Drive with PH and Dettaglio
PistonHeads launch 2014 tours with a new (old) partner, starting with the famous Tartan Hoon
We have decided to take the tour offering in a new direction and give much more than just ‘driving’ tours; this year we’ll be introducing a host of new activities to help us do just that. The tours will be properly launched in early 2014, today is just a taster, but expect motorsport events, factory visits, new experiences and, of course, epic driving tours.
To kick start us off we are pleased to unveil our first tour of the year, a five day driving tour of the Scottish Highlands called the Tartan Hoon.
Starting in the Yorkshire Dales on Monday March 24 2014, we’ll be taking in approximately 1,500 miles of excellent driving roads, beautiful countryside and fantastic hotels with the Friday night at a 5* resort in St. Andrews.
This is the perfect way to start the 2014 driving season. Our route takes you through the most beautiful parts of the Highlands and up as far as the North West coast of Scotland. We then head through the Central Highlands to our final proving ground – the Grampian Mountains located to the West of Aberdeen before finishing off with an overnight stay in the legendary golf town of St Andrews.
Want more?
Starting off from our rendezvous in the Yorkshire Dales, we head north through the Dales and past the Lake District into Scotland over some spectacular roads through the Borders which takes us as far as Glasgow. Skirting to the west of Glasgow, we head north through the Trossachs National Park and then along Lochs Lomond and Fyne to our first destination located near Campbeltown on Mull of Kintyre. Our hotel is a 4* residence that has a good bar and offers beautiful views across the Atlantic Ocean. Dinner is in the hotel’s excellent bar restaurant.
Next day we head high up into the Highlands proper. Heading north along some fabulous roads across Rannoch Moor before driving a testing loop around a loch near Fort William – a sinuous road with challenging corners and off camber sections it will test your skills to the limit!
Passing Fort William, and Ben Nevis, we then head east to our destination on the edge of the Cairngorms. Our hotel is a traditional Scottish castle set in acres of its own grounds and offers warm and cosy accommodation and an excellent bar and restaurant.
Leaving the Cairngorms behind, our route takes us back towards Bridge of Spean before heading north along excellent roads that eventually take us to the Isle of Skye. Passing in the shadow of the Cuillin we head first to the famous Talisker Distillery (and an opportunity to stock up on some whisky) before circumnavigating Skye to our destination – a wonderful 4* hotel overlooked by the Cuithraing (where scenes from Highlander and Prometheus were filmed).
Leaving the Isle of Skye we continue heading north with the option of traversing the Pass of the Cattle (the highest road in the UK) to the village of Applecross for a coffee at the fabulous award winning Applecross Inn.
We then continue our adventure heading further north over some epic roads past Ullapool; words really can’t describe how good these roads are! After a hard day of fun, we head to our base in a castle in a quaint village north of Inverness for another night of fine food and great ale.
Leaving the East Coast we venture south into whisky country. Our route takes you past some of the best known brands before dropping over the Grampian Mountains past Balmoral to Pitlochry. We then head through Tayside and past the town of Aberfeldy and the Gleneagles Resort before heading to the home of golf at St Andrews.
On our final night, our hotel is the magnificent 5* Fairmont Hotel overlooking one of the most famous links golf courses in the world. In the evening we’ll wander into town for dinner after a couple of drinks at the hotel bar. The next day (Saturday 29th March), leave at your leisure to get home.
Essential Info
• The trip lasts 5 days
• 5 nights' accommodation are included
• The trip covers 5 working days
• Estimated mileage (RV to final hotel) is 1,500
• Accommodation will be in a selection of good quality hotels
• We can accommodate a maximum of 30 people in 15 rooms
• This trip is accompanied by a guide in a support vehicle
• No mechanics accompany this trip Package
Our package includes:
1. Bed & Breakfast accommodation for 5 nights (24-28 March 2014 inclusive) in a range of good quality 4* and 5* hotels
2. Dinner is NOT included on any night although dinner reservations for the group will be made.
3. Parking charges overnight for the cars
4. Professional guide in one support vehicle
5. Printed guide book including a full itinerary (no route directions)
6. The route as a Garmin GPS file or the complimentary hire of a Garmin sat nav machine.
What’s excluded:
The price excludes anything not expressly included in the Package as well as the following
• Fuel & Motorway tolls & garaged parking
• Minibar and evening meals
• Alcohol
• Medical & Travel Insurance
• Vehicle Insurance
• Vehicle Breakdown Cover
• Health and beauty treatments at each hotel (where applicable)
Price & Conditions
£1,450 for two people sharing a double/twin room
£1,250 for a person in a single room
All prices include VAT and local taxes
For more information and bookings please call 01622 843805 or visit the website
Our standard terms and conditions apply.
Stand by for new of our full tour itinerary for 2014 which will be released shortly.
Bridge of Spean? You mean Spean Bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spean_Bridge
Would it be possible just to know when Dettaglio actually runs each of its tours? Surely such is not too much to ask.
I could not find a calendar....maybe its buried...but gave up after 10 minutes of searching...
If the weather is good it should be excellent and well out of the midge season
A lot of work goes into researching, planning and executing these tours.
Insurance, preparation costs and general running costs of any business have to be taken into account when pricing something
A lot of companies don't do it properly, but Dettaglio are one of the few that I and my team feel do.
It may seem odd for me to comment favourably here but, cards on the table......
PH wanted to try a different tack. If I was in their shoes, or indeed if i was to hang up my steering wheel and let someone else do it, I would choose Nick.
Our tours are pretty much full for this year and i have no doubt the PH ones run by Nick and the team at Dettaglio will be as well.
So whilst it's tough for them to speak out in justification without giving the appearance of selling, it's easier for me to say that a rival's offering is worth paying for.
The fact that you say you've not been on an organised tour rather answers the question about what you are missing.
Decent tour operators sell out for a reason, perhaps you should try it once and find out why?
Words will not adequately describe the experience so until you have tried it you won't know.
I've never heard a bad word said about their tours - and if I, as a competitor, am saying that; What do you think their loyal customers will say?
Remember though, don't choose on price - you can't book with us so it's easy for me to suggest you try this one.
Nobody else in my view does things properly.
Luckily my mother used to live in this part of the world and I can do the same for a fraction of the price, but if you've never been pay up, go, you will not be disappointed and will go back again and again.
I'm already thinking about our next run out up there.....
BTW, what does the insurance cover?
Do you ever go to restaurants?
If so, do you question the costs of the ingredients against what you would make yourself?
Whatever your opinion is, it is yours and there is a place for that.
Of course you can do it cheaply if you do it yourself. That is not, and never will be, in doubt.
As i mentioned, it's not the first time you have asked the question and it may not be the last, the answer has always been the same.
There is a famous definition of insanity:
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
I apologise if I have missed your point, or if there is an agenda i am unaware of but it seems strange you always say you can do it yourself cheaper.
The rest i will leave to others to answer, there's very little else i can do to explain.
Starting at a hotel at Heathrow Airport where the windows are sealed to stop the burnt avgas from coating your lungs we leave in the morning to get on to the M25 to have our lungs coated in auto gas particles. Here we can experience the delirious sense of stereophonic driving, with a car to the front, the rear and each side as we stop start our way to the flat countryside. Once in the countryside of Slurry, oops sorry, Surry we can see all those Ferrari dealerships where they buy and sell with the proceeds of the LIBOR fraud. In the evening we will pull in to one of those lovely fake period hotels, where we can enjoy a boil in the bag dinner, where if it is thinly spread over our plates it can be called Cuisine. In the morning we can join the traffic jam going either to the left or right. We can have so much fun counting the speed cameras and pedestrian crossings. We then go up on to a fly over where we can count the number of twin cam V12s that never get out of 3rd gear. At night we can hear the drivers discussing the last time they got into forth, we will have to stay stum about 5k revs in 5the gear on a single track road with the Atlantic on our side. The next day we can join the next traffic jam and stop to admire the electric gates at the driveways or even spot the odd swimming pool being heated by bypassing the meter. For lunch we could nip across the road for a cabbage and balsamic vinegar sandwich and be back before the car is towed. We could get our windscreen washed by an East European when we stop at traffic lights, look out for the AK47 at you head that makes sure the bank transfer goes through. It won’t be long before we spot the Range Rovers swerving round the puddles or listen to their cross country vehicles parking sensors going off. That night we can listen to the drivers comparing their flappy paddle gear shifts and how many milliseconds they change gear at, very handy for getting out of the bus land quickly. We may hear an egotistical berk in Capital radio have a news flash, it’s snowing in London, go home now, then we can laugh at 7 million cars going home in 2nd gear, when our roads were obliterated 2 weeks ago and we follow the snow poles that mark where the road was.
All this will only cost £12,763.48, send me your money and I’ll get on to it right away
Starting at a hotel at Heathrow Airport where the windows are sealed to stop the burnt avgas from coating your lungs we leave in the morning to get on to the M25 to have our lungs coated in auto gas particles. Here we can experience the delirious sense of stereophonic driving, with a car to the front, the rear and each side as we stop start our way to the flat countryside. Once in the countryside of Slurry, oops sorry, Surry we can see all those Ferrari dealerships where they buy and sell with the proceeds of the LIBOR fraud. In the evening we will pull in to one of those lovely fake period hotels, where we can enjoy a boil in the bag dinner, where if it is thinly spread over our plates it can be called Cuisine. In the morning we can join the traffic jam going either to the left or right. We can have so much fun counting the speed cameras and pedestrian crossings. We then go up on to a fly over where we can count the number of twin cam V12s that never get out of 3rd gear. At night we can hear the drivers discussing the last time they got into forth, we will have to stay stum about 5k revs in 5the gear on a single track road with the Atlantic on our side. The next day we can join the next traffic jam and stop to admire the electric gates at the driveways or even spot the odd swimming pool being heated by bypassing the meter. For lunch we could nip across the road for a cabbage and balsamic vinegar sandwich and be back before the car is towed. We could get our windscreen washed by an East European when we stop at traffic lights, look out for the AK47 at you head that makes sure the bank transfer goes through. It won’t be long before we spot the Range Rovers swerving round the puddles or listen to their cross country vehicles parking sensors going off. That night we can listen to the drivers comparing their flappy paddle gear shifts and how many milliseconds they change gear at, very handy for getting out of the bus land quickly. We may hear an egotistical berk in Capital radio have a news flash, it’s snowing in London, go home now, then we can laugh at 7 million cars going home in 2nd gear, when our roads were obliterated 2 weeks ago and we follow the snow poles that mark where the road was.
All this will only cost £12,763.48, send me your money and I’ll get on to it right away
If you can advise dates, I'll see whether it fits in with Dettaglio and PHn tours
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