A different sort of trip for us

 

Over the past couple of years with our van, we've started wondering how much longer we can do our usual van-based travel, and thinking about alternatives. Our June trip to southern British Columbia did go well; not as easy as in years gone by but we can still do it. 

We do want to consider alternatives though, and decided to try a guided trip to Scotland, a kind of trip we've never done before. Cathie really wanted to get to Scotland one more time, and I didn't think we could do a self-tour like our last visit there 34 years ago. We coped then with DIY flights, rental car, train trips and B&B accommodations, but it was 34 years ago! On the positive side this trip timing would include our 55th anniversary, and a birthday for me. 

So we decided to sign up for a 16-day trip with a tour group called Seniors Discovery. Several people we know have taken trips with that company and recommended them. 

As I'm writing this we have taken the trip and are back home. Doing a daily blog was not feasible for this type of trip, but I'm going to do our normal kind of trip series, backdating to the actual dates. Some people could be interested, and some may not be. That's ok, as usual we're largely doing this for our own benefit for future reference, to help our aging memories. We do like looking over our blogs of past trips.   

At the end of the series I will describe the pros and cons of the trip for us. In summary though, while we really enjoyed the trip and the tour management was very good, there are several things we'd want to change if we took a trip similar to this again. Meanwhile we really missed our van, and would LOVE to have had it with us for touring northern Scotland!