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.

Plot Twist: a writing workshop and carefully curated creative adventure across Scotland and Yorkshire, September 7-13, 2026

Write the mystery, thriller, or suspense novel you never knew you were going to start, while we gallivant for a week across Scotland and Yorkshire being mentored by a Random House and Sunday Times bestselling crime writer. We’ll stay in an opulent gothic castle, a chic boutique hotel, and a Baronial-style lochside lodge inside a Scottish national park. We’ll ride first class on a train route included in The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys, and we’ll also be inspired by dark history, dungeons, castles, moats, idyllic landscapes, and a decadence of food.

No matter your writing genre, you’re invited to join us and start work on a terrifying thriller, or cozy mystery, or page-turning suspense novel—pick your poison. Whether you’re a published author or hoping to be published, this is a chance to be daring, and spontaneous, and try new methods of working in alluring settings while having far too much fun.

*Small group of 14 participants (we are currently sold out, but if you’d like to be on the waiting list should there be a cancellation, please email writers-expeditions@mail.com. Or you might be interested in our second expedition in Scotland in September, The Scottish Caper, which has one spot remaining.

Plot Twist is hosted by Writers’ Expeditions and Exploring York

“Gallivant: go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment.” Oxford Languages

(Scroll down for prices, inclusions, itinerary, hosts’ bios, contacts, and photos)

(Photo of Edinburgh, Scotland, by Peter Swan)

David Mark, your mentor, is back to lead this workshop again: Before writing twenty-seven acclaimed books, including the internationally bestselling Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy series, David spent more than fifteen years as a journalist—and for seven of those years he was a crime reporter with The Yorkshire Post. This man knows murder, and you can tell when you read his books, which aren’t just page-turners but are superbly crafted works of literature that engage all your senses.

David is a sought-after author, performer and public speaker at literary festivals, but the fourteen of you have him all to yourselves for an entire week.

(Photo of bestselling novelist David Mark taken by Plot Twist participant Megan Allyn Dulin)

Val McDermid (Scottish crime novelist) describes David’s writing as having “more twists and turns than a corkscrew through the eyeball.” The Financial Times declares, “Aficionados of the grittiest, most trenchant fare love Mark’s copper Aector McAvoy.” Daily Mail’s Geoffrey Wansell says that David Mark’s work is “Dark, compelling crime writing of the highest order.”

(More about David and a link to his books at Penguin Random House can be found after the itinerary with the hosts’ bios and prices)

Itinerary

Monday, September 7th

York, England—founded by Romans and loved by Vikings

(Clifford’s Tower, Medieval-Norman castle keep, York, England)

From Inspiration to Publication: We’ll meet Monday morning at our boutique hotel (Victorian Yorkshire meets Parisian chic) for a warm-up writing romp in the lounge or garden (weather depending) followed by “From Inspiration to Publication,” a conversation with David Mark. It’s time to start thinking about what kind of thriller or mystery you want to write, and David will discuss them all with you.

(The Shambles, York, photo by Kirsten Koza, author, adventurer, humorist, & Writers’ Expeditions host)

Free time for a leisurely lunch and to write – and also to decide if you’ll be writing a character-driven or plot-driven mystery/thriller.

(Yorkshire Fat Rascals, photo by your guide, Matthew Greenwood, owner of Exploring York)

(Yorkshire Rarebit at Bettys [no apostrophe], photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

In the late afternoon we will take to the cobbled streets inside the medieval walls of York for a true-crime walking tour before heading to the dank depths of the infamous York Dungeons, where dark history and notorious villains come to life.

(Plot Twist participant & Canadian playwright Chloë Whitehorn – photo by Kirsten Koza)

This evening we dine together at a reputedly haunted 17th century house that used to be owned by the ropemaker who made the hangman’s noose for York Prison, but it’s now a restaurant serving a relaxed French-inspired menu featuring Yorkshire produce. The Chopping Block also happily caters to dietary requirements, and they are opening just for us on a Monday, for our private dinner party, and they will be closed to the public.

(Kirsten’s garlic mushroom appetizer and housemade bread at the Chopping Block)

(Included: true crime walking tour, three-course dinner at the Chopping Block, York Dungeons tickets, overnight for two nights at Clementine’s boutique hotel)

Tuesday, September 8th

(photo courtesy of Markenfield Hall for Writers’ Expeditions)

Pack your laptop or pen and notepads in your day bag, because we’ve been invited to hold our two-hour morning writing session on the fringes of the Yorkshire Dales inside a medieval, moated, manor house, one of very few still in existence. Markenfield Hall might also be the oldest continually inhabited home in England, and they are excited to have us visit their home. The earliest part of the house was built circa 1230. While its history is bloody, the setting is serene, making the moated manor perfect for our writing workshop.

Our private bus will take us to Ripon where you have free time to lunch in the historic market square which is surrounded by a choice of English bakeries, pubs, tearooms, cafes, delis, and pie shops, plus non-food shops such as wool, and books. Then we’ll delve into the notorious Victorian workhouse (new to Plot Twist this year) and also visit the Police Museum which is housed in an old jail where unfathomable punishments were doled out, but also they exhibit the early breakthroughs in solving crime, some still relied upon to this day

We’ll return to York in the late afternoon, and then it is free time for writing. Our guide is a foodie and will give you restaurant recommendations.

(Included: full breakfast from menu at Clementine’s, our private mini-bus, museum tickets for both the Workhouse Museum and also the Police Museum, Markenfield Hall and tea and cake during our workshop there)

(Breakfast at Clementine’s – all our hotels have a lovely selection on the menus – photo by Kirsten Koza)

Wednesday, September 9th

From North Yorkshire to Scotland – first class! Plus two nights at Melville Castle!

(2025’s dark imaginations are incognito at York Railway Station – however, don’t be deceived by these sweet smiles, the surgeon in the group spent the entire train journey talking to me about how to kill someone in the toilet – photo by me, Kirsten Koza)

After breakfast at Clementine’s, you and your luggage will be shuttled by cabs to catch the 10:00 AM train from York to Edinburgh.

(Royal Border Bridge, which you’ll be crossing on a train just like this one – photo by Peter Swan)

The train ride is seacoast-sublime, but as you enjoy the view, you’ll also be plotting murder. We’ll arrive two and a half hours later at Edinburgh’s Waverley Station, the only train station in the world named after a work of literature. Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels include the books Rob Roy and Ivanhoe. In fact, Edinburgh is the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes books) was even born here.

Did you know that Edinburgh Castle is built upon an extinct volcano?

(Photo by Kenny Lam, Visit Scotland)

We’ll be met by our private vehicle, which will take our luggage for us, so we can wander to lunch at the corner of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh’s Old Town, at the Whiski Rooms.

New to 2026: After lunch (for some dark inspiration) we’ll visit the Surgeon’s Museum and go on the Blood & Guts walking tour through Edinburgh’s Old Town and hear stories about chloroform tea parties and serial killers.

(Edinburgh, Old Town, photo by your guide, Matthew Greenwood)

Then we’ll be driven to our castle abode where we spend two nights in luxury.

Write in opulence at Melville Castle: walk the grounds, perhaps seek out the infamous Mary Queen of Scots oak trees, or explore the regal rooms with quirky antiquities, including suits of armor, animal skeletons, and stately art–enjoy fine dining at your pleasure in the hotel’s cellar restaurant, or perhaps tea in the Peacock room, or a wee dram and elaborate cocktails in the library bar, or in the privacy of your room. Tomorrow you will have a full day for writing at the castle and one-on-one sessions to talk with David about your books and ideas.

One of the rooms we have booked is haunted. Let us know if you do not want this room. We have booked over half the rooms at the castle. If none of you want to entertain a ghost, then either David, Kirsten, or Matthew will have to have that room.

(included: full breakfast from the wonderful Clementine’s menu, cabs to York Station, first class train tickets, Surgeon’s Hall Museum, private Blood & Guts walking tour of Edinburgh led by Surgeon’s Hall, and of course the accommodation for the next two nights at Melville Castle Hotel, let us know if you don’t want the haunted room–or if you do–ghost isn’t guaranteed)

Thursday, September 10th

Full day of writing at Melville Castle–masquerade dinner party tonight!

Today you will have the opportunity for a full day of writing and to confer with David in private sessions. This evening we will have a masquerade party and three course dinner in our private dining room, followed by readings. Bring your own masquerade mask.

(Included: breakfast, three course dinner)

Friday, September 11th

To Loch Long & Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park we go!

(Loch Lomond, photo by Niall Hardie)

After breakfast and checkout, we’ll drive to the ruins of Linlithgow Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was born.

(glimpse of fountain that once ran with wine at Linlithgow Castle – photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

We will also stop at Rosslyn Chapel, not just because it is a sensational structure, but because it is the ideal setting (you probably know why) to discuss the success of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, which has sold over 81 million copies.

(Photo of Rosslyn Chapel by Kirsten Koza, Plot Twist, Writers’ Expeditions)

We’ll pause for lunch along the route of our scenic drive, which will take us through Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park to Knockderry Country House Hotel, our exquisite lochside lodge, where you can hear Loch Long lapping from the front door. This loch also contains secrets (ones of global impact), which we’ll reveal to you when you’re there, or maybe you’ll witness this oddity-to-behold yourselves. We have booked the entire lodge for our mystery and thriller writing for the next two days and nights.

Dine at your leisure at the hotel, and perhaps sample some of their fine collection of whiskeys.

(Knockderry Country House Hotel has an award winning restaurant – photo by Kirsten Koza)

(Included: breakfast, entrance to Linlithgow Castle, entrance to Rosslyn Chapel, private minibus, overnight at Knockderry Country House Hotel – we’ve booked the entire inn for two nights)

(The dramatic landscape you’ll be driving through in The Trossachs today)

Saturday, September 12th

You will have all day to work on your new mystery or thriller at Knockderry Country House Hotel. You’ll be encouraged on this day to write as much as is inhumanly possible – to channel your creative demon – and write as many pages (of what is affectionately dubbed the vomit draft) as you can. All along on our writing adventure, you will have been given exercises and tips and techniques to lead up to doing just this.

(Knockderry Country House Hotel photographed by your guide, Matthew Greenwood)

Tonight we’ll have a decadent three-course meal together in our hotel’s dining room (yet another award winning restaurant) followed by readings.

(below image: Loch Long in front of Knockderry Country House Hotel – photo by Kirsten Koza)

(Included: Breakfast, dinner, and overnight at Knockderry Country House Hotel)

Sunday, September 13th

(Loch Lomond, from Luss, misty morning, photo by Kenny Lam, Visit Scotland)

Following breakfast and checkout, we’ll tootle around Loch Lomond in our minibus, stopping at the best vantage points until we arrive at our boat, where we’ll board and cruise to the breathtaking fjord-end of the lake.

We’ll reboard our bus, and will stop at the picture postcard village of Luss on Loch Lomond, where you can buy quality Scottish-made items, or just wander and admire the view from the dock. We’ll lunch at a traditional inn before driving back to Edinburgh, where we’ll drop each of you off at either the airport, airport hotels, or back downtown Edinburgh, or at Waverley Train Station, where we’ll wave farewell around 6:00 PM.

(Photo of Edinburgh alley by Michaela Wenzler)

(breakfast, boat tour tickets, minibus)

HOSTS’ BIOS, FOLLOWED BY PRICES AND INCLUSIONS

Kirsten Koza (writing workshop 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 for writers and making stories go viral.

David Mark: As promised, a little more about your murder mystery and thriller mentor. The link below David Mark’s image leads to some of his books at Penguin Random House.

(Above: David Mark bestselling crime writer and link to some of his books at Penguin Random House https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/231321/david-mark/) – image taken by author Cat Jameson during Plot Twist 2025)

Matthew Greenwood (your guide): created his tour company, Exploring York, in 2004, out of a love for his native county of Yorkshire 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.

Prices, Inclusions, Exclusions, and More Photos

PRICES AND INCLUSIONS: prices include hotel accommodations – full breakfasts daily – three three-course dinners – first class train ticket from York to Edinburgh – boat cruise on Loch Lomand – cab from Clementine’s to train station on day three –  all tours in itinerary – museum and historical site entrances – transportation on our own private minibus while on tours – private guide – and writing workshops.

The price for a single participant on this writing expedition (having your own delightful hotel room all to yourself) is £2990. A deposit of £400 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 deposit when you sign up, a second payment in February 2026, the third in May, and the final payment in the summer before you travel. Have a partner in crime who is also your bedfellow – for £1200 more you can bring them and perhaps become the next great thriller writing duo. There are no twin rooms which is why the important word is bedfellow.

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, lunch, UK visa, and dinners that are not on the itinerary.

(Loch Long – photo by Kirsten Koza)

(2025’s Plot Twist group on the Royale Mile in Edinburgh – photo by Kirsten Koza)

(Linlithgow Castle has a maze of winding stairs – photo by Kirsten Koza)

(Wallace Monument which we’ll see on route to Loch Lomond – photo by Kenny Lam – Visit Scotland)

(Writers’ Expeditions 2024 participants with internationally bestselling crime novelist David Mark – up to no good in the back row)

(photo taken by our guide, Matthew Greenwood, in Edinburgh – note the small print)

(front entrance of Melville Castle taken by Matthew Greenwood, your guide)

(Night in York)

(Writers’ Expeditions’ participants riding our private minibus through the Yorkshire Dales)

(Tearoom cabinet, photo by Matthew Greenwood, your private guide for Plot Twist)

(Little Shambles, photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

(Scones and tea, photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

(2019’s writers in a village pub – photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

(A mushroom bourguignon pie at The Guy Fawkes Inn – photo by Kirsten Koza)

September 2026’s exiting new Itinerary has launched!!! Click here for all the details and prices!

Plot Twist: a writing workshop and carefully curated creative adventure across Scotland and Yorkshire, September 1-7, 2025

Write the mystery, thriller, or suspense novel you never knew you were going to start, while we gallivant for a week across Scotland and Yorkshire being mentored by a Random House and Sunday Times bestselling crime writer. We’ll stay in unique boutique hotels and a lochside lodge inside a Scottish national park. We’ll ride first class on a train route included in The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys, and we’ll also be inspired by dark history, dungeons, castles, moats, idyllic landscapes, and a decadence of food.

No matter your writing genre, you’re invited to join us and start work on a terrifying thriller, or cozy mystery, or page-turning suspense novel—pick your poison. Whether you’re a published author or hoping to be published, this is a chance to be daring, and spontaneous, and try new methods of working in alluring settings while having far too much fun.

*Small group of 14 participants: we are sold out for 2025 and it is completed, but 2026 expedition is now selling. Click here for all the details and prices!

Plot Twist is hosted by Writers’ Expeditions and Exploring York

“Gallivant: go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment.” Oxford Languages

(Scroll down for prices and inclusions, itinerary, hosts’ bios, contacts, and more photos for Plot Twist)

(Edinburgh Castle, photo by Peter Swan)

David Mark (your writing workshop mentor): Before writing twenty-five acclaimed books, including the internationally bestselling Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy series, David spent more than fifteen years as a journalist—and for seven of those years he was a crime reporter with The Yorkshire Post. This man knows murder, and you can tell when you read his books, which aren’t just page-turners but are superbly crafted works of literature that engage all your senses.

David is a sought-after author, performer and public speaker at literary festivals, but the fourteen of you have him all to yourselves for an entire week.

Val McDermid (Scottish crime novelist) describes David’s writing as having “more twists and turns than a corkscrew through the eyeball.” The Financial Times declares, “Aficionados of the grittiest, most trenchant fare love Mark’s copper Aector McAvoy.” Daily Mail’s Geoffrey Wansell says that David Mark’s work is “Dark, compelling crime writing of the highest order.”

(More about David, including his mugshot and a link to his books at Penguin Random House, can be found below with the hosts’ bios)

Itinerary

Monday, September 1^st

York, England—founded by Romans and loved by Vikings

(Clifford’s Tower, Medieval-Norman castle keep, York, England)

From Inspiration to Publication: We’ll meet at our boutique hotel (Victorian Yorkshire meets Parisian chic) for a warm-up writing romp in the lounge or garden (weather depending) followed by “From Inspiration to Publication,” a conversation with David Mark. It’s time to start thinking about what kind of thriller or mystery you want to write, and David will discuss them all with you. Then we take to the cobbled streets inside the medieval-walled city of York, where our guide will lead us on a walk riddled with real-life historical plots and characters.

(Plot Twist: photo by Kirsten Koza, author, adventurer, humorist, and Writers’ Expeditions host)

Free time for lunch and to work on your character-hunting assignment for your book and decide whether you’ll be writing a character-driven or plot-driven mystery/thriller.

(Yorkshire Fat Rascals, photo by your guide, Matthew Greenwood, owner of Exploring York)

(Yorkshire Rarebit at Bettys (no apostrophe), photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

Cocktail hour workshop and readings.

This evening we dine together at a reputedly haunted 17th century house that used to be owned by the ropemaker who made the hangman’s noose for York Prison, but it’s now a restaurant serving a relaxed French-inspired menu featuring Yorkshire produce. The Chopping Block also happily caters to dietary requirements.

Then we’ll experience the dank depths of the infamous York Dungeons, where dark history and notorious villains come to life.

(Included: three-course dinner, York Dungeons tickets, overnight for the next two nights at Clementine’s boutique hotel)

Tuesday, September 2^nd

(photo courtesy of Markenfield Hall for Writers’ Expeditions)

Pack your pen and notepads in your day bag, because today’s workshops will be on the move.

After breakfast at Clementine’s, we’ll board our minibus to head through the Yorkshire Dales to the Ripon Police Museum, which is housed in a Victorian prison.

After lunch we have a treat – we’ve been invited to a medieval, moated, manor house, one of very few still in existence, for a private tour. Markenfield Hall might also be the oldest continually inhabited home in England, and they are excited to have us visit their home. The earliest part of the house was built circa 1230. While its history is bloody, the setting is serene, making the moated manor the perfect inspiration for our settings workshop.

We’ll return to York in the afternoon, and then it is free time for writing. Our guide is a foodie and will give you restaurant recommendations.

(Included: breakfast, minibus, museum tickets, Markenfield Hall, overnight Clementine’s)

Wednesday, September 3^rd

From North Yorkshire to Scotland – first class

(Royal Border Bridge, which you’ll be crossing on a train just like this one – photo by Peter Swan)

After breakfast you and your luggage will be shuttled by cabs to catch the 10:00 AM train from York to Edinburgh. The train ride is seacoast-sublime, but as you enjoy the view, you’ll also be plotting murder. We’ll arrive two and a half hours later at Edinburgh’s Waverley Station, the only train station in the world named after a work of literature. Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels include the books Rob Roy and Ivanhoe. In fact, Edinburgh is the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes books) was even born here.

Did you know that Edinburgh Castle is built upon an extinct volcano?

(Photo by Kenny Lam, Visit Scotland)

We’ll be met by our private minibus, which will take our luggage as we wander to lunch at the corner of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh’s Old Town. After lunch (for some dark inspiration) we’ll adventure below Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to the hidden underground streets, a tangle of tenements where people lived, loved, and were murdered in the 1600s to 1800s. Fans of Rebus might remember this location, as it was used for a murder scene.

(Edinburgh, Old Town, photo by your guide, Matthew Greenwood)

We’ll then drive seven miles to the Craigie Hotel where we’ve booked the entire inn at the foot of the Pentland hills. This fabulous house, with a quirky past, was built in 1885 for a renowned zoologist (a Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University) who did pioneering genetic (breeding) work with zebras right on the grounds (think: baby zorses, and zonkeys, or zedonks).

Afternoon and evening of writing at the hotel – don’t worry, you’ll have guidance if you need it: whether you prefer the hotel bar, or enjoying your elegant room and the insides of your eyelids from your bed, or perhaps a pot of tea on the outdoor grounds where zebras used to roam – this is your time.

Dine at your leisure in the hotel’s restaurant. After dinner we’ll share our murders from the train, and you can talk about your book ideas with David and the group if you’d like.

(included: breakfast, first class train tickets, Mary King’s Close, cabs to York Station, and private minibus, and of course the Craigie Hotel accommodation for the next two nights)

Thursday, September 4^th

(Rosslyn Chapel photo by Peter Swan)

We have one daytime activity besides writing, and that is a visit to the very nearby Rosslyn Chapel (just a few minutes away), not just because it is a sensational structure, but because it is the ideal setting (you probably know why) to discuss the success of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, which has sold over 81 million copies.

(Photos from Cannonball Restaurant – they’ll happily cater to dietary needs)

A thrilling evening: We’ll head into Edinburgh City Centre for a three-course dinner by the castle at the award winning Cannonball Restaurant (built in 1630 and gets its name from a cannonball imbedded in one of the walls), followed by a haunted-vaults and 16^th century cemetery tour, where you might note the names on some old tombstones being the same as character names in the Harry Potter books – purely coincidental, apparently.

(Photo of Edinburgh alley by Michaela Wenzler)

(Included: breakfast, Rosslyn Chapel entrances, three course dinner, ghost/vaults/cemetery tour, private minibus)

Friday, September 5^th

To Loch Long & Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park we go!

(Loch Lomond, photo by Niall Hardie)

After breakfast and checkout, we’ll stop to explore Stirling Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was crowned at nine months of age (but there has been a fortress here since prehistoric times). We’ll pause for lunch along the route of our scenic drive, which will take us through Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park to Knockderry Country House Hotel, our exquisite lochside lodge, where you can hear Loch Long lapping from the front door. This loch also contains secrets (ones of global impact), which we’ll reveal to you when you’re there, or maybe you’ll witness this oddity-to-behold yourselves. We have booked the entire lodge for our mystery and thriller writing for the next two days and nights.

(Stirling Bridge and Wallace National Monument, photo by Kenny Lam, Visit Scotland)

Writing followed by workshop: fine tuning and perfecting first sentences, first pages, and titles.

Dine at your leisure at the hotel, and perhaps sample some of their fine collection of whiskeys.

(Included: breakfast, entrance to Stirling Castle, private minibus, overnight at Knockderry Country House Hotel – we’ve booked the entire inn)

(The dramatic landscape you’ll be driving through in The Trossachs today)

Saturday, September 6th

You will have all day to work on your new mystery or thriller at Knockderry Country House Hotel. You’ll be encouraged on this day to write as much as is inhumanly possible – to channel your creative demon – and write as many pages (of what is affectionately dubbed the vomit draft) as you can. All along on our writing adventure, you will have been given exercises and tips and techniques to lead up to doing just this.

(Knockderry Country House Hotel photographed by your guide, Matthew Greenwood)

Tonight we’ll have a decadent three-course meal together in our hotel’s dining room (yet another award winning restaurant) followed by readings.

(Included: Breakfast, dinner, and overnight at Knockderry Country House Hotel)

(Loch Lomond, from Luss, misty morning, photo by Kenny Lam, Visit Scotland)

Sunday, September 7th

Following breakfast and checkout, we’ll tootle around Loch Lomond in our minibus, stopping at the best vantage points until we arrive at our boat, where we’ll board and cruise to the breathtaking fjord-end of the lake.

We’ll reboard our bus, and will stop at the picture postcard village of Luss on Loch Lomond, where you can buy quality Scottish-made items, or just wander and admire the view from the dock. We’ll lunch at a traditional inn before driving back to Edinburgh, where we’ll drop each of you off at either the airport, airport hotels, or back downtown Edinburgh, or at Waverley Train Station, where we’ll wave farewell around 6:00 PM.

(breakfast, boat tour tickets, minibus)

HOSTS’ BIOS, FOLLOWED BY PRICES AND INCLUSIONS

Kirsten Koza (writing workshop 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 for writers and making stories go viral.

As promised, a photo of David Mark, your murder mystery and thriller mentor. The link below his image leads to some of his books at Penguin Random House.

(Above: David Mark bestselling author, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/231321/david-mark/)

Matthew Greenwood (your guide): created his tour company, Exploring York, in 2004, out of a love for his native county of Yorkshire 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.

Prices, Inclusions, Exclusions, and More Photos

PRICES AND INCLUSIONS: prices include hotel accommodations – full breakfasts daily – three three-course dinners – first class train ticket from York to Edinburgh – boat cruise on Loch Lomand – cab from Clementine’s to train station on day three –  all tours in itinerary – museum and historical site entrances – transportation on our own private minibus while on tours – private guide – and writing workshops.

The price for a single participant on this writing expedition (having your own delightful hotel room all to yourself) is £2800. A deposit of £200 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 three: the deposit when you sign up, a second payment in the spring, and the final payment in the summer before you travel. Have a partner in crime who is also your bedfellow – for £1200 more you can bring them and perhaps become the next great thriller writing duo. There are no twin rooms at the two small Scottish inns which is why the important word is bedfellow.

The group size for this trip is just 14 participants and we can only accommodate one more – two if it is a couple. 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, lunch, UK visa, and dinners that are not on the itinerary.

(Writers’ Expeditions 2024 participants with internationally bestselling crime novelist David Mark – up to no good in the back row)

(photo taken by our guide, Matthew Greenwood, in Edinburgh – note the small print)

(Night in York)

(Writers’ Expeditions’ participants riding our private minibus through the Yorkshire Dales)

(Tearoom cabinet, photo by Matthew Greenwood, your private guide for Plot Twist)

(Little Shambles, photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

(Scones and tea, photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

(2019’s writers in a village pub – photo by Kirsten Koza, Writers’ Expeditions)

(A mushroom bourguignon pie at The Guy Fawkes Inn – photo by Kirsten Koza)

(York Minster, photo by Kirsten Koza, adventure travel writer, founder of Writers’ Expeditions)

You’re invited to join our annual Vlad Dracula Expedition, a seven-day dinner party and Halloween celebration through Romania which includes our private dinner on Halloween night in the room where real-life Vlad Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) was born (inside the medieval walled town of Sighisoara), and it also includes the ultimate costume party at Bran Castle (“Dracula’s Castle”) celebrating Romania’s Day of the Dead.

2025 Expedition Dates: October 28 through November 3

One small group of 16 participants: This expedition is currently sold out at 16. If you’d like to be emailed in case of cancellation, just contact us at writers-expeditions@mail.com

Prices, and all the inclusions, how to contact us, and the hosts’ biographies are listed at the end of the following itinerary in bold (after Day 7, November 3rd).

We’ve made the reservations—you just need to pack a costume and your inner child (or demon) for this howling party across Romania. Our seven-day (small group) expedition includes attending the Halloween festival on Day of the Dead, at Bran Castle (known as Dracula’s Castle, built circa 1377), which was owned by Vlad’s grandfather (Mircea the Old). And on Halloween night our group will have a private dinner in the chamber where real-life Dracula, Vlad Drăculea (known as Vlad the Impaler), was born, in 1431. We’ll be spending Halloween night at an inn of similar vintage, just a few doors down from the house where Vlad was born, inside the (UNESCO) medieval walled city of Sighișoara. We were the first people (and are the only) to ever host a Halloween dinner party in the room where Dracula was born, and each year we barely make it through cocktails before we are regaling each other with spine-tingling ghost stories and scary experiences from our lives.

Our Transylvanian guide (with whom I explored Romania extensively) and I have designed a journey that will take us to the best local haunts: medieval castles with gruesome history, torture chambers, moody cemeteries, all contrasted with one of the most beautiful times of year to visit Romania which will be glowing in autumn colours.

We will also be guiding you during our escapades to capture photos of a lifetime, whether you’re using a mobile device, point & shoot, or a DSLR with multiple lenses. Plus we’ll be providing you (throughout the expedition and when you get back home) with digital images of your adventures.

We’ll be joined this year by Steffen A. Kaplan to lead our photography: a twenty-year veteran and award winning supervising photo editor for the New York Times — plus, 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, Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, AARP and many more.

Keep scrolling for itinerary, prices, inclusions, and hosts’ bios.

Day 1:  October 28th  – Meet in the lobby of our hotel, in the old town of Bucharest in the late afternoon. Next door to our hotel are the ruins of the Princely Palace, the castle that Dracula built in celebration of his own greatness or evilness. In the evening we’ll explore the historic pedways of the old town which was first settled in 70 BC and by the 1400s was the wealthiest city in Eastern Europe. Then we’ll dine at The Beer Chariot, a dazzling 19th century restaurant which is always packed with locals and boasts an extensive menu of tasty Romanian dishes. – Dinner, Overnight at Europa Royale Bucharest Hotel ****

Day 2: October 29th – After a hot buffet breakfast in the hotel’s award winning restaurant, we’ll travel along the grand boulevard outside the Palace of Parliament, the heaviest building in the world (according to Guinness World Records) and the second largest administrative building in the world (following the Pentagon), and it’s also a legacy of a more recent “Dracula,” the communist dictator Ceaușescu (executed in 1989). Then we’ll break out the treat bags for our scenic drive to Targoviste and Curtea de Arges.

The townsfolk of Targoviste were blamed by Vlad for their involvement in the assassination of his brother by the Turks. Vlad killed nobles and enslaved the townsfolk to build his clifftop castle at Poenari. Poenari is where Vlad Dracula’s wife plunged to her death to avoid capture by the invading army of Turks. We’ll be going there tomorrow. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner – Overnight at lakeside mountain spa****

Day 3: October 30th – Dracula’s Fortress (where Vlad’s first wife plunged to her death off a cliff to avoid capture) and then to the mind-blowing Transfăgărășan – The ruins of Poenari Castle (Dracula’s Fortress) are perched high on a rugged crag above the Arges river gorge. There are 1,480 stairs to Dracula’s “vulture nest.” One of our previous participants worked it out to being 100 storeys. Now, if you really think you can’t make the climb–there’s a gift shop with tables at the bottom that also sells alcohol. Please note that sometimes there are bears in the area, and that means that sometimes we can only view the ruins from the bottom, and we have to drive to view them from above. A bear proof fence has been installed around the area, though. Following Poenari, we’ll cross the Carpathian Mountains on the Transfăgărășan Highway.

We then plunge further west into Transylvania to Corvin Castle where Vlad Dracula was fugitive, or some argue prisoner. This is one of the largest castles in Europe and has been host to many paranormal investigative television shows from around the world. You’ll see why, or maybe some of you will feel it. – Breakfast, lunch, dinner – Overnight in Hunedoara ****

Day 4:  October 31st – Halloween – tonight we have a private dinner party in the room where Vlad Dracula was born in 1431! After exploring Corvin Castle and the grisly torture chambers at its gates, we’ll take a picturesque drive to Sighisoara, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

(A small sample of food on our expedition. We can cater to omnivores, vegetarians, vegans, vampires and carnivores.)

We’ll be spending Halloween night inside this preserved walled town, in a medieval hotel, a few doors down the street from the house where Vlad Dracula was born in 1431, which is where we’ll be dining. After scaring each other with spine-tingling stories around the dinner table, we’ll also pay a nighttime visit to the Saxon cemetery which also has a section along its winding downhill path for soldiers who died in World War I. – Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Palinca tasting. Overnight in hotel which is over 500 years old!

Day 5: November 1st – Day of the Dead/Halloween Costume Party at Dracula’s Castle (Bran Castle) tonight! -After breakfast we’ll revisit Sighisoara’s hauntingly alluring cemetery in the daylight and will climb the town’s clocktower to see its inner workings and for a breathtaking view. Then we’ll head to our picturesque rural mountain inn in Moieciu (where we’ll be spending the next two nights), not far from Dracula’s Castle.

Tonight is the ultimate costume party –  at Dracula’s castle, Transylvania. Adults of all ages come from around the world for this festival. Every year they decorate the castle differently. You’ll get to photograph some fantastic costumes. Whoever wants to stay to dance into the night is welcome to do so. If anyone would rather return to the inn, they’ll be driven back to Moieciu. -Breakfast, lunch, dinner – two nights at our guide’s Transylvanian mountain inn, which although rural still has ensuite baths, wifi, and boasts delicious traditional food.

Day 6: November 2nd – This morning we’ll sleep-in after the party, before our drive to Brasov where we’ll conquer the medieval ramparts, watchtowers, and Saxon churches (if they don’t conquer us). But best of all, this walled city boasts one of the narrowest streets in Europe. You’ll have some free time in Brasov to wander or shop, as well. Then off to Rasnov: where we’ll explore the 13^th century, mountaintop fortress built by Teutonic Knights.

Day 7: November 3rd – today we travel to Vlad the Impaler’s grave on an island – and then back to Bucharest

This morning after breakfast we’ll head away from Transylvania back to Wallachia, stopping for the climax of Vlad’s life – his death – and his unusual burial wishes.

Farewell: We’ll then drop you off (near 6:00 PM) at the airport, or in Bucharest, or at an Otopeni airport hotel, or the train station in Bucharest, for the next leg of your journey. – Breakfast, lunch, return to Bucharest 

PRICES AND INCLUSIONS (FOLLOWED BY HOST BIOS): This trip includes tons, so please do scroll down to inclusions (anyone from around the world is welcome, and you can check the currency conversion from euro to yours in a quick google search) – it is 2100 euro per person in a double/shared room for two (either twin beds available or queen/double for couples). If you want a single room and don’t want to share, the single room supplement (to have your own burp and fart space) is 300 euro for the entire trip, which is nothing more than the extra cost to have that single room. A deposit (which comes off your total) of 300 euro reserves your spot. Please contact us with questions or to join the expedition at:  writers-expeditions@mail.com (and cc kirstenkoza@gmail.com). We respond quickly (if you don’t hear back within 24 hours, check your spam bin). You can also message us at our Writers’ Expeditions Facebook Page.

Inclusions:

• All accommodation (the delightful inns are three and four star, with private bath, and wifi)
• All meals (don’t blame us if you gain weight – the food in Romania is fabulous, and you’re the one ordering what you want from the menus)
• Photography and videography sessions for those who wish
• Professional digital images of your journey
• video of your adventure
• Writing tips for any who wish (however, please note this is a roving dinner party and photography adventure, not a writing workshop)
• All transfers and transportation on tours
• English-speaking, Transylvanian guide
• Our own driver and private vehicle
• All entrance fees to castles and museums

Exclusions:

• Airfare
• Alcohol
• Visa

Kirsten describes your hosts:

Kirsten Koza: I’m your host and expedition designer and am a professional adventure travel writer, photographer, author, humourist and journalist. I ruthlessly pretest the Writers’ Expeditions trips to find the best local guides, tour operators, and unique adventures, so you can have a great experience. I’ve had more than seventy-five stories (and my photos) published in books, magazines, and newspapers around the world, on topics as varied as going inside the largest Syrian refugee camp, bullfighting, cannibalism, tornado chasing, mountain biking, dildos, dictators, Putin, gluten, mutants, and politics. I’ve even made the front page of Kyrgyzstan’s national newspaper after mountain biking across their republic during a revolution. I’m the author of Lost in Moscow: A Brat in the USSR and edited the Traveler’s Tales anthology Wake Up and Smell the Shit: Hilarious Travel Disasters, Monstrous Toilets, and a Demon Dildo.

Our Romanian guide, Horia:

I first met Horia in 2004 (over twenty years ago – wow), when he had just finished his degree in tourism, and he took me on a mountain biking adventure across Transylvania, Romania. He’s one of my favourite guides on this planet, and he now also owns a beautiful mountain hotel, not far from Bran Castle (“Dracula’s Castle”). We’ve been running this expedition for a decade now, and every year Horia adds a new treat. He also is a fabulous story-teller and is just so relaxed and cool that he didn’t even drop his camera when he punched an approaching wild bear on its nose. You can ask him to show you the video when we’re in Romania.

Steffen A. Kaplan: a twenty-year veteran and award winning supervising photo editor for the New York Times — plus, 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, Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, 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.

___________

And we leave you with some photos of Halloween costumes, food and fun from past expeditions and a three-minute documentary made by Kyle Keyser, a former Dracula Expedition participant from 2016 (who is hosting for us in 2024) and is now airline pilot. Turn up your speakers for it! The Dracula Expedition Video!

That Time a Stranger Joined My Honeymoon

story and photos by Kirsten Koza

(first published in Perceptive Travel Magazine – USA)

Spring 1990: Malcolm, my ex-boyfriend, was on one knee amongst the rubble in my East London room. My bedroom was basically a walk-in closet where I kept a toppling tower of swords and tap dancing shoes. The only good things about my flat were my eccentric roommates, it was across from a pub, and it was just a five-minute stagger to East 15 Acting School where I was currently performing in Shakespeare’s Pericles.

Malcolm, a Civil Engineer, had flown from his orderly home, north of Toronto, to spend Easter with me in England, and I hadn’t even tossed my clothes into my wardrobe. He was holding an emerald ring. “Would you…?”

My flat was one-hundred percent slum. I’m not being overly dramatic. It was so bad that after we’d been broken into, a London Bobby walked into my un-ransacked room and said, “My-my, look what they did in here!”

Why was Malcolm kneeling? I wanted to kick him.

“Kirsten, will you marry me?”

I could say no. I was twenty-three and Malc, twenty-six. What was the rush? This was a logistical nightmare. Why was he looking at me all doe-eyed? Beam me up, Scotty. I fidgeted on the edge of my crappy single bed. I didn’t even have a toilet seat in my flat. Koza to Enterprise. Malc had gained weight since I saw him in January.

“Yes.”

I still wanted to kick him.

Malcolm obviously didn’t know what to say next. “Your production of Pericles was ummm…”

“Um is polite.” It was the worst show I’d ever been in.

Off to Sicily

It took Malcolm one day to decide he wasn’t spending his holiday in East London. I’d urged him to bring his mountain bike to the UK. That morning he’d left his bicycle at my place while I was at the college, and he took the tube into London. Malcolm returned with plane tickets to Sicily, a map, and a copy of The Rough Guide. This was to be our honeymoon, since we were already overseas and were going to be married in just a few months.

That very same night Malc was refilling his bike tires beside the baggage carousel at Palermo’s airport, and I was fiddling with my broken gear shifter.

“Hello. Do you want some riding company?” An Englishman in his late thirties had wheeled over his beat-up touring bike. He wore jeans with clips around the ankles.

“Sure. Which way are you heading?” Malc stuck out his hand.

“Towards Trapani, along the coast, but just to a nearby hotel for tonight.” The stranger looked at me. “I’m Christopher Crawley.” He saw me eyeing the bug nets attached to his bike. “Entomologist, with the British Museum. Everyone just calls me Crawley.”

“Kirsten and Malcolm,” Malc replied. “We’re heading towards Mount Etna. Opposite direction.” He pulled his map from his pack.

“You know, the traffic will be quite thick that way. Towards Trapani is much quieter and less populated this time of year.” Crawley peered over Malcolm’s shoulder at the map.

“Hmm,” Malcolm pondered. “Maybe we should go the way you’re going.”

I frowned. I really wanted to see an active volcano. And I really didn’t want to travel with Christopher Crawley.

“It’s eleven-thirty. Might as well go find a hotel. Maybe we should share a room to save money,” the entomologist suggested.

“Great idea!” Malcolm clapped Crawley on the back.

What? Had Malc just invited this stranger to share a room with us on our honeymoon? Oh, my God! He had! I shot dagger-eyes at Malcolm. He didn’t receive my message.

A Threesome on the Road Together

Two days later, we were still biking and bunking with the bug doctor. An old lady in black was showing us our room in the Spaghetti Western village of Scopello.

I was shivering after the pedal in pelting rain along the rugged coast from Castellammare. I jumped under a blanket on one of the many beds that butted end to end along the walls. If you opened the desk drawer, I bet you’d have found a bed.

The lady said something about no heat. “What?” I wailed as she left. Crawley rifled through his bags. He’d be used to freezing; the museum paid diddly-squat. He probably had some fingerless, Scrooge-gloves in his panniers.

Malcolm stripped off his wet clothes. I looked at his Schwarzenegger-like chest with disinterest. Crawley was watching him too. I decided to grab a shower before either of them used the hot water.

“We’ll just have to have some grappa,” Crawley pulled the hooch from his bag.

“Tutto, tutto!” Another old lady in black was stooped over my mixing bowl of penne “Tutto!” She motioned for me to keep eating. Why wouldn’t she leave? I rammed another forkful into my mouth. I raised my wineglass in salute. She smiled and backed towards the pensioni’s kitchen.

“Excuse me.” Crawley got up to go to the loo.

As soon as he was out of earshot Malcolm grabbed my arm. “Crawley proposed a threesome while you were in the bath.”

Wine filled my sinuses. “Pardon?” I spluttered. “What the hell did you say?” I blotted red wine off my turquoise jacket.

“I reminded him we’re engaged.”

“So! He’s married!” This was not what I expected from a mild-mannered entomologist who wore bike clips around his trousers. “Is he interested in guys too? How would it work?” I suddenly realized Crawley had been looking at Malcolm perhaps differently than I’d assumed. I’d thought it was muscle envy. How were we going to share a room with him now?

“I told him that I had no interest. He’s fine with it.”

“Well, I’m not.” I chugged the rest of my wine. “There hasn’t been a hint. How long has he has been thinking about this? Maybe that’s why he hooked up with us in the first place.”

Creepy Crawley was coming back to the table. I flushed tomato red. I waved to the old lady who was peeking from the kitchen door. “Grappa?” I called to her.

Tucked in our beds in the bone-chilling pensioni, the air was thick with tension. I couldn’t sleep. Malcolm was horny. I could tell by the object poking into my back. No way was I going to have sex. I could feel Crawley listening in the dark. I closed my eyes and called for the starship Enterprise.

At breakfast Crawley suggested we all go down to the abandoned tonnara for a swim. But after breakfast Malcolm bailed. He was sick and wanted to stay in bed. So, now I was down at the stony beach with Crawley—just me, and Creepy Crawley. The cliffs and old buildings loomed over us. The entomologist was puffing on a cigarette. I didn’t know what to say. I decided to go for a dip. I shed my clothes down to my black one-piece and tiptoed into the March Mediterranean. My breath was whacked out of me by the cold. I went deeper and a wave came over my shoulders. That was enough. I went back to my towel and Crawley.

“Can I bum a smoke?” Malc hated it when I smoked.

“Certainly. How’s the water?”

“Invigorating.” My hands shook as I tried to light up.

“Well, I guess I might as well.” Crawley stripped down to his underpants. Then, right in front of me, off came his boxers. I looked away. I looked back. Holy cannoli, the man was hung like a donkey, a stallion, a blue whale!

Crawley hobbled over the rocks. I stared at his white buttocks. I was in a state of shock, induced by the sheer mass of his manhood.

“Woah.” Crawley had entered the sea. “Wo—” a wave had lapped his privates. He ducked under. He turned around and walked towards me. The icy temperature had done nothing to the size of his penis, nothing! It still swung near knee-level. Where had he been hiding that beast? I looked at my cigarette. I looked at the historic towers on the cliffs. My gaze drifted over Crawley again and then darted quickly up to the fluffy, white, clouds.

Sicilian Longevity on Display

Crawley and I returned to the pensioni to get Malcolm for lunch. Malc rolled over in bed. So, Crawley and I decided to go for a beer. We sat at an outdoor table at the Scopello bar inhaling springtime between cigarettes. This was uncomfortable. And it was all due to this threesome thing, and well, now, the image of bug-man’s penis kept flashing through my mind.

“Do you want another?” Crawley pointed to my third beer.

“I think I’m done, or I’m going to fall asleep.” I snuffed my cigarette.

“Why don’t we go lie on the grass?” Crawley nodded towards the small park beside the patio.

“Sure.”

We paid and moved five feet over onto the grass. Just as we sat, a smoke billowing bus, belched open its doors and boisterous Sicilian seniors erupted from within. A couple of young women helped the more decrepit onto benches. Another heaved wicker baskets covered in brightly coloured fabric.

“Something tells me these people have their own teeth,” Crawley whispered. Huge lengths of chewy Italian bread were being sliced open. There were whole prosciuttos, capocollos and salamis. There was a wheel of cheese that could support the bus. There were stuffed tomatoes, slices of roasted eggplant and red peppers dripping in olive oil. Mount Etna sized sandwiches were erected and spilled filling like lava.

One of the young women handed sandwiches to Crawley and me.

“Guess how many years have I!” A spry old man in a charcoal three-piece suit danced before me. “What you say if I say ninety-nine years? My birthday next week and I have big party. You come!”

“I was going to guess seventy.” I was flabbergasted.

The old man kissed my cheeks. “Ninety-nine!” he bellowed. There was raucous applause. This was so unlike any North American nursing-home outing.

“My secret? It’s the olive oil!” The man who was almost a hundred beamed.

“Pomodori!” An old lady hollered.

Another yelled, “É tutto il vino!” and they all laughed.

“She said it’s all the wine he drinks,” Crawley translated.

“You guess how old my wife!” The spry man pointed to the woman who’d shouted about the wine.

“You all look so young.”

His wife dumped cookies in my lap. “Mangiate.”

“She ninety. I’m older,” the old man boasted.

She slapped her husband. “Ogni bel gioco dura poco.”

Crawley chuckled, “She just said, basically, that all good things come to an end.”

I was happy for Crawley’s company. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this for the world. I was getting past the threesome thing too and his enormous penis. Or perhaps I was drunk.

A Collector of Stories

Decades later: It was Malc’s and my anniversary. We were in our unorderly kitchen, north of Toronto. My mess was everywhere; nothing had changed. I told Malc about the elderly couple in Scopello. Then I reminded him that he invited a stranger to join us on our honeymoon. “Why did you do that?” I demanded. “Come clean. You still do this. I hate it.”

Malc paused. “Because I’m a collector too, but unlike Crawley, I don’t kill my specimens. I like hearing strangers’ stories. Anyway, that wasn’t our honeymoon. It was before the wedding.”

“But you don’t do anything with the stories.” I was baffled.

“I remember them. You invite strangers now too. You do it bigger. You invited ten women from the internet to bike the Andes with you.”

Crap. He was right. Maybe things did change. Maybe I’d changed. “Let’s go to Sicily. You owe me a honeymoon because according to you, we didn’t have one.”

“Really long flight.” Malc looked unenthused. “Maybe Scotty can beam us there.”

“He won’t,” I rolled my eyes. “I just read that nobody on Star Trek ever said, ‘beam me up, Scotty.’ I reckon that’s why it never works.”