James Orpwood

James is knowledgeable and caring
Went out of his way to help a guest with a family emergency and planned a surprise birthday treat for me

James is so good at being a guide. Very knowledgeable, friendly, kind and extremely attentive to the needs of the group. Great sense of humor too. We all laughed a lot. I was so impressed with his ability in handling logistics etc. The entire group would like James to lead us in hikes all over the world!!!

James was truly amazing. He worked really hard to meet the needs of everyone on our tour. He has a great sense of humor. I really appreciated his understanding and appreciation of the earth. Hiking with him was so enjoyable.

James was excellent! Very knowledgeable. The hiking was absolutely breathtaking.

Guides were very friendly and engaging. On the 2 last activities, we didn’t realize we “had James”, as he said, for the full day, so had already planned other activities afterwards. Had we known, we would have made full use of him.

James was a terrific guide. He knew how to pace the hikes to be enjoyable by all of us. He also has extensive knowledge of the flora and fauna of Scotland, as well a command of its history.

James was terrific in every way. Attentive, knowledgeable and pleasant. He made the trip very easy for us by having thoughtful plans set and explained.

As mentioned, James was upbeat, organized, interesting, knowledgeable, attentive, and fun to talk and hike with.

Our guide was James Orpwood. I can't say enough. James was instrumental in making this trip so memorable. He was knowledgeable, patient and always enthusiastic! You never noticed that this was actually his work. He did everything he needed to keep us moving along successfully and made it look easy and I know it is not!!

James was amazing. Very friendly, very attentive to everyone's needs and I appreciated his proactive-ness when he found out I had a sensitivity to mosquitos and possibly midges. He already had a midge net ready to go in case I didn't have one!
He also did his best at trying to make the trip memorable for everyone even going out of his way to find us cows and red squirrels to see :)

James was wonderful-al!ways cheerful. He saw our level and adjusted his goals to meet ours. We enjoyed our time with him and would highly recommend him to others.

James was supremely knowledgeable and kind and genuinely wanted us to have a fabulous experience. Which we did! He adjusted so my husband an I could spend more time in one activity while others moved on and we met up before moving on to our next location. He took great pains to engage everyone and find out what was important to them.

We had such great guides - James for the hiking, Pete for the canoeing and Tim for the mountain biking. Each one was positive, encouraging and great company, providing really interesting additional information to augment our experiences. They were all great with the children, ensuring they were comfortable, whilst pushing them outside of their comfort zones. Our guide at the Fly Fishing was a little distracted to start as he would have expected 2 guides for 4 learner fishers, but he provided excellent instruction, and we all really enjoyed the morning. Everywhere we went was a wonderful setting, and the love each guide had for the area, and for what they did, was very apparent.

James is an excellent guide. We appreciated our time with him. Jason on the Seafari was very nice.

James adjusted the walks perfectly to our fitness level and chose things that interested us. He was very well prepared; we couldn't have had a better guide.

James fully lived up to our expectations: open minded, friendly, showed initiative - we're not the easiest since we've been in Scotland so many times and seen so much - but James was flexible and always came up with new ideas of what to do. Loved his sense of humour too and of course his knowledge of local wild life.

James was an outstanding guide—-knowledgeable, patient, enthusiastic.

James was always upbeat, knowledgeable about history and the geography and had a great sense of humor. While there was a plan in place for the various hikes, James also ask our opinion when there were options. James knew how to engage with all of us from two different continents and easily handled slightly different hiking speeds.

James was great! He really did a wonderful job making sure we were all happy and content! He gave us the right amount of together time and then gave us space when we wanted it. James was very attentive, knowledgeable and truly loves his job and Scotland. He was the perfect guide for our group!!

James was awesome! Yes what a lovely guy!

We were very happy with our guides. They had a wealth of knowledge and were great with the boys.

As mentioned earlier, James is a gem. He is such a kind and gracious man, offering encouragement and great tips throughout the journey. He has such a vast amount of knowledge and presents information clearly and completely. James is entirely enthusiastic about sharing the wonders of the Highlands. He knows how to carefully read people and is entirely suited for proceeding at a pace in which he accommodates a group of walkers of varying abilities. James is a true blue, genuine , charismatic and entirely skilled guide. Stellar...the best!

James was in amazing guide. He was exceptionally knowledgeable. He was able to create walks for us that allowed for the wide variety of skill level of the people on the trip. He understood how to support us to walk around the mountain in ways that I never thought i'd be able to do. He knew how to deal with all the people on the trip so that everyone got what they needed. On one day someone thought Ishe could not handle the day and was going to stay home. But he convinced her that she would be able to handle the walk. It allowed for all of us to stay together as a group and gave her the pleasure of that tech killer walk in the mountains. We would have a trip with James anytime.

Our guide James was the absolute BEST imaginable. He took excellent care of everyone in our diverse group, and he knew the area like the back of his hand. I honestly can't imagine a better, more inspiring, enthusiastic guide. He was just excellent!!!

Stuart for the set kayaking was lovely, he really made the day an adventure and was very knowledgable of the area and the wildlife. Marcus on the rib ride on Loch Ness was funny, informative and really added to the experience. The man who helped us with the shooting was also lovely and made a new experience even better. James on the all day bike ride was great, he has a love for the area that really came through and it was a pleasure to spend time with him. The only let down was the guide/leader for the river tubing. He didn't really provide much useful help we had to work it out for ourselves really and as a result one of us got a but of a bang, which, if better info had been given could have been avoided. Overall the guides were great and I would highly recommend Stuart with the sea kayaking, the shooting and James on the bike ride

James was very attentive to our needs - always professional and easy to get along with. He is rarely without a smile! We enjoyed having David with us on the hike in the Cairgorrms as he provided humor and shared with us his great love of the hills. And Stewart was an easy going and fun kayaking leader.