St Andrews, Castle Stuart, Speyside whisky & Race track driving

The following Faraway Fairways Customer Review, September 2022 was written by a joint organiser of a ten-person party.I would like to thank Alun and Faraway Fairways for a wonderful trip to Scotland and London.

We were planning a trip for 10 guys to celebrate some big birthday milestones, and initially thought about planning the trip to Scotland ourselves. We realized it was going to get complicated so we reached out to some tour companies for help. About 8 companies responded to us, and we decided to proceed with Faraway Fairways due to the obvious attention to detail from Alun, as well as very competitive price. Our requirements were to play a little bit of golf (including at St. Andrews), do some hiking, hit some distilleries, and do some site seeing (like visiting castles).

Alun gave us a preliminary itinerary that included all of the items on our list, with costs which seemed very reasonable. Eventually, we complicated things by requesting to also include a trip to Silverstone on our way back to London, so we could drive some race cars. It turned out that Silverstone was unavailable, but we ended up doing the Porsche driving experience which was right next to Silverstone. The trip turned out to have everything we needed.

The trip was extraordinarily well planned, and we had A LOT of complications, most of which Alun warned us about upfront. Some of these complications included potential train strikes, distilleries and tours which were limiting people due to COVID-19 (Alun accommodated us by scheduling 2 separate groups which went to different distilleries), some people only wanted to play golf once (again Alun accommodated us by scheduling alternate activities with a driver) and to top it off we ended up travelling right when the Queen passed, and was in Edinburgh and London during the same time we were there, so Edinburgh castle was closed.

Alun obviously spends a lot of time planning out the trip, and it was apparent in the EXTREMELY detailed itinerary. He even provides little history lessons to help explain the sites that you are seeing. Faraway Fairways estimates the time it takes to each destination to ensure that you stay on schedule, and lets you know the latest time you should leave your destination to arrive at the next one.

The accommodations were quite good (The Scotsman in particular was excellent). The Clachaig Inn was a bit rugged, but it had some nice charm and the views can’t be beat.

The morning breakfasts that were included were good. Various transport companies were used to get us around the country, and all were on time and vehicles were clean, comfortable and in good condition. The drivers were all friendly and very accommodating.

We played golf at the St. Andrews Eden course, which was adjacent to the Old Course.  The Eden course was quite nice and reasonably priced.  We were there on Sunday so we got to walk the Old Course while it was closed which was an amazing experience.

Alun also chose Castle Stuart as our 2nd course, and it was spectacular.  I’ve played a lot of courses in the United States, and for me, it was definitely in the top 3 of all time.  Club rentals were arranged at both courses and were waiting for us when we arrived, and the clubs were of nice quality (Scotty Cameron putters at Castle Stuart!).

We were able to do some hiking, see some castles, do a lot of drinking and still had some time to just walk around and enjoy the sites. The perfect weather certainly helped, but the trip really could not have been any better.

For anyone planning to use Faraway Fairways, I would highly recommend them.  You will get a lot of e-mails, and more information and detail than you probably need, but you can be assured that the details have been worked out, and your trip will go as planned.

The only edits Faraway Fairways have performed is to protect identities of individuals or specific named companies.