The River Tweed & the Scottish Borders

This was our first holiday with Inntravel and we were impressed with how well organised it all was. The walking routes were so well described we barely had to consult the maps.

The sun shone and the Borders folk were very friendly and helpful. The routes were good for ageing Inntravellers. Loved visits to Traquair House and Abbotsford. The Tweed is a lovely companion, sometimes quiet, at other times noisy over the rocks.

Edinburgh is a lovely city to explore on foot. The contrast between the Old and New towns is heightened by a visit to National Trust Scotland properies of Gladstone Land in the Old and the Georgian House in the New. We recommend a bus sighteeing tour of the city to start the visit to obtain an overview.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers conbined our walk The Tweed & the Scottish Borders with our Edinburgh City add-on

This was our 10th and 11th walk with Inntravel so we are devoted fans. As we live in the rainy Pacific Northwest of the US, it was the first time that we haven't traveled to a warmer climate. We learned our lesson near the end of the first walk by being so determined to walk that we walked in the rain all day. The problem is there is no shelter to rest or eat. It wasn't that hard of a walk but we were tired and disheartened afterwards. Aside from that little lesson learned, we wore out the word "wow" in response to the beauty of our Scottish walks. On the first day of our circular walk from Peebles there were whole choruses of birds singing in the power lines overhead. We felt part of a magical kingdom. Our host at Caddon View suggested walking directly to Traquair House and then doing the walks laid out on the maps there. After doing the suggested Inntravel walk, we would recommend doing so. One note, the cafe at Traquair House closes at 3:00. Perhaps because Traquair House has been continuously inhabited, the history there felt alive. Mary, Queen of Scots became a person when I saw the cradle that held her son.We walked to Melrose after heavy rains and flood warnings. A muddy, fast moving Tweed just below the level of the path gave us a different experience from the magical kingdom of our first days. We enjoyed Melrose Abbey despite it not being safe to be inside. After the disturbing high levels of the Tweed the day before we sat in the garden across from the Abbey in the sunshine with books and ice cream and felt very fortunate to be in such a beautiful place. It was a privilege to experience the Borders in all its moods.We then transferred to Aberfeldy to start the Heart of Scotland walk. The description of the Birks of Aberfeldy did not prepare me for the majesty of the site. Don't miss it. We shortened the walk to Pitlochry by catching a taxi to Grandtully and walking from there. After purchases at the Iain Burnett chocolate shop we enjoyed our hike up over the moors. The descent in slippery, shoe sucking mud was hard on joints.The day we were supposed to climb Ben Vrackie had uncertain weather. Inntravel suggested taking the train to Blair Atholl so we were able to delay the climb until the next day. In our mid 70s,  climbing Ben Vrackie was the most important part of this trip. Happily we made it close to the top before I succumbed to vertigo. Now I know that as I'm susceptible to motion sickness, looking up at fast moving clouds near the top of a mountain isn't a good idea. I am so grateful to Inntravel for making it possible for us to climb Ben Vrackie. It's a memory for a lifetime. The Old Manse is the most pleasurable hotel of all our travels. Walking from our guest room up to the house for meals or help felt like coming home. While it is a very fine accommodation, there is simply warm hearted friendliness. We added an extra night at The Old Manse and visited the Falls of Bruar the day after Ben Vrackie.  During our two Scottish walks we ran out of superlatives for the beauty that we experienced. Our host said it was safe to walk along the road on our return from The Falls of Bruar, and indeed cars gave us a wide berth and we felt comfortable. One note - our host at The Old Manse said the retail shops at the Bruar of the Falls specialize in shipping purchases. Had we known, we would have been able to enjoy more Scottish treats on our return home. The next day we visited Blair Castle. It's a noteworthy castle with the worst cafe food we experienced. We walked into Blair Atholl for eatable food (where the only ATM in the area was not working in case you need cash) and then walked home through the castle grounds to The Old Manse feeling on top of the world with gratitude that Inntravel makes it possible for us to explore places we would never know to go. 

I read recently that after a year purchases lose their ability to give us happiness while experiences gain in pleasure as time goes by. That is certainly our experience with hiking and Inntravel. 

INNTRAVEL NOTE: This customer combined our walking holidays 'The Tweed & the Scottish Borders' and 'Heart of Scotland'.

The River Tweed is gorgeous, and everything is so green. Beautiful, peaceful, lots of lambs! Highlights were Neidpath Castle and especially Traquair House. Amazing history there. A must see. Peebles, Innerleithen & Melrose were charming. People were so friendly. There were no crowds anywhere. We could walk all day with seeing only a couple of people on the trail. The written trail instructions were accurate, informative, and interesting. We primarily used the written notes, but also downloaded the GPS trails from our Inntravel page as back up, as was recommended. We used the GPS a few times each day just to make sure we were going in the right direction. I did have to download a gps trail app on my phone. I used the GAIA gps app. I recommend bringing post-it notes to mark the page of your daily hike. I recommend for lunch, before you set out on your walk, pick up a Scotch (lamb) pie from a bakery or butcher shop.  These are tasty, even cold. We also enjoyed the lunch to go prepared by the Tontine which was ready for us when we finished breakfast (ordered the night before). All in all, I highly recommend Inntravel for your walking holiday!

The Scottish Borders are a wonderful place. We saw goosanders, dippers, oyster catchers ....and ospreys! We had our holiday in April and the wild flowers and trees were stunning. The river was central to our walks and was beautiful of course. There are so many interesting features to see including Neidpath Castle, Traquair House, Abbotsford, not to mention the numerous beautiful stone bridges over the river, many of which date back to the 1700s. Then there's the Leaderfoot aqueduct! Inntravel is a marvellous company to deal with. They deliver on every level and I would certainly do another walking holiday with them.

This was our first experience of Inntravel and we were totally satisfied with the holiday. We will certainly be using Inntravel in the future.

A lovely mix of walks in a very quiet area of the country. We saw a pine marten, a red squirrel and an otter and the skies were teeming with sand martins, house martins and swallows. Coltman's and the deli at Milne & Pickles in Peebles were a treat, and the Pie Shop in Innerleithen was very welcome at the end of the glorious hill walk. Provender in Melrose was a gastronomic treat too. Taking time to go to The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels at the end of the holiday was a perfect finale.

The holiday was very relaxing and the walks were through beautiful areas and very peaceful. We hadn't been to the Scottish Borders before and we were delighted with how beautiful this area is. We are really pleased to have explored the area and learnt some of the history too. The Hotels and the Guest House were all very welcoming, the food was delicious and we felt very at home. We would recommend this walk and if Inntravel have other future walks in the Borders we will be happy to explore further.

We loved our trip! The lemgth of each walk was perfect for us and we never tired of the view. Great introduction to the Scottish borders.

Picturesque, easy, enjoyed Peebles, and theatre in Peebles worth finding out about.

Make sure Caddon View know any dietary requirements in advance - they need 48 hours notice if you want to eat there on the second night.

We really enjoyed following the herons and goosanders down the river - don't forget the binoculars.

We also enjoyed Abbotsford and Traquair House - well worth a visit with welcoming staff.

We really enjoyed the birdlife along the Tweed: so many herons and goosander. We thought the goosander would be a better symbol of the Tweed path than the Dipper.

We particularly enjoyed any of the walks that took us close to the banks of the Tweed very picturesque and relaxing. There is a very easy to use bus service to Edinburgh when you stay at Caddon View, the stop is right outside the accommodation. Edinburgh is well worth a visit.

Make sure you have some change because all the toilets in the towns are 30p.

If you travel by car be aware that the parking spaces at Burts are quite tight and the car park does fill up during busy periods.

Our group of four experienced Tweed and the Scottish Borders, Edinburgh Add-on and Fife's Coastal Corner in late August/early September. The arrangements, transfers, hotels and meals were spot on. The route notes were easy to follow and full of interesting details about the history, geology, culture and people of the regions.

An excellent walking holiday and very relaxing. Beautiful walks and good accommodation. The Burts hotel was a perfect finish to the holiday and we ate both nights as the food was excellent. The food at the Caddon View was fantastic too. Pity the room was small.

This was a perfect walking holiday - really lovely surroundings, great accomodation, excellent instructions. We loved staying in each hotel for two nights, and the walks were well planned and varied.  We enjoyed the historical notes as well. We are definitely going to travel with Inntravel again.  

We had a lovely time in Scotland and enjoyed our walking tour through the beautiful countryside. The towns were interesting, the people delightful and welcoming. The weather was excellent - we had a great trip.

We so much appreciated the materials that Inntravel sent us in advance. The information helped us prepare for the vacation and greatly enhanced our experience throughout the week. The binder was thorough, well-organized, and engaging. 

The first day's walking, west of Peebles, was our favourite walk. It was an intoduction to what to expect and delightful. So many flowers and butterflies along the banks of the peaceful river. This holiday was an excellent introduction to Inntravel's walking holidays in the UK. We found good places for picnic supplies in all three towns, filled morning rolls fitted the bill well. Della's in Peebles, turn right out of the Tontine and just a few yards along, John Adams bakery in Innerleithen and Alex Dalgetty and Sons in Melrose. Food in all three hotels was good, we ate at Saffron in Innerleithen when we couldn't eat at Caddon View, already recommended by others. It is tiny, you definitely need to book. 

Nasher's Cafe in Cardrona is closed down. It has re-emerged as a take-away on Peebles Road, Innerleithen.  
The last two days of the Peeble's Beltane Festival were very enjoyable and fun to a town and its children all involved.
Our visit to Abbotsford was another memory as was the torential downpour on the walk there.

A very nice walk along the river Tweed, and up on the moored. Can really recommend it.

A very relaxing and enjoyable walking holiday. The walk on the first day, walking west of Peebles was a definite highlight. We enjoyed seeing lots of sand martins, herons, dippers and a kingfisher. Peebles and Melrose are great places to stay. Della's in Peebles was good for rolls for picnics. Apples for Jam was a great café in Melrose. Burt's hotel was particularly comfortable with excellent food. We often bumped into fellow Inntravellers on the walks and at the hotels and we enjoyed sharing our experiences with them.

My wife and I really enjoyed our first visit to the Scottish Borders, particularly as we were blessed good weather throughout the week. There was a good variety of walks to suit how much or how little we wished to do each day.  Walking and sightseeing highlights were the Over the Hills route from Peebles to Innerleithen (challenging and does require clambering over trees felled by Storm Arwen but well worth it), Traquair House, Abbotsford and the view from the top of the Eildon Hills in Melrose. Dining in and out was a pleasure throughout. Our favourite meals were dinner at Burts in Melrose, which was so good we ate there both nights. The breakfasts at Caddon View were excellent. Unfortunately, they were not serving dinner on the nights that we stayed. However, the Indian restaurant, Saffron in Innerleithen was really good. It is quite small, so I would advise booking in advance. The café at Traquair House was excellent for lunch and tea and we really enjoyed the coffee and cake at the Caberston Farm Café in Walkerburn on the way to Traquair. Finally, we found the people of the Scottish Borders extremely friendly and welcoming which added to the enjoyment of the holiday.

Never seen so many sand martins and herons in one place. The Tweed excellent for birding. The route is more varied than we'd supposed - choices for hill walking, exploring castles and built heritage; there is a fair amount of walking through built up areas, so take the time to read the notes and enjoy the history of the places you pass through. 

This was our first Inntravel trip. We are typically DIY type travelers but this trip was fun and took us to a location we might not otherwise have visited. The scenery in the Tweed River valley is lovely and we had nice weather with only a little rain the first walking day in Peebles. We come from Santa Fe, New Mexico so the scenery was a real difference for us! All the hotels and meals were nice, with Burt’s Hotel standing out in both the room and meals. We ate at Burt's restaurant the first night and in the bar the second night – same menu, different (lovely) atmosphere. Delicious food both times including one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. In Peebles, we were lucky to be there on one of the weekend nights that Coltman’s Kitchen is open for dinner. We had a truly outstanding meal there the second night. Choices for meals are quite limited in Innerleithen and the provided meal at Caddon View did not provide any options (if you’re a vegetarian, be sure they know that in advance). We had a good pub meal at the Traquair Arms Hotel for our 2nd night in Innerleithen. We really enjoyed the detour to the gorgeous Kailzie Gardens and spent quite a while there including lunch in their excellent small café. The walking part of the detour was not great, being on a fairly busy road for a while, and we got a bit lost crossing the golf course to get there. Abbotsford and Traquair House were both worthwhile additions to our itinerary. There was nothing at all to see at Trimontium in Melrose but the Roman Museum next to Burts was very interesting including watching the videos. A highlight of our trip was the horse parade in Melrose that went up the Main Street under our room window – there were 182 horses that were ridden through the town, preceded by a bagpipe marching band – so fun!

We were very appreciative of the GPX coordinates that we could download for the walks from our Inntravel page. I preloaded these coordinates into my Alltrails app on my phone and we were able to easily follow the walks using those exclusively. It would be nice if the listed detours (Kailzie Gardens, Abbotsford) could be included in the provided coordinates because those were the only places we got a little off track.

We did the last days walk in reverse climbing the hill first and we think this is definitely the best as the climb up the hill was less steep.

Recommend Keilzie gardens which we loved

We found the food and the service excellent at all three locations and the walking along and around the Tweed was lovely at this time of year with young foliage on the trees and wild flowers in bloom. We didn't see as many bird varieties as expected but you can't have everything. Although the weather and forecast sometimes threatened rain we only put our rain jackets on once.