Going on a trip soon and need to find things to do? Finding city-specific tours can be difficult to do before you can arrive, but that’s where Viator comes in. Viator is a tour company with experiences available to book worldwide- it makes it easy to search for things to do in your destination of choice. However, sometimes it’s not the best to book experiences through a middleman; so is Viator a reliable tour company? Read below for my full Viator review; I’ll provide the pros, cons, and whether or not you should use them for your next trip.
What is Viator?
Viator is a Tripadvisor company touting over 300,000 travel experiences around the world. They offer a variety of features that make them an easy, convenient way to find and book tours; free cancellations; the option to reserve-now, pay-later; and being able to search activities by location and date.
Viator even allows you to research top destinations around the world and what to do there; they have a blog and options on their website to search activities by destination, by interest, and by top landmarks and activities around the world. So, what is it like booking with Viator and what are the tours like?
Why I Chose Viator
I used Viator twice when my now-fiance and I went to Scotland in October of 2023. We knew we wanted to do two things for certain: see Outlander film locations ( spoiler alert: we did! You can read about the experience here) and visit St. Andrews. However, we were staying in Edinburgh and felt unsure of a few things regarding getting out of the city to do these things:
1. Creating an itinerary for the first one seemed daunting- we would have to research a lot. Scotland Outlander filming locations, hours of operation, tickets, how to get to them all in the most efficient way throughout the day, etc.
2. We were terrified of the aspect of driving on the opposite side of the road with a rental car; not to mention we’re obviously super unfamiliar
3. Rental cars are just expensive.
I’m all about stress-free travel, so when I found Viator, I loved that they make it easy to find experiences that match exactly what you’re looking for. I literally just searched ‘Outlander tour Edinburgh’ and ‘St. Andrews tour Edinburgh’ and so many options popped up.
Booking the Tours
After browsing through all of the trips, I found two that were perfect for what we were looking for and decided to book them. The best part of booking with Viator? You have the option to ‘reserve now, pay later’. Basically, you can reserve a spot with no actual commitment, so if plans change Viator makes it easy to accommodate. Simply make a reservation on the tour you want and choose whether to pay now or later. You can schedule the payment yourself or let auto-pay handle it two days before your experience! You can also cancel up to two days’ before your tour, giving you added peace of mind.
You’ll receive E-Tickets to present when you check in for your tour- so be sure to keep track of where you can find them in Viator (or print them off!) That being said, let’s get into the actual experience of Viator tours.
My Viator Tour Experiences
Like I mentioned earlier, you can find just about any experience all over the world. Here are the ones we decided on:
Outlander Film Locations Tour
The first Viator tour we took was the Outlander Film Locations tour (this is the exact one we went on!).
Upon booking, you’ll receive a meeting location where you’ll check in and start the tour. Since our tour required transportation around the country, our meeting point was the Edinburgh bus station located in St. Andrews Square. Once we found our designated terminal and gate, we checked in with a staff member and waited for our departure time.
Once our guide arrived and loaded us onto the mini-coach bus, we left exactly at the departure time. While the mini-coach was very nice, our tour was full (about 16 people) and it was a bit crowded in the bus. Our tour guide from Highland Explorers was excellent- as we were leaving Edinburgh he gave us so much information about the city, along with an overview of the tour. We would be making five stops throughout the day:
- Midhope Castle
- Linlithgow Palace (this was a substitute for Blackness Castle, which unfortunately was closed due to flooding that day).
- Doune Castle
- Culross
- Falkland
We had between 30 minutes to an hour at each of the stops, with the exception of Culross (where we had time for lunch), and these were the only stops (each had restroom opportunities). There were definitely times where I had wished we had more time to explore each location, but I do feel that we had enough time to explore each one. I would say the drive between the locations was between about 20-45 minutes On our way to each location, our tour guide provided us with the history of each location, and how it was used in Outlander (as well as various other Outlander facts)! It certainly helped us understand and appreciate the stops much more. If you’re interested in more about this tour in particular, check out this post! I give you all the details about each location.
My Thoughts
The tour went from 8:45 am to approximately 6pm and returned at the meeting point. Overall, my fiance and I loved it! We learned so much about Scotland, Outlander, and the locations we visited. The overall pacing was good and so was the variety and quality of the tour. Our guide was informative, the instructions for getting to the tour clear, and the environment fun and positive. It made getting around Scotland exceptionally easy. My only complaints would be that the coach was a bit crowded and that some stops didn’t allow us as much time as I wanted there (to be fair, I could spend hours at palaces and historical locations). I would definitely recommend this tour to both Outlander fans and anyone wanting a fun and informational tour around Scotland and its castles.
St. Andrews + Fife Tour
The second tour Viator tour we booked was this one, to St. Andrews and the fishing villages of Fife. The procedure was pretty much the same as the first tour; We arrived at the bus station early and checked in (however, they boarded the bus and left ten minutes early, so for anyone running late or even planning on getting there right on time this could have been a problem). The bus situation was similar to the one before, a 16-seat mini coach. If you’re in a small group and wanting to sit together, you need to arrive and board the bus early or it may not work out due to how seats are arranged.
For this tour, we had three official stops:
- Ansthruther Harbour
- St. Andrews
- Falkland
The Tour
The journey into the Kingdom of Fife was great; our tour guide/driver Alisdair was fun, knowledgeable and provided plenty of information on where we were traveling to that day. Our first stop was Ansthruther Harbour, which was an absolutely beautiful sea-side town with small shops and quaint streets. It’s supposedly home to the best fish n chips in the UK, but we were unfortunately unable to test that out as we there before they opened. We had about 40 minutes here, and then it was back on the bus to St. Andrews.
St. Andrews was one of my favorite stops in Scotland- and our driver gave us a quick drive-around tour with information about where to go and what to see whilst there. He dropped some of us off at the famous golf-course (and others at St. Andrews Cathedral, depending on where you wanted to start). We had around 3 hours to explore the town and get lunch.
My fiance and I decided to start with St. Andrews Cathedral, and worked our way over to St. Andrews Castle for a quick tour. I was so excited about lunch because we managed to snag a table at Northpoint Cafe. It’s where Kate Middleton met Prince William for coffee (and possibly their first date) while they attended St. Andrews University. It was delicious!
There was just enough to explore the town for a little bit before jumping back on the bus to head to the last stop on the tour: Falkland. We had been there for our previous Viator tour, and loved it! We even found the most perfect vintage store and an antique shop we hadn’t gotten to go in the previous day. On our way back, there were even a few surprises! We drove right by J.K. Rowling’s house, and even got to stop to admire the Forth bridge.
My Thoughts
Again, I was overall very happy with this tour! It took up most of the day (about 9 hours), but it was fun and engaging the entire time. Aside from initially leaving early, the tour ran on time and exactly as advertised. The only time I felt a little rushed on this Viator tour was in St. Andrews, but you could stay there for days and not get tired of it honestly. If you’re staying in Edinburgh and want to go to St. Andrews, I think it’s a great option to explore without the hassle of renting a car.
Viator Review
So, do I think Viator is worth it? Absolutely. For the price, the information, the ease of traveling around Scotland and not having to plan these tours ourselves? We definitely got our money’s worth. To help you decide whether Viator Tours are for you, here’s my list of pros and cons:
Pro’s:
- Reserve now, pay later for your experience.
- Ease of transportation
- An experienced guide
- Wealth on information from your guide
- Stress-free trip planning
Con’s:
- Tickets can be pricey
- You’re traveling with strangers (if you don’t book a private tour)
- You may feel rushed during certain times
- You don’t get total freedom to explore/leave as you’d like since you’re on a tour the entire day
Conclusion
Overall, I highly recommend Viator Tours. They made traveling easy, stress-free, and fun! I enjoyed both tours and feel like they were both worth the money. Would you go on a Viator tour? Let me know in the comments! And if you were interested in checking out either of the tours in this Viator Review, you can find them here:
St. Andrews, Falkland, and Fife tour
And if you’re interested in reading more about Scotland trips, check out this post!
*links are affiliate links in which I may earn a small commission upon booking.
[…] loved it! Here’s the exact Outlander tour we went on, and you can read more about Viator here; it’s a full review and covers everything about how Viator tours work. In addition to Midhope Castle, we went to Linlithgow Palace (Wentworth Prison), Falkland […]