Whisky walking and drivings tours in Edinburgh and Scotland

For the whisky driving tours to distilleries we make the day suit you rather than force you to go to certain distilleries. We offer a day trip to the Highlands or the Lowlands plus multi-day trips to Speyside, Islay, far north in the Highlands and Campbeltown. In between stops your guide will go more in depth to the history and cultural significance of whisky as well we seeing some great sights along the way where you will have the chance to stop for photos of some iconic Scottish views.

These are private tours, usually in a Mercedes MPV or Land Rover.
At the distilleries, you choose whether you want to join a group tour (usually a lot cheaper) or have private experiences which we help you arrange.
Based on your whisky preferences, your guide will bring some whisky for you to try which could include rare, single cask, hand fill or hard to come by "not your run of the mill" whisky.
You will be picked up and dropped off at your hotel.
We can arrange this for pick up and drop off in different locations.
These can be day trips or multi-day tours.

On these tours to date, customers have chosen to anything from regular distillery tours at about £20pp to doing private distillery tours with managers which work out to be around £250pp and a whole lot in between including blending their own unique bottle from single malts. We will work with you to make you want happen.

These tours can be for one person to seven for individual vehicles, or we do sometimes split bigger groups over other vehicles and whisky geek guides.

General whisky region info for day tours:

Highlands whisky driving tours. Renowned for their rich whiskies, finished in bourbon and sherry casks the Highlands give us lots of notes of dried fruits, Christmas cake, cinnamon and spice in their whiskies which are perfect for the surrounds you find yourself in. We can visit two distilleries in a day and we can suggest places to suit your tastes. Places we commonly visit are Glengoyne distillery, Deanston Distillery, Glenturret Distillery, Tullibardine Distillery, Blair Athol Distillery and Dalwhinnie Distillery. The two distilleries we can visit are based on proximity and these tours start at base price of £550 and the types of tour/tastings you do are up to you and are charged at cost.

Lowland Whisky driving tours. The Lowland whiskies are perceived as being a bit 'gentler' in nature, lots of bourbon finish with notes of toffee, vanilla, dry grass and a smooth finish, but these distilleries will have plenty that packs a bit more of a punch and we are seeing more sherry and wine cask finishes to their whiskies these days. For Lowland whisky distilleries we can visit a couple of distilleriers such as Glenkinchie, Lindores Abbey or Kingsbarns distilleries. As above, the tours start at £550 base price and entry to tastings/tours is extra.

if you like, we can even combine a Lowland and a Highland distillery.

We also do tours to Speyside, Campbeltown and Islay. These tours require overnight stays and prices are according to where you want to go and how long you wish to stay.

Your guide:

Will who started Iconic Tours in 2013 has been lucky enough to work at Whisky magazine Japan as chief photographer for many years, provided images for Dave Broom's World Atlas of Whisky, provided coverage of Whisky Live and has been lucky enough to visit some of the best distilleries in Scotland and abroad and has been to the best whisky bars from Edinburgh to Tokyo. He's had great reasonably priced whisky, amazing and expensive whisky plus eye-wateringly expensive whisky that wasn't that good at all, all for the sake of research. His search for his perfect dram has taken him on many an adventure and he loves to share everything he has learned.

General driving tour info:

PRICE INCLUDES: guiding fee, fuel, insurance.

PRICE DOESN'T INCLUDE: distillery tours/tastings or food/drink you buy.

TOILET STOPS: As and when you need them.

MOTION SICKNESS: if you suffer from this please bring medication and make us aware so you can sit up front.

CLOTHING: It's Scotland, expect some rain and please dress appropriately. If you want to do some walking please have good shoes/boots with you. Ask us if you have any questions regarding this tour.

PICK UP AND DROP OFF INFO: All prices are based on pick up and drop off in Edinburgh. We can pick up or drop off elsewhere, if this is the case and extra fee will be levied dependent on where we are required to do so.

WEATHER: In the unlikely event of extreme weather making your chosen tour dangerous, we will offer an alternative tour for that day if suitable, offering your chosen tour on another day if suitable, or a full refund if none of the alternatives work out.