The castle is the easy part. Then come the closes.
Which vaults tour actually goes under the bridges. What a day to Loch Ness and Glencoe costs. Whether Skye is worth three of your five nights. Reviews of every tour you can book in Edinburgh.
Four bookings a first trip to Edinburgh hangs off.
The rock, the chambers under it, the road north and the dram at the end. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningEdinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry TicketEntry is timed and the esplanade queue is real. A guide walks you in and up to the Great Hall before the middle of the day arrives.
02After darkUnderground Vaults TourThe chambers under South Bridge, bricked up for a century and lit by very little. The evening slots go first and they are the ones worth having.
03The long day northLoch Ness, Glencoe & the Scottish Highlands TourOut at eight, back after dark: Glencoe, the loch, and a boat on it if you want one. The day that talks people into coming back.
04The dramThe Scotch Whisky Experience Tour and TastingA guided run through the whisky regions on the castle esplanade, ending in a tasting you choose. The sensible first one if Speyside and Islay mean nothing yet.
Six ways to spend a day in Edinburgh, and the road out of it.
A castle on a plug of volcanic rock, chambers sealed under the bridges, a whisky counter at the top of the Mile, and glens that start ninety minutes up the road. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Edinburgh is ninety minutes from the Highlands. Spend one of your days there.
All of these leave the city early and have you back the same night, apart from Skye, which never pretended otherwise. What each kind of day costs to board, and how far it actually goes.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Scottish Highlands Tour
Loch Ness and GlencoeThe long one: the glen, the loch, a boat on it if you want.
Glenfinnan and the viaductThe bend in the line the steam train crosses, Glencoe on the way.
Stirling and the KelpiesAn hour west: a castle on a crag and two steel horses.
St Andrews and the Fife coastCathedral ruins, the Old Course, fishing harbours coming home.
The Isle of SkyeTwo or three days, because the Cuillin do not fit into one.
All 115 Loch Ness and Highlands day trips →
Edinburgh’s most booked days out.
Every Edinburgh tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the city, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Scottish Highlands Tour
Ride from Edinburgh to Glencoe and Loch Ness on a scenic 12.5-hour coach tour with local stories, optional castle visits, and a cruise.
From · $62
Read our review →
2
Harry Potter Magical Guided Walking Tour
from $19
3
Underground Vaults Tour
from $32
4
Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry Ticket
from $49
5
Loch Ness, Glencoe & Scottish Highlands Tour
from $61
6
The World Famous Underground Ghost Tour
from $26
7
Underground Vaults Walking Tour in Edinburgh Old Town
from $33
8
Edinburgh Castle Guided History Tour with Tickets
from $50
Edinburgh keeps its worst stories in the closes and the vaults.
The Old Town is built on top of itself. A whole street sits sealed under the City Chambers, the chambers under the South Bridge went unmentioned for a century, and Greyfriars has a cage over one of its graves. These three carry more travellers than anything else on the Mile.
- 1Harry Potter Magical Guided Walking Tourfrom $19
- 2Underground Vaults Tourfrom $32
- 3The World Famous Underground Ghost Tourfrom $26
Edinburgh is where you work out which whisky is yours.
This was never a distillery town, it is a tasting town: blending rooms off the Mile, a bar under the arches with four hundred bottles open, gin stills at the Holyrood end, and a long day up to Speyside once you get serious.
What a day out in Edinburgh actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best Edinburgh days come in under the price of dinner.
Old Town walks, ghost tours, castle entry, whisky tastings and the pub crawls.
The full-day standards: Loch Ness and Glencoe, Glenfinnan, Stirling and the Kelpies, St Andrews.
The multi-day runs to Skye and the islands, private guides and the once-a-trip splurges.
Three things that only happen in Edinburgh.
Ghost walks and castle tours exist in every old city. A wizarding trail written in this one’s cafés, a Jacobite tower house twenty minutes past the Forth bridges, and a working distillery under an extinct volcano at the end of the main street do not.
The Potter trail
Rowling wrote in cafés around the Old Town, and the city already looked the part: a kirkyard holding a Thomas Riddell headstone, a curved run of painted shopfronts on Victoria Street, and a school across the Grassmarket with four houses and a great many turrets. Most walks run in the evening and finish at Greyfriars, which is the right way round.
- 1Harry Potter Magical Guided Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 11,944 reviews
- 2Original Harry Potter Locations Tour in Edinburgh : Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,236 reviews
- 3Harry Potter Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,646 reviews
Outlander, on location
Lallybroch is a private tower house at Midhope, twenty minutes west past the Forth bridges. Culross plays Cranesmuir with its ochre houses and its walled garden, Blackness Castle stands in for Fort William, and Doune plays Castle Leoch. One day covers three of them, and the estates keep their own opening days, so the route shifts with the season.
- 1The Outlander Experience Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,821 reviews
- 2Outlander Film Locations Day Trip from Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,776 reviews
- 3“Outlander” Filming Locations Explorer Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,270 reviews
Holyrood, and the hill behind it
The Royal Mile ends at a palace with an extinct volcano standing over it and a working distillery in an old railway shed across the road. The climb up Arthur’s Seat takes about forty minutes from the palace gates, the Salisbury Crags path for the city view and the Dunsapie side for the gentler gradient. The wind at the top is not a rumour, and the whisky is a short walk back down.
- 1Holyrood Distillery Whisky and Gin Tour & Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 533 reviews
- 2Holyrood Distillery ‘Journey to Whisky’ Tour & Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 126 reviews
- 3Arthur’s Seat Hike with Local Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 76 reviews
Edinburgh weather does not cancel the day. It moves it indoors.
The haar comes in off the Forth and sits on the city, the wind arrives up Princes Street sideways, and in December it is dark by four. All of it has the same answer: go under the bridges, into a tasting room, or behind a castle wall. This city put most of its best hours under a roof on purpose.
Four Edinburgh bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be sorted from a bar stool the night before. These four run on timed entry, small groups and minibuses that leave at eight, none of which take any interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry TicketEntry runs on timed slots and the middle of the day goes first. Booked ahead you walk past the queue on the esplanade instead of standing in it.
- 02Real Mary King’s Close Guided TourThe close under the City Chambers is guided-only, in small groups, on a fixed timetable. There is no other way in and little is left at the door on a busy afternoon.
- 03Underground Vaults TourOnly a handful of people fit in the chambers at a time, so the evening slots sell out first, and the evening slots are the whole point.
- 043-Day Isle of Skye and The Highlands TourThe Skye runs are two and three days with beds booked at the far end. Once the minibus is full it is full, and the next one is not tomorrow.
Edinburgh Castle sits on a volcano, and the Old Town slid down behind it.
The rock split the glacier and the debris piled up in its lee, which is why the Royal Mile runs downhill in one straight line to the palace with the closes falling away either side. Walk it downhill in the morning and take the bus back up.
Every castle tour and ticket →
How long have you got in Edinburgh?
Kinds of Edinburgh day — closes, glens, tastings or the road
Three days in Edinburgh: the Mile, the hill, then the road north.
The Royal Mile
Edinburgh Castle
The vaults
Arthur’s Seat
A whisky tastingThe newest Edinburgh tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Stirling Castle & Loch Lomond Private Luxury Day Tour
Read our review →
the World Famous Kelpies and Stirling Castle small group tours
Read our review →
Rosslyn Chapel and Hadrian’s Wall Tour in Spanish
Read our review →
Immersive Old Town Ghost Walking Tour in Edinburgh
Read our review →
6-Day Isle of Skye & Hebridean Hopper Tour w/Room
Read our review →
Magic and Legends in Edinburgh: Small Group Walking Tour in French
Read our review →
