Shetland Travel Consultations: A Review

A huge thank you to everyone who has booked a travel consultation with me—I’m now fully booked! I’ve absolutely loved helping you plan your Shetland adventures, and I can’t wait to see your trips come to life.

If you missed out this time, don’t worry! I’ll be reopening bookings in autumn, so keep an eye out for updates. In the meantime, happy trip planning! I look forward to chatting with more of you later in the year.

Since Christmas, I have conducted over 40 individual consultations with people from around the world. From America to Australia, and from London to Tokyo — it’s been a privilege meeting so many people and helping them plan their adventures.

Last week, a lovely testimonial arrived in my inbox, which I wanted to share with you:

**“Laurie**/ I noticed in my calendar that it’s been a year since you shared your Shetland travel insight with our little party before our trip to the UK last May. Your observations and pointers made our special trip even more so and so I thought I’d take a moment to say thank you for all you added to what turned out to be one of our great adventures.
Our group included my wife and I from Texas and her sister and brother-in-law coming from Michigan. You spent an hour or so with the four of us on the phone last March as we put together our detail itinerary and your input added so much to our Shetland stay. Thank you again!
We flew overnight from Chicago to Edinburgh where we picked up the car and then practiced our wrong-side-of-the-road driving getting to Aberdeen. It was easy and we did it uneventfully! The overnight ferry to Lerwick started us out on our Shetland adventures. There were no gruesome murders while onboard, or any fleeing felons—at least that we could spot, but we did laugh about immediately spotting a couple of buildings in Lerwick that we all recognized!
I could gladly give you a day-by-day or even hour-by-hour recounting of our stay—but we had so many highlights. Our first nights were on Unst (Belmont House—really great!) with trips to Hermaness with lifers for our bird lists and that view of Muckle Flugga. It’s hard to recall all the remote beaches we had to ourselves—but Sandwick was particularly delightful. Standing stones, Viking artifacts, Saxa Vord in the mist with another stunning view as the fog lifted. Of course, we took off our shoes at Skaw, had a seaside *al fresco* lunch in the brilliant sunshine at Vicoria’s Vintage Tea Rooms, and, yes, the Heritage Center at Haroldswick, ostensibly for a bathroom break, was well worth a stop!
We left Unst and switched to an AirBnB near Voe for a more central Mainland hub and we happily learned that our neighbors right down the street at Busta House served a delightful evening meal where we celebrated US Mother’s Day!

We had an Esha Ness-Muckle Roe day, a Sumburgh-Jarlshof day, and St. Ninian’s-Mousa day, where we saw you leading a counter-clockwise tour as we finished our clockwise circumnavigation! But we had so many great hikes: The cliffs, the ocean, the sound, the smell, the birds—there is nothing quite like it and words really don’t describe it until you are teetering at the edge for yourself.

And of course, we left time for Lerwick and Scalloway. I could spend a lot longer in the Shetland Museum . . .

Ferry to Orkney with fun days at another AirBnB across the street from the cathedral, then a ferry to Scrabster, a fantastic drive along the NC 500 to Ullapool and another AirBnB that overlooked the sea. The weather remained beautiful and we continued to find our way to beaches with brilliant sun, wide sandy expanses, and what we took to be locals actually in the water! You might think our pictures are from a trip to the Caribbean until you notice what we Texans were wearing!

We closed with a couple of nights in the Cairngorms before returning to Edinburgh and our trip home. All in all, a bit over two weeks away from home with memories for a lifetime.

Now we have been back almost a year but hope we can make another trip to such beautiful places. Until then, we live vicariously through our hundreds and hundreds of photos, your delightful travel guide and social media posts, and some indelible memories of our own. I hope you have gathered that our trip was really special. Thanks for your part in making it so.

Let us know when your travels bring you to the US so we can offer some pointers and repay your kindness!”

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