Dates
Monday 25th August to Monday 1st September 2025
Overview
Shetland has a wide range of fantastic local food and drink producers, which we want to highlight in this tour, the first of its kind for Shetland. We have teamed up with Taste of Shetland and will feature many of their members.
Join us for this unique experience, which will be based at the historic Voe House in the north of Shetland, where will have exclusive use of Voe House.
Your local qualified guides will take you to where items are caught, grown, reared and made during the day. In the evening, you will have the opportunity to sample the items you have just seen.
Local chefs and cooks will either cook for us at Voe House or we will eat out in some of Shetland's restaurants, which showcase local produce.
What Is Included
- Transfers from Lerwick or Sumburgh on the day of arrival/departure
- All tours with a fully qualified STGA tourist guide and experienced driver
- 7 nights accommodation at the grand 19th century Voe House
- Breakfast every day at the guesthouse made by private cooks
- All lunches
- All dinners many of which will be cooked for you privately by professional cooks and chefs
- Wine and beer with every dinner.
- All refreshments as described in the itinerary
- Trips to Yell and Unst, Shetland’s most northerly islands
- Coffee and cake at the Old Haa, Yell
- Trip in a mussel boat to see a working mussel farm
- Gin tasting at the UK's most Northerly distellery
- Visit to Uradale Farm
- Beer tasting at Lerwick Brewery
- Visit to Transition Turriefield
- Whisky tasting at Lerwick Distillery
- Talk and smoked salmon tastings at Hand Made Fish, Maywick
- Visit to Quendale Mill
- Visit to Eshaness Cliffs
- Tour at Hensington Palace, Sullom
- Afternoon tea at Blyde Welcome
- Free time to explore Lerwick
- Farewell cocktail reception and dinner
* Guests will be required to make their own way to Shetland to begin the tour.
Itinerary
Day 1
If you arrive on this day, you will be met at Sumburgh Airport or Lerwick Ferry Terminal and taken to Voe House in time for the afternoon check in. If you have arrived into Shetland a day or two early, we will collect you from an agreed location in Lerwick.
Please note: there is no elevator in Voe House and there is only one room on the ground floor. The house is arranged over three levels. There is limited assistance with luggage.
At 6pm that evening, there will be a welcome dinner and an overview of the days ahead. This will be your first official event and you should aim to be in Shetland in time for this. This will give you the opportunity to get to know your hosts and fellow participants.
Day 2
Today, we will depart for the island of Yell, where we will have morning coffee in Old Haa, which is home to a small museum full of local history and a lovely garden out back.
We then head to Basta, where we will be met by the Thompson brothers, who run a mussel farm there. Weather permitting, we will board the mussel harvest boat and we will be taken to see a mussel farm, while hearing all about mussel production.
Lunch will be provided by Brian and his team at the Hilltop Cafe in Yell, before returning to Voe House.
That evening, we will have someone cook mussels as part of our evening meal.
Day 3
Today, we make the trip to Scalloway and head to the award winning, organic farm at Uradale, where manager Jakob Eunson will talk to us about the meat production at Uradale Farm. We will see their Shetland sheep and Shetland cattle while we are there. Lunch will be provided.
After that, we head to Lerwick, where we will visit the Lerwick Brewery and sample some of the beers that are produced there, while hearing about the beer making process.
You will have some free time for exploring Lerwick or doing a spot of retail therapy, before we head to visit the home of Akshay Borges, one of our local chefs. Akshay enjoys growing many of his own herbs and will be happy to show guests his garden. He will give a cooking demonstration and will be including Uradale Farm produce in our dinner that evening.
Day 4
Today, we head even further north, heading to the very north of Shetland (and the UK) to the island of Unst. The journey will involve a lot of time in the bus and requires two ferries there and two ferries back.
As we have previously spent time in Yell, we will head straight through Yell to catch the ferry to Unst.
Once in Unst, we will have time to visit the Viking Unst project before lunch. Viking Unst includes a Viking longship and example of a Viking longhouse.
Lunch will be at the quaint Victoria’s Vintage Tearoom, where there are also craft items for sale. This is also the UK's most Northerly tearoom.
After lunch, we will make our way to Shetland Distillery and sample the range of Shetland Reel gins, while hearing about the inspiration for each gin and hearing about the process.
We will head to the historic Busta House Hotel for dinner and then back to Voe House late evening to relax.
Day 5
Today, we make our way west to Sandness, where we visit Transition Turrifield, a project that is focused on growing as much local produce as possible, doing so without the use of chemicals and as sustainable as possible. They will show us around and talk about all the different crops being grown there.
In the nearby village of Walls, we will have lunch at Cafe in the Kirk, a community cafe in a church that was no longer active.
We will return to Lerwick to visit the newly opened Lerwick Distillery, which specialises in whisky. Here we will get to sample some of the whiskies, which are ready and hear all about the business.
Have some free time in the town centre before heading to a Lerwick restaurant, which endeavours to use as much local produce as possible.
Day 6
Today, we head to the south mainland of Shetland to visit another cafe in a church but done very differently. We will get to enjoy pastries made by Gus Dow, while washing it down with coffee from Stakkadale Coffee.
Afterwards, head to Maywick, where we will meet the owner of Hand Made Fish. Hear all about the selection, slicing and smoking processes that go in to producing the smoked salmon, while getting to have some tastings.
For lunch, we will visit the home of Marian Armitage, a former teacher of food and nutrition for our lunch and enjoy a quick cooking demo.
Our afternoon coffee will be at the historic Sumburgh Hotel, which some of you will recognise from season 3 of the TV series Shetland.
Our final stop in the south mainland will be to Quendale Mill. While no longer in use, they have fantastic exhibitions talking about grain production in times gone by in Shetland.
Our dinner will be at another Lerwick restaurant, this one has a greater empahsis on fish dishes.
Day 7
We head to to iconic Eshaness cliffs to stretch our legs and take in the stunning view. We will grab monring coffee at Braewick Cafe before heading to Sullom.
In Sullom, you will get to see Shetland's largest collection of hens and chickens, over 70 breeds including the Shetland Hen.
We head to town for afternoon tea prepared by Blyde Welcome.
We return to Voe House for a cocktail reception provided by a young entrepreneur and your farewell dinner will be prepared by one of Shetland's youngest but very talented chefs.
Day 8
We leave Voe House today early in the morning and make our way back to Lerwick or Sumburgh Airport, depending on your travel plans.
Please note: Itinerary may happen in a different order as advertised, subject to availability. Should an activitiy be unavailable, a suitable alternative will be provided.
Price
£3,960 per person
£1,000 non-refundable deposit payable at the time of booking.
Remaining balance payable by 30th May 2025. An invoice will be sent to you 7 days prior to the deadline, which will contain a link to a secure website to make payment by credit card.
Travel Insurance
We strongly advise that you purchase suitable travel insurance before the trip.
Island Vista Assurance
The above holiday is covered by The Package Travel, Package Tours Regulations 1992. Island Vista also have public liability insurance and professional indemnity cover.
Covid Restrictions
There are currently no Covid restrictions in Scotland, however, we will follow any regulations that are in place at the time of the tours.
Physical Requirements
This tour will require a good level of physical fitness. Guests must be capable of carrying their own luggage up one or two flights of stairs. Some of the activities will require walking over uneven, rough and potentially slippery ground. Guests will also be required to board/disembark the mussel boat and stand for the duration (approx. 1 hour) of the boat trip.
Dietary Requirements
Island Vista try where possible to accommodate dietary requirements on all their tours, but to do so on this tour would most likely mean using produce that isn't grown here and that goes against the ethos of this tour.
If you decide to book on this tour, we cannot guarentee that dietary requirements will be met and accept no liability if they are not met.
Please note that most meals will be based around local meat, fish and shellfish.
Shared Rooms
Prices are based on single occupancy of rooms. However, if you and a friend/partner are willing to share one of a limited number of double/twin occupancy rooms, there will be a £100 per person discount.
Cancellation Policy
Once the final payment has been made, should you wish to cancel, there is no refund unless the spot is sold to someone else. This would be the final payment minus a £300 admin fee. The £1,000 deposit is non-refundable.
Should you cancel within 2 weeks of the tour starting, there is no refund available.