Cairngorms & Royal Deeside walking holiday, Scotland

Planet

We are firmly committed to responsible tourism and all of our tours reflect that commitment. Our holidays are purposefully designed to provide a visitor experience that maximises the positive benefits of tourism while minimising any negative impacts.

Leave No Trace & Our Guides

We are staunch advocates of the Leave No Trace principles, in which our guides are fully trained. On all of our activities, our guides will ensure that the impact on the environment, wildlife and local community is minimised. During your trip, our guides will teach you how to do this so that the knowledge is spread on your travels in Scotland and further afield. Our guides are ambassadors for Scotland's wild places and are passionate about sharing their knowledge. Your guide will not only lead your activities but tell you all about Scotland's flora, fauna, geology, history and culture. On this trip to the Cairngorms and Deeside, you’ll visit several areas known for seeing rare birds of prey like golden eagles and ospreys. Your guide will endeavour to help you spot them and give you more information on identifying big birds and their behaviours.

Transport

Our trips focus on enjoying the landscapes through human power, so by walking, biking or paddling through them. We minimise motorised transports as much as possible.

This walking holiday to the Cairngorms National Park and Royal Deeside area starts and finishes at a mainline train station to encourage the use of public transport. Hiking is the main activity of the day so you’ll be walking 6-17 kilometres a day so that you can fully immerse yourself in the beautiful landscapes of this impressive region.

Accommodation & Meals

We’ve handpicked the two friendly guesthouses that you’ll be staying in during this trip. We take the accommodation provider’s Green Tourism credentials into account during our selection process and encourage where possible for our partners to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Scotland is known for its fantastic natural larder so we try to source all food and drink provided on the trip as much as possible locally, and endeavour to take our clients to establishments that celebrate seasonal Scottish produce, meat and dairy. This region is known in particular for its wild venison and berries.

In the Office

It's not just on trips that we promote sustainable processes! We operate our holidays out of a carbon-neutral headquarters which is powered by renewable energy. We reduce, reuse and recycle, using environmentally friendly products from local suppliers where possible. In addition, our office car park hosts two public EV charging stations, and we subsidise staff usage. We encourage car-sharing and compete monthly for the most environmentally friendly commute!

Additional

In preparation for our trips, we strongly encourage our travellers to bring a reusable water bottle and lunchbox on their holiday to discourage the use of single-use plastics.

Lastly, we are committed to contributing annually to a nature-based charity that promotes conservation in Scotland.

People

Local Team

Although our office staff isn’t 100% Scottish, all members of our team live and work in the Scottish Highlands. Because of this, our passionate personnel are able to give expert insider advice on their own favourite playground and ensure the best experience for our visitors.

Local Partners

We ensure a warm welcome from the locals wherever we go as we’ve always strived to work together with the local community and businesses, ensuring that the economic benefits are shared. We seek out locally owned and family-run hotels and restaurants over chain businesses. Packed lunches and snacks are sourced locally, either directly from the accommodation providers or from small cafes and delis.

Local Experiences

On each trip, we endeavour to introduce our visitors to local and unique experiences. Each one of our holidays to the Cairngorms National Park and Royal Deeside varies a little as it depends on the weather, group preference and what is open at the time. Experiences have included a garden serenade by a local piper at your Deeside guesthouse, an impromptu meeting with the Queen whilst walking on her estate and learning about Scottish rewilding from a local expert.

Over-Tourism

Some of the areas we visit suffer from over-tourism and we do what we can to manage this consequence. The crowding caused by over-tourism not only negatively impacts the natural environment but also the quality of life of the communities who live and work in the beautiful destinations that we visit. To mediate this we take our clients to the lesser-known spots in any given area, extend our tour departures into the less busy shoulder months to spread the flow of visitors and when we do visit ‘hotspots’ we aim to go outside of peak hours.

Group Sizes

We deliberately keep our groups small for several reasons. Having smaller groups mean less disturbance to the environment and the local community. It also means that we can stay at smaller accommodation providers who are not eligible to benefit from mass tourism providers and have a better guide to traveller ratio.