Naomi and Penny were fantastic guides on our tour!! We love traveling with Crystal and Pete and listening to their music as well as local musicians. Penny quickly got to know everyone and was flexible in scheduling to allow everyone on the tour to be comfortable. She anticipated needs of tour members and worked to make everyone’s experience comfortable. Thankful for the people who make Scotland Folk tours so fantastic!

Fantastic trip! This was my second Scotland Folk tour with MY 🐘🐘 aka Ordinary Elephant! MUSIC: As expected, the music was great from OE and the amount of music from the local musicians was awesome. I was very happy when I found out Beth Malcolm was playing! HOTELS: I especially loved the Peebles Hotel and the town was fun to explore on our day off. The George Hotel/Penrith was a nice place as well. I also enjoyed the hotel we stayed at our last night in Stirling- much better than the Golden Lion which was loud at night with what those of us on the upper floors suspected were birds. TOUR GUIDES: Naomi and Penny. 🙌🏼 Both were excellent - knowledgeable and super friendly! We need to send Penny a jar of MIRACLE Whip! 😉 TOUR STOPS: I need the preface this with the fact that I am not a big historical buff or museum goer - so in the places where there were guides - Abbotsford and Hadrian’s Wall/Vindolanda Roman Village - I would have been satisfied with shorter overview and more free time to just wander about - I realize now I could have wandered off but in the moment it did not occur to me to do so. I loved walking around the Kelpies. The ferry ride in the Lake District had great views. I loved the Castlerigg Stone Circle stop! We were lucky at the Mining museum that they offered for us to go up and see the library the miners established. Loved walking around Melrose Abbey! I loved Grasmere and its delicious gingerbread. 🤤 I would say getting to go on the Falkirk wheel would have been a thrill - perhaps consider adding extra time for future tours? The Whisky tour was interesting but… as this is my second tour - riding the wheel would have been my preference. FELLOW TRAVELERS: Our tour group members are AWESOME. I think we all left feeling lifetime friendships were made. We all are still group chatting on WhatsApp!

I am not a big group person--our trip was 25--but I had the time of my life with these wonderful people. There's a Venn diagram with lots of overlap of folk music lovers and very cool people. Our group leaders Julie and Katie not only provided fabulous music themselves, but made sure everyone in the group felt included. Our guides, Fiona and Gail, are incredibly knowlegable about Scottish history, excellent story tellers, and fun to be around. Gail is extraordinary--she can tear up when recounting a story about giants and faeries, and she can drive the biggest bus imaginable up a winding road no bigger than the bus (with cars coming the other way) without any of us feeling unsafe. The scenery and the sites we saw were beyond beautiful. One really gets a sense of Scottish culture and history on this trip, while enjoying some of the most beautiful places on Earth. The pacing was perfect--not too much, not too little. But if you need to sit out a day, you can do it. I loved everything about this trip, and highly recommend any of the SFT trips (this was my second).

Beyond the Tartan in July 2026, with music hosts Katie Dahl and Julie Wolf, guides Fiona Brown and Gail Williams, and a fabulous tour group, was a truly magnificent experience! I am so grateful I got to go. I could fill a book with our tales of the road. Scotland is such a vibrant beautiful land. Learning from our brilliant guides about Scotland’s people and their history really moved me. And they packed every day full of fresh air, fun and awe. The magical music lives on in me long past my sad goodbye to this fabulous tour. I am definitely a SFT return traveler!!! 💜

We had a great time! Wonderful people, great music, delicious food, interesting sights to see and learn about. The tour guides were exceptional; very knowledgeable, easy to hear and understand, fun personalities and good story tellers. Great musical talent at each of the evening events, especially the local musicians at the Kintail Lodge. The selection of things to see and do at each location was enlightening; we got to learn much about the Scotland Highlands - their history, geography, culture, and people. Thanks for a great trip.