Glasgow: Scottish Whisky Distillery Tour

Summary: It was a very satisfying trip. Tour reservation: From what the driver(=guide) told me, five people other than me booked the same tour for the first time, but they all canceled it, so I went on a tour with the guide, only two of us all day. It was very awkward to go on a tour with a foreign driver alone in a foreign land, but I was relieved by the kind explanation and schedule explanation from the guide. About Schedule: The schedule was notified after being arbitrarily set by the host company, Serca tour, I visited a total of three locations: Glengoyne Distillery, Auchentoshan Distillery, and Clydeside Distillery. Personally, I was interested in Glengoyne Distillery and Deanston Distillery, so it was a little bit disappointed that I could not adjust the schedule. Atmosphere, Staff: It was a pleasant time because the guide explained a wide range of interesting topics, from distilleries to recommended whiskies, with professional knowledge. Of course, the distilleries were wonderful. It will be a time I will never forget. Thank you to the Serca tour for this tour. Extra cost: This tour only helps me book distilleries, and it doesn't include the cost of the distilleries tour, so some distilleries had to book online in advance, pay for it. It's kind of like a taxi tour. If it's operated this way, it would be nice if it was possible to book a more professional tour according to my taste. Best for: Basically service and guide were good, but the best was the distillery tour.

First off, I have to say that our guide, Jimmy was awesome! The following review has more to do with the logistics of our tour. As I said, Jimmy was great, and our Serca tours contact Chiara was very easy to contact and very responsive. So, I was VERY surprised that of the 3 distilleries we visited, one required that we schedule and pre-pay our tour (which is fine, I totally get it and it was not a problem), while the other two seemed to have NO RECORD AT ALL that we were coming. They were all gracious and accommodated us, but it made me wonder—WTF did I pay Serca tours $220 to do?? Serca was clear that we would have to pay for entry at each of the distilleries—I expected that. But, honestly—this isn't so much a tour as a glorified Uber. If I had to do it again, I would just book a private tour through a different operator. Since there were 4 of us, that’s almost $1000, which would have covered a private tour and we could have set our own schedule and known ahead of time where we were going and get confirmation of our bookings. I don’t mind paying a premium to have someone else handle tour planning and logistics, but in this case—beyond the van and driver—there was no “tour.” And no logistics appear to have been handled. Which is disappointing, considering what we paid.

I had a wonderful time. The tour company provided excellent customer service. I was the only person to book the tour and they went ahead with the booking, I had my own personal tour. They staff at all of the whiskey distilleries were great. Clydeside definitely had a very informative tour about the back history on whiskey in Scotland and I got to filled my own whiskey bottle. Glengoyne was in a beautiful location and had speciality whiskey that had been aged in Japanese oak ~ it was so smooth. If you have 6 or so hours available this tour is definitely worth the experience.

Great day; wee Jimmy was a great tour guide, super informative, entertaining, and knowledgeable. If you ask nicely, you may even get some Robbie Burns poetry along the drive. Highly recommended!

The tour was supposed to start at 8.30 AM, but by 8.45 there was still no sign of the guide. When we called to inquire, we were informed that the tour was cancelled! No prior notification, no courtesy message — absolutely nothing. This is completely unacceptable and unprofessional. We wasted our time and planned our day around this. Never recommending this unreliable service to anyone. Avoid this crap.

I will start by saying I am not really a Whisky drinker, but when in Scotland! However, I would do this tour again if I were to come back with friends. I was alone on the tour with just the guide Stef and he was amazing! We chatted the whole time and he was extremely helpful and professional.

Steph was a great guide. I was glad to be able to change for the final stop and to do a flight tasting instead of a tour. I would recommend this tour for people wanting to start their whiskey knowledge and journey.

Perfect combination of highlights of Glasgow and 3 distilleries Our guide Dario was entertaining and very informative

Sergio was an excellent host and driver. We were able to tour two distillery's and have a tasting at a third. He even told us about several of the locations for the show Outlander which filmed around there and he even worked on it in the transpo department. Truly fun to do as a date day out, small groups of 2-3 for the best experience. We got Deanstone Distillery, Glengoyne and Clydeside. The three you get is picked from five and depends on availability and drive time, but all three of them had fantastic whiskey to try.

Sergio, our guide, was AMAZING!!! We were expecting to be in a small group and lucked into it just being the two of us and Sergio. Super knowledgeable, and gave freely of his experience....shared tips and tricks that made a positive difference in the rest of our trip. Thank you Sergio! We went to Auchentoshan (Marge was AMAZING too!!), Glengoyne and Clydeside. Each different, but worthwhile in their own way. This is a very reasonable way to gain an understanding of the Scottish distilling process and enjoy a few drams without having to worry about driving after drinking, which is something taken VERY seriously here. All of the distilleries will give you a take-away if you're driving, but you'd miss out on one of the most amazing parts.....the smells from each part of the process are slightly different at each distillery....but they show up in the final product. This experience let's you connect some of the nuances in taste to the place they originated. Completely worthwhile.