A highly original range of holidays and short breaks in Scotland, enabling visitors to explore the country by road, rail, boat or air, has been devised by McKinlay Kidd, a Glasgow-based specialist tour operator. Most are available this month and all summer.

While some tours can be enjoyed by leaving the car at home, one set is road-based — in modern Mini Coopers, perfect cars for zipping around Highland roads. McKinlay Kidd offers a two and four-night trip, the first, the Highland Adventure, providing the opportunity to travel uncrowded roads, explore deserted beaches, tiny lochs and pine forests and to drive the breathtaking Bealach na Ba pass.

The route starts from Edinburgh or Inverness and the break costs from £299 a person, with two nights’ B&B in a charming village hotel, three days’ car hire and a map with recommended itineraries. The four-night trip costs from £475 and runs from Edinburgh to Oban and the Isle of Mull, with nights in a country inn in the glens, a hideaway hotel and a village inn on Mull.

The island is also the base for a three-night whale-watching break, which features a lengthy sea voyage in search of minke whales, basking sharks, dolphins and porpoise. The holiday costs from £279, with B&B, in a drovers’ inn or waterfront hotel and a ferry crossing with car from Oban.

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The sea is the provider of the most important element of five-night foodie breaks that take guests on an exclusive tour of the West Coast with nights at three contrasting hotels, each specialising in fresh local food, particularly seafood. The trip heads out from Glasgow for two nights on the Isle of Bute, where the hotel chef leads a hands-on seafood cookery demonstration.

The third night is spent in a restaurant with rooms at Loch Linnhe and the next two at a family-run inn in a spectacular setting in Wester Ross, from where guests will set out to join a local fisherman in his creel fishing boat and enjoy the harvest and more seafood at a lunch cooked by the lochside. The break costs £520. For something completely different, the company offers a two-night “land on the sand” break, including a return flight from Glasgow to Barra in the Outer Hebrides, where the aircraft touches on the beach. The terminal building is like no other, with views of the sea and serving homemade scones and fresh coffee. The island has stunning coastal scenery, a profusion of wild flowers, a castle and heritage centre and a hotel with an interesting past. With flights and B&B, the break costs £279.

The company’s West Highland Line to Skye trip is so popular that it is fully booked until mid-August but is available from then until October. It takes guests by rail from Glasgow to Spean Bridge for a night in a hotel with views towards Ben Nevis before continuing to Fort William and a ride in a first-class carriage through stunning scenery on the Jacobite steam train to Mallaig. The ferry takes guests to the Isle of Skye for two nights based in a whitewashed hotel on the seashore with views over the Sound of Sleat. The price is £425 with three nights’ B&B, one dinner, rail and ferry travel.

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