The Tweed & the Scottish Borders

We had never really considered a holiday in the Scottish Borders, tending to travel through for holidays further north. Covid had stymied our Inntravel holiday in Austria and we switched to the Scottish Borders and weren't disappointed. The Tweed is a lovely river, the scenery is great, particularly if you make the effort to take on some of the climbs. Traquair House and Abbotsford also provide some historical interest along the way. All in all an enjoyable holiday in accommodation where we felt safe.

Beautiful easy walking along the Tweed. We were blessed with lovely weather which meant we could linger at the best bits!

An excellent holiday in a wonderful part of the country.

Another great holiday and thanks to the Inntravel staff for working seamlessly behind the scenes on alternative arrangements when plans changed at the last minute due to Covid19.

Lovely to see so many dippers along the river and an osprey in Melrose. Don't forget your binoculars! 

This is a lovely gentle route (apart from the optional climbs!) and we enjoyed the scenery, history and birdlife along the way. We also found that the local people were friendly and happy to stop for a chat. We added extra nights in Innerleithen and Melrose and this allowed us to do all the different options at these locations. We also added a night in Edinburgh which makes a nice stop-over. We used many of the recommendations for restaurants and places to visit - with particular favourites being Abbotsford, Smail's print works and the John Buchan museum. We've done many Inntravel holidays abroad but this was our first in the UK and it was great to have this option during the current travel restrictions. 

The owner and staff at The Tontine went out of their way to make our stay as enjoyable as possible.

Everything about our holiday with Inntravel along the River Tweed was excellent. The accommodation, the food, the walks, the transfers, the service provided and the overall holiday fully lived up to our expectations. Thank you Inntravel for another great holiday.

We really enjoyed this holiday, and were very fortunate with the weather particularly on our final walk up the Eildon Hills on a perfect sunny day. There is so much to see in this area, sites such as Traquair and Trimontium as well as the river and countryside around it and we were made to feel welcome everywhere we went.  The excellent dinners at Burts Hotel in Melrose were a lovely treat at the end of our week.  We had an extra day in Melrose which allowed us to devote a day to Abbotsford as well as having a day for the Old Melrose/Eildon Hills walk either of which I would have been sad to miss.

The River Tweed is beautiful and the three border towns along the route are delightful. The accommodation was great and I wholeheartedly recommend this holiday.

We enjoyed the optional walks especially the more challenging ones, we were particularly lucky with the weather as it was dry throughout the week.  We felt the exra day at Caddon was worth including and on the way to Melrose the detour to Abbotsford House is definately recommended. Please note if one wishes to a lunch there a pre-booking would need to be made.

It was all pretty good. The Tontine was excellent, very 1950s and all the better for that with afternoon tea on offer and a cracking chef. But perhaps a more prestigious room might have been nicer.  The service was outstanding.

Melrose and the Burts Hotel were also very good. The food there is excellent. Two floors up for us oldies is a bit of a trek. Avoid Marmions brasserie its not very good.

The Saffron Indian resteraunt at Inerleithan is very memorable with distinct flavours to its quisine.  But BOOK.  It's quite small. Caddon View B and B, quiet and pleasant.  Take care to understand the catering offering.

Abbotsford House was underwhelming.  But the upper garden splendid.  The girls at the cafe were so very helpful when we needed a bite to eat.

This was a charming holiday in a lovely and relatively under visited area of Scotland. The walking was easy and mostly on the flat by the River Tweed. There were opportunities for more challenging walks on some of the days as well. There was plenty of wildlife to see. We were lucky to spot an osprey on two separate occasions while walking alongside the river. The accommodation was very comfortable and hospitable in all of the three places we stayed at, and we ate extremely well! Because the walks were not particularly challenging, there was plenty of time to visit the various historic houses and attractions nearby, all of which need to be booked ahead under the current covid restrictions. We enjoyed visiting Traquair House, Robert Smail's Printing Works, Abbotsford and Melrose Abbey. We also made good use of the excellent Inntravel walking notes when following the three town trails, which were all very enjoyable. We were particularly taken with Melrose. It is in a beautiful setting, with the Abbey ruins and the Eildon Hills dominating the town. It also has two lovely little gardens run by the National Trust for Scotland. There are plenty of small independent shops in the town as well. As always, Inntravel excelled in finding lovely places to stay and the walk notes were detailed and informative. 

The Option A walk at Peebles was superb ; not so Option B which had little to offer in quality of townscape , except for Niedpath Castle.

Traquair House at Innerleithen is worth a visit for the grounds alone with a challenging maze & provides a pleasant walk to & from Caddon View utilising the notes on page 87.

The outstanding hotel was Barts at Melrose & the upgraded room did not disappoint. Option B & C walks at Melrose are both rewarding & picturesque, the former being rather challenging on the ascent/ descent of the Eildon Hills. However, there is an overlap on the latter stages of the Option C walk & your Innerleithen to Melrose walk commencing at Yair Bridge. But on a beautiful day who cares!!

A very relaxing and beautiful walking holiday. Most of the walks were physically easy though optional walks from hotel bases included more  energetic hill walks with great views.

Climbing Lee Pen and the Eilden Hills was a welcome change from the river walk and different view of the river.

We have no tips or recommendations as everything was worth recommending.

We thought it was a fantastic trip, we really enjoyed it. It was very relaxing. We would definitely do it again. 

It wasn't in France (where we've been for previous Inntravel holidays) but it was a lovely holiday with better weather than we expected.  We had enjoyable meals in Francos in Peebles, in the Traquair Arms Hotel and the Cornerhouse Hotel (Chinese menu) in Innerleithen, and Marmions in Melrose.  The staff in the Cornerhouse were particularly friendly and helpful even though they had had more customers than expected and some dishes were unavailable.  We visited Traquair House where we thought our personal tour, although good and interesting, was overpriced.  A visit to Robert Smail's Printworks was really interesting.  Abbotsford was also interesting.  It would have been a good idea to carry earphones as visitors are provided with a commentary to be downloaded onto phones.  The café was full when we tried to have lunch there because of the Covid-restricted capacity but the trailer in the car park (run by the same organisation) provided a suitable snack.

In the current pandemic, it was some time since we had the courage to "get out" and enjoy time walking.  This was a good lead in, not being too demanding, and limbered us up satisfactorily for the steep climb to the trig point on the Eildon Hills.  Sadly the "temporary" lockdown imposed at the last minute, spoilt our full enjoyment of the hotel dining as we could not have alcohol with our meals, but Burt's at Melrose saved the day, having erected a marquee with heaters provided.  I realise that the Tontine at Peebles hadn't got the space to provide this facility but I did think that Caddon View could have been a better experience. I think he was working hard (which he did remind us of frequently!) but I wasn't convinced it was the right venue for the Inntravel experience, particularly in the colder months.

Early autumn colours - & views on the Tweed

This is a lovely, easy walk, highly recommended. The hotels coped amazingly well with all the new rules and regulations and we were made to feel very welcome by all the owners and staff.

Decent accommodation and food.  Lovely scenery and relatively easy walking.  Very enjoyable.  A really nice addition Inntravel's UK options.

I haven't had an Inntravel holiday since the 1990s, when I had some excellent trips in France and Italy and was highly impressed with the brilliant selection of interesting routes and charming, personal small hotels providing outstanding food and generous hospitality. But that was a long time ago - so what a thrill to find that nothing's changed! Your curation of delightful places to stay - and delightful routes to link them - is still top-notch.

The whole week was excellent: we had been unsure about staying in hotels in these difficult times but we felt relaxed and secure throughout the trip. The scenery along the Tweed was stunning with the autumn colours and opportunities for bird watching but we particularly enjoyed the circular walk from Peebles on Day 1, the section from Innerleithen to Walkerburn and the first section of the walk from Yair Bridge towards Melrose.  Our final day in Melrose was warm and sunny and our memories of our visit to Melrose Abbey followed by our climb up the Eildon Hills will stay with us for a long time.

We had a glorious six nights in the Tweed and Scottish Borders. Helped by some beautiful weather, we really enjoyed discovering a part of the UK that we hadn't visited before. Everyone that we met was friendly and welcoming and all three hotels were a pleasure to stay in. They went to great lengths to comply with the many and varied COVID restrictions and we felt totally safe. Our personal favourite was Caddon View because the owner and staff were so friendly. It felt really good to be supporting hard pressed hoteliers during these difficult times. 

The walks are not very demanding and walking alongside the river can mean too much time walking close to roads. We really recommend making an effort to get away from the valley. Combining the walk from Peebles with Caerlee Hill and Lee Pen was a great success. Perhaps most importantly, do book the various historical sights well in advance. The tours of Traquair House (call ahead rather than using the website), the Smailes printing press and Abbotsford were excellent. We didn't have time, but adding on a visit to Edinburgh would make a lot of sense. Our last night was spent at the Provender restaurant in Melrose. It is absolutely superb and should not be missed. If, like us, you had to cancel your European Inntravel holiday, this is a good alternative. Hopefully, the start of more UK walking holidays from Inntravel.    

This is a lovely walking holiday in a quiet, unspoilt part of the UK. The hotels are ideally placed to explore the river Tweed and its wildlife, we saw herons fishing for their food every day! The locals are friendly and keen to stop and chat! The walks themselves are a great introduction to the area and the information provided is excellent to understand some of the history of the Tweed. If you are good at map reading, or want alternatives then all the hotels can provide other options for the intermediate days. Overall a great 5 days, thanks again Inntravel!