Who: Mis Padres in their late 60s - early 70s and Hubby and I in our early 40s. Very adult trip but an active one!
What & Where & When: 18 total days mostly in Scotland from Edinburgh thru the Highlands and Isles with a popover in London. DH has never been to London so we’ll do a whirlwind dinner and open top bus tour so he can see the sights at night all lit up.
Too Much?
Why: DH and DF(ather) are both huge Scotch lovers/collectors and so really, they drove this trip. My DB(rother) went to Scotland for a backpacking trip and really loved it. I believe he talked my mom into being interested and so that’s where with this started though we won’t be doing more than day hiking. But we did plan lots of nature stops, castle stops, and whiskey stops.
This is my first time using a travel agency (Luxury Scotland Tours) to plan most of it which weirdly almost stresses me out more control freak that I am LOL Like did they book all the right hotels/rooms/dinners, etc. I did of course add some sprinklings of my own here and there and I’ll call that out.
In preparation, I have watched lots of Youtube videos including Babies with Scottish Accents (LOL), Men in Kilts of course (Sam Heughan is my Hall Pass!), Braveheart, Outlaw King, Brave of course!, Outlander, Harry Potter films, Skyfall, and I’d like to catch Highlander if I can on the plane. I’ve seen it but it’s been years. I am prepared to drive on the left side of the road (as I’ve done this in NZ so I feel confident) and ready to replace the word yes with aye. What else do I need? 
We got a really good rate on British Airways for Business Class seats (via booking thru American Airlines which was somehow cheaper than booking thru British Airways). It was only about $3K+ (round-trip) but paying to pick your seat added $400 I believe. Other airlines and later in the year they wanted $7K+ so we decided to go for it! We had originally booked our direct flight from AUS(tin) → Heathrow with a short flight to Edinburgh with a 2:15 layover and they put us on an earlier flight to Edinburgh from Heathrow giving us 1:10 layover when even their own policy states 90 min minimum to deal with all the hubub at the aiport including switching terminals. To top it off they didn’t even tell us. I just happened to check a month or so out and notice. So, then I had to spend two hours on the phone, first with American Airlines to switch us back to the flight we had chosen last fall and then call British Airways to pick our seats again (we lost our seats on the short flight though we are still in the same class but further back now). So they make you pay for your seats, they change your flight to something even they say don’t do when they have plenty of other later options, they don’t inform you of this, and then you have to spend 2 hours of your day dealing with two different airlines to get it fixed and you don’t get to keep the seats you paid $400+ to pick in the first place. Customer Service??? Insane to me but it’s all worked out now and hopefully that’s the worst travel issue we have!
Here we go…
