Small Group Tours

Having never been to Scotland before and planning a weeklong trip with a group of extended family, I found McIntosh Tours online and sent them a message. From the very first communication until the last day of the trip, it was evident that we were in good hands.

The trip planning was top-notch. From the creative itinerary to the scenic drives to the charming/luxurious accommodations, it was a week of unforgettable memory making and adventure.

We discovered the beauty of Scotland from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye and all the places in between. Raymond, owner of McIntosh Tours, was our personal guide for the week as he took our family under his wing and shared his own personal stories as well as Scotland’s rich history everywhere we visited.

Safe to say it was hard to leave and we cannot wait to go back.

McIntosh Tours and Raymond deliver a concierge luxury experience that is warm and inviting and highly personalized. The only downside is having to leave and go back to reality.

Highly recommend this company for an unforgettable experience. Kathleen McManus.

Date of experience: July 2025

We booked with McIntosh tours and they were incredible. Excellent communication, awesome app and flexible. They suggested accommodations that were really nice and unique but didn’t cost a fortune.

Raymond helped design a 5 day trip that aligned with our interests and my mom’s abilities. Our guide ended up being Chris who was also amazing. While we were in the small town of Faulkland with Chris, Raymond’s daughter spotted us (because of Chris) and ran across the square to introduce herself and ensure it was all going well.

What an incredible family business they have built. Book with confidence and enjoy. Laurie Birchler

Date of experience: June 2025

Imagine planning a tour with your teenager 12 hours away from Home – all from home sitting on your computer screen trusting the reviews, website and Google description?!

This was exactly how it was 2 months ago when I was planning a trip to the land, many call – heaven on earth – Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I had connected with 3 operators after a series of checklists to my liking. And I emailed each of them. McIntosh operator Raymond was swift, descriptive and warm as a person I could instantly connect with. What followed were numerous more questions and Raymond answered each of them with patience and logistics. And we confirmed soon after.

My trip with Mcintosh made the trip to Scotland a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Raymond is knowledgeable, considerate and accommodating to most of our requests on the trip. He could sense our needs even before we could voice them out giving us the right operational solution – be it food or a shopping place or a choice of sightseeing spot.

The vehicle of transport – Land Rover Discovery was clean, and spacious and always had water bottles ready.

I strongly recommend Raymond and his team if you are looking out for a customised tour where you want to be a traveller savouring the beauty of Scotland, unlike a tourist.

Date of experience: June 2024

My wife, children, and I travelled to Scotland in early June 2024. A close friend had recommended a private tour. After considering several options, I decided to try McIntosh Tours. I’m glad I did.

Everything about dealing with McIntosh Tours was great and efficient.

Most importantly, I had the sense, from the beginning, of not being a “customer”, but a “cotraveller”:

It was as if Raymond McIntosh and his daughter, Victoria, were planning a trip through parts of Scotland for a couple of days, and inviting us to join them. That set the tone for our entire experience.

When the first day of our tour arrived, Raymond picked us up exactly when he said he would. That day, and the next, we saw much of central Scotland, including places we never would have found on our own, had we chosen to try.

As our guide, Raymond was affable, witty, understanding, and showed an encyclopedic knowledge of Scottish history, geography, economics, and politics. He was a joy to spend time with, full of countless interesting amdfunny stories, and tossing off tantalizing facts as we drove along: “J.K Rowling’s house is just over there, but you can’t see it from the road.”

Everything about our tour was wonderful, but one thing stood out: Raymond’s willingness and ability to adapt the itinerary to suit changing conditions, such as the weather. That led to the highlight of our trip: Touring an abandoned 500-year-old church near Dunkeld that has an exquisite painted ceiling. “Even many of the locals don’t know about this church,” Raymond told us.

Everyone in my family was glad we engaged the services of McIntosh Tours during our trip to Scotland. We would happily do so again, and we recommend, unreservedly, that others do the same.

Date of experience: June 2024

We had a fantastic 2-days tour through Scotland visiting Distilleries.

Raymond is a brilliant guide with an impressive knowledge and passion for Scotland’s rich history and culture. He organised a
tour perfectly tailored to our needs.

We had a fantastic time and highly recommend McIntosh Tours to everyone!

Date of experience: June 2024

In August, my husband, son, daughter-in-law, 13-year-old granddaughter and I went on a 12 day tour of Scotland with McIntosh Tours of Scotland. I will never be able to tell you all the good things about Raymond and his company, even if I wrote an entire book!

However, here are the highlights of our opinion:

1. Raymond is a fun loving, fantastic, personable, honest man. You needn’t fear giving him money ahead of time.
2. He is very professional.
3. His rates are very reasonable for the quality of the tour.
4. He is extremely knowledgeable about Scotland and its history. He taught school in Scotland in several different locations and has an intimate knowledge of life, both past and present, in these areas, as well as Scotland in general. He made learning about Scotland fun and interesting. Even our granddaughter never bored of learning the history of the area.
5. He had an itinerary planned ahead of time that was based on our interests, but he easily changed the itinerary to suit things that came up along the way. For example, part way through the trip we looked at my husband’s family tree and discovered his ancestors were McIntoshes! Raymond changed the itinerary to take us to many locations of McIntosh history. How fantastic is that!
6. His personalization of the trip was so thoughtful. He arranged for a friend to play the bagpipes for us and he highland danced – all just for us, because he knew my granddaughter is a dancer.
   That was truly amazing. We felt like royalty.
7. He takes you to places that the regular tourist crowd is not going to. Some of our most memorable parts of the trip were to off the beaten track locations.
8. The accommodations were great. He checks them out ahead of time, so there were no negative surprises. He can arrange any style of accommodation you want.
9. His Land Rover is new and very comfortable.

I could go on and on, but let me say that the 12 day trip with Raymond was one of the best trips we have all ever taken. Our biggest compliment to him is that we all want to go back – mainly to spend more time with him!

Date of trip: August 2023

We just did an 8 day family tour of the Highlands of Scotland. Raymond was the best tour guide you could ask for. His research to make each individual tour special and customized itinerary is second to none. He is a genuine guy, great driver (even on single lane 2 direction roads), and his daughter Victoria and her dog were just as pleasant. His knowledge of all things Scotland was fantastic and we would highly recommend his services. There is literally no way to go wrong with this guy. Cheers and many thanks for everything

We went on a three day tour to the beautiful isle of Skye, we were six persons ranging in age from 21-88 Raymond was very attentive to all our needs. It was a pleasure listening to the history and legends of all the places we went to. This is our fourth tour with Raymond and is definitely not the last, you can not go wrong with McIntosh tours. Thank you Raymond

I completed a 5-day individual tour in late March 2022 with Raymond of McIntosh Tours and can’t speak highly enough about my unparalleled experience. Raymond was enthusiastic, creative in weaving an itinerary that suited me, and extremely well-versed in the history of all sights and locations we visited. Loved Scotland, so enjoyed each aspect of the traveling, and would recommend McIntosh Tours with no reservation on any level.

It is a lifetime experience for me with scenic beauty at your reach.

Our driver come host Raymond is an excellent guy. He is very punctual, has all the knowledge of attractions.

He has always helped us to manage situations as we had our 1.5 yr son with us. Whenever required he took care of my son, stopped the car without hesitation for breaks. He has arranged a water cooler in his car. I must say it is very good when we have a host like Raymind.

Date of experience: May 2018
Trip type: Travelled with family

Took a breathtaking tour of the Northern coast of Scotland over the course of 5 days with a small group of friends.

Raymond took care of all of our accommodations and had fantastic recommendations for lunch and dinner.

The places he showed us were amazing to say the least. Every part of the trip was planned to perfection.

Because of the meticulous planning, we were able to see more of Scotland than I could have ever imagined in 5 days.

The places we saw, the food we ate, and the towns we visited will forever be some of my favorites!

If you want to see the real beauty of Scotland, eat at delicious places with amazing views, and have a trip of a lifetime, book with McIntosh Tours, you won’t regret it!

Date of experience: June 2018
Trip type: Travelled with friends

My dear old mum decided to organise a 3 day tour for me and 7 mates for my 30th birthday. McIntosh was able to arrange everything from Highland Games demos, distillery tours, pub lunches and even an amazing birthday cake.

Great chap to hang out with and watch us drink all the drams and pints, give little facts and background to what we’re driving past and has an interesting life himself – just ask about the kilt!

be going again on similar tours with this company – there’s still so much to see up there. Thanks for everything, Raymond.

Nick and the lads

Date of experience: September 2019
Trip type: Travelled with friends

We booked McIntosh Tours because of a family referral…we were absolutely thrilled with that decision…Raymond, our tour guide/driver and newfound FRIEND was a delight!!! His knowledge of Scotland’s dramatic history was most impressive as well as entertaining…He went “out of his way” to take us down roads less traveled as well as must see significant Scottish locations !!

You will love Raymond !! He makes sure to please and accommodate his clients’ every wish…We were with him for 3 glorious days & hated to say farewell to this kind gentleman!!

I might add that his daughter Victoria (his lovely assistant) took care of our hotel & dinner reservations …her recommendations were outstanding as well as her personal attention to detail…

Thank you McIntosh Tours for our delightful visit to your beautiful country!!
Ben & Denise
Phoenix AZ

Date of experience: October 2019
Trip type: Travelled as a couple

Our Scottish Highland Tour was amazing thanks to Raymond with McIntosh Tours.

He was passionate about Scotland, truly knowledgeable of the area, and with the help of Victoria they planned the perfect itinerary for us.

The second day we tour the fishing villages and St. Andrews again another stellar day with our new friend Raymond.

We can’t wait to come back! We are telling everyone about how great this company is! Book them for a first class experience!

Date of experience: October 2019
Trip type: Travelled as a couple

My husband made a reservation for a 3 Day Highland Tour with McIntosh Tours for our family of 4 adults during our stay in Scotland from 3 -5 Oct.

On the morning of 3 Oct we were met by Raymond at our hotel in Edinburgh. He was our tour guide throughout our trip to the beautiful countryside. The 3 day itinerary was suggested and planned between my husband and Victoria who is the Sales and Marketing Director. She tried to accommodate our suggestions in the proposed itinerary which was very proficient and considerate of her.

We stayed 2 nights at different locations at the Isle of Skye, both of which were arranged by Victoria. The hotels were quaint and beautiful. We had breakfast and dinner at both of the hotels and we found the food served were fresh and appetising.

Our tour ended on 5 Oct with Raymond giving us a quick tour of the Old Town of Edinburgh which has many beautiful heritage buildings.

Throughout the 3 days, we found Raymond to be a careful and competent driver. He has a wealth of knowledge of the places we visited and also possess a knack of being able to guide us to take beautiful photos which makes the trip a memorable one for our family.

We will not hesitate to recommend McIntosh Tours to our friends should they plan a trip to Scotland.

Due to typical Scottish winter weather (dampish to very damp at the end of December), Raymond had to be extra clever showing us around.

We still enjoyed hikes each day, saw innumerable amazing waterfalls, made a drive-thru Glasgow on our way to Loch Lomond and Glencoe, and saw a good amount of Perthshire and the Highlands.

All this mainly along back country roads while Raymond regaled us with interesting histories of Clans, battles, castles and all sorts of details only a native Scotsman would know. On top of this, Raymond’s own personal history is quite fascinating.

If you are lucky enough to have Raymond as your tour guide, ask him about my “miracle cell phone”.

Thank you, again, Raymond!

The Morrison’s, Colorado, USA

Date of experience: December 2019

We had a three day Highland Whisky Tour and loved it!

Raymond was amazing- funny, knowledgeable, and entertaining.

He customized the tour based on our requests but also added some very personal touches to it.

We cannot recommend McIntosh Tours enough.

Raymond was amazing. Our 2 days with him was truly remarkable.

He was very knowledgeable, and understood what we were looking to see.

I will recommend McIntosh Tours to everyone traveling to Scotland. We found them by way of recommendation, and so glad we did!

Raymond’s Highlands and Fishing Villages tour was so enjoyable! We made a new Scottish friend, and look forward to our return visit or Raymond’s visit to New Orleans.