So glad you enjoyed your visit - and pleased to see yet another glowing report of Craig's tours. I must find out who this guy is - he deserves a big pat on the back.

I wonder if the Italian restaurant in the Grassmarket might have been Mama's?

Great report. I am so glad you enjoyed Craig's Mini Tours. We are booked with him in August and can't wait. Question, how did you pick where you wanted to go with Craig? There are so many places to see.

Hi CA Travel Geek,

When it came down to choosing places, when we decided to pay that kind of money we didn't want to go to the places every tour bus frequents. A collegue of my Husband's is from Scotland and recomended the border country, and Craig heartily agreed - he knows all the back roads, and neat places.

We also didn't want to spend all day in the van, and told him that about three hours of riding would be our limit - we wanted to be out and about! We went to Abbotsford House ( I think I spelled it wrong...) Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh Abbey, Scott's View.... and a place to see the little lambs ( we were there when they were only a week or two old) running around in a field by a river... lovely! We had a picnic lunch, and even picked up a geocache...introducing Craig to the hobby.

Do a little research as to what you want to see. He told us that we could change our mind up to the morning of...he cares not where he takes you, as long as a good time is had by all.

~M.Elston

Glad you had a great time Elston. I went on the Mercat Ghouls and Ghosts tour last week, though we had Faith as our guide, and what a hoot she was too.

I'm itching to know what a geocache is:-)

Thank you Melston -- One more question, did you take your picnic lunch with you or did you stop and get it on the way? Sounds really cool, and we want to do the same as you. Not being in the van all day, but seeing as mutch as we can.

Ah, I'm hoping to get in a small amount of geocaching while I'm over there, too. I love caching while on vacation.

Purple - It's a high tech game played with a GPS receiver. You find things (caches) hidden by other players. Usually it's a small container with a couple of small trinkets inside. You sign the log book, take something if you want it, leave something if you want to, and search for another one. (www.geocaching.com)

Wow, I'd never heard of that. Sounds like great fun, in fact sounds a bit like letterboxing, though I've never done that either.

Its amazing the things you learn on Tripadvisor!

Hi Melston, Glad to hear you had a great time on the Mercat Tour...we had Jodie as our guide. Greatest and loudest scream I've ever heard! I'm copying the Craigs Tour info for our next trip...we loved the city and surrounding area so much, a lot of it due to these fabulous people here at TA. We used more than just a bit of the info both here and in Glasgow.

We just put together our photo albums...what a great trip it was!Sounds like yours was wonderful!

Maryann