Assynt

Monarch of the Glen

Cawdor Castle, Clava Cairns, Culloden Battlefield

Skye & the Great Glen

Brodie Castle

Picts & Prehistory

Whisky Trail

Inverewe Gardens

The guides. We are, to our knowledge, the only guiding-with-transport service in the Highlands whose guides are all university graduates or have completed the HOSTGA guiding course or in some cases, both.

Days of operation. As stated in the introduction, private tours are available almost any day of the year, with the following provisos:

Christmas and New Year Period. We are happy to run trips booked in advance over the holidays but you should be aware that facilities are reduced. For example, we can easily visit Skye on New Year's day, but need to carry our own lunches - you won't normally find any restaurants open. Generally there are no ferries to Orkney and Lewis on 25 & 26 December and 1 & 2 January. Likewise, Inverewe Gardens are closed for some days at this time.

Many venues - for example, Eilean Donan Castle and the Clan Donald Centre - are closed from mid- or late October to March or April. This does not mean that you won't have a rewarding trip by doing a trip 'out of season'.

Payment; Conditions
1. An advance payment is required to secure a trip.

On single-day trips November-March balance of payment is due on departure.

On single-day trips April-October and multi-day trips at any time of year we normally require the balance to be paid in advance. We will advise you according to the nature of each trip.
See also (2), below.
If you cancel more than 15 days before the start of the trip, you will receive a refund of 50% per day booked. If you cancel within 15 days of the first day you have booked, the full advance payment is forfeit.
2. The above are our basic conditions and requirements for pre-payment. Trips involving ferries may require additional pre-payments; also, if we get demands for bookings on the same days that you request we may request additional advance payment from you.
3. Prices do not normally include any meals or entrance fees. The guide normally supplies his/her own lunch. If you specifically want the guide to lunch with you then you pay for his/her meal.

http://www.littles.co.uk/rates.htm