Loch Ness Cruise, Outlander & Urquhart Castle Tour from Inverness
Recommended by 99% of travelers
Inverness, Scotland
- 9 hours (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
Explore our promoted experiences
Overview
Get out of town and into the scenic countryside—without the hassle of driving—on this guided tour from Inverness. Head for the famed Loch Ness and join a cruise to view the ruins of Urquhart Castle. Conveniently, entry to Urquhart Castle is included, and the trip also includes a visit to Beauly, "Outlander" filming locations, and a visit to Culloden Battlefield and Clava Cairns. Or opt for a tour without the castle and cruise
- Easy way to explore the highlights of the Highlands in a day
- Enjoy the convenience of having a Loch Ness cruise included
- Learn about local history and culture from your guide
- Travel around in comfort in an air-conditioned vehicle
What's Included
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- Local Scottish English Speaking Guide
- Loch Ness Cruise (30mins)
- Urquhart Castle Entrance
- Food and Drink
- Culloden Battlefield Exhibition (buy on site)
- Gratuities
- Highland Whisky Experience
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- 15 Union St, Inverness IV1, UK
Meet 15 minutes before departure, across from the Victorian Market entrance, for check-in. Look for a blue or yellow bus.
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Operating hours.8:15 am
Itinerary
1
Urquhart Castle
1 hour 10 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
2
Beauly Priory
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
3
Culloden Battlefield
1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
4
Clava Cairns
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- Most travelers can participate
- It is recommended to book transport to the departure point in advance. Please also allow extra time to get to the departure point for check-in. We advise you arrive at least 15 minutes before the tour departure to allow time to check-in for the tour. Unfortunately, we are unable to hold the bus or refund for any late arrivals.
- Return times are approximate and subject to road conditions and weather. Please ensure you allocate sufficient time for any onward travel plans, allowing at least 3 hours after the scheduled return time for connections or activities.
- Children under 5 years old, including infants who do not require a seat, are not permitted to travel. We are unable to accommodate any child under the age of 5.
- In cases of extreme weather, the Loch Ness boat cruise may be cancelled on short notice. If you have purchased ticket for this you will be refunded.
- Collapsible wheelchairs with removable wheels can be accommodated providing the passenger is accompanied by someone who can assist them to board and disembark.
- If downloading an audio guide, remember to bring your headset.
- Due to vehicle availability, there may be instances where this tour runs on a bigger bus.
- The tour may operate with our sister company, HAGGiS Adventures.
- The order of the itinerary route is subject to change.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 34 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.9
based on 1,505 reviews
Matt_F, May 2026
Had an absolutely incredible time. Emily was an excellent tour guide: super knowledgeable, really funny, and paced the tour super well. We went to a great variety of places in the Highlands around Inverness, all really beautiful or thought-provoking or just a fun time. Especially enjoyed our bonus mini stop seeing the hairy coo!
Christine_P, May 2026
We had a lovely day with our fabulous tour guide Karen. She was fun and shared useful and interesting information. There were so many interesting stops and activities. Enjoyed the Loch Ness boat ride over to Urquhart Castle. The castle grounds were very neat to see and the film in the visitor center was informative. Next we went to Singleton distillery for a wee dram of whisky. Stopped in Beauly for delicious lunch and visit to the Pirory. Culloden Battle field with a separate paid tour was fascinating and sad. Ending the day was a stop to see the Clava Cairins, 4000 year old Bronze age stone circles and burial cairins. Well done day tour. Recommend to others.
Kim_Y, May 2026
It was such a fun day and Martin was a wonderful guide! He spent the day giving us so much history with a lot of humor mixed in.
Melonie_H, Apr 2026
This was a 9-hour tour including a Loch Ness River cruise, Urquhart Castle visit, Robertson Farm visit, lunch in Beauly, a whisky-tasting experience in Glen Ord, Clava Cairns, and Culloden Battlefield and Museum. I checked off the top things to do on my list in one day! The price was reasonable, and the tour guide Martin was delightful. He was pleasant and very knowledgeable about historical details...and fairy tales! I had an awesome experience and highly recommend this tour.
Janeen_W, Apr 2026
This was a wonderful tour of the Highlands. We visited Loch Ness (didn't see Nellie) by way of a boat trip to the Uruquhart Castle. Stopped for lunch in Beauly (the bakery has wonderful Steak Pies). My husband was actually able to purchase a kilt in the Hospice Shop! It was about one-tenth the price of a handmade one. The highlight was the visit to Clava Cairns. Many of us enacted Claire's hand laying on the tablets. None of us were transported into the past, but it was still an experience. Our driver/guide was great!
Alison_H, Apr 2026
Excellent tour of Loch Ness, Beauly, Urquhart Castle, Culloden and the Clava Cairns. My only quibble was the 45 minutes at a distillery - it wasn't on the itinerary, and there was nothing else there for people who didn't want to pay extra for the distillery tour to do. Other than that, it was great.
Jason_B, Apr 2026
We were a bit skeptical since a few things were cancelled; however, Sonia made the trip even better than was advertised with the locations she took us to and what we experienced. We saw so much more than anticipated. Her knowledge was awesome and even her playlist made the trip memorable (still playing some of her songs today). Highly recommend and ask for Sonia if you can.
Karen_H, Mar 2026
The highlight was the cruise and the castle visit . The weather in the morning was crazy with rain and heavy gusts and the weather changes so quickly . Our guide was good and knowledgeable.
Christopher_R, Feb 2026
I had an amazing time! Karen made the trip! She was well informed, and told me amazing facts. I couldn’t have asked for a better tour!
Response from Host, Feb 2026
Hello, thank you for taking the time to leave a 5-star review. We are thrilled that our wonderful Karen made the trip with all her stories and facts, really happy to see that it exceeded expectations. Kind regards, Louise
Amy_M, Dec 2025
Iain gave a great overview of history during our travels and kept to our schedule. I would recommend this tour to get a taste of this part of Scotland.
Response from Host, Dec 2025
Thank you for taking the time to leave a lovely review for Iain and the tour. We are glad to hear that you enjoyed Iain's historical stories, the pace of the tour and a taste of the Inverness Highland area. Many thanks again. Kind regards- Louise
Mary_M, Oct 2025
Tony and Donnie, our tour guides, were very friendly and engaging. Lochness cruise was beautiful, and castle impressive. The other stops were fun and interesting. Highly recommend this tour!
JoAnn_K, Oct 2025
Mr. Torquil was an amazing guide! His knowledge he shared with us made the whole day! He was funny and kind.
Response from Host, Oct 2025
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a lovely review for the wonderful Torquil.
We will be sure to pass on your feedback.
We hope to welcome you back again soon!
Kind Regards, EJ - Sales and Reservations
Dant_W, Oct 2025
Best tour we have taken so far. Meet up was easy and simple. Bus was nice. Tour guide, Turquil was absolutely marvelous; amusing, highly entertaining, highly knowledgeable and you could tell he had a real pride and love for his country and lands. Cruise was nice. The castle was incredible. We have been to many, this was the best so far, and the time of day was perfect for pictures. The village we lunched at was very quaint and the priory there was very nice. The distillery was good, quality whiskey. The Cairn stones were majestic. Now, the Culloden Battle Fields, this is a humbling experience. Highly suggest spending the money to go through the museum first and then walking the fields. If you have any sense of imagination and love of history, you will feel the events. Highly, highly recommend this tour.
Don_S, Oct 2025
We left promotly and the day seemed to fly by.
Karen was friendly and informative. Would repeat the tour in the future with family or friends.
Haley_G, Oct 2025
We had an amazing time on this tour, thanks in large part to our incredible guide, Torquil! He brought such great energy and shared fascinating historical insights throughout the day. His sense of humor and fun pop culture references kept everyone engaged and made the experience unforgettable.
Response from Host, Nov 2025
Hi
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a 5 star review of your recent Loch Ness tour experience.
We are delighted to read that you had such an enjoyable time on tour with Torquil. We are glad you enjoyed the energy shared and history Torquil shared. We will be sure to pass on your kind words.
We look forward to welcoming you back on tour with us again soon.
Kind Regards
Keith, Reservations, Highland Explorer Tours
Angel_H, Sep 2025
Amazing experience to see some Outlander highlights and explore the area surrounding Inverness. We even go to meet some highland cows and stop for a few drams of some fine Scottish whisky
Connie_D, Sep 2025
Sonia was a great tour guide. Good info and great music. Very energetic and friendly. A lot to do on tour but plenty of time at each stop.
Response from Host, Sep 2025
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a great review!
We are glad to hear you had a fantastic time visiting Loch Ness with the wonderful Sonia.
We hope to see you again soon.
Kind Regards, EJ - Sales and Reservations
Linda_N, Sep 2025
If you cannot guarantee that you can arrive at the departure meeting point at the required timeframe then DO NOT BOOK THIS EXCURSION. While we were aware of their strict departure time at time of booking it wasn’t until the morning of the tour that we were advised of how far away from the cruise port the meeting place was. If you are arriving in Inverness on a cruise ship, please be advised that the meeting place is 23 miles away from there and taxis were not immediately available at the port. . Our ship docked at 7AM and we were unable to get off the ship in time to get a taxi and be at the appointed meeting place by the required timeframe. As a result we were unable to go on this excursion and the tour operators refused to give us a refund, despite the fact that our inability to arrive on time was outside of our control
Please know that I have done a fair number of excursions through Viator bookings and have never had a problem until this excursion. I do not recommend the tour operator of this excursion unless you are certain you can meet their strict departure time. Also Viator was absolutely no help in my request for refund consideration. They blame it on the tour operator and despite their saying it could take a few days to get a response from the tour operator approving or denying a refund, it was only moments after ending my phone call with them that I received an email denying the refund. A second call yielded a similar response. Frankly I belief that neither Viator nor the tour operator care as they each have their share of the money and the customer is SOL
Response from Host, Sep 2025
Dear Linda,
We are sorry to learn that the later docking of your cruise ship impacted your ability to meet us at the departure location in Inverness for the check-in of your tour. We completely appreciate that this situation was outside of your control but do wish to highlight that it is stipulated in both Viator's terms and conditions and our own that we are unable to delay the running of our tour for any late comers. We also ask that all passengers have travel insurance in place for their tour to allow for unexpected situations such as you experienced which may preclude their ability to join us on tour. The reason we were unable to offer any refund was due to the late notice of your cancellation and the fact that we were unable to resell your spaces on this tour having incurred operational costs to fulfil the tour.
For passengers who have obtained travel insurance as directed, we are pleased to support with providing an insurance letter to confirm the late arrival of your cruise ship which impacted your ability to join our tour/ to claim any losses.
I would therefore kindly request that you contact us directly so that we can support you with submitting a claim to your insurance provider.
As you decided to leave our company a negative 1* review prior to reviewing all support options with ourselves directly, we trust that in extending our offer of support here to claim the loss of this tour with your insurance provider, you will review your decision to post this feedback so that we can work with you to achieve a satisfactory outcome.
We remain at your disposal for all assistance and can be contacted via email: info@highlandexplorertours.com
We thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Kind regards,
Amy- Reservations Supervisor- Highland Explorer Tours
Deborah_H, Sep 2025
Fantastic day hitting all the highlights of the Scottish Highlands around Inverness with plenty of time to explore each site. Good use of time and Emma was great. Highly recommend.
Karen_B, Sep 2025
This is a well paced itinerary with decent amounts of time at key locations. Emma the driver/guide was friendly and efficient throughout the day and provided knowledgeable descriptions and clear instructions. Highly recommended.
Dee_D, Sep 2025
We had a nice time seeing several attractions that we probably would not see on our own. It was nice to be driven around. Ian was charming and entertaining and knowledgeable about his subjects.
Frida_N, Aug 2025
Great tour that covers most of the "must see" places in and around inverness.
Amazing tourguide named Iain who told interesting facts and history about places during the drives between stops.
Response from Host, Sep 2025
We are pleased to hear that you enjoyed discovering the popular locations in the rural Northern Highlands surrounding Inverness as well as the commentary of our great driver guide Iain!
Amazing that you appreciated the historical information shared covering the rich and bloody history of Scotland and the Highlands which always provides a stark contrast to the picturesque nature featured on this tour!
We hope to welcome you on another adventure in the future!
Kind regards,
Amy- Reservations Supervisor- Highland Explorer Tours
Brittney_S, Aug 2025
This was one of the tours I was really looking forward to and I think that’s why it felt so disappointing. The tour design itself I found problematic because it was such a slow start to the day. Loch Ness and the castle were great BUT there was too much time here. We did a pretty thorough tour of the castle, but we had an hour where we just sat and did nothing. Then Having lunch and the whiskey distillery back to back meant there was about a two hour time Period Where there wasn’t anything to do or see, especially if you aren’t interested in buying whiskey. In total that three hours felt like wasted time when you pay so much for a tour. I would take the whiskey stop out of this tour because it wasn’t interesting. Lastly, this is marketed as an outlander tour, but our guide had absolutely zero information to share on the show. Our tour guide in general wasn’t very interesting and really didn’t fill the driving time with anything that was engaging. His name was Craig and he was the weakest tour guide we had out of our five tours we did on this trip. I am hoping it was an off day for him, but we learned quickly that tour guides are what really make these tours feel valuable. I did not feel like this was a good investment of my money since most of the attractions we went to were free and they really weren’t that far from Inverness. We probably could’ve just done this by ourselves. I would still hit the sites on this tour on my own and would recommend everyone to do so, but I would skip paying the fee for this unless there are better tour guides
Terri_B, Aug 2025
Great to start off with the boat ride and Castle before the crowds. Just know that the busses meet up the hill from the car park. Lunch in Beauly was okay. Recommend going through the museum if you don’t know the history of Culloden Battle but it gives you less time on the fields which were beautifully haunting. Clava Cairns were peaceful and fun to take disappearing videos at the stones using the pause button.
CRISTOBAL_N, Jul 2025
Very good humoured and informative guide
All went well we felt that the stop at the distillery was not so interesting as very commercial driven
We have been to other stops in Skye where the whisky experience and bar has a great variety of brands not just one
Urquart and the cruise the two highlights also Culloden Museum good value
Brandi_B, Jul 2025
Iain was our driver he was fantastic. Very knowledgeable and interesting. We had a great day. Would do this tour or any tour with him again.
Gisele_G, Jul 2025
Loved this tour so much I would do it all again if I could!! Both our guides the “wee” Scottish and the South African were the best. So many interesting stories, so much knowledge and so funny as well. They also always waited for me and I was always late! lol. Only disappointing thing they were wearing shorts and not kilts?! I guess the heat wave had something to do with that one 😜. Seriously loved it.
Response from Host, Jul 2025
Thank you for leaving such a great review!
We are so glad to hear that you such a great time on tour with our wonderful guides. While our guides do aim to wear guilts, the material can be thicker than you may think which is why they may have opted for the shorts! Sounds like you got great weather!
We hope to see you again soon,
Kind Regards,
EJ
Liza_J, Jul 2025
The guides were wonderful! They helped me tackle all I wanted to see in the highlands in one day. Very kind and made everyone comfortable. Drama free. Great storytelling and easy transport. Thank you!
Response from Host, Jul 2025
Thank you for leaving such a great review!
We are so glad to hear that you such a fantastic time on tour with us
We hope to see you again soon,
Kind Regards,
EJ
Kathy_L, Jul 2025
Craig was excellent! We also thoroughly enjoyed all the stops. If you are short on time and want to see a lot of scenery and culture near Inverness, this is a fun tour option!
Response from Host, Jul 2025
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a great review!
We are glad to hear that you had a fantastic time with the wonderful Craig to the beautiful Loch Ness
We hope to see you again soon,
Kind Regards,
EJ
cdeergo, Jul 2025
Tour guide was very good. Excellent tour which enabled my adult daughter and I to see more than we would have on our own.
Response from Host, Jul 2025
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a lovely review
We are so glad to hear you had such a great time exploring more of the beautiful highlands
We hope to see you again soon,
Kind Regards,
EJ
From $121.74
per personup to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
Compare Similar Experiences
Current
Loch Ness Cruise, Outlander & Urquhart Castle Tour from Inverness
1,505
9 hours
Free Cancellation
From
$121.74
Customers Who Bought This Tour Also Bought
Explore Similar Things to Do
- Shore Excursions
- Full-day Tours
- Bus Tours
- Tours, Sightseeing & Cruises
- Private Sightseeing Tours
- Inverness
- Shore Excursions - Invergordon
- Full-day Tours - Invergordon
- Bus Tours - Invergordon
- Shore Excursions - Aviemore
- Full-day Tours - Aviemore
- Bus Tours - Aviemore
- Shore Excursions - Fort William
- Full-day Tours - Fort William
- Bus Tours - Fort William
Attractions in Inverness, Scotland
- Isle of Skye Tours & Tickets
- Caledonian Canal Tours & Tickets
- Inverness Botanic Gardens (Floral Hall) Tours & Tickets
- Urquhart Castle (Caisteal na Sròine) Tours & Tickets
- Glen Ord Distillery Tours & Tickets
- Inverewe (Inverewe Garden & Estate) Tours & Tickets
- Cawdor Castle and Gardens Tours & Tickets
- Old High Church (Old High St. Stephen’s) Tours & Tickets
- Rogie Falls Tours & Tickets
- Inverness Castle Tours & Tickets
- Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition Tours & Tickets
- Chanonry Point Tours & Tickets
- Eden Court Theatre and Cinema Tours & Tickets
- Fort George Tours & Tickets
- Fort Augustus Tours & Tickets
- River Ness (Abhainn Nis) Tours & Tickets
- Inverness Cathedral (St. Andrew's Cathedral) Tours & Tickets