Luxury UK Trip Review: England & Scotland, Seaham Beach Sea Glass, Hiking Isle of the Skye & Cotswold, Edinburgh, Blooming Heather

Our trip to the UK was slightly complicated and involved a lot of physical traveling between both Scotland and England. I worked with a trip planner from start to finish and although there were a few hiccups along the way, our overall experience was wonderful. We traveled from Washington, DC to London. From there we went to Edinburgh, Inverness, The Isle of Skye, Glasgow, Seaham, and the Cotswolds. And, the first week we traveled with another couple. Our planner had a lot of planning to do which involved a lot of moving pieces. He did an excellent job.
 
Along the way, we took a train, had drivers, and also drove ourselves with a rental car for several days. At each stop, our reservations, drivers and activities were all carefully organized. The only exception was our rental car reservation. When we got to Inverness, the rental car place had given our car away, because they had the wrong information and thought we were picking it up at 9:00 am instead of 5pm, which would have been impossible because we were driving from Edinburgh that day and didn't leave until 10:00am. The problem came when the rental car place told us they had NO cars for us and would not have one the next day either. Fortunately, we had an awesome guide/driver who handled the entire situation with professionalism. He ended up staying with us until he had secured a car for us from another car rental agency for the next morning. Our guide/driver took care of everything allowing us to stay stress-free:) My husband and his brother were playing golf the next day and needed the car to get to the course, so our guide/driver arranged for a prepaid cab to pick them up to take them to the car rental agency. The guide/driver really went above and beyond what he was hired to do and should receive kudos for turning a potentially big problem into barely an inconvenience. Also, the car we ended up receiving was a lovely Mercedes upgrade from our original car hire. Our driver/guide was also an excellent guide in Edinburg and full of information about Scotland and that city in particular. He was fun, easy to talk with and full of ideas. He heard we loved Outlander, the series, so made it a point to stop at many of the places where Outlander was filmed!  We also had a one day guide in London. She was wonderful, and full of information about the history of England, especially London. Our driver from Seaham to the Cotswolds and he, too, was a wealth of information (former teacher) and was very interesting to talk to. The drivers and guides really helped to enhance the overall experience of being in another country. 
We stayed in a variety of hotels, all with their own uniqueness. Our favorite was probably the hotel on the north coast of England. This hotel also had a spa with great facilities. The people were amazingly nice and accommodating. Our room was absolutely beautiful and large. We are sea glass collectors and Seaham Beach is known for its treasures from the sea, because of glass factories that used to operate in the area a long time ago. We found lots of sea glass so Seaham did not disappoint. 
The Isle of Skye in Scotland and the Cotswolds in England were our two favorite places . . . of course they were the farthest apart from one another .  . . Skye is an island in the upper west corner of Scotland and the Cotswolds are about 2 hours west of London. In two weeks, we traveled many, many miles, but we really wanted to get a feel for both countries.  To do a trip like this on our own would have been very difficult. Using Zicasso and this tour company made our two weeks so easy! The issues we had along the way were all made right by the travel partners involved without question. In fact, one of the most impressive things that happened, was when we got to the last three days of our trip . . . by the time we arrived in the Cotswolds we were tired of touring and traveling from place to place. I called our planner to tell him we wanted to cancel our trip to Bath and Stonehenge.  . . all we wanted to do was hike. All of the time it took to travel from place to place had taken away time we had to hike and explore. He was able to get us a full refund for money spent on that final tour to Bath and Stonehenge, and that was greatly appreciated:)
Once we returned, the planner called to go over everything about our trip and to ask for constructive feedback on how things could have been better. We talked for over an hour and in my opinion, his concern and attention to detail is what makes this company so successful. We are looking forward to working with him again to plan a trip that concentrates more on hiking and revisiting the places we fell in love with. We also want to include Wales next time and he has already sent some suggestions.