UK Tours & Vacations for Seniors

After 15 years of vacationing on small, live-aboard, scuba-diving ships around the world, we wanted our first land-based tour to be extraordinary. We sought a plan to include all drivers, transfers, and hotels, and an itinerary to include private walking and car tours of culturally significant sites and museums. Our goal was to cover, on our first trip to Scotland, the Scottish lowland and highlands, significant city centers, as well as the legendary palaces, lochs, castles, and museums. Moreover, my husband requested we focus on the Pict time period, especially the carved stones, swords, and other fighting devices used throughout the last 3,000 years of Scotland’s “recent” past.  

Our travel company was one of three firms we solicited for a proposal on a luxury vacation in Scotland. Only this Zicasso company hit these targets out of the box with a much better agenda than the competition and very competitive pricing. Moreover, their tour included a recommendation for a two-hour sword-fighting lesson, followed the next day by a visit to a private sword-fabricating forge!!

We returned home four days ago from our remarkable 13-day trip. The highlights of our trip are too exhaustive to even list. Three fantasy-fulfilling high points comprised three nights in a luxury castle bed and breakfast on the west coast, and visits to Inner Hebrides islands, including Iona, where I purchased two sterling Celtic penannular brooches. This was topped off with the commissioning of two swords from the forge, a Claymore and a basket hilt to be custom made using ancient techniques that will result in a pair of one-off customized designs including scabbard carvings and decorated multi-layer battle-ready blades.  

Overall, the tour used amazing guides, including two who wore kilts and full Scottish dress throughout their tours, provided a plethora of castles, and enough alone time to explore the local area and relax while eating the best meat and seafood imaginable, culminating end-to-end in the best vacation of our lives!!

Based on our experience, I cannot entreat you strongly enough to at least get an offer of services from this travel company. We submit you will not be disappointed in the offer or the fulfillment.

Zicasso's tour planner and her associates at the travel company did an excellent job of putting together a long-awaited trip to the UK to explore our father's roots.

Starting in Edinburgh, Scotland, and extending down into London and on to our father's birthplace in mid-Wales, she and the company found us great accommodations centrally located within our areas of interest. Our various walking tour guides were excellent and our agent's recommendations for places to see were wonderful and fit within the timeframe and parameters of our travels.

Our wonderful Welsh guide was able to locate our father's childhood farm and even discovered some previously unknown family members still in residence there. We had a truly memorable trip and highly recommend our agent and her travel company!

Zicasso's travel company helped create a wonderful UK trip for my family. Their fine attention to detail, along with a spectacularly planned itinerary, was greatly appreciated. From our drivers to amazing tour guides - the one in White Cliffs of Dover, the one in Ireland, and the one in Scotland - this trip was spot-on perfect! 

The travel company's app was extremely helpful and user-friendly, and the lodging facilities chosen were perfect. In particular, the hotels located in the heart of each city made walking tours and exploring ideal. In addition, pre-planned excursions and activities added to an overall positive experience.

Zicasso’s tour planner did a wonderful job responding to us and tailoring our 8-day Scotland trip to our desires. At her recommendation, we utilized a driver rather than rent a car, and that maximized our experience and minimized driving anxiety. Our driver was fantastic! He moved us comfortably and smoothly through our itinerary with humor, local knowledge, and history.  Lodging and required entry tickets were prearranged and any questions that arose were speedily handled by our driver and agent.

Trip highlights to the central Highlands included garden and ground visits at Edinburgh, Glamis, Drummond, and Sterling castles, Scone Palace, Branklyn Gardens, Jupiter Artland, and The Kelpies. My wife wanted to include The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels, which is not a convenient spot to visit. By having our driver pick us at the Edinburgh airport upon our arrival, we were able to maximize our first day and include Abbotsford House. Our tour company was great.

Every hotel had beautiful grounds and views. We had asked for hotels that also had the ambiance of age and antiquity. One of our favorites was in Chelsea. The staff was especially warm and friendly. We felt very comfortable with everyone! We loved all of the rooms in the entry level. It was cozy and beautiful, even the patio.

The Broadway hotel really blew us away. It was built in 1300 or so. It has an outstanding courtyard and landscaping. The staff were flexible. Theye even helped me to find a secluded area for dinner the last evening. We were mesmerized by every sitting area. There were antiques everywhere; I should say ancient antiquities. The coastal hotel was nautical and charming. There were lovely staff there as well! The views of the estuary were stunning. At high tide, the river came right up to the outdoor patio. It was mesmerizing!

Another hotel was very pretty inside and had compelling views of gardens and sweeping lawns. It overlooked the Jurassic coast, as well as a very large beach and piers. It was very far to walk and straight downhill. We could not get any taxi or bus to get to the harbor for our boat ride, sadly. We tried walking, but it was too far. There was no taxi for the return trip either. We had to walk up steep steps and then along a winding garden path back to the top. It was very stressful for me because I have a damaged tendon in my ankle, which hurt me quite a lot. It was very disappointing. However, my husband was thrilled that I made it up the hill. So was I.

There was a mix-up at the hotel about our room. We had discussed with our agent that we needed rooms on the ground floors. They had us on the first floor and moved us at the last minute to a very small corner room with cheap furniture and no space for two people to maneuver. We were both appalled, but fortunately our agent was able to take our call and we ended up in an apartment instead. It had no view other than of parked cars, but it was spacious and modern. It was the best they could do. This hotel was located in Lyme Regis.

Our next stop was Henley on Thames. The hotel was very nice and the two was pretty, but we didn’t arrive until 4.30. There was no Sunday dinner, so went elsewhere. Then we left the next morning at 9.30. The river was lovely to view.

We had fantastic drivers and driver guides throughout London, the Cotswolds, Cornwall, and Dorset back to London.

We missed our tour of Westminster Abbey due to the time change and lack of sleep. Our concierge tried his best to arrange for us to visit it on our last day. I called our travel company and was given the ticket number by email. Westminster Abbey declined because the company it was purchased through refused to confirm it. We were again disappointed. I tried calling the travel company back, left a message for help, but never got a return call.

We may go back again, but I would arrange for someone to meet me at the airport with a wheelchair. I would have been less stressed. That airport was overwhelming and confusing.

I sincerely wished that we did not have the Chelsea Flower Show and Windsor Castle on the same day. I could hardly walk by the end. Our agents offered to change Windsor to a different day, but it was an additional £350 or so. That seemed very unfair.

To celebrate our daughter’s graduation from the University of Glasgow, Julie and I decided to organize a family driving trip through the islands and Highlands of Scotland. We wanted to see everything in Scotland.

Zicasso's travel agent helped us refine our plans to fit our timeframe and budget. She planned an efficient route and found us memorable accommodations in each of our stops. She also suggested some places not on our original wish list, including a boat trip to Staffa, which turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of our trip.  

Our driver truly made it feel like the family vacation we had envisioned. While on some days we had a definite timeline to meet (the ferries will leave without you!), most of the time we were able to decide what we were in the mood for and he would happily accommodate us. We even were able to have an unscheduled stop on the drive back to Glasgow to see where our daughter had spent time last summer on an archaeological dig.

Where we stayed and what we ate were not big factors in our vacation planning request, but our travel agent found us lovely accommodations that made our day trips and ferry trips convenient. The restaurant specialist made dinner suggestions that made sense for where we were staying and arranged reservations for us so that we did not have to worry about finding a place to eat at the end of a long day.