St Andrews and Falkland Palace Shore Excursion

We had an excellent tour and guide. Ron was early and collected us right away. We had booked another walking tour at St. Andrews and needed to be there at 12:30pm. Ron was very accommodating. He got us there with time to spare. He dropped us off right at the golf course. He also picked us up at the golf course maximizing our time. The only comment I have is that we could have spent more time at St. Andrews and less time at Falkland......maybe an additional 30 minutes at St. Andrews and only 30 minutes at Falkland. Ron's history knowledge was impressive and had a running dialogue on our entire excursion. He even recommended some scotch whiskey to try. Thanks Ron for a great time. You're the best.

Awesome! We took this tour with a little concern for the distance we had to travel & managing with our cruise ship’s (Sky Princess) tendering ops at S Queensferry. It was no problem for us at all. In fact, we got our tender tickets early (as Discover Scotland had suggested in a separate message)- we were in one of first tenders and even had breakfast near the pier pickup area before leaving- and stopped for a pint after end of tour before tendering back to ship. Ron was a wonderful host, meeting us promptly (in kilt!), starting us with water & small snack bags, whose informative stories, pointing out sites and polite guidance staying on schedule were easy to understand and entertaining. This was a small group tour in a very nice small (16 seat) bus, not full, so Ron could navigate small roads easily while the ship’s huge tour bus(es) lumbered back & forth. This gave us a nice rest stop at a beautiful small town (Anstruther) & public restroom in both directions, more time at St Andrews & less worry about somebody in the group being late or holding up the tour. After a brief drive around the village to familiarize pickup spot & all, we were dropped right next to the 18th green/1st tee- wow. Even tho we didn’t have time to golf, we had 3 solid hours to walk along the course(s), stand on Swilken Bridge, walk across the 18th fairway, have lunch, & briefly tour the town. For a golfer, it was incredible to be there. Instead of a sit down lunch, we could have even done the 9 or 18 hole putting course- near the 1st green- which looks well designed & enjoyable. The clubhouse at Tom Morris grill/Jubilee course 1st tee is impressive, with a beautiful pro shop & merchandise. Hats off, shirts tucked & no jeans or short-shorts in Clubhouse. Dress warm since it was lovely weather on the drive there, but thick fog covering St Andrews. Pickup to start back was prompt- which is needed since traffic gets heavier in afternoon- Ron is very capable with routing choices and bus lanes to minimize the time spent driving. We had a nice stop part way back in Faulkner- another beautiful small village with enough time to take a walk through the castle’s gardens. After a wonderful day, we arrived back to the pier at 5:30pm- 90 minutes before the last tender departure for the ship. Our tour was very well planned, organized, priced and carried out- highly recommended!! The tour operator/office was especially prompt and helpful with a few questions I’d messaged beforehand. Only suggestion might be to make Faulkner a shorter stop to add another 30’ to St Andrews- but guessing that might not gain that much since there are a lot of other tours & commute traffic clogging things up around St Andrews at 3pm & on the drive back- who mostly seemed one step behind us, making things easier for our group. 3 hours roaming St Andrews worked great for us. Cheers!

This was a lovely experience because it was a smaller bus with only 10 passengers and our tour guide gave exceptional personalised service throughout the entire trip. He was exceptional and made this trip special..

Our ship did not tender us to shore in time. I was in constant contact by messaging, email, & phone calls with the tour operator and the tour guide about the situation. They said they would wait for us. As soon as we got ashore, the motor coach left without us. I called the tour operator again and they said they couldn’t wait any longer. The tour guide would not answer her phone. Now they will not issue a refund. I would not book anything with Discover Scotland Tours if I were you.

Johnny did a great job with the tour!! He helped us see everything we wanted to see. Lots of local history.