Important: you do not need to bring everything on this checklist, but should use it as an aid to holiday planning. However, please bring strong walking boots with good ankle support. If you buy new ones you should break them in first so as to avoid discomfort on your tour. I recommend all participants in walking tours to prepare by doing some walking at home, thereby enhancing their enjoyment of the holiday.

Items marked (!!!) are very important to the success of your walking tour with us. Other items are NOT ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL Please do not feel it is necessary to buy them specially for your holiday.

Suitcase or large rucksack

Passport or Identity Card, airline tickets, cash, travellers cheques,travel insurance documents

!!! Strong walking boots with good ankle support (trainers are unsuitable, and please make sure new boots are broken in before you begin the holiday)

Gaiters and thermal underwear

!!! Waterproof clothing: cagoule or anorak with hood, waterproof trousers

!!! Day sack (around 25 litres capacity) for carrying packed lunches, camera, and other essentials such as waterproofs, bathing costume and personal first aid kit

!!! Water bottle

!!! Warm clothing for cooler weather (in summer the weather in Scotland is generally warm and mild, but you should be prepared for cooler weather).

Jeans are not suitable! Jogging pants are much better. Also one or two warm shirts, T-shirts ( several thinner layers of clothing are much warmer than one thick pullover and can be adjusted according to the temperature), warm undergarments

Possibly a small thermos flask. (You can easily and free of charge fill it in the morning with tea or coffee made in your hotel room)

Sun cream, possibly sunglasses and lip salve

Insect repellent, for tours from July to September

Shorts and light clothing for warm weather

Possibly swimwear (the hotel has towels)

Hat for protection against sun and cold

A woollen or fleecy hat and warm gloves are useful to the end of May and from late September and may be needed on ferry trips at all times of the year

Perhaps sandals for evenings or the tour bus

Small gauze bandage, elasticated bandage, plasters Medication for indigestion, colds, headaches etc. according to your own needs

For spectacle wearers, a spare pair of glasses

Telescopic walking poles for those who find them helpful, but do not buy them specially. Many walkers do not like them

Head torch or pocket flashlight ( only for walking tours before the end of May and the beginning of October since in Scotland summer daylight lasts well into the night)

Other items you might find useful: photographic accessories, binoculars, guidebook, pyjamas, writing things, an interesting book to read (perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped", the 18th century adventure story set in Edinburgh and the Scottish landscapes we walk through), sewing kit etc ...