Scotch in a vaulted cellar, bourbon in a rickhouse. Pick your pour.
Which Edinburgh tasting actually pours single malt, what the Jameson tour costs at Bow Street, whether the Bourbon Trail needs a driver. Reviews of the whisky tours you can book, from Speyside to Lynchburg.
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3Four whisky tours worth building a trip around.
A Highland day with the lochs in the window, copper stills on the Clyde, the Midleton warehouses in Cork and a still house in Iceland. What each costs and what the people who went say.
01The Highland dayHighland Lochs, Glens & Whisky Day Tour Including AdmissionLochs and glens out of Edinburgh with a distillery stop and the admission paid. The long way to a dram, and the best one.
02Stills on the ClydeGlasgow: Clydeside Distillery Tour and Whisky TastingA working Glasgow distillery in an old pump house on the river, with the stills behind glass and a tasting at the end.
03The Cork warehousesCork Midleton DistilleryJameson Experience & Whiskey TastingMidleton is where Jameson is really made. The old distillery tour ends in a comparative tasting of Irish styles.
04The far northFlóki Whisky Distillery Tour & Tasting in ReykjavíkA small Reykjavík still house that smokes the barley for one of its malts over sheep dung. Odder than it sounds, and the whisky is good.
Scotch whisky in Scotland: a still, a tasting room or a day in the glens.
Five ways to drink Scotch at source, what it costs to get into each and where it runs from. Edinburgh does tastings and city distilleries; Inverness and the Highlands do the long days out.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Edinburgh: Holyrood Distillery Whisky & Gin Tour · from $36
Distillery toursMash tun, stills and warehouse, a dram at the end.
TastingsFive or six malts in a cellar or a bar, no bus needed.
Castle and whisky daysStirling or Loch Ness in the morning, a distillery after lunch.
Highland day tripsGlencoe and the lochs with a Highland distillery on the way.
SpeysideThe valley with the most distilleries in Scotland.
All 254 whisky tours in Scotland and the UK →
The distillery tours whisky drinkers book most.
Every distillery tour runs the same way, grain to glass, and the good ones are told apart by what happens in the warehouse and what lands in the glass. These three earn their reputation; the chips go straight to the country you are in.
- 1Dublin Jameson Distillery Bow St. Tour and Tasting 45 minsfrom $37
- 2Dublin Jameson Distillery and Guinness Storehouse Guided Tourfrom $166
- 3Edinburgh: Whisky Tasting with History and Storytellingfrom $24
Edinburgh pours whisky underground, on the Royal Mile and down at Leith.
Whisky is a city sport here. A barrel ride under the castle, tastings in the vaults beneath the Old Town, the new distilleries at Holyrood and Leith. The most popular three, then everything else.
Every Edinburgh whisky tour →
Irish whiskey: triple-distilled, pot still, and poured in Dublin first.
Dublin rebuilt its distilling trade in the Liberties after four decades without a working still. Go to Bow Street for the Jameson story, Teeling for the new wave, then down to Cork for Midleton.
- 1Dublin Jameson Distillery Bow St. Tour and Tasting 45 minsfrom $37
- 2Dublin Irish Whiskey Museum and Gallery Guided Tour with Tastingfrom $30
- 3Dublin Jameson Distillery and Guinness Storehouse Guided Tourfrom $166
American whiskey from the Bourbon Trail to Lynchburg.
Kentucky makes the bourbon and Tennessee filters its whiskey through maple charcoal. The distilleries sit an hour or more from the cities, which is why the popular tours here come with a bus.
The whisky tours booked most, worldwide.
Every whisky tour reviewed →The distilleries and tastings that more drinkers book than any others, and what earns each its place.
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Dublin Jameson Distillery Bow St. Tour and Tasting 45 mins
At Jameson Distillery Bow St., your English-speaking guide leads a 45-minute tour through three rooms covering ingredients, triple distillation, and whiskey-making traditions. You’ll taste several whiskeys, receive a Jameson Ginger and Lime drink, and finish at JJ’s Bar. Guides such as Alex, Nial, Nathan, Jack, and Finn have earned special praise for their energy and humor.
From · $37
Read our review →
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Melbourne: Yarra Valley Wine, Gin, Whisky and Chocolate Tour
from $93
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Dublin Irish Whiskey Museum and Gallery Guided Tour with Tasting
from $30
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Edinburgh: Underground Vaults Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky
from $33
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Dublin Jameson Distillery and Guinness Storehouse Guided Tour
from $166
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Edinburgh: Whisky Tasting with History and Storytelling
from $24
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Dublin Teeling Whiskey Distillery Guided Tour and Tasting 1 Hour
from $24
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Edinburgh: The Johnnie Walker Whisky Experience
from $40
What a whisky tour costs, from a city tasting to a three-day Speyside run.
Every whisky tour on the site, grouped by price. A distillery visit with a tasting usually costs less than a bottle of the good stuff.
Distillery visits with a tasting, whisky museums, short city cellar sessions.
Long tastings, food and whisky pairings, and day trips with a distillery included.
Multi-day Speyside and Islay tours, private drivers and the rare-cask sessions.
Three whisky places that taste of their ground.
Plenty of whisky can be made anywhere. These three can only be made where they are: peat smoke off Islay, Kentucky limestone and oak, and Japanese patience.
Islay
Nine or so working distilleries on an island off the west coast, most of them drying their barley over peat cut from the moss. The smoke ends up in the glass. Getting there is a ferry from Kennacraig, which is why the Islay tours out of Edinburgh run to three or four days.
- 14 Day Islay Whisky Tour from Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 148 reviews
- 24-Day Islay & Whisky Tour Including Admissions from Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 81 reviews
- 3Islay: Caol Ila Whisky Distillery Tour & Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 23 reviews
The Bourbon Trail
Kentucky water runs through limestone, which strips out iron and adds calcium, and bourbon law demands new charred oak barrels. Together they give the vanilla and caramel. The distilleries are spread across the bluegrass between Louisville and Lexington, so a day on the trail means a driver.
- 1Bourbon Tour (03) : Buffalo Trace, Woodford, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, Other★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 592 reviews
- 2Bourbon History Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 219 reviews
- 3Beyond the Barrel: NuLu Walking Bourbon & Food Pairing Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 158 reviews
Japanese Whisky
Japan learned its whisky from Scotland a century ago and then went its own way, with blends built inside one company and casks of native mizunara oak. Yamazaki outside Kyoto and Hakushu in the forest under Mount Fuji are the two distilleries visitors aim for.
- 1Japanese Whisky Tasting Experience at Local Bar in Tokyo★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 59 reviews
- 2[Otaru & Yoichi] Let’s go to Otaru Canal, Sakaimachi Street, Music Box Hall, and Yoichi Nikka Whiskey by private car (arriving and departing from Sapporo)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 21 reviews
- 3Japanese Whisky Hunting《HIGH-QUALITY-ONLY》Rare Tasting Class★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 20 reviews
Four whisky tours that will not wait for a walk-up.
Most tastings take a booking the same week. These four run on capped slots, ferry timetables or reservation systems that fill weeks out.
- 01Kyoto 1 Day Suntory Yamazaki Distillery Tour and Asahi Art MuseumSuntory takes reservations for the Yamazaki distillery tour well ahead, and slots go quickly. A tour that includes the visit saves the scramble.
- 024 Day Islay Whisky Tour from EdinburghIslay is reached by CalMac ferry, and summer sailings fill with cars. The multi-day tours hold their crossings, which is most of their value.
- 03Nashville to Jack Daniel’s Distillery Bus Tour + Whiskey TastingsLynchburg is about ninety minutes from Nashville and the distillery runs timed tours. The bus tours sell out on summer weekends.
- 04Dublin Jameson Distillery Bow St. Tour and Tasting 45 minsThe Bow Street tours run on timed entry in small groups. Weekend afternoons are usually gone days ahead.
The rules of a whisky tour: the age, the drive and the dram you take home.
Tastings are served from 18 in Scotland and Ireland, 20 in Japan and 21 in the United States, and a photo ID is checked at the bar. Scotland’s drink-drive limit is lower than England’s, so whoever is driving usually gets a driver’s dram to take home. Closed shoes are expected in the still house. The answer to most of this is a tour with the transport included.
By place: the whisky cities
By kind of dram: still house, tasting room or the open road
Edinburgh to Islay: the whisky route through Scotland most first-timers follow.
IslayThe newest whisky tour reviews.
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