Kirkwall, Scotland

I have been looking at tours in Kirkwall, on the islands of Orkney. The operators I have contacted require payment in advance and have a no refund policy in the event the ship misses that port. They advise that we increase our travel insurance to cover that possibility.

We have never encountered this policy on private tours and find it to be a disappointing puzzle. Can someone who has been there explain what the problem is? Is the weather that bad? Also, any suggestions for tours, other than those offered by HAL?

Thank you, Betty

If they aren't booked with you, they have the chance of doing some other job instead - not necessarily tourist-related. If you don't turn up, that chance is lost.

Kirkwall is an easy town to walk around and there are plenty of buses and ferries from the town centre. Buses will drop you off and pick you up from some of the main attractions. If your ship anchors off then the boats will bring you into a pier in the centre of Kirkwall, otherwise if you dock maybe your cruise line will have a shuttle bus, and there are also buses going into town from the main road near the cruise dock.

As mentioned previously, the Orkneys are a very seasonal tourist destination, and it is a very short season indeed, so I expect the few tour operators there are who are not already booked by the cruise company cannot afford to lose business.

If your cruise line provides bicycles, this is also an option, Orkney is fairly flat, though can be both windy and wet.

Although we also prefer private tours this time in Kirkwall (august 2014) we booked a shiptour. It was a tour of about 3 hours which gave us a nice impression of the island.

I couldnot find a tour with free cancellation.

The operators I have contacted require payment in advance and have a no refund policy in the event the ship misses that port. They advise that we increase our travel insurance to cover that possibility.

 

We have never encountered this policy on private tours and find it to be a disappointing puzzle.

If the tour operator offers a full refund if the ship misses the port, then the tour operator is in effect insuring you against the risk. What it's suggesting is that you should be asking your travel insurer to insure you against the risk. After all, it's more naturally an insurance company's job to insure you than a tour operator's.

You may find that the tour operator's approach is coloured by the fact that in Europe, having comprehensive travel insurance that covers against risks like these is routine (and inexpensive). There's sometimes a cultural disconnect because many Americans don't find it as easy to arrange that.

Kirkwall was a favorite stop. I contacted Craggies Taxi with a list of places we wanted to visit. They were wonderful! They made reservations for us to visit Maes Howe. They were on time and our driver was very informative. They are the largest cab company in the area. That being said they have 12. The best part is they charges 35 pounds an hour for the 4 of us, with nothing in advance.

I thought I had done my homework in preparation for our stop in Kirkwall. I read both here on CC, and on the Orkney Island website, that there's a public bus that takes you around to all the important sites. The cost would be a fraction of a private tour or a ship's tour. What I didn't know was that a TOTAL OF 3 SHIPS were in port that day - completely overwhelming the transportation infrastructure. We reached the bus terminal at what I considered a reasonable 9:30 a.m. and all the tickets for that bus for the rest of the day had already been sold. And I already knew that all of the ship's tours had been completely booked. So we walked around town a little bit, chatted with some locals and went back to the ship well before noon and had an unscheduled "sea day." (Actually not a bad thing on a port-intensive British Isles cruise).

My advice for Kirkwall would be to book a ship's tour. For Kirkwall, the cost is almost the same as a private tour and you have the benefit that if the port is missed you will be refunded your money.

Kirkwall was a favorite stop. I contacted Craggies Taxi with a list of places we wanted to visit. They were wonderful! They made reservations for us to visit Maes Howe. They were on time and our driver was very informative. They are the largest cab company in the area. That being said they have 12. The best part is they charges 35 pounds an hour for the 4 of us, with nothing in advance.

Just to cast a bit of light on the tour operators policy re private tour cancellations in Kirkwall: local taxis don't take money upfront because if you book a tour with them & then don't show, they can legally take the next passengers off your ship instead & so won't lose money.

Local tour guides offering tours have private hire licences, which allow them to take pre booked tours only: so if you don't show up for whatever reason & they haven't taken money up front, they are not legally allowed to take anyone else out on tour so they lose out completely.

They've probably also turned down tour work unrelated to ships in order to take your booking, as there are very few qualified Orkney tour guides who have their own vehicles & so they are in demand, not just from cruise ships.

Hope this helps,

We have been to Orkney twice and both times we used Pat Stone of Orkney Aspects. She is a fabulous tour guide and knows the island quite well. She is not cheap but well worth it. She is extremely popular and is often booked more than a year in advance. There is lots more to see than just walking around the town of Kirkwall.

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