The Scottish Caper – a Cloak & Camera (phone) Adventure Around Scotland’s North Coast 500

Creative Adventure: led by an award winning 20-year-veteran and supervising photo editor for the New York Times whose photos you’ll also recognize from the opening sequence of the TV show Law & Order (SVU) – those police photos during that famous intro are his!

– a seven-day visual storytelling expedition

– celebrating the autumn equinox in the northern Highlands in breathtaking locations while staying in award winning boutique and unique hotels

Sept 17th to 23rd 2026

– one small group of fourteen people (we can only accommodate one more person before we are sold out – if you’re a duo and would like to be on the waiting list for a cancellation, please just email us at: writers-expeditions@mail.com and CC Kirsten at kirstenkoza@gmail.com)

A Dram With a View: we encourage you to bring your own props and costume pieces for photos, and we’ll supply a tasty dram plus dramatic views each day for inspiration. Plus we’ll provide a party-game of prompts, both history and mystery, and folklore and ghost stories, all to feed your daily creations, so your photos capture attention and have an accompanying memorable story whether for your audience on social media or for just yourself – perhaps a memory you frame and hang on the wall.

Our Scottish Highlands road trip will take you to (and beyond):

Inveraray Castle (reputedly haunted – on the shores of Loch Fyne – the longest sea loch in Scotland)
Glen Coe Valley (glacial origins, volcanic rocks, National Nature Reserve)
Eilean Donan Castle
Dornie (we’ve booked every room in the entire village by the castle ruins – yes, we booked the village)
Corrieshalloch Gorge and the Falls of Measach
Applecross (if you don’t make the ooo and ahh noises of a crowd at fireworks while driving the single lane road over the remote peninsula this day, Kirsten, your hostess, will eat an entire vegan haggis, raw)
Ullapool (say it like a Viking)
Smoo Cave
Tongue
John o’ Groats
The Duncansby Head Lighthouse and (sea) Stacks
Wick (we’ll stay on the Guinness World Records shortest street for our autumn equinox celebration)
Loch Ness (our finalé aboard two private boats hunting for you know who with Beastie Boats)

Keep scrolling for prices (in bold, after the hosts’ bios), inclusions, itinerary, photos, and more details – the deposit to sign up is 200 pounds, which comes off your total.

The North Coast 500: is a 500-plus-a-few-miles, breathtaking route, around the north coast of Scotland – but ours is longer as we start in Glasgow and take you north through the highlands first.

Day 1 (meet in Glasgow)

Thursday 17th September 2026

We’ll meet at Blythswood Square in Glasgow, stow our luggage on our private bus, and then stroll to the Mackintosh at the Willow Tearooms on Sauchiehall Street for a lively conversation, over a scrumptious Scottish breakfast, with Steffen A. Kaplan, your (above mentioned) photography mentor (a former supervising photo editor for the New York Times and he is a social media and visual strategist and livestream producer for many top organizations including the Pulitzer Prizes) and one of your creative instigators on this expedition. He’ll also help those who need it with the camera settings on their phones.

Then we start our road trip adventure – heading north to Inveraray on Loch Fyne.

You’ll have free time to lunch at a pub, bistro, café, or fish & chip shop in this picturesque town before we visit the home of the 13th Duke of Argyll, Castle Inveraray. You might recognize the castle from a Christmas episode of Downton Abbey, or that it was named as one of the top five most haunted homes in Britain. Will we hear the harpist or see Lady Grey (the spectral ship) only witnessed by the Duke’s daughters? There are five ghosts and our private castle guide will tell us all about them. (Kirsten wonders – can you write a horror story in one sentence?)

We’ll venture down the treed lane back to town where we’ll be staying at two neighbouring historic, luxury boutique hotels (The George, and Brambles). We’ll dine together at the AA Rosette award winning restaurant at The George Hotel.

(Inclusions: breakfast, guided castle tour and tickets, three-course dinner, overnight at The George and Brambles)

Day 2 (Glen Coe Valley to Eilean Donan Castle – tonight we’ve booked the village)

Friday September 18th

After breakfast we’ll drive north through the mountain-surrounded Glen Coe Valley, past famous peaks like The Three Sisters, stopping to create photos and to talk about Jacobites, rebellions, and kilts. Your guide drools for dark history – you’ll love him. We’ll picnic and enjoy a dram with a view before the scenic drive to Eilean Donan Castle on a tidal island where the three lochs, Loch Duich, Loch Long, and Loch Alsh converge.

We’ll tour the castle and we’ll check-in around the village at our rooms which include all the rooms at the Dornie hotel, two at the Clachan pub, a cottage, a garden pod in the garden belonging to the Clachan’s manager, and a boat at the Dornie hotel! You’ll have photography time this evening and free time to create, and for dinner at either of the pubs where we’re staying. They light up the castle exterior at night. Might be a good evening to don a cloak, or costume bits and bobs, or your kilt, and pose like (fictional) warrior Connor MacLeod in the original Highlander (and don’t forget to make pouty lips like Christopher Lambert). This was also the location of MI6 headquarters in James Bond, The World Is Not Enough.

(Inclusions: Breakfast, picnic lunch from a bakery, tickets for Eilean Donan Castle, rooms in Dornie)

Day 3 (Remote Applecross on single lane NC 500, and Ullapool)

Saturday September 19th

Today’s drive across the remote peninsula of Wester Ross is utterly spectacular. We’ll be travelling one of the highest roads in Britain – going up hairpin curves, on a single lane alpine road into the clouds and over a wild mountainous pass. Good thing we’re doing this off the peak season, because we might only meet one or two other vehicles on the entire route. Applecross is one of the earliest settled parts of Scotland, and its name is about 1300 years old. We’ll have varied views across the bay to Skye and of Bealach na Ba (Pass of the Cattle). We’ll stop a lot for photos.

We’ll have a picnic lunch packed from the Loch of Kyle of Lochalsh bakery, a dram with a view, and head to Ullapool on the shores of the sea loch, Loch Broom, for our overnight in this former Viking settled area still with Norse in its name. The town boasts many waterfront and side street shops and restaurants, so we’ll give you free time to shop and dine on your own so that you can savour the fresh flavours of the sea with a view, or perhaps a woodfired pizza, or something spicier, and have time to create. We’ll be sharing our creations with each other on picnics, and at our private autumn equinox dinner party in Wick.

(Inclusions: breakfast, picnic lunch from bakery, overnight at Caledonian a Bespoke Hotel)

Day 4 (Waterfalls, rapids with malevolent water-sprites, fairytale woods, evil goblins, Smoo Cave and Tongue)

Sunday September 20th

After breakfast we’ll stop at a grocery store in Ullapool so you can buy extra treats (hotel room snacks) for your next two nights at our elegant rural hotel in Tongue which has a wonderful restaurant, but you still might like some Scottish goodies. Then we’ll drive to our easy walk which is through fairytale woods past rapids and small falls, leading to the Corrieshalloch Gorge and the roaring Falls of Measach. You’ll cross a suspension bridge with fabulous view to cascading water below. Matthew said in his notes to Kirsten that we will have “lunch on the hoof today” – hoof is an appropriate word since this area has tales of horse-sprites called kelpies. We’ll have picked lunch up from a bakery or cafe for you. And we won’t be hoofing it, either, so don’t worry – we’ll be creating. This might be a great day to collect images for drabbles (100 word stories) if you’d like, to go with your photos. You can work on them at the hotel in Tongue.

We’ll be spending tonight and tomorrow night at Tongue hotel which was built in the 1800s as a hunting lodge by the Duke of Sutherland and is now an elegant boutique hotel with excellent restaurant. It overlooks the Kyle of Tongue, the setting for the Skirmish of Tongue (1700s) which involved the ship formerly named HMS Hazard and her cargo of gold and guns for the Jacobites. Our hotel also has views to the Varrich Castle ruin which is thought to have been built by the clan Mackay in the 14th century over the ruins of a Norse fort.

(Inclusions: breakfast, picnic lunch, Smoo Cave tickets/tour, overnight for two nights at Tongue Hotel)

Day 5 (This Day is Dedicated to Beautiful Beaches of the North Coast)

Monday September 21st

After a fabulous Scottish breakfast, our private minibus will take us to a variety of wild beaches along the coast. All of the following beach photos are taken by your hostess, Kirsten Koza, and are just a small taste of our day. Tongue Hotel will be packing boxed lunches for us. And we’ll have a dram with a view. We’ll walk on the sand (perhaps some of the brave will take an icy plunge) and as Steffen says “just create.”

(Inclusions: Breakfast, boxed lunch, overnight at Tongue Hotel)

Day 6 (from Tongue to John o’ Groats – land’s end – a lighthouse – castle ruins and cliff tops – and then an autumn equinox private dinner party – sharing our stories and images – and a celebration fit for pagans in the Viking town of Wick)

Tuesday September 22nd

After breakfast and check-out we continue our stunning road trip along the NC 500 to John o’ Groats, the Duncansby Stacks, and Duncansby Head Lighthouse, the most north-easterly part of the Scottish and British mainland.

We’ll follow the the coast route further, stopping for ruins and sheep milling about on the road.

Once we’re at Wick, we’ll visit the Old Castle of Wick from the 1300’s, sometimes called “the old man of Wick”, but now a ruin. It sits on piece of land, high on the cliffs, jutting into the North Sea. The town where we’ll be staying for the night has Viking origins (Wick – Vik – Viking). There is evidence in Wick from the Norse Pagan period, which makes it the perfect town for our evening’s fall equinox celebration and private dinner party at award-winning Mackays Hotel, whose bistro entrance is on the Guinness World Record world’s shortest street. We’ll share our work this evening with each other after we dine.

(Inclusions: breakfast, lunch, three course dinner party, overnight at award winning Mackays)

Day 7 (Drumnadrochit, Loch Ness with Beastie Boats, and Inverness)

Wednesday September 23rd

After breakfast we’ll drive along the North Coast 500, stopping to wander a historical site in a landscape of heather, will lunch at a pub or tearoom, and we’ll give you time to souvenir hunt in Drumnadrochit (the village which is home to the Loch Ness monster – or legends if you insist) and then for our grand finalé we’ll board two boats at Loch Ness, one a yacht, the other more adventurous and named the Wee Beastie (we can alternate part way through if you’d like to try the other boat), for our two hour boat expedition and monster hunt.

We’ll drive to Inverness, which is where we’ll end our expedition at the end of the day, as it is a perfect jumping off point for people who want to stay longer in Scotland. We can take you to the train station for a direct train back to Glasgow if you are returning home, or we can drop you at the airport if you want to fly to any of the islands.

(Inclusions: breakfast, two hour boat tour on Loch Ness)

Keep scrolling for prices after the hosts’ bios

Kirsten Koza (Expedition Host): is a humorist and adventurer. She is the author of the book, Lost in Moscow, published by Turnstone Press and dubbed by CBC radio Canada “the ultimate what-I-did-last-summer essay ever.” Kirsten edited the Travelers’ Tales (USA) humour anthology, Wake Up and Smell the Shit, and read thousands of stories for that book before narrowing it down to the 31 writers she selected for the volume. She’s had over 75 stories published in books, magazines, and newspapers around the world, and has even made the front page of Kyrgyzstan’s national newspaper after mountain biking across Kyrgyzstan during a violent revolution. She has also been repeatedly invited to speak at the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference in New York, on the power of social media and making stories go viral. She has been leading group expeditions for twenty-four years.

Steffen Kaplan: Besides Steffen’s past accolades for The New York Times — you’ve seen Steffen’s images even if you don’t know it, for example, the opening sequence of TV’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”, those real-life photos of the NYPD are Steffen’s photos, as he covered the NYPD for years. Steffen is a social media and visual strategist and livestream producer for many top organizations, non-profits, universities, and professionals including The Pulitzer Prizes, Princeton University, Emory University’s Center for the Study of Human Health, AARP and many more. And he is the founder and creator of the Spin It Social Hour live stream and believes in using the power of social media for social good.

Steffen led our last Dracula Expedition and the group LOVED him. Kirsten first met Steffen over a decade ago when they were both on the same speaking panel at the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference in Manhattan.

Matthew Greenwood (your guide): created his tour company, in 2004, out of a love for his native country and his lifelong passion for travel. He has guided a wide variety of groups ranging from policemen from Sudan to venture capitalists from New Mexico and adores showing visitors from around the globe the British Isles.

When Matthew was a child he wanted to be a hotel manager and had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of international hotel chains. His interest in all things travel continued through life. He says the reason we embark on journeys is for the unknown, to make discoveries outside our realm of imagination. His own travels have circled the planet. A chance-meeting with a charity worker led to a lifetime dream-trip to Rwanda, where he walked among the mountain gorillas, something he couldn’t have imagined coming true when watching Gorillas in the Mist as a child. That trip also fed Matthew’s appetite for learning about war and atrocities and how humanity can endure and overcome. This passion has led to him taking self-study trips (what he calls holidays) to Bosnia, Serbia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where he and Kirsten (your workshop host) met in Hanoi outside Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. The two of them have been hosting creative adventures together since 2017.

INCLUSIONS: prices include hotel accommodations – full breakfasts daily – five lunches – two three-course dinners – boat cruise on Loch Ness –  all tours in itinerary – historical site entrances – transportation on our own private minibus while on tours – private guides – our all-day roving visual storytelling, photography, party game of workshops, and social media tips and guidance – and lots of digital photos – and if you don’t want want a dram of whiskey, don’t worry, you may have a taste of something lovely and non-alcoholic

**THE PRICE for a single participant on this expedition (having your own delightful hotel room all to yourself) is £3500 (pounds), if there are two of you signing up together (friends, spouses, partners, relatives) who want a double shared room together, it is £2585 per person (this can be in either rooms with one big bed to snuggle in together, or in rooms with two twin beds). A deposit of £200 per person reserves your place when you sign up – this amount is subtracted from the total. You can quickly Google the currency conversion from pounds to your country’s currency – the conversion, however, will happen on the day you make the transaction. The payments are broken down into four.

The group size for this trip is just 14 participants. If you have questions, or would like to sign up, please email Kirsten at writers-expeditions@mail.com (and to make sure we get your email please cc: kirstenkoza@gmail.com), or message us from the Writers’ Expeditions Facebook page. We respond quickly, so if you don’t hear back within 24 hours, please check your spam.

EXCLUSIONS: Airline tickets, alcohol when not mentioned in the itinerary, UK visa, and not stated included meals in the itinerary.