My mom and I booked to go on the Easter Weekend to...

My mom and I booked to go on the Easter Weekend tour to Aberdeen and the surrounding area with David Urquhart tours.

On the plus side, all our fellow travellers were absolutely lovely and the staff at the hotel we're friendly and helpful. Aberdeenshire is beautiful and while the drive to and from Aberdeen was extremely long, the Scottish scenery was spectacular most of the way.

Unfortunately the Aberdeen Britannia Hotel - which is definitely not "attractive and modern", is in a run-down location, so after dinner there was nowhere to walk in the evening, and no beer garden (or any garden) at the hotel for us to sit in to enjoy the good weather. The hotel is in need of updating and does not live up to the photos on the internet. All meals were buffet type, and with several coach tours staying at the hotel, although there was plenty of food, it wasn't a pleasant experience having to queue for every item, or the pressure of knowing that another coach party would be needing your table shortly. The bar is part of the dining room, so people congregated, waiting for their turn for dinner, in the bar, leaving no space to sit when not eating (refer back to the lack of outside space). We eventually took our after dinner drinks to the Reception area as it was the only place to sit apart from going back to our rooms.

My biggest gripe though was with the advertising of the tour. On our first day, we visited Crathes Castle, the Banchory and Aboyne. Crathes Castle is beautiful and was definitely the highlight of the tour - lovely grounds, tea room, gift shop etc. However, the advert from David Urquhart read "Next, we're off to Banchory, a thriving town with a vibrant high street full of independent shops and charming tearooms. After time to explore, we make our way to Aboyne where you can wander the little shops which surround the pretty village green." Unfortunately Banchory was anything but thriving - in fact like most towns in the UK, the high street is suffering with many empty shops, and those that were open were either charity shops or the usual shops found in high streets in every town. It was a glorious sunny day, so there were families out in the park enjoying the good weather, which was nice to see, but as we were looking forward to a town "full of independent shops", we were quite disappointed. We were also taken to Banchory after lunch on a Saturday afternoon, when anything which might have been open, was already closing, and the farmers' market shutting down. More of the same disappointment in Aboyne. Apart from the newsagents, only two shops open (again many shops closed or empty) - and the owner of one we visited even questioned the wisdom of David Urquhart tours taking us to Aboyne when there was nothing open. Perhaps these towns where thriving when this tour was put together but the tour itinerary definitely needs updating.
The six hours spent in Aberdeen on the Sunday were again disappointing as we had hoped for a few shops that were unusual and independent, but just found more of the same high street shops. However, the architecture is interesting, the murals which were unveiled that weekend (lucky coincidence for David Urquhart tours I'm sure) were quirky, and we didn't visit any of the tourist spots, so I can't comment on those.

I would not recommend David Urquhart tours as their tour did not live up to the advertisement, and I would be hesitant to trust them with my money or holiday time again.