Recently updated on April 24th, 2025 at 11:38 am
Will I feel safe? Will I feel welcome? Two questions American travelers are likely asking themselves right now – and the answer is a resounding yes. Across Europe, locals are eagerly opening their doors and hearts, eager to share their stories and make new connections with visitors from the U.S.
“We have guests travelling with us from all across the world,” says Ulla Hefel Böhler, COO of TTC Tour Brands. “The beauty of guided touring is making friends with and learning from people from a diverse range of destinations, and with different cultural backgrounds. At Trafalgar, many of our guests are from the USA – they have always been – and always will be – welcomed with open arms on our tours, by our local hosts, and by European locals.”
You’ll find that spirit on Trafalgar’s Best of Scotland tour, where Simon and Adity Craufurd welcome American travelers into their extraordinary home for a special Be My Guest experience. Their family has lived at Craufurdland Castle for nearly 800 years, and now they share personal tales of Mary Queen of Scots and delicious homemade cranachan with lucky guests. For them, connecting with Americans is a reminder than even halfway across the world people are more alike than not, despite political or cultural divides.
We sat down with the couple to talk about hospitality, heritage, and why American travelers should feel confident, safe, and deeply welcomed in Europe in 2025.
How long have you been a Be My Guest Host? Tell us a little bit about the experience at Craufurd Castle.
“We’ve been a host for just under a year, and our experience is quite unusual in that my family have lived at Craufurd castle for nearly 700 years, and we’ve been on the estate for nearly 800 years,” says Simon. “We welcome the guests into the castle, and we show them around some of the rooms where we actually live, and tell them stories which relate back to Mary Queen of Scots, King James V, Robert Burns, William Wallace – all the big hitters when it comes to Scottish history.
“Then we’ll jump into the coach and drive quarter of a mile to our restaurant, which is built overlooking our six-hectare, tree-lined fishing lochan. We sit down to dinner at two large tables – Adity hosts one table, and I host the other. We have dinner with our guests, and we swap seats part way to make sure that we get a chance to speak to everybody.
“We [serve] a traditional Scottish seasonal soup followed by a chicken dish… with seasonal vegetables that will change as the summer goes on. We finish off with cranachan, which is very traditional Scottish dessert – a mixture of whipped cream, fresh raspberries and whiskey.”
What do you love most about inviting guests into your home?
“I think just meeting lots of different people from different places, different backgrounds,” says Simon. “It’s an opportunity to meet new and interesting people from all over the world – from different parts of the United States, Canada, South Africa, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore.
Adity added: “When we first did this, we thought that people would be interested in the history, but while they like a little bit of the history, what they’re actually interested in is our life. And we’re interested in theirs.
Explain what it means to be the 29th Scottish Laird?
“If you are the owner of a historic estate then you can be called the Laird of that place. So you could say, I’m Simon Houison Craufurd, Laird of Craufurdland…”
“But only pompous people do that!” Adity chips in. Chatting to the couple it’s clear that they’re both down-to-earth, normal people.
“I think that’s what people actually find quite interesting… essentially they meet some ordinary people who live in a very extraordinary house with an extraordinary history and some fairly extraordinary historical stories,” says Simon.
“[It means] we also have some quite strange traditions. I’m a member of the Royal Company of Archers, which is the monarch’s bodyguard in Scotland. That’s something that we think the last four, if not five generations of my family have done.
“When there are ceremonial things in Scotland – so the garden party of Holyroodhouse, the opening of Parliament, and various other kinds of official ceremonies, then the Royal Company of Archers will be on guard there. When the late Queen passed away, I was lucky enough to be on vigil where her body lay in state in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
“We also have a very strange family tradition in that we are the Royal Hand Washer, which dates back to the 1400s when one of our ancestors saved King James V from a murderous attack…. That ceremony has been carried out for every monarch since 1822, but not including yet King Charles.”
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What do you believe it is that makes Scots so welcoming of other nationalities?
“In Scotland we have a strong tradition of welcoming everybody. We’re always been a very hospitable nation,” says Simon. “I think Europe’s the same. We’ve traveled so much for so long that it’s kind of part of our tradition. If you trace the DNA of anybody in Europe, you’ll find that we’ve probably got links to all the other countries within Europe – so we’re all just kind of welcoming family.”
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How do you think experiences like Be My Guest help bridge cultural understanding?
“At the end of the day we’re all people,” says Adity. “I’m from an Indian background. When we meet people [for the Be My Guest experience] Simon is in this kilt, I’m in my saree. And the way Indian culture works, everybody’s extended family.
“With Simon being a Craufurd at Craufurdland Castle, we get emails from people all over the world – Australians, Canadians, Americans – wanting to connect with us, seeing if we can help them locate their history.
“It’s connecting with people that is the most important thing.”
What advice would you give to someone from the U.S. who might be hesitant about visiting Scotland – and Europe – for the first time?
“Scottish people and European people won’t judge a whole country by what’s happening politically,” says Adity. “I don’t think anybody coming from America should be worried about coming to Europe.”
Simon adds: “If you’re going to experience different cultures and different places, then you’ll meet people in the business of hospitality or tourism – and they want to meet people from all over. That’s what we do [and] we do it is because we enjoy meeting new people from different places who we’ve not met before. It doesn’t matter where they’re from.”
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Have you noticed any common misconceptions American visitors have about British and European culture?
“It very much depends where they’re from – how well traveled they are,” says Adity. “I think the one comment you get from everybody is that they are absolutely astounded how warm the castle is.”
“In terms of Scottish culture, people maybe expect more of us to wear a kilt,” says Simon, who always wears his traditional family tartan kilt for our Be My Guest experience. “The vast majority of us wear them on special occasions, rather than every day. But most Scots are quite proud of our history and our traditions, although we may not live them as much as people expect.”
Americans will feel welcome in Europe this summer. So where will you travel? Leave us a comment…