Festive Highlands Tartan & Taster

DAY 1

For those booking our rail inclusive package, our Tour Manager will meet you at Glasgow Central. From here we will transfer to Fort William by private coach, where a light meal will be waiting at our hotel for the next four nights, the Alexandra Hotel.

DAY 2

This morning a truly stunning coach journey awaits as we travel into the Great Glen, driving alongside Loch Ness en route to Inverness. Here we join the original 'Great Railway Journey of the World' made famous from Michael Palin's trailblazing programme - The Kyle Line. We enjoy the scenery as our train climbs past great forests, stopping briefly in small hamlets, before descending through lochs and stunning seascape scenery to Kyle of Lochalsh, overlooking the Isle of Skye. Our circular tour is then completed by coach and a visit to the picturesque Eilean Donan Castle before heading south through the western Highlands to Fort William for our evening meal.

DAY 3

Today after breakfast we rejoin the West Highland Line for the final part of the epic journey to Mallaig. Trundling first past the Caledonian Canal's locks, we head through rocky mountain landscapes, crossing Glenfinnan Viaduct, where Bonnie Prince Charlie's monument and Loch Shiel are viewed before bursting out onto the Atlantic coastline of golden white sands with distant views of Rhum and Eigg. Enjoy time in Mallaig with views across the sea to Skye before returning by train to Fort William.

DAY 4

After breakfast there is free time to have a look around Fort William and you may wish to visit the West Highland Museum in the centre of the town. This afternoon our local coach takes us the short distance to the Glencoe Visitor Centre, which tells the history of this haunting, yet stunning area. We visit the nearby Ben Nevis Distillery for a tour and a warming 'wee dram' before returning to our hotel.

DAY 5

After a hearty breakfast this morning we bid farewell to Fort William. For those having booked our rail inclusive package we will see most of the West Highland Line in wintry daylight glory, climbing high across the heather of Rannoch Moor, whose splendid isolation can only be experienced by train or on foot (no road leads here), before skirting Lochs Lomond, Long and Gareloch en route to Glasgow, from where we disperse to our home stations.

B=Breakfast, D=Dinner