Still house, warehouse, and the dram at the end

Anyone can walk round a still house. The dram after it is the point.

Which Speyside tour actually opens a warehouse. What a Kentucky trail day costs once somebody else is driving. Whether Dublin or Edinburgh makes the better first tasting. Reviews of every whisky and bourbon tour you can book.

Start in Scotland Or take the whole list →

592whisky tours to book

$10cheapest tasting

176tours under $50

Five to start with

1The Edinburgh classicThe Scotch Whisky Experience Tour and TastingA guided run through the whisky regions on the Royal Mile, ending with a dram you pick yourself. The first stop if Scotch is new to you.from $33
2Dublin, three whiskeysJameson Whiskey Distillery Tour with TastingsJameson from the mill to the glass in the Bow Street bond, with a comparative tasting at the end of it.from $35
3Tennessee by busNashville to Jack Daniel’s Distillery Bus Tour + Whiskey TastingsLynchburg and the charcoal mellowing vats, with the driving handed to somebody else for the day.from $139
4Glasgow on the ClydeClydeside Distillery Tour and Whisky TastingA working city distillery with the stills behind glass and the river on the other side of them.from $26
5The trail in one dayBourbon Tour (03) : Buffalo Trace, Woodford, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, OtherBuffalo Trace, Woodford and Four Roses on one route, which is more rickhouses than a hire car manages.from $189

Scotland

Speyside, Islay and the Royal Mile: three different Scottish whisky days.

Most of the working malt distilleries sit within a day of Edinburgh or Inverness. What separates the days out is whether you get into a warehouse, sit down to a poured flight, or spend half of it on a Highland road.

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Highland Lochs, Glens & Whisky Day Tour Including Admission

Distillery daysMash tun, still house, warehouse, then the tasting bar. from $19

Sit-down flightsThree or four drams poured and explained, no driving in it. from $17

Castles and casksA Highland castle before lunch, a distillery after it. from $70

Cask strengthWarehouse tastings and small groups, priced accordingly. from $26 All 235 Scottish whisky tours →

What is in the glass

The whisky tours that fill up before the rest.

Across every country on the site these are the tours and tastings that go first: a guided flight, a masterclass with a blending bench, a lunch that turns up between the drams.

Every whisky tour

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,213 reviewsThe Scotch Whisky Experience Tour and Tasting

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,859 reviewsJameson Whiskey Distillery Tour with Tastings

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,667 reviewsYarra Valley Wine, Gin, Whisky and Chocolate Tour

Best ofWhisky TastingsBest ofMasterclassesBest ofWhisky & FoodBest ofTours With LunchBest ofCask StrengthBest ofWhisky Bars

By the kind of dram

Malt, bourbon or Irish pot still: six lists worth opening first.

Six routes into the same subject. A working still house, a poured flight, the Speyside road, a Highland glen, the Kentucky rickhouses, and the Dublin pot stills.

Best ofDistillery ToursMash tun to warehouse, on the floor Best ofWhisky TastingsA flight poured and talked through Best ofSpeysideThe densest run of malt distilleries anywhere Best ofThe HighlandsLochs, glens, and a distillery at the end Best ofThe Bourbon TrailKentucky rickhouses, several in a day Best ofIrish WhiskeyTriple distilled, mostly Dublin and Cork

Before you book

What a working distillery asks of you: an age, closed shoes, and a driver.

Whisky is the rare day out where the constraints have nothing to do with weather. A distillery is a production floor with spirit vapour in the air and a licence to protect, so several things are settled before you arrive.

Age: Eighteen in Scotland and Ireland, twenty-one across the United States. Under-age visitors can often take the tour but not the tasting, and some bourbon distilleries will not admit them at all.
Whoever drives: Scottish and Irish distilleries hand the driver a sealed miniature to take home instead of the dram. Scotland runs a lower drink-drive limit than England, so one measure is not a safe assumption.
Phones and shoes: Filling stores and warehouses hold cask-strength vapour: no photography, and closed-toe shoes on the production floor. Both are settled at the door rather than argued about.
The silent season: Plenty of malt distilleries shut production down for summer maintenance. The tour still runs, the stills are simply cold, so ask first if seeing it working is the reason you are going.

Distillery tours Sit-down tastings Masterclasses With lunch Cask strength Whisky bars

1Jameson Whiskey Distillery Tour with Tastingsfrom $35
2Dublin Jameson Distillery Bow St. Tour and Tasting 45 minsfrom $37
3Dublin Jameson Distillery and Guinness Storehouse Guided Tourfrom $166

What it costs

What a whisky tour actually costs, from a poured flight upwards.

Every tour on the site grouped by what it charges. The cheap end is a flight poured in a city bar; the expensive end is a private car and a warehouse key.

Under $50

City tastings, the standard distillery tour, and plain entry tickets.

1The Scotch Whisky Experience Tour and Tastingfrom $33
2Jameson Whiskey Distillery Tour with Tastingsfrom $35
3Dublin Jameson Distillery Bow St. Tour and Tasting 45 minsfrom $37

$50–150

Full-day distillery runs, masterclasses, and the tours that feed you.

1Yarra Valley Wine, Gin, Whisky and Chocolate Tourfrom $93
2Nashville to Jack Daniel’s Distillery Bus Tour + Whiskey Tastingsfrom $139
3Yarra Valley Wine, Gin, Whisky and Chocolate Tourfrom $92

$150 and up

Private drivers, cask-strength warehouse tastings and multi-day trails.

Three whisky countries

Scotland, the United States and Ireland are not making the same drink.

Malt off a pot still, corn out of a charred barrel, and a triple-distilled pot still somewhere in between. Where you go decides what ends up in the glass.

Single malt

Scotland

Malted barley, two copper stills, and at least three years in oak before anyone may call it Scotch. The regions are real differences rather than marketing: Speyside is soft and orchard-fruited, Islay is peated over a kiln fire, the Highlands run from coastal salt to heather sweetness. A tour here almost always ends in a warehouse, because that is where the argument about wood happens.

1The Scotch Whisky Experience Tour and Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,213 reviews
2Whisky Tasting with History and Storytelling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,451 reviews
3The Johnnie Walker Whisky Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,670 reviews

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Bourbon and rye

The United States

At least fifty-one per cent corn, and by law a barrel that has never held anything before and has been charred inside. That new oak is why bourbon arrives sweet and vanilla-heavy in a fraction of the time Scotch needs. Kentucky stacks its barrels in open rickhouses and lets the seasons work them; Tennessee filters the spirit through sugar-maple charcoal first.

1Nashville to Jack Daniel’s Distillery Bus Tour + Whiskey Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,906 reviews
2Bourbon Tour (03) : Buffalo Trace, Woodford, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, Other★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 592 reviews
3Nashville’s Big Machine Distillery Guided Tour with Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 356 reviews

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Pot still

Ireland

Triple distillation and, in the single pot still style, a mash of both malted and unmalted barley that gives Irish whiskey its particular oily, peppery weight. Nearly all of it was gone by the 1970s and nearly all of the tours are part of the comeback: Dublin has working distilleries inside the city again, and Cork holds the largest of them at Midleton.

1Jameson Whiskey Distillery Tour with Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,859 reviews
2Dublin Jameson Distillery Bow St. Tour and Tasting 45 mins★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,690 reviews
3Dublin Irish Whiskey Museum and Gallery Guided Tour with Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,078 reviews

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Booked most

The whisky tours more travellers take than any others.

Everything with a still in it →

One tour, one distillery, one city tasting room. These are the ones that carry more travellers than anything else on the site, and what earns each of them the slot.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,213 reviews