The five-day, four-night charter excursion in the Hebrides is geared toward guests looking for a luxury sea adventure, complete with glamping.
Tell your friendsyou’re going onsafari , and it conjures up a very specific , albeit very colonial range in their minds . The general consensus is that the safari - goer Don tan clothing , normally alarge hat , and always an excessive act of air pocket , perhaps like Meryl Streep inOut of Africa . They keep tightly to that hat as they bump acrossgrasslandsin an open top jeep , assay lions andjaguarsand splotchy giraffe . There ’s rustic fitting involved , or usuriously expensive adjustment made to look hick . But no matter what , it happens on land .
But in truth , to go on safari no land pauperism be ask in your excursion . The word safari is Swahili in origin and means journeying , or trip . ( Go further back in filiation and the Arabic safar has the same import . ) In East African Swahili - speaking countries , the idiom safari njema just means “ Have a courteous trip-up ! ” You could just as easily say it to a sidekick lead back to college after holiday .
But still , the two words “ ocean ” and “ safari ” seemed like an odd combining when I read it in an electronic mail about theGlenapp Castleluxury hotel ’s sea safari jaunt in the Sea of the Hebrides , in the North Atlantic sea off the west coast of Scotland . A marine protect field , the ocean ’s two archipelago — the inside and out Hebrides islands — are abundant in story and taradiddle of conquerors . Now hotel guest can tread where the Vikings once did , but in much , much softer accommodations .
Your chariot awaits|Courtesy of Glenapp Castle
The 150 - year - erstwhile medieval Glenapp Castle ( rates from $ 500 / night ) is the sorting of luxury hotel that boasts a walled garden and an original Victorian Mackenzie and Moncur glasshouse . But since 2015 the hotel ’s mission has pivoted from being a shoes of dense leisure time to a destination for risky venture . Guests can try their hand at traditional Scots activities like hunting , sportfishing , and falconry , and explore the South Ayrshire coastline through “ coasteering ” ( swim and scramble through rocky coastal geographical zone ) .
They can embrace their primal instinct and learn survival of the fittest skills with wilderness pedagogy . Or , they can go all in and and give themselves amply to the wild , with a five - day , four - dark ocean safari , glamping on a remote island in the Sea of the Hebrides .
Of naturally , wildlife cruise are nothing new . Through them you could get within ocean atomiser length of Megaptera novaeangliae heavyweight in Alaska or marine lizard in the Galapagos . Sea safaris , however , tend to be overnight , super gamey - end versions of these educational excursion , with a very limited identification number of clientele on board . Indonesia is home to a few — TheCelestia Yacht , for good example , accommodates just 14 people and shuttle them within Indonesia ’s Coral Triangle , direct them at - will to the hobo camp - cover archipelago Raja Ampat , or Komodo National Park , in the first place established to conserve the Komodo dragon .
This puffin has found itself a snack.|Courtesy of Glenapp Castle
The five day , four Nox Hebridean Sea Safari software package is $ 20,879 for two guests ; the idea was inspired by Glenapp Castle ’s position in southwesterly Scotland , near the island of Ailsa Craig . To the unfamiliar , the island is a volcanic plug and is the original source — and still one of only two source — of the rare crystal - free granite used to make curled stones for the Olympics . Once a chancel for Roman Catholics during the Scottish Reformation , today it is uninhabited , economize for a beacon light and a dame sanctuary . While the island is well known to those exist in Scotland , few have ever been there .
“ Paul [ Szkiler , the owner of Glenapp Castle ] decide to buy a boat , and ab initio we initiate with charters just going back and forth , ” says Jill Chalmers , manage film director of the castle . “ Then he came up with the idea to do a Hebridean Sea Safari . He thought we could become the gateway to these island on the west coast of Scotland . ”
A new 12 - seater transportation watercraft was purchased for the endeavour , plus glamping tents , and the first sea safari tour of its sort in the realm was gestate . Think African safari , but with tents set up on a remote while of island . antecedently , the only option for interior Hebridean Sea island exploration was through Clarence Shepard Day Jr. trip-up of up to 100 people on board . With this option , client have more chance to see otters , puffin , basking sharks and more . There are also options to take the gravy holder around the islands to locations like an ancient monastery , archaeological sites , and hidden castle garden . Plus , there ’s also a personal chef , a maritime biologist , and a Samuel Butler onboard .
Dolphins like to visit between May and October.|Courtesy of Glenapp Castle
And Guest range all ages . “ The youngest guest has been two , and the oldest guest has been 82 , ” aver Chalmers . “ Many go for the wildlife . Many go just to search these islands . If they ’re into walking the beach , they ’re like Caribbean beaches , with rain . Often the beaches are absolutely abandoned . ” The itinerary is up to those who have hold the tripper . “ What they do at ocean very much calculate on what the guest ' pastime are . If they were interested in nature or wildlife , we would then create the travel plan to go where eagles are nesting , or we know where the dolphins could be encounter that Clarence Day . ”
And as this is Scotland , there are also plenty of opportunities to sample whiskey , as the Inner Hebrides is house toseveral distilleries . And that include the island where the glamping tent are erected , a private section on the notable whisky island of Jura , where cervid outnumber humans 30 to one . lit fans might agnise it as the island where George Orwell wrote1984 ; he described it as “ an extremely un - get - atable place . ” But though there ’s just a single road and 200 inhabitants , it ’s not that un - get - able-bodied . Here , on this sea safari where jaguars and elephants are replaced with humpback whales and infract dolphinfish , it ’s all part of the journeying .
Ailsa Craig, a volcanic plug and one of one of only two sources of the rare quartz-free granite used to make curling stones.|Courtesy of Glenapp Castle
These glamping tents are awfully close to the edge.|Courtesy of Glenapp Castle
