Where to begin? My wife & I booked a 17 day trip to Scotland. Having never been, we crossed our fingers for all of the excursions we planned. I can now say, without any hesitation, of all that we planned, the very best decision that we made was to book Chris Pendleton on a private two-day tour. He was AMAZING. His vehicle (Land Rover) was impeccable and incredibly comfortable. He’ll show you Scotland like you will never see on your own. He avoids the touristy places and takes you to enchanted scenery and hide-away spots that no travel book would cover. He takes you to restaurants that DON’T serve bus loads of tourists. We ran in to a couple who had rented a car for 14 days because they wanted to “do it their way.” They paid over $2,000 for the rental (check the price of gas in Scotland! 🥴), and they were just hitting the touristy spots because that’s what the guide books said to do. We, on the other hand booked Chris (for a lot less money) and got the tour of a lifetime. You’ll never see what we saw if you book a bus tour or try to do it yourself. We had no car, and when not with Chris, used the trains and the occasional bus very effectively. Chris was so incredibly informative. As a proud Scot, he knows his history, and it’s infectious. There’s no way I’ll tour Scotland in a future trip without calling on Chris. There’s so much more of Scotland that we wish to see, and I deeply wish we had booked Chris for more days. Bottom line… don’t rent a car. The liability, cost, and aggravating driving in a foreign country with different traffic laws is a recipe for stress and uneasiness (the exact opposite of what a vacation is supposed to be about). Use the public transportation system and for goodness sake, top off your trip with the booking of Chris Pendleton at Monarch. You will never regret it. He really is that good!!
Tom & Vicki McGuire
PS. My wife left some purchased items in his car. I emailed him and told him to just give the items to another guest, as he was far away, and with gas costs in Scotland, it wasn’t worth asking him to come back. We went to have lunch, and upon our return the hotel informed us that Chris had returned and left the items at the desk for us. My wife was so happy. He truly is a gentleman, as well as a great tour guide.