Every tour on this site has the same number at the top: twelve travellers at most. People ask whether that is a marketing line. It is closer to a piece of arithmetic.

What twelve fits

Twelve people fit around one table. That sounds small, and it decides most of a trip. At one table there is one conversation, or two, and nobody eats with their back to the group. At thirteen you need a second table, and the group quietly becomes two groups.

Twelve fit in one van with a window each. Twelve fit on the sleeping platform of the bothies we use, with the two guides by the door. The trawler in the Hebrides has twelve berths. The family rooms on Sifnos come to twelve beds if we take the whole house.

What it costs

A smaller group costs more per person. The guide's wage, the van and the boat are split twelve ways instead of forty. We would rather say that plainly than hide it. It is the main reason our prices are what they are.

A guide can learn twelve names by the first lunch. After that it is a group of people, not a headcount.

It also means some departures fill quickly, and we do not add a second van when they do. We add a second date.

What it changes

With twelve, the plan can bend. If one person is slow on a climb, the group waits and nobody is late for anything. If the weather turns, we can change the day over breakfast, because twelve people can be told in one sentence.

Sometimes a tour runs with five or six. We do not cancel for small numbers once two people have booked. Those are often the departures guests write to us about afterwards.