This 2-day heritage tour of the Scottish Highlands features historic locations linked to the Jacobite movement of 18th-century Scotland. Visit the village of Dunkeld, drive through Cairngorm National Park to Loch Ness, and stay overnight in Fort Augustus. You’ll ride to Mallaig aboard the Jacobite steam train, featured as the Hogwarts Express in the popular Harry Potter films. Along the way, hear tales of battles fought by the Jacobites — supporters of the exiled King James II.

Overnight trip combining stunning Highland scenery with tales of Jacobite history
Ride on the famous Jacobite Steam Train, better known as Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films
Enjoy a scenic drive through the Cairngorm National Park
Transport by luxury and midi coach
Choose from B&B or hotel accommodation for your overnight stay
Group size max 32 on mini coach

Why Travellers Choose This Tour

The highlight of this overnight tour is a ride on the ‘Hogwarts Express’ steam train.

What's Included

Breakfast
Transport by air-conditioned midi-coach
Professional guide
Overnight accommodation with breakfast
One Way Jacobite Steam Train Ride

Food and drinks
Gratuities
Pickup and drop off from Accommodation

Meeting And Pickup

Meeting point

1 Parliament Square
1 Parliament Square, Edinburgh EH1 1RF, UK
Highland Experience Tours, 1 Parliament Square, Cafe Nero, Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH1 1RE

Start time

09:00 am

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

This small-group tour of the Scottish Highlands offers a historical spin on the region; your guide regales you with tales of the Jacobite army, which led several 18th-century rebellions in Scotland under the exiled court of King James II. Along with visits to Loch Ness, Dunkeld and Mallaig, you’ll enjoy a Jacobite steam train ride, aka the Hogwarts Express.

Travel in the personalized comfort of a minivan, and stay overnight at a hotel or B&B accommodation in Fort Augustus, including breakfast.

Day 1

Heading north

2 Stops

Dunkeld Cathedral

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Culloden Battlefield

1 hour • Admission Ticket Not Included

Accommodation: Overnight: Fort Augustus

Meals: Not included

Day 2

All Aboard

2 Stops

Fort William

4 hours • Admission Ticket Included

Glencoe National Nature Reserve

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Accommodation: Not included

Meals: Breakfast

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Adult pricing applies to all travellers
Maximum of 2 passengers per room. If you are traveling with more passengers, you must make separate bookings
Not wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Children must share a room with 1 or more adults

Children under 3 years not accepted
Service animals allowed
Luggage Restrictions: Maximum weight: 15kg. Maximum size: 55cm x 40cm x 20cm per person plus small carry on
Near public transportation
Most travellers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 32 travellers

Cancellation Policy

This experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason. If you cancel or ask for an amendment, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

This experience requires a minimum number of travellers. If it’s cancelled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveller Photos

Traveller Tips

Six hours for this experience is by far tooooooo much!

Reviews

4.5

263 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travellers.

Showing 1-10 of 263 reviews

Really Nice Small Bus Tour

MIchael_C, Aug 2023

This is a nice small-bus tour. Long days, but a lot to take in. Stephen was VERY knowledgable and knows his way around the Highlands.

Had a wonderful time in Scotland on this tour

Rickey_S, Aug 2023

We had a wonderful time on this tour. Stephan was a wonderful tour guide. The overnight stay at the B&B was nice. The rooms are small but comfortable. The ride on the steam train was a lot of fun. We were on the morning outbound run, the tour stopped at an observation area where we were able to get some great photos of the train on its way back to Ft. William. Overall we saw some great highlights of Scotland, both the highlands and the lowlands. I would definitely recommend this tour to others.

The journey is a good 2 day overview over the scottish landscape mit the steam train as a highlight.

Edgar_J, June 2023

Nice steam train experience. Nice stop in Malleigh. Although we were quite long in the bus, ist was worth.

Jacobite Experience - FANTASTIC!!!

Trail657478, Nov 2019

Money well spent during our visit to Scotland! The guide, Steven, was great! He was full of information and facts that were very interesting and helpful during the tour as well as the rest of our time there! Would recommend this tour to anyone!!

Hogwarts Express

hmitchell2019, Nov 2019

This was one of the highlights of our trip. The train ride was beautiful. The town we visited was crowded at lunch and we could not find any restaurants with open tables, but besides that issue we really enjoyed the train ride. The scottish highlands were beautiful and seeing Loch Ness was the most beautiful place we have ever seen! Our tour guide on the bus tour was amazing! He was the best tour guide we have ever had!

Awesome!

mattr24302019, Oct 2019

Great sights! Fergie was a great guide, even helped me prepare for driving my rental car on the "wrong" side of the road. Was very helpful, informative, and entertainimg but the main attraction was the incredible train ride! AMAZING views and experience!

Bus tour rewarding, train not

Linda_K, Oct 2019

Bus tour shows the highlights of the Highlands, well explained by our driver/guide. The train takes each 2 hours back and forth, with a 2 hours stay. We had wet, cold and windy weather, the train windows were wet on the outside and damp on the inside. Six hours for this experience is by far tooooooo much!

Hogwarts Train Ride

Joe_B, Oct 2019

This was a fun way to get out of the city and see the highlands. Our guide, Kelly,kept it fun with references to movies and TV shows along the way. She also plays music with Scottish roots, the last song is still playing in my head. Da na na na... There is an extra charge for the boat ride on Loch Ness, definitely worth it. Sit in front of the boat on the first floor for the best views. If you are touring more than one day it is worth looking in to the Scottish Heritage Pass. It gets you in to most castles and palaces. Make sure to get the one with the National Trust sites included as well. 55 pounds for those under 60, 45 pounds if you are over.

Great 2 days

Christine_S, Oct 2019

Our guide John S. Was very knowledgeable about history and very entertaining also. We saw so much and learned a lot. Would definitely recommend anyone to do this tour.

Wonderful!

GoodOxford, Sept 2019

What an experience! The tour went so smoothly and our guide, John S. was entertaining, careful and informative. We saw such beautiful locations and met people we will always remember. Our only glitch was at the very end when we were dropped off we were tired and a fairly large group of us had problems finding cabs to take us to where we were staying. All in all a wonderful trip! Than you!

Not to be missed

elainelon5, Sept 2019

Our guide John was amazing & was very informative. I recommend you go on the loch Ness cruise & Urquhart Castle trip (£22 payable to driver). Steam train was amazing. Highly recommend it

Highlands tour

PaolaLuigina_M, Sept 2019

John S. Of highlands experience wonderful driver and guide. Nice and così accomodation stunning landscape

Amazing experience

Alexandra S, Sept 2019

Everyone should go on this tour, even if you are not a Harry Potter fan, great experience, saw so much, tour guide was really good, coach was comfortable, overnight accommodation really nice, highly recommend.

Extremely nasty tour guide

Sheila R, Sept 2019

Firstly the tour guide Mr, JOHN McZEE was late 15 minutes to prepare boarding of the tourist passengers which were already waiting in queue before 9am (departure time as per your schedule). The bus air-conditioner was turned on and it was too cold for everyone in the bus. One passenger had to tell out loud to turn it off. The emergency exit door on top was open until one of the passenger realized and asked Mr. John how to close it and he instructed her on how to close. This was after about 2 hours journey and showed how oblivious the tour guide was. This tour guide was very rude towards non English tourist and started talking sarcastically about his views on non English tourists. This was very rude as we were on the bus and we are non English tourists. Along the journey to Fort Williams, he made commentary but it was monotonous all the way. I can say that half of the bus were not able to pay attention to his boring lecture and just slept through. He also did not stop and parked for us to get down for photo opportunities for those who did not take the Loch Ness cruise but we saw some other tourist coaches stopped and they were able to get down to snap photos, When we asked, he claimed that only on the cruise we can get the view. The next day on the way back, as he stopped at one of a photo view point, we noticed the luggage storage was already opened and requested his help to get our bag from inside as we cannot reach and we needed to take some stuff at the time. He was extremely rude towards us saying that "This is a photo stop, not a luggage stop". Is this how you speak to a tourist regardless where they come from, when you are a tour guide? For heaven sake, we are not in a school excursion! It's a paid trip and an expensive tour. It's clear that he only entertains the English speaking tourists. In addition, for an expensive 2 days tour, the coach does not have free WiFi and not even one meal is included. I highly recommend viator to review the tours from Highland Experience as it's totally a not worthy in terms of the service experience. Apart from that, the Jacobites on its own was a good experience. The B&B we stayed was also a very good and a comfy place. A tips for those who wants to get the view of the viaduct, get the seat on your left when the train leaves Fort Williams station.

Highland Adventure

Sharon_B, Sept 2019

Great 2-day trip. Saw a lot in a short time. Our tour guide Steven B was knowledgeable, funny, and a born story teller. He made a point to interact with everyone individually. He also took us on several adventures that were not part of the usual tour. It was magical. Steven you rock!

not good for kids

AHMAD_A, Sept 2019

the trip is amazing, its well organize and a lot of sight seen. having the experience driver make our trip unforgettable.however,

The best experience!!!

coppertop424, Sept 2019

We had an amazing two days on our tour! Gary the Legend was so wonderful, with a great sense of humor and lots of historical information about the different areas! If you want to experience the Scottish Highlands and the famous Jacobite Steam train in a quick two day visit, this is the tour for you. We can’t recommend this enough!

Greg was GREAT!!

Susan R, Aug 2019

This was a great tour with Greg and is highly recommended. He went above and beyond in the extra care he provided to his passengers. He surprised us with additional stops and provided some great story telling about Scotland's colorful history as we rode through some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen. After one stop, we got back on the bus and Greg served us with Irn Bru and fresh tablet to try. He organized a mini birthday celebration with cupcakes (and a card the whole bus signed) for a boy and got some of the other tour drivers to join us in singing the happy birthday song to him. Greg also bought some carrots and gave them out so we could feed the Hairy Coos and take some great pics. We had a few people suffering from motion sickness on our tour... but even while having to deal with people getting nauseous on the bus and dealing with a couple of rude passengers, Greg was just so calm, cool and caring - very professional. He also helped us out with finding some duct tape to fix my friends loosened shoe sole - which saved the day for us!! The only issues we had on this tour were NOT related to Greg but rather the tour company. The first issue was the microphone/speaker on the bus. Greg's voice sounded muffled and if you weren't sitting close to him, you couldn't hear all the stories he was telling. This is a BIG part of this tour so this should be fixed immediately! The other issue was with the seating on the steam train via a hand-written Post-It Note and not an official ticket . We had two tours who were supposed to have an entire train carriage and we were instructed to switch sides on the journey back from Mallaig so everyone would have the opportunity to take pictures as we crossed the Glenfinnan Viaduct. However, there were people showing up with actual reserved seating tickets for seats we were already in and the whole thing became a big mess because the tour guides did not accompany us on the train ride so they weren't there to sort things out. Some people even refused to switch sides! Again, this is no reflection on Greg, but an issue that the tour company needs to address as soon as possible. Overall, the tour was still an outstanding way to see some of Scotlands magnificent scenery and we enjoyed it very much. The B&B in Fort Augustus was excellent (we stayed at the Loch Ness Guest House), there was plenty of time for a lovely lunch & visit at Culloden Battlefield, and, of course, the highlight was the train!

We booked for the train and loved the whole experience!

V7649BScarolb, Aug 2019

A wonderful 2 days! We chose this tour for the train ride - and it didn't disappoint - but ended up enjoying the rest of it just as much. Our guide was terrific - laid back, accommodating and knowledgeable. We worried about 2 things - the other travelers and the overnight accommodations - and both were great. Highly recommend!

Hogwart Express

NGHua_e, Aug 2019

Suuny day when on the steam. Enjoy the ride. It would be better if Highlander tour give a choice to upgrade to first class cabin.

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