Edinburgh takes three days. Then the road goes north.
Which Loch Ness day trip actually puts you on the water. What a Skye run costs from Inverness rather than Edinburgh. Whether the vaults are worth doing after dark. Reviews of every tour you can book in Scotland.
Six names decide a Scottish itinerary. These are them.
Four cities you can actually base yourself in, and the two destinations that fill the minibuses out of them every morning of the season.
One day out of Edinburgh buys you Glencoe, Loch Ness and back before dark.
The Highland day trip is what Scotland actually sells. Four shapes of that day, what it costs to get a seat on each, and how far north each one really gets.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands, Glencoe and Pitlochry Tour
Glencoe and the Great GlenBig miles, the pass at Glencoe, a loch stop and a distillery.
Loch Ness with a cruiseUrquhart Castle from the water, which is the only angle that works.
Skye and the CuillinA brutal day from Edinburgh, a sensible one from Inverness.
Loch Lomond and the TrossachsThe near loch: ninety minutes out, home for dinner.
All 164 Highland days out →
Edinburgh: the rock before ten, the vaults after nine.
Everything in Edinburgh →
Up the esplanade while it is still quiet, down the closes off the Royal Mile through the afternoon, and under the South Bridge once the light goes. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Castle entry, with a guide or without
Entry runs on timed slots and the esplanade queue is real by ten. A guided slot puts somebody between you and the crowd, and gets the Half Moon Battery told properly before the one o’clock gun goes off over your head.
The chambers under the South Bridge
The vaults were shops, then slums, then sealed and forgotten for a century. Small torch-lit groups only. The good ones tell you what each chamber was used for; the loud ones just shout in the dark.
Haggis, Scotch and the Old Town tables
Small plates through the closes, a pub that still pours from the cask, and usually a bottling you would never have picked off the shelf yourself. Book the early sitting if you want the good tables.
Scotland’s most-booked days out.
Every tour in Scotland →These carry more travellers than anything else in the country. What each one is, what it costs, and who it actually suits.
1
The World Famous Underground Ghost Tour
Review of Edinburgh’s World Famous Underground Ghost Tour, with Greyfriars Kirkyard, Old Town tales, vaults, prices, tips, and honest drawbacks.
From · $26
Read our review →
2
Underground Vaults Walking Tour in Edinburgh Old Town
from $33
3
Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands, Glencoe and Pitlochry Tour
from $67
4
Loch Ness & Highlands Small-Group Tour from Edinburgh with Cruise
from $84
5
Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry Ticket
from $51
6
Edinburgh Castle Guided Walking Tour in English
from $52
7
Glenfinnan Viaduct, Glencoe & Fort William
from $62
8
The Chocolatarium Chocolate Tour Experience in Edinburgh
from $44
Scotland keeps its history outdoors, and usually on a rock.
Edinburgh sits on a volcanic plug. Stirling guards the crossing that settled two wars. Urquhart is a ruin above the deepest water in Britain, Eilean Donan has its own island and Kilchurn stands in the loch itself. Take the entry ticket with the tour: the gates cap numbers and the good slots go early.
Whisky here is a working industry that lets visitors in.
A bonded warehouse with the casks still breathing, a city distillery five years old, a tasting room off the Royal Mile with thirty bottles open at once. Take the tours that pour at cask strength, and give the car keys to somebody else.
What a day out in Scotland actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. The walks that made Edinburgh’s reputation sit at the very bottom of this ladder.
Old Town walks, the ghost tours, city bus tickets and the short cruises on Loch Ness.
The full-day standards: Glencoe and Loch Ness, Skye out of Inverness, castle entry with a guide.
Private drivers, the multi-day runs to Skye and Orkney, and the steam-train packages.
Three things that happen nowhere else.
Ruined castles and hard walking exist all over Europe. A loch with its own monster industry, a working steam service over a curved viaduct, and a sealed street four metres under a bridge do not.
Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle
The loch holds more fresh water than every lake in England and Wales together, it runs to about 230 metres deep and it has never been known to freeze. Urquhart sits on a promontory halfway down, which is why every cruise turns there. Boats run from Dochgarroch and from Inverness; the castle only looks the way it is meant to look from the water.
- 1Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands, Glencoe and Pitlochry Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,854 reviews
- 2Loch Ness & Highlands Small-Group Tour from Edinburgh with Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 6,022 reviews
- 3Loch Ness, Glencoe & The Highlands★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,771 reviews
The Jacobite over Glenfinnan
A working steam service runs Fort William to Mallaig from late spring into autumn, over the twenty-one arches at Glenfinnan. Seats sell months ahead and the film crowd takes most of them. Day tours out of Edinburgh and Inverness bundle the ride with the viewpoint above the viaduct, which is the shot people are really after.
- 1Scotland in 5 Days Including Jacobite Steam Train from Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 341 reviews
- 22-Day Jacobite Experience including the Hogwarts Express from Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 335 reviews
- 3The Magical Highland Tour Including the Jacobite Steam Train Journey★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 179 reviews
The Edinburgh vaults
Nineteen arches of the South Bridge were closed in as storage in 1788, let to the poorest tenants in the city, then filled with rubble and forgotten until the 1980s. They are cold, entirely dark and about four metres below the pavement. Groups go down after the shops shut, in tens, with torches.
- 1The World Famous Underground Ghost Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 9,272 reviews
- 2Underground Vaults Walking Tour in Edinburgh Old Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 8,506 reviews
- 3Ghost Bus Tour of Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,761 reviews
Four Scottish bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged the night before over a pint. These four run on steam timetables, timed entry and ferries that sail whether you are on them or not.
- 01Scotland in 5 Days Including Jacobite Steam Train from EdinburghThe steam service runs spring to autumn only, and sells out months ahead. Coach packages hold blocks of seats; independent tickets rarely last the week.
- 02Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry TicketEntry is timed and the esplanade fills from mid-morning. Through August the Tattoo takes the forecourt and the whole schedule shifts.
- 03Orkney Day TripOrkney is a long drive north and then a crossing. The day runs leave before dawn, and the Pentland Firth cancels for weather at short notice.
- 04The Isle of Skye and Eilean Donan CastleSkye is five hours from Edinburgh and two and a half from Inverness, so the day starts early whichever base you pick. Small-group seats go first and the island’s own beds are gone by May.
Rain is not a reason to stay in. It is a reason to go underground.
Weather arrives here in every month of the year, and the honest wet-day answers are the things people queue for anyway: chambers under the bridge, a warehouse full of casks, a castle with a roof on it, a tasting room with the lamps lit at three in the afternoon.
By place — cities, lochs and islands
By kind of day — a walk, a dram, a castle or a loch
Edinburgh, Stirling, Loch Lomond, Glencoe, Loch Ness, Skye: the shape most first trips take.
Glencoe & Fort WilliamThe newest Scottish tour reviews.
More of what has just landed →
Escape Burns’ Hame Toun: Outdoor Puzzle Game in Ayr
Read our review →
Glencoe & Oban Privately Guided Day Tour in Luxury MPV
Read our review →
Private Balmoral Glamis Dunnottar Castles Tour from Aberdeen
Read our review →
Jacobites and Scottish Highlands Day Tour from Glasgow
Read our review →
Highland Lochs & Castles Tour to Oban & Glencoe
Read our review →
Shore Excursion: Private Braveheart & Whisky country from Edinburgh
Read our review →
Loch Lomond & The Highlands Private Day Tour with Scottish Local
Read our review →
Private Travel to Outlander Filming Locations Across Scotland
Read our review →
Edinburgh Night Tour with a Local Guide: Private & 100% Personalized
Read our review →
Loch Lomond Tour App, Hidden Gems Game and Big Britain Quiz (7 Day Pass) UK
Read our review →
Outlander Shore Trip from Invergordon Cruise Terminal
Read our review →
Private Stirling Day Guided Tour in the Premier Classic LEVC TXE
Read our review →