Haggis Adventures Hebridean Hopper Tour Review

What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the word ‘Scotland’? Bagpipes? Kilts? Lochness Monster? Nature? Scotch Whiskey? Braveheart? Most probably it’s one of those things, for me it’s ‘wilderness’. With a vast majority of the country covered with mountains and lochs, Scotland becomes the perfect place to get lost into the wilderness and spend some quality time with Mother Nature. I had not even recovered from my epic trip in Ireland with Shamrocker Adventures when I was invited by Haggis Adventures to take a tour of Scotland on their 5 day Hebridean Hopper Tour and how could I say no to that?

Scotland has so much to offer in terms of history, culture and the best of it all, magnificent landscapes. Whether you are in the Low Lands, High Lands or one of the Isles, there is something exciting waiting for you in every part of Scotland. On my 5 days with Haggis Adventures, I explored the Isle of Lewis and Harris and the Isle Of Skye, with strangers who I now call friends and a bearded Scotsman in a big yellow ‘Wild and Sexy’ Haggis Tour Bus. Luckily, this trip was at the time of the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, a festival I have always been intrigued by, but we will talk more about that in a separate post, click here.

Who are Haggis Adventures?

They are bunch of passionate Scots who show you around their country on budget backpacking tours. They got day trips, weekend trips and even up to an entire 10 day Compass buster Tour to get a all-round experience of Scotland. All tours start and end in the city of Edinburgh and what you get is the Deep Scottish Love of a crazy scot as your guide/driver who will take you on an adventure through Scottish history and stories in a big yellow bus. For accommodation, you have an option of dorm-style beds with your tour group or private rooms at an additional charge. Meals are not included; however one of the three hostels we stayed at did provide us with free breakfast.

Haggis Adventures 5 Day Hebridean Hopper

Day 1

Thanks to the Jetlag I was up and running at 7am, perfect timing to go for a stroll around the royal mile in Edinburgh, before the city wakes up, God bless Greggs for being the only ones serving coffee during that hour. As I reached the Haggis Adventures Office with my bags from High Street Hostel next door, I saw at least 5 different buses of Haggis Adventures parked outside the Haggis Adventures Office at 8:15am sharp. Our guide Steve’s bus was among them.

Our morning wake up stop was at DUNKELD where I enjoyed another coffee with my first scone of the trip right on the banks of River Tay, next to the Dunkeld Cathedral with a bit of drizzle, ‘Welcome To UK’, for now atleast. It was still quite early and the only people you saw on the streets of Dunkeld were from the Haggis Adventures Bus hopping shop to shop filling their bags with baked goods for the road.

For the next hour or so on the road, each one of us introduced ourselves while we drove through the beautiful Cairngorms National Park, Steve asked us to include the color of socks in our introduction and I can now proudly say my blue socks with pizza slices have finally paid off.

Steve told us about the Battle Of Culloden which took place in 1746 and how the Jacobites Army were brutally defeated by the Hanoverian Army. Today, that battlefield near Inverness is open to public and was our next stop for the day. Here you could walk in the open battlefield discovering plaques and memorial stones or visit the visitor center to learn more about the battle.

Our final stop of the day was at CORRIESHALLOCH GORGE, a massive natural gorge with a suspension bridge across the big deep hole, a nature’s marvel indeed and a spectacular tourist attraction. A walk we all needed before we boarded the ferry off the mainland.

ULLAPOOL is a small town mainly famous for the ferry terminal. With a box of fish and chips in one hand and my handbag in the other, I boarded the most luxurious ferry I’ve been on while Steve drove the bus to the deck below. There was ample space to walk, reclining chairs, a full service café, WiFi and an indoor observation deck, I was ready for the 3 hour ferry ride to STORNOWAY.

Hello Isle of Lewis and Harris. We checked in ‘Heb Hostel’ at Stornoway, a small family run hostel in the center of the town.

Day 1 of the my 5 Day Hebridean Hopper Tour ended at a local pub called ‘McNeils’ with live music and in the company of a big lovely bunch of Haggis Adventures Tour Group.

P.S. The owner of the Heb’s Hostel also performs at ‘McNeils’ once a while.

Day 2

Cheers to the people of Heb Hostel for free breakfast and also to the early birds who enjoyed it with me. Best part of this day was that we didn’t have to pack up our stuff, we were off with just the essentials and by that I mean my big bag of camera gear, towards the west coast to the most unorthodox whiskey distillery ever.

ABHAINN DEARG WHISKEY DISTILLERY was in a gorgeous location, a river flowing next to it, mountains all around, this distillery was like no other. The Scotsman running the place introduced us to his cat ‘butt-hole’ (go figure) who helps him keep the mice away from the barley, he then explained the whole process of whiskey making in the most unique Scottish accent I’ve heard. This is where I first learned about the Scottish soil ‘peat’ that gives the smokey flavor to their products and also the reason why you see a brown tint in the natural water streams in this region. Now you must be wondering, how is this distillery any different? Abhainn Dearg is a relatively new distillery and does not operate on a very large scale, hence everything is old school which is what makes it interesting.

Ofcourse after all the whiskey talk, there had to be a tasting, but it didn’t happen at the distillery. Steve drove us to UIG BAY before handing us a traditional ‘quaich’ to pour whiskey in, what better way to enjoy one of the rare sunny days in Scotland, at the beach sipping a single malt scotch whiskey. Cheers to Haggis Adventures.

Our next stop was at CALLANISH STANDING STONES, a stone formation spread out in a cruciform pattern with a center stone circle. Some say it was used for religious rituals but legend has it these stones were actually giants who would not convert to Christianity, but that’s just folklore, how they got there and their purpose still remains a mystery. A mystery with a spectacular view.

Another brilliant tourist attraction on the Isle of Lewis was the DUN CARLOWAY BROCH, a big hollow walled stone structure used as a stronghold in the past. And just like everything else in this country, everyone spent a good amount of time clicking pictures of the lovely landscape.

Are you a dog person? If not, then take a few seconds to look into the eyes of real-life-Simba below and think again. I met the most adorable dog in my entire life at our next stop at the GARENIN BLACKHOUSE VILLAGE and I swear I would have kidnapped him if he didn’t have his master on a leash. This village is known for the traditional thatched roof cottages. There are 9 cottages in total which have been restored as part of Scottish heritage; these include a museum of a house setting from 1955, a café and a gift shop. But my favorite part here was the view of the wide North Atlantic Ocean. Hearing the waves crashing on the rocks and staring into the deep blue void of the ocean was breathtaking, I could feel Iceland calling me for a trip…soon… *fingers crossed*.

We met ‘butt-hole’ the cat this morning and now we were at the most windy spot of the island, the BUTT OF LEWIS, 10 points for the person who came up with the name. The best butt I’ve ever seen is the northernmost tip of Lewis and I have pictures below to prove that.

It had been a long day and most of us dozed off on the ride back to Stornoway. We grabbed some dinner at The Crowne Inn, followed by drinks at McNeils and called in an early night.

Day 3

Everyone packed up their swim wear because today we were going to the LUSKENTYRE BEACH, or so we thought. The sunny skies from Day 2 were nowhere to be seen but it was ok, we were still going to beach about it. As we hit the sands of one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, the water from the clouds came pouring down on us, of course our crazy wild-and-sexy driver Steve went for a dip anyways, the rest of us ran back into the bus for some shelter.

Thor was definitely playing with us, as soon as we left the beach the rays of sunlight started seeping through the clouds and by the time we reached ST CLEMENT’S CHURCH in Rodel, we needed our sunglasses again. I spent just a few minutes in the church and the major part of it at ‘Sam’s Seafood Shack’ next door munching on warm and delicious seafood chowder.

Steve built up a lot of excitement for this next part of the journey. The narrow and twisty GOLDEN ROAD was no-doubt quite thrilling and lived up to its expectations. We made a photo stop along the way and headed to the town of TARBERT.

Since our beaching time was cut short by the rain, we had a good amount of time in this picturesque town of Tarbert. I visited the Harris Tweed Shop, the Isle of Harris Gin Distillery (did you know Harris Gin is flavored with seaweed?) and wandered about the town clicking photos before boarding our 2 hour ferry ride to the Isle Of Skye.

A big yellow building called the ‘Portree Independent Hostel’ was our home for the night in this cute little town of PORTREE, a town that is famous for its instagrammable harbor. Most of us spent the evening taking a stroll around town, checking out the souvenir shops and grabbing some deep fried goods to enjoy it next to the sea, hoping not to be attacked by the gigantic seagulls. My sin for the evening was a deep fried haggis and drinks at a local pub in Macnab’s Inn with live music and my new friends.

Day 4

Portree is famous for 2 things, one being its vivid harbor and ‘MACKENZIE’S BAKERY’, the most delicious and affordable bakery, probably all over Scotland. It’s situated right at the main square right next to our hostel (how convenient) which is also the drop-off and pick-up point for all tour buses, including ours. Every single one us loaded our bags with freshly baked goods and with a steaming cup in hand, we boarded the bus to begin Day number 4.

THE OLD MAN OF STORR, a rocky hill in the shape of an old man’s face, quite popular for a nice little hike to the top for breathtaking (literally) landscapes of Isle Of Skye. The hike is perfect for beginners but it does get steep and with the weather changing every few minutes (like my choices at a restaurant), it got a bit challenging. After all that fish and chips and early morning carbs, this hike was quite necessary and personally one of my favourite things on this trip.

Our next photo stop was at the most touristic places on the Isle of Skye, THE KILT ROCK, a nature’s marvel with an appearance of a kilt. This place is also home to some of the most impressive collection of Dinosaur remains and some footprints can still be found here.

On the bus ride, Steve said something that caught everyone off guard. He said he needed some volunteers for a role playing activity and that he had already selected 2 people, which he will only reveal once we reach the story-telling location. This secret location was RIVER SLIGACHAN where many of us acted out in a story narrated by Steve, ofcourse I’m not going to tell you the story and spoil the fun, do the Haggis Adventures Tour to find out.

It was time to leave the Isle Of Skye into the Highlands to the most epic hostel of the entire trip in a town right next to Loch Ness called Fort Augustus.

MORAGES LODGE is a hostel owned by Haggis Adventures and is where you get to meet members of other Haggis Adventures Tour Groups, the dinner prepared for us here was without a doubt the best food I’ve had in this entire trip, a juicy chicken stuffed with heaps of haggis in a finger smacking sauce. They even have an in-house pub that hosts events every evening; we had just enough time to squeeze a lovely Loch Ness cruise which I would highly recommend.

That night’s event was a pub quiz and thanks to some smart members of my group, our team “A TRICK UP MY STEVE” were the winners, the name was my idea which scored us 3 additional points, just saying.

Day 5

Ahhh! what a depressing morning this was, our friends on the 10-day Compass Buster tour parted ways  with only a handful remaining on the bus. To make it worse, it was the last day of this amazing tour and the constant rain was the cherry on top.

We headed back to Edinburgh and made a bunch of stops on the way. My favourite one was GLENCOE, a scenic valley of volcanic origins which has been designated as a national nature reserve of Scotland. Its green mountains and water streams make your windows desktop wallpaper look like an old potato.

For lunch we stopped at a town called CALLENDER which supposedly has a big majority of elderly residents who play the game ‘Who’s next?’ *facepalm*.

Our last stop of the 5 Day Hebridean Hopper was in Stirling at the WALLACE MONUMENT. Fans of the movie ‘Braveheart’, this one is for you. Here you can learn all about William Wallace, the brave Scottish knight who fought against the English army in the Battle of Stirling bridge, or just enjoy aerial views of the city.

What I liked about the Haggis Adventures 5 Day Hebridean Hopper?

I loved the itinerary and how well it was planned. Isle of Lewis and Harris is still not as touristy as the Isle Of Skye so you do get to see a different side of Scotland, yet stick to its iconic landscapes. So Stornoway was a lovely off-beat escape from the city life and the hospitality of our humble hosts at the Heb Hostel made the experience even better. Loved the hike at the Old Man Of Storr and absolutely enjoyed the night at Morage’s Lodge. My tour group was a lovely diverse group of people across all age groups and I did connect well with most of them.

What I didn’t like about the Haggis Adventures 5 Day Hebridean Hopper?

I am a minimalistic person and I don’t expect, neither look for, any luxury on backpacking tours, having said that the hostel in Portree could be improved. Due to it’s ideal location and lack of similar accommodation in the town, I felt the staff did not put any effort for the comfort of its guests.

Secondly, I would’ve loved to know the hostels we were going to stay at prior to the trip, or maybe during the introduction to the tour on Day 1. Many people do like the idea of not knowing anything in advance since I usually plan out my day and photo locations accordingly, this is something I would’ve preferred to know.

Neither of these points are in any way a deal-breaker but just my 2 cents after digging really deep into my experience of the tour.

My Verdict

You didn’t really visit Scotland if you just visited big cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow and returned back and this is where Haggis Adventures come in. I would recommend their tours to anyone without hesitation, Scottish culture and landscapes are popular all around the world and my 5 day Hebridean Hopper tour gave me a little bit of everything this country has to offer. My first suggestion would be the 10-day Compass Buster tour, but if you don’t have that many days to spare, Haggis Adventures has definitely something to fit your itinerary.

A big gratitude to our guide and driver, Steve, for showing us around the country and playing our ‘guilty pleasures’ playlist in the bus. Cheers to the amazing friends I made in these 5 days, Scotland can be visited anytime, but having you along is what makes good memories last forever.