Victor Block
Ask most anyone what comes to mind when they think of Scotland and you’ll probably hear bagpipes, kilts, tartans – maybe the brogue and haggis (about which more later). If the year were 1746, you would probably have heard the same thing. But it was in that year, after the Battle of Culloden when the English decimated the Scots, after which they set about to systematically rid the country and its people of their identity and traditions. It didn’t work, which makes it all the more remarkable that everything that defines the Scottish people today is the same as it was centuries ago – and it was my mission to explore them all: kilts, bagpipes, whisky. Even the Gaelic language. Well, almost all – haggis, not so much.
And it was on a trip to the Scottish Highlands with UnTours, a 49-year-old U.S. tour operator with its own unique traditions, that I got to relish in all of it. UnTours puts you up in accommodations in multiple cities in more than a dozen European countries, and often unusual ones – perhaps a castle, a vineyard, or a old church (like ours, below. built in 1837). The company provides a rental car; provides you with a wealth of information; connects you with a local contact to answer questions; and sets you off to see what you want to see when you want to see it, unencumbered by anyone else’s set schedule or agenda.
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