We’re back from our recent holiday to Arran with Rabbies, which went excellently. I’ve done some detailed posts as follows:-
- Starting the tour in Edinburgh and then the journey to Arran, including a visit to Culzean Castle;
- the second day which we spent on Arran;
- and leaving Arran on the third day and the journey through Argyll.
There’s plenty of detail in the individual posts which I won’t repeat here. But it’s worth adding one big caveat which now that I’ve come home and have been able to process my photos has become clearer to me – the weather.
We were pretty lucky. It was glorious on the the first and third days – bright sunshine, and for most of the time clear blue skies. It wasn’t very warm – there was a stiff, cold breeze blowing a lot of the time – but we were wrapped up warm in fleeces and windproof shells so it didn’t bother us much. Above all it made the views absolutely sing, and in the west of the Scotland it’s what you can see that counts. The middle day, however, was much less good – cloudy right from the start, and rain coming in from late morning for the rest of the day. That affected the day’s activities. Fortunately, however, we were able to get our walk across Machrie Moor in before the rain started, and we spent much of the rest of the day indoors – lunch, the distillery visit, and a few retail opportunities. But that happened to be the way that day worked out. Had it been wet on day 3, for example, when we visited a number places to look at and photo, and places to walk around, we’d have done less well. I’m not sure how great I’d have thought the top of the Rest and Be Thankful pass would have been in rain.
I ought to say positive things about Rabbies Tours themselves, because they deserve it. There were no glitches with the arrangements at all. Pete our driver/guide was great, especially as he spends all his time getting to know people for just a few days and taking them to places he’s been to many times before. It can’t be easy to keep up the enthusiasm in that situation. But they specialise in small groups staying in local accommodation, and getting out of the bus whenever possible, and they certainly delivered that for us.
Would we do another Rabbies tour? – yes, I think so, and we are looking at the brochure. You do need to be aware that in bad weather it would not be so great – being bussed around from one wet viewpoint to another. But that’s Scotland.