Scottish Highland Bike Tour by Manual or E-bike

Johann at The Tartan Bicycle Company took us out for a brilliant tour up to the Highlands. The car ride up there was enjoyable as well, with a little stop at an interesting historical site, and friendly conversation on the way. Lovely, easy bike ride through a wonderful and surprisingly varied landscape. Excellent food at our lunch stop too! Would recommend this bike tour to pretty much anyone.

We were headed to Scotland for the first time in early July 2022, after the sad stay home years of 2020 and 2021- And having done some serious bike touring many years ago (kind of circumnavigating Germany, west coast of Ireland, half the west coast of the US, etc), I wanted to get out in it in some way like that in the Scottish Highlands, even though I’m not in that kind of shape by a long shot, and had wife, daughter, and various knee injuries in tow, so I thought let’s look for a e-bike touring company we could maybe get outside with (rain or shine, damnit!). I didn’t see a lot of options, but found and got in touch with Tartan Bike Tour’s Johann (he’ll tell you the story how a Scotsman got a name like that, suffice to say I was was jealous as a long time Dutch Football fan ;-), and he set us right up with e-bikes and himself as guide. Sadly, we started as a group of 6, slowly whittled by covid cancellations to just me, wife, and daughter. The makeup of the group changed almost daily as the time came for the tour, but Johann was completely flexible and super gracious about all the last minute jumbling. Johann took us on an all day tour (driving from Edinburgh up into the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park) where we biked for many hours, awed by the superb views and fun biking. My wife and daughter loved the e-bikes, and made it super enjoyable for them, while I also had fun, but maybe wish I’d attempted the ride on a standard mountain bike. The first part of the tour was almost all down hill along an old railway line converted to bike trail, including some awesome old railway bridges! Then we stopped for lunch at an excellent local restaurant, after which we did another fun loop and Johann came up with an alternate place to hike (tour came with a hike to an overlook) due to said knee issues back to a beautiful creek and waterfall as well as a nearby property which seemed to be owned by someone related to the Blair Witch. All in all, a really, really fun time biking in an absolutely beautiful place. And with Johan as our super friendly guide and host to many a Scottish fact (though he could have made it all up, we wouldn’t have known as none of it touched on things I learned in Outlander (some of which I’d like to un-learn ;-) Seriously, highly, highly recommend a bike tour with Johann and Tartan Bike Tours. Thanks for showing us such a great time, Johann! (And sorry for the late review! :-} )

Johann is a very experienced cyclist and runs his small company in a very personal and professional way. The communication was spot on from start to finish, when we started our planning from the States and touched base once we were in Edinborough. Being picked up/dropped off at our AirBnb was so convenient. Let me tell you, the day FLEW BY! Our family group of 6 was so impressed w the visits on the way (castle walk, Highlands cattle, lunch spot) and amazing scenery! Thanks to Johann for all his hard work during our trip—he even stopped to help a stranded American couple and assisted w a quick bike repair. Book this tour—it is more than worth the price!