We did the original Scotland ABD in 2013, the first year it was released, and it was amazing. But the current trip is completely different. I tend to agree that the Highlands are not to be missed unless you plan to return to Scotland (I have been multiple times and plan to keep going back, so that might be your plan too.). We did go to China with Thomson and will be going to Japan with them in 2020 (that trip has been booked since 2017, lol, because Thomson guaranteed us 2017 pricing for our 2020 trip, which is going to end up saving us thousands of dollars). We loved our trip to China with Thomson. One of our hotels was the same as ABD. I would agree that the others were maybe a * less than the hotels ABD uses, but they were all at least 4* with the exception of our hotel in Yangshuo a 3*) but it was amazing to stay there instead of in the bigger city. We had 10 on our China trip with 2 full-time guides and a local guide who was with us in each city fort the duration of our stay. The guides were very personable and went out of their way to be helpful, including helping us navigate our way to Shanghai
Disneyland after the Thomson tour ended. Thomson also ran our family trip to Peru last summer with
Nat Geo and it was also top-notch. Thomson guarantees their departures from the first party booked. All of those features plus the smaller group sizes (capped at around 20) are pluses for Thomson in my opinion.