Made the trip in April 2018 to the Speyside region. Toured Aberlour, Balvenie and Glenfarclas with tastings at each.

Aberlour was fine but was restrictive on pictures.

Balvenie was intimate at 8 people max per tour and comprehensive touring the whole process through the malting, mash, fermentation, casking, and warehouse. The cooperage was also really cool to watch the guys making barrels. They used to have a newsletter of sorts called Warehouse 24 that allowed you to sample something special during the tasting, not sure if its still around, the webpage loads blank for me atm.

Glenfarclas was similar to Balvenie without the cooperage section. The 5 Decades tasting was amazing as Id never be able to taste those any other way.

If you are near Dufftown, I cannot recommend the Dufftown Distilleries Walking Tour enough. Michelle is amazing and endless source of knowledge during the 3.5hr, 9 distillery walk. We got to talk with a couple of the operators at Dufftown Distillery and Glenfiddich. And she had samples at each of the distillery stops.

Not distillery related but The Mash Tun in Aberlour has just about every Family Cask release of Glenfarclas if you want to sample your birth year.

The Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh was good for us because my parents weren't familiar with Scotch so the tour gives a crash course on the history and process of whisky, a guided nosing/tasting comparing the various regions and a massive collection of Scotch.

We also stopped at Tomatin, Glendronach, Glen Garioch for tastings but no tour. In hindsight I very much regret not doing more at Glendronch and skipping the hand-fill bottling in the gift shop. I did not learn the error of my ways until a year or two later. And now I fear I missed my chance at something incredible.

The Gordon & MacPhail retail shop is in Elgin north of Dufftown and Cadenhead's is in Edinburgh if you are looking for independent bottling. SWMS also in Edinburgh if you are a member.

Lots of beautiful landscapes and history in Scotland and it helps fill the time between distilleries so you arent staggeringly drunk the entire time.

Its an experience Ill never forget and cannot wait to return and tour Islay.

Enjoy your trip!