Hebridean Island Adventure - 8 days

Fly to Edinburgh to meet our tour manager. Once on board the coach we head north west from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye. It's a long but beautiful journey, which we'll break in Pitlochry and at famous Eilean Donan Castle on the shores of Loch Duich.

After breakfast, today, we'll head past the Cullin Mountains to Dunvegan Castle - stronghold of the chiefs of MacLeod for nearly 800 years, and said to be the oldest continuously occupied 'family home' in Scotland. Discover its fascinating history, and wander the beautiful formal gardens that lie hidden amid the surrounding moorland and mountains.

This afternoon, explore Portree. Admire the dramatic scenery and delightful white and colour-washed buildings around the harbour, browse the shops, and find out about the local environment at the town's exhibition.

Enjoy a leisurely start this morning before we head to Uig for our crossing to Lochmaddy on North Uist. On arrival, we head over a series of causeways - looking out for otters - to our hotel on Benbecula, where the scenery is studded with glittering freshwater and seawater lochs.

After checking in to our hotel, you may like a stroll down to the beach, about 350 metres away, before dinner is served.

This morning we'll join our local guide and cross the causeway to South Uist, the Western Isles' second largest island. Stunningly beautiful, the island is a stronghold of the Gaelic language. Here, the crofting industries of peat cutting and seaweed gathering are still an important part of everyday life.

We'll visit the Kildonan Museum, which introduces the island's archaeology and history, and includes a collection of South Uist artefacts. We'll also cross the 1650m-long causeway to the idyllic island of Eriskay (just three miles by two), immortalised in Compton Mackenzie's bestselling novel 'Whisky Galore'.

An hour-long ferry crossing takes us from the Island of Beneray to Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris. From here we'll drive to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and check into your next hotel.

Though a single landmass, Lewis and Harris have their own distinct identities and landscapes. Harris is an island split in two - high mountains and rocky coastline to the east; unspoilt Atlantic beaches to the west. See Rodel Church, possibly the grandest medieval building in the Western Isles, and explore the little port of Tarbert.

Back amid the rolling moorland and freshwater lochs of Lewis we'll visit the standing stones of Callanish - 50 ancient stones arranged in rays around a central ring and easily the most mysterious sight in the islands - stop at Carloway Broch, a 2000-year-old fortified dry-stone tower, and visit the reconstructed Black House at Arnol, inhabited until 1965 - for a fascinating insight into the lives of the islands' past inhabitants.

On our final morning we'll head to the Butt of Lewis at the island's northern tip to take in the vast views of the remote landscape before we say our farewells. In the early afternoon, we'll begin the two-hour 45-minute crossing to Ullapool before a wonderfully scenic journey through Wester Ross to our final hotel in Newtonmore.

Today we head back to Edinburgh airport to catch our flight home at the end of a wonderful tour of Scotland and the Isles.