News from About Argyll Walking Holidays
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13 April, 2012
Shetland Islands walking holiday 2nd to 9th June, 2012: 10% discount
Landscapes and seascapes that make you feel you've found one of the wildest coastlines in the world, superb wildlife, and a history that stretches through the last war right back to the dawn of civilisation - you can experience all this on Shetland. The islands that make up Shetland lie far out in the North Atlantic, geographically and historically closer to Norway than to Scotland.
The wildlife to be found on the Shetlands is superb. The islands are a birdwatchers' paradise and one of the major seabird breeding and feeding areas in the North Atlantic. More than a million birds breed in very large colonies. Nowhere else in Britain, and hardly anywhere in Europe, can you get so close, so easily, to so many seabirds. You can sit on a cliff top watching puffins just a few feet away from you; you can savour the spectacle of thousands of gannets diving into the sea – these are truly memorable experiences.
You can enjoy all this during our walking holiday to Shetland. The holiday starts and finishes in Glasgow from where we take the train to Aberdeen and the overnight ferry to Shetland. Details on the Shetland page.
30 March, 2012
Another Gold for About Argyll Walking Holidays
The Green Tourism Business Scheme has once again given About Argyll Walking Holidays a Gold Award for their environmental management of the business.
The company already holds a Gold Award, and during this year's audit the business received an even higher score for its performance as a sustainable tourism operation. The audit report says: “About Argyll Walking Holidays performs very well in maintaining and strengthening the GOLD Green Tourism Award. Enthusiastic owner Frieda Bos has put a lot of effort into reducing the environmental impact of the business, allowing visitors to experience Scotland in a responsible manner. The business is clearly an asset to Scottish tourism, presenting Scotland in a unique way to many overseas visitors and highlighting the cultural and environmental importance of different regions. Visitors are encouraged to be responsible during the tours which provide the opportunity to experience local Scottish produce and hospitality in the various regions, accompanied by professional guides who ensure a minimal impact on the environment. “
Frieda Bos is extremely pleased with the latest audit. “It is further proof of our commitment to preserve and promote the value of Scotland’s wild areas. The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are one of Britain and Europe’s last wildernesses, and we feel a responsibility to protect and conserve these fragile ecosystems. We want our clients and future generations to enjoy this unique natural environment and its biodiversity.“
25 January, 2012
Combine a visit to the Olympics 2012 with a walking holiday in Scotland
The Olympics will make London the place to be next July and August… but many international visitors have their own individual ideas about what makes a perfect opening or closing ceremony and, with the help of About Argyll Walking Holidays and its unique highland explorations, are putting Scotland centre-stage in their personal games planning.
Distances in the UK are small, but scenic and cultural differences are big, so getting to Scotland from London is easy and the rewards are so much bigger than the effort involved for those whose major international journey is already done. Exchanging the bustle of London for stress-free, healthy exercise amid the fascinating beauty of highland glens and Hebridean islands is the personal gold medal aspiration of many who are prepared to think beyond the Olympic rings.
For those who would prefer their getaway from the city to take place after the games, About Argyll has two walking holidays, each running from 11th to 18th August. For lovers of creature comforts and less difficult walks ‘Highland Perthshire, Argyll and the Isles' luxury walking tour, which visits, among other highlights, Loch Tay and the Isles of Mull and Ulva, offers the luxury accommodation of Fortingall Hotel and Barcaldine House. For those who prefer a more demanding hiking vacation, ‘The Best of Argyll' hiking trip, is perfect; based in Oban, it visits Glen Coe and Kilmartin Glen as well as the isles of Kerrera, Lismore and Jura.
Before the games? ‘Discovering South Argyll’ walking holiday from 14th – 21st July , is based in the pleasingly little-known Cowal peninsula. Highlights include forays to Loch Lomond, Inveraray and the Isle of Bute.
15 December, 2011
Save money over the Christmas break...…and dream of a walking holiday too
It's the middle of December, you're surrounded by crowds of other desperate shoppers and we know that a walking holiday probably isn't the main thing on your mind. But Christmas Day will come... and go, leaving (hopefully) a more peaceful space. A space in which About Argyll Walking Holidays is offering an early booking discount of 5% to everyone who books a hiking vacation before February 1st 2012. So why not get out those walking boots on the very first good day after Christmas, remind yourself how good it is to be out and about in the fresh air, and then commit to that highland walking holiday you've so often promised yourself.
Or it's Boxing Day, it's cold and windy outside and rain is battering against the windows. All the hard work is over for another year and at last you can relax with a glass of something and think about yourself for a change. A holiday? Sounds good. In Scotland? Walking? You must be mad. But wait... the weather won't always be like this. Try looking through the photos on our website, read the walking holiday descriptions, including those comments from people who've been before, and see if you aren't convinced that the Highlands & Islands of Scotland is the place for you and your boots next year. Its very names evoke wildness and beauty; Glen Coe, the Isle of Mull, Islay of the whiskies, Loch Awe...all these and more. If you can get your positive summer thoughts together before the end of January, it'll cost you 5% less. And you'll have something new to dream about...a hiking vacation in Scotland.
13 November, 2011
Luxury Walking Tour to Perthshire and Argyll, Scotland
Luxury adventure booms again in Scotland’s highlands and islands. About Argyll Walking Holidays joins with Scotland’s great country house hotels to put real luxury into 2012’s walking holidays. Or perhaps we should say ‘put real luxury back into highland walking holidays’...after all, the Victorian gentlemen and ladies who first toured the highlands’ deer forests, and climbed its wildest mountains and highest cliffs, liked to live well, and they spent their highland evenings, in lodge or hotel, in the manner to which they were accustomed. They ate very well and drank very well in surroundings of ultimate comfort. Many modern tourists want exactly the same for themselves after their day’s explorations...and About Argyll Walking Holidays is determined to make sure that they can get it in 2012.
Luxury means much more than great accommodation of course. It means getting to see those special out-of-the-way places that most visitors miss, and About Argyll’s guides go out of their way to enhance the holiday experience. You want to know more about the place you’re visiting? They can tell you about it; you need moments for reflection? You will get them. Such personal attention, together with due diligence in planning and preparation, is integral to About Argyll's philosophy and their partner hotels such as Fortingall Hotel. They know that quality is the way forward for tourism in Scotland and are determined to be part of its great future. Click here for details.
21 October, 2011
100 Years of ‘The Yosemite’ Nourishes a New Walking Holiday Programme in Scotland
Here in Scotland, at About Argyll Walking Holidays, 2012 brings a new programme of guided highlands and islands walking holidays - and also renewed thoughts of John Muir, conservation and the centrality of wild places to our well-being.
In 1912 John Muir published ‘The Yosemite’, a praise to a unique mountain landscape and a passionate advocacy of its conservation for the benefit of human mental and physical health. Muir, arguably Scotland’s greatest contributor to global conservation, saw sanity and joy in the wilderness experience, an attitude that underlies the thinking behind every walking programme produced by About Argyll Walking Holidays and which also lies behind the growing interest in guided walking holidays in Scotland.
Muir liked to get to grips with a landscape. At About Argyll Walking Holidays they like to do exactly the same. Their guides work together, spending time and care in the field to plan and prepare each holiday so that they are confident of offering each guest an out-of-the-way experience worthy of the tradition of Muir’s “natural beauty hunger”. The new programme, takes inquisitive clients off the beaten track in ways and places not readily discovered by unassisted visitors, however curious.
01 July, 2011
Luxury walking tours in 2012: Highland Perthshire, Argyll & the Isles
From next year onwards, we will extend our holiday programme through the provision of luxury hiking tours. These will be all-inclusive tours, starting and finishing in Glasgow. During the holiday we will stay in small 4-star country hotels that have a reputation for care and for excellent Scottish food, so that you can relax in great comfort after your day out walking. The group size will be 7 people maximum.
Highland Perthshire, Argyll & the Isles
This 8-day trip is a mixture of hiking and visits to places of interest. In Highland Perthshire your guide will take you for walks among the spectacular mountains of the Central Highlands, along tumbling rivers and waterfalls and to places with stunning views. In Argyll, in the West Highlands, the hikes will be near the coast, with its many sea lochs, and on the isles of Kerrera and Ulva, where there is always something to draw you on around the next corner. Along the way, you will visit castles, a whisky distillery and Neolithic and historic sites.
Relaxing and comfortable accommodation and excellent Scottish food after your walk is assured, because we have teamed up with 4-star country house hotels: Fortingall Hotel, near Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire, where we will stay 3 nights and Knipoch Hotel, offering similar comfort, near Oban in Argyll, where we will stay 4 nights.
We will schedule this hiking tour twice in 2012. Click here for details, dates and prices. You can also book this trip as a private guided holiday for up to 16 people starting any date. Please ask.
19 April, 2011
Custom fitness programmes for About Argyll Walking Holidays
We do our utmost to make sure that your hiking holiday with us is going to be a great experience. However, hiking in Scotland can be challenging. We partnered with Fit for Trips to make sure that you will fully enjoy your hiking trip to Scotland and reduce the risk of injuries.
Fit for Trips has developed fitness programmes specific to our walking tours and hiking holidays to help you get in shape, making your holiday as enjoyable and rewarding as possible. Fit for Trips will design a personalised fitness program for you. They will take your current fitness level as well as the activities planned for your chosen walking holiday and carefully design a customized video based fitness programme that will allow you to get in the best shape.
You no longer have to worry whether you're fit enough and will be able to keep up with the other members of the group. Whether you like to do it in the gym or at home you'll be given a fitness program that exactly matches your needs and likes. Every program comes with a money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied for any reason and customers of About Argyll Walking Holidays will get a 20% discount.
Click here for more information.
29 October, 2010
About Argyll Walking Holidays goes remote: from Gael to Viking
"A visit to Scotland’s nearest approach to the midnight sun was requested by so many About Argyll clients that we would have been very silly not to have added it into our programme” says Frieda Bos, director of About Argyll Walking Holidays. And so here it is … Shetland, where Norway ruled until 1469 and where the names of places and people tell a Viking tale, not a Gaelic one. A northern remoteness after the western remoteness of the Small Isles, with a culture stunningly on display in archaeological gems across the archipelago, from Jarlshof to Mousa and a thousand less famous but equally special places. And as for Shetland’s wildlife… just to mention it is to invite too many superlatives. A week here, says everyone at About Argyll, is frankly unforgettable. Click here for details.
13 October, 2010
New walking holiday to The Small Isles
About Argyll goes beyond Argyll with our new walking holiday to the Small Isles. The Small Isles is a tiny archipelago of 4 islands south of the Isle of Skye: Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna.
We will walk on 3 islands: Eigg, Muck and Rum. We won't need our minibus when we are on the Small Isles, because all the corners of the islands can be reached on foot during our walks. Instead, we will use boats to get from 1 island to the other.
Accommodation will be in hostels on Eigg and Rum. On Eigg we will have the whole hostel for ourselves. On Rum the hostel is in the servants quarters of Kinloch Castle. However, in both places the facilities will be basic with shared bathrooms.
The holiday starts with a scenic journey by train along the West Highland Line.
Click here for details.
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