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How to Easily Get Around Edinburgh like a Local
Coming up: buses, trams, Edinburgh airport, ridesharing, the city’s famous Royal Mile, Lothian Buses, and all the basics (and beyond!) on how to get around Edinburgh.
So, you’re visiting Edinburgh.
… and you want to know how to get around the city.
Well, in this guide, your good friends at Travelness have covered it all. Expect how to get around the city (and the city centre), how to get beyond the city, and how to get to Edinburgh from the airport.
Pack some sandwiches and come join the fun!
Getting to Edinburgh
Getting to Edinburgh is easy, cos it has MANY transport links (and it is Scotland’s capital, so it would be pretty weird if it were hard to reach).
You can reach the city by air, bus, car, and rail…
… so next up, more details on all four:
Flying into Edinburgh Airport
Edinburgh Airport has direct connections to more than 150 places around the world. They include:
- Ibiza
- Berlin
- Tirana
- Istanbul
- New York
- Budapest
- Marrakesh
- Amsterdam
- The Faroe Islands
- … and plenty more
(here’s a list of them all)
The airport is only 8 miles (13 km) from the city centre—and you can get from the airport to Edinburgh city centre in a variety of ways:
- There are four airport bus services: these are the Airlink 100, the Skylink 200, the Skylink 400, and the Airport Express. These four airport bus services all run on different routes (so the one you’ll choose will depend upon exactly where you want to go), and although the buses run to different timetables, there’s 24/7 coverage (so there’ll always be at least one bus available whenever you land). For most people, the Airlink 100 will probably be the best option—it runs close to Princes Street and Edinburgh’s main rail & bus stations. Here’s more.
- Direct tram from the airport to the city centre: during peak hours, you’ll never need to wait more than 10 minutes for a tram—and because the system is easy to navigate and understand, it’s a big favorite for people arriving in Edinburgh. The first daily tram leaves the airport at 06:26; the last tram leaves at 22:48. A tram from the airport to the city centre costs £6.50 for adults, and £3.30 for kids. Here’s more.
- Taxi: Edinburgh Airport is only a 20-minute drive from the city centre. To get a taxi, head to the airport’s East Terminus and book a taxi at the official rank (or just take an Uber). I wouldn’t take a taxi, cos it’s expensive, especially given how reliable and frequent the other types of travel are—expect to pay between £30 and £40 for a taxi.
Getting to Edinburgh by train
Edinburgh has two main train stations:
- Edinburgh Waverley (which is in downtown Edinburgh)
- … and Edinburgh Haymarket (which is just to the west of downtown Edinburgh, but still very central, and still very well-connected)
Edinburgh Waverley is the busiest, most well-connected and most central of the two—and it sits right beside the Royal Mile, the most famous part of the city. Usually, if you’re coming to Edinburgh from England, this is where you’ll be arriving. From Edinburgh Waverley, you can get direct connections to London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, and plenty more places.
Edinburgh Haymarket is in the west of the central part of the city. It links with Edinburgh Airport (by tram)… and if you’re reaching Edinburgh from another part of Scotland, your train will probably (though not necessarily) arrive into Edinburgh Haymarket. Edinburgh Haymarket has direct connections to Glasgow, Fife, North Berwick, Aberdeen, and lots more places.
Broadly speaking, train travel is the most popular and common form of long-distance travel in the UK.
Getting to Edinburgh by bus
Long-distance bus travel is pretty popular in the UK (especially with younger people and budget travelers), cos it’s WAY cheaper than taking the train. For example, if I was to book an advance ticket now to ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh, I could get one for as little as £4. Bargain!
… and because the UK’s trains are regularly late, taking the bus is often more reliable (and some routes aren’t much slower by bus).
Anyway, if you’re gonna travel by long-distance bus, your three options are Megabus, National Express, and CityLink. Megabus is usually cheaper, and they typically offer MANY more departure times. If I travel by long-distance bus in the UK, I pretty much always use Megabus.
Getting to Edinburgh By car
It’s easy to reach Edinburgh by car.
England’s roads are very safe and well-signposted, traffic isn’t too bad in most places (especially inner-city traffic), and all roads are well-maintained.
To make your journeys as fast as you can, it’s best to use motorways: motorways are the widest, fastest UK roads, and they’re labeled with an ‘M’ at the beginning of their name. The main motorways leading into Edinburgh are the M90, M8, and M9—but if you’re approaching Edinburgh from the south, you’ll probably drive via the A1 (which heads to Edinburgh from my home city of Newcastle).
… for more road-tripping around the UK, drive to our guides on:
Getting around Edinburgh
Buses in Edinburgh
When you’re traveling within Edinburgh by public transport, you’re usually using a bus.
… local bus companies have super-frequent connections (you should never wait more than a few minutes for your next ride), and most buses run between 6am and midnight. For late travelers, the city is also home to some pretty frequent night buses.
Most people pay for buses by card—you simply tap onto a bus when you enter. That said, you can only do this when you have a card that works in the UK (so, if you don’t have one, it’s worth getting a bank account with Monzo or Wise or Revolut or whatever).
It’s also possible to pay for your bus tickets with cash… but you need to have the exact change. Stupid, I know.
With both cash and card, you pay when you get on the bus (not before you embark).
Typically, single tickets are around £1.80, and day tickets are around £4.50 (at the time of writing, anyway).
Though many bus companies run within Edinburgh, most routes are serviced by Lothian Buses and First Bus (and you’ll take the majority of—probably all of!—your journeys with one of these two companies; especially Lothian Buses). Remember: if you buy a day ticket for one bus company, your ticket is only valid on buses operated by that company.
Buses from all companies run a little less frequently on Sundays.
You can buy passes to cover multiple trips, but we’ve covered that soon in the ‘tickets and transport passes’ section of this guide.
Edinburgh’s trams
Edinburgh’s tram system opened in 2014. It has only one line, with 15 stops.
As we’ve covered, you can use the tram system to get to the airport and back… but aside from that, you probably won’t use it very often. That said, here’s the map.
Trams typically run every 10 or so minutes (though less frequently on Sundays), and run from around 6am until around 11pm.
An adult day ticket currently costs £4.50—and a single adult ticket currently costs £1.80.
You don’t buy tickets on the tram—instead, you buy them at the tram station machines before you board (and if you don’t have a ticket for the tram, you can be fined £10). Again, you can pay either by card or cash (cash needs to be the exact change again).
Again, you can buy more passes that cover multiple trips, but we’ve covered that soon in the ‘tickets and transport passes’ section of this guide.
Taxis and ridesharing apps in Edinburgh
These days, most people who want a taxi in Edinburgh just use Uber.
So that’s what you should do too. It’s popular in the city, and you’ll rarely wait more than 5-10 minutes for a ride.
… but if you’re a horrendous technophobe, there are still some local taxi companies you can call the old-school way. Get their contact numbers from your guesthouse or hotel or whatever.
Ridesharing apps aren’t popular in Edinburgh. I know BlaBlaCar runs in the UK, but I don’t personally know anyone who’s ever used it.
Cycling in Edinburgh
Many Edinburgh locals regularly cycle.
That said, many of the city’s very-central streets are cobbled. And because they’re cobbled, they’re horrible for cycling on. So if you want to cycle in Edinburgh, don’t get a thin-tyred road bike (the wheels will probably slip between the cobbles, and you’ll fall off your bike, and you’ll have a bad time).
(oh, and using a bike with some suspension can stop you from pounding your butt into chafe-ville).
You can find longer rides from Edinburgh (and around the UK) by using the officially waymarked National Cycle Network, operated by Sustrans. Made up of a massive 12,739 miles (20,501 km) of signed routes, it’s varied and extensive—and some of its most famous routes pass through Edinburgh. Here’s a big map of them all.
Oh, and if you tackle a big bike ride, good news: you can take bikes on trains in Scotland. So you could cycle all the way in one direction, then carry your bike back to Edinburgh by bringing it on a train. Just make sure you contact the train company in advance, cos they have limited space for bikes. You can visit any train station to make a bike reservation for any train… or you can contact the specific railway company you’ll be using (by email or Facebook).
Here’s a list of all the best places to hire a bicycle in Edinburgh.
For more bike rides in Scotland, cycle on over to our guides on:
Walking through Edinburgh
Edinburgh is small, and it’s a compact city—so you can easily get around exclusively by walking.
(The vast majority of the time when I’m in Edinburgh, I only walk—I very rarely use any public transport in the city).
And like in all UK cities, walking is safe and easy. You get big sidewalks, lots of pedestrian crossings, safe drivers, and good pedestrian infrastructure.
If you’re looking for a unique way to explore Edinburgh on foot, check out the Water of Leith Walkway. Measuring in at 13 miles (21 km), it runs all the way from the outskirts of Edinburgh village of Balerno, to the shores of the hip neighborhood of Leith (which I reckon is the best part of Edinburgh)…
… and the route takes you to many well-known and not-so-well known parts of the city. Highlights include Dean Village, Leith itself, and lots of cafes and riverside stretches. Here’s a basic map of the route.
Renting a car to explore Edinburgh—and some parking tips
If you want to hire a car in Edinburgh (or anywhere!), you should use discovercars.com.
Sort of like Skyscanner but for car rentals, they search over 500 providers, they give you the cheapest options, the site is easy to use, and they often have big sales and reductions. And you can find some cars for as little as £10 per day. What a sweet little bargain!
Obviously, renting a car to get outside of Edinburgh will always be the most direct route to go wherever you’re heading. If you’re just traveling within Edinburgh, I don’t recommend hiring a car. But if you’ll be taking trips to remote and rural places (like the Pentland Hills, or parts of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, or the far north of Scotland), you definitely should hire a car.
Because Edinburgh is a small and compact city, parking can be tricky—and there are many places you aren’t allowed to park (along with fines for breaking the rules). I won’t bore you to death with the details, cos everything you could ever need to know is outlined in great detail here.
Train travel within Edinburgh
Train travel within Edinburgh isn’t particularly popular.
As I keep saying, it’s a small city—and there aren’t a huge number of train stations:
- There are two train stations in the city centre (Edinburgh Waverley and Edinburgh Haymarket)
- … and there are some peripheral outside-of-the-city train stations; but you probably won’t use them
So, yes, expect to use trains to get in and out of Edinburgh. But don’t expect to use trains very often to move within the city. That said, Edinburgh Waverley and Edinburgh Haymarket are a five-minute journey away from one another, so it’s a trip you might take.
Train travel Beyond Edinburgh
As we’ve mentioned, train travel is the most common and popular type of long-distance travel in the UK.
To take a train to or from Edinburgh, get your tickets from the Trainline. It searches all the different railway providers, so it gives you the best possible prices (and it saves you the hassle of having to do endless different searches on endless different websites).
If you can, travel during the UK’s ‘off-peak’ period (defined as after 09:30, but simultaneously not-between the peak travel hours of 15:30 and 18:15). If you travel during the off-peak-period, you’ll get cheaper tickets (sometimes drastically cheaper). Hooray!
And another top tip for you: to get the cheapest tickets, book your tickets around 6-8 weeks before you plan to travel. In my experience, that’s usually when you find the lowest prices and the sweetest deals.
Accessible transportation in Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s public transport is more accessible than most of the world’s public transport. All buses and trams are wheelchair accessible (with accessibility ramps, dedicated wheelchair spaces, and lots of handrails).
All UK trains are wheelchair accessible (and, overall, accessibility across all UK public transport is excellent).
To request specific accessibility help before boarding a train in the UK, you can do so by calling the ‘Passenger Assist’ service on the UK freephone number 0800 0223720 (just make sure you call no less than 2 hours in advance of your journey). Here’s way more information.
Tickets and transport passes
If you’ll be traveling by train in the UK, consider getting a railcard:
The UK has 9 different types of railcards (including for young people, old people, couples, military folks, and basically any category of person you can imagine)… so you’ll probably be able to find one that applies to you. With most railcards, you get a tasty 33% reduction on the price of whatever ticket you’re buying—and most railcards only cost £30. So even if you’ll be traveling by train only 2 or 3 times, you might still save money. A good deal!
For travel within Edinburgh, you might want to get a Ridacard: available as a weekly, four-weekly, and annual pass, this can save you a LOT of money if you’ll be regularly using trams, Lothian buses, and other forms of transport…
… and even for a weekly Edinburgh vacation, it can be a good investment—there’s much more detail at the link. If you get a Ridacard, make sure you validate it when you enter your transport (by tapping on the card reader). If you don’t validate your card, you might be fined.
Insider tips on navigating Edinburgh
- For real-time information, Google Maps is your best friend in Edinburgh: it gives you live, accurate, real-time updates on all forms of public transport.
- To explore the city properly, get yourself on a walking tour. You’ll learn about history and heritage (in one of the UK’s most storied cities), you’ll get insider information, and you’ll see things most tourists never do. Of all the city’s walking tours, this is the best of them.
- Plan your itinerary in advance: although the city centre is small, the outskirts are surprisingly sprawling, and both the centre and the outskirts have plenty to see. For help with your planning, here’s our ultimate 2-days-in-Edinburgh itinerary.
Transportation basics – how to get around Edinburgh: before you go
Okay, that’s us done—and that’s everything you need to know about getting around Edinburgh!
To sum up, the best way to get around Edinburgh is usually by walking. But you also have an excellent network of trains, buses and trams—and you’ll find some great cycle routes stretching beyond the city.
… and if you’re gonna be heading to remote and rural areas beyond Edinburgh, you should hire a car from discovercars.com.
For more on Scotland’s capital, get yourself over to our guides on the 15 best day trips from Edinburgh, and the 13 best road trips from Edinburgh.
Thanks for reading, thanks for choosing Travelness, and we’ll see you again soon. Enjoy Scotland’s capital!
Paul is a handsome and hilarious travel writer and travel journalist from the UK. He’s hiked, hitchhiked and laughed his way through more than fifty countries, and he’s always looking for a new place to call home. Originally from Newcastle, he’s lived all over the UK, spent more than three years in Asia, and most recently lived in Vietnam and then in Georgia.
