I just returned from the Grand Tour of Scotland. The country is beautiful, the people warm and friendly. Unfortunately, our tour guide was absolutely horrendous! David Weston, a british actor, did not know anything about the country of Scotland, and in fact did not seem to even care for it! He made negative political remarks (i.e. Scotland receives more than their share of UK funding, Scottish oil should belong to UK, etc.)frequently. He did enjoy the time in the coach telling us about his acting career, movies he had been in, etc. Who cares. He read Shakespeare and quoted lots of speeches from Shakespeare plays. He read poetry. All good and well, but I bought a tour of Scotland and wished to learn about that - not his exploits as an actor! When we mentioned it to him, his next remark on the loud speaker was something like "For those who APPRECIATE Shakespeare..." before he went off on another dry speech from Macbeth. It totally ruined the trip. What I learned about Scotland, I got from books purchased along the way and from the Scottish people as we stopped. David Weston was churlish, arrogant and totally unresponsive to the expectations of the tour. If asked a question about Scotland, he got out a travel book and read the paragraph on the topic. I could have done that! His lofty remarks about Scotland included "Sheep, feeding upon the land....", "and there to the left, bog cotton" (about 97 times), "to the right, the Atlantic ocean" (about 78 times). The tour was disorganized, he never interacted with us at stops. He would disappear as soon as we got off the bus. I am so very disappointed that Insight would put an totally unknowledgable and arrogant guide in charge of this tour. While I certainly enjoyed the country of Scotland, the behavior and attitude of the tour leader put a damper on the trip that will forever affect it. If you are planning this tour, MAKE SURE that David Weston is not your tour guide, unless you are looking for Shakespeare renditions.

Hi KentuckyTraveller,

What an utter shame that you had such a miserable lot on your tour. We had Peter Staff as our TD and a true Scot, Jimmy Douglas, as our driver. We had such a wonderful time with these two gentlemen, I have been recommending these tours to everyone. We had a lousy TD on our European trip some years ago and I now realise they can definitely make or break the tour. Please do not judge Insight by this one misfortune, I can assure you they are the best.

I just returned on Sunday night from Highlights of Spain. I sympathize with anyone who has had a lousy TD....I can relate!! I had one too....Toni was ours. He was obviously tired of touring and was able to put me to sleep on the bus once he started droning. He was fragmented, disorganized and never adequately prepared. To occupy air time on the microphone...he would spend at least 45 minutes droning on and on about the day's itinerary (something that we as intelligent adults could easily access by just reading our own itinerary). He would then hint at telling us something rather important then say....I won't tell you right now...but later. His energy level picked up as the tour neared its end...and he nearly skipped and jumped with joy...as he left the bus on the last day. What an utter disappointment. No attempts were made to interact with the tour group.... . I feel that Insight should send someone from the "main office" incognito..to be part of the tour and get a sense of just how awful he was!!!!! The people on the tour were wonderful and of course we (as adults) did not need him to facilitate us interacting with each other....but wouldn't you think being a facilitator is part of his job?

kentuckytraveller ... know EXACTLY what you mean.

Not my nature to post negatives here but his is one I have to agree with. Just returned from Grand Tour of Scotland last night.

All I can say, is DON'T judge all of Insight by this one experience. Can't say this was the worst TD we ever had but certainly would be only one step above.

Hi All - there is nothing worse than someone who sabotages what should be a dream trip....May I ask if any of you used the comment forms to complain, or if you registered your diapproval throught your TA.. If so, did you get a response? I'm just a little curious as to how Insight reacted to your negative experiences.

Cheers, Nancy.

Nancy ...

No didn't use comment form but have every intention of writing Insight once my days and nights are righted again.

Don't expect any great thoughts from Insight but do believe they will at least acknowledge the letter and should be made aware of our dissatisfaction. I expect it will take quite a time to get even the adknowledgement. I'm not a new Insight customer, this being my seventh tour, so know what one might expect ... and this wasn't it!

Actually, we were very spoiled ... had a tremendous tour director and driver on our last visit to the UK but unfortunately, they are no longer with the company ... Insight's and the traveler's loss in my opinion.

We were surprised to see the subject tour director had made a previous trip as every thing seemed new to him. The driver, in our case, was most helpful. (The TD even took us off road to a site that the owner had advised Insight the first of the year was no longer open ... and even I knew that from an email I received from someone who had made the trip earlier. Now why the TD didn't know that, amazes me still.) Time that could have been better spent exploring our next stop.

If you read the agreement before joining the board you would know that we deal with any problems privately.

Hi John - I did read the agreeement.

"Use this forum to post questions like these or to raise discussion points about travel
generally, touring, Europe or the Insight web site."

What did I miss?

I just returned 2 days ago from The Best of Scotland & Ireland.Our tour director was John MacAllister.The man is a bore and loves the sound of his own voice.My idea of a tour guide was what he told us starting out.He was there to help us and make things smooth and easy for us.Well I found out the hard way the man didn't give a d..n about any of us.Some people didn't get there luggage and when they asked him for assistance he bluntly told them to deal with it themselves.If you've never used a phone over there,that alone required assistance.
My sister was very unwell one evening and I told him we would prefer to not go to the optional we signed up for.All he said was don't go if you don't want to but your not getting a refund.Not a word about how she might be or what was wrong with her.In the a.m. I informed him she had been hospitalized and we would not be moving on with the tour.This was a major inconvenience for him because he had to fill out some paper work.Not a word as to how he could help,or even a kind word.We rejoined the tour 3 days later and I approached him in the bar after they arrived and asked to speak with him.He said he was busy(he did have 2 drinks in front of him)and I could just wait.I stood there 15 min. and was never acknowledged by him.Other people on the tour could not believe their eyes he was so rude to me.Not even an inquiry about my sister.He was even ruder to me the next day when I went to get the city tour of Edinburgh.I could go on and on but you get the picture.He was rude++,boring and arrogant and obvious tired of dealing with tourists.He asked us on the very first day to remember to be generous with tipping him and the driver!Is that crass or what??Needless to say he got nothing from me.Sorry to go on and on but my sister was deathly ill.She has a bowel obstruction and was only released from hospital so she could fly home where she remains very ill and in hospital.I admit I wa stressed but a little help and kindness would have a gone a long way!!!

Hi Everyone,

Having had a lousy TD on our European tour, did not put me off travelling with Insight again. The second time we struck paydirt as they say in the movies. We had the best and they MADE our tour. I do not think their was anyone on that coach who did not like the two. So, in future, NAME THEM. I did not do this to the first one as he is now retired and it would do no good. However,
in future, I will certainly do so.