Day tours from Edinburgh
 

I tried to post this last night but the site wasn't cooperating.

Last night I looked through the first hundred or so posts that come up when you put Edinburgh in the search box. And I didn't see anything on this. I apologize if I missed a previous discussion.

The official Edinburgh tourism website lists several companies that do day tours to Loch Ness and the Highlands. Has anyone here done any of them? I'd love to know whether anyone can recommend one over another. Or steer me away from one with which they had a less than pleasant experience.

Thanks.

I took a three-day trip with Rabbies and was very happy with them.

http://www.rabbies.com/

Thank you, Susie! When you're presented with several companies who seem to all offer basically the same tour, it's hard to know which one to choose. I really appreciate getting feedback from someone who's used one of them.

In Inverness we did a tour of Orkney with Puffin express. They do others.

Thanks, rogeruktm. They seem to do tours only from Inverness. But I appreciate the info.

I enjoyed the Rabbies tour to St. Andrews (not as far as you want to go, sorry). A traveler at the same guest house enjoyed the Rabbies to Loch Ness tour. I have usually heard/read good things about Rabbies.

I also did a day tour with Heart of Scotland, http://www.heartofscotlandtours.co.uk/ My tour with Colin (a great storyteller!) went the opposite direction, down to Hadrian's Wall, but I do recommend them from the experience of being a customer.

Enjoy!

Thank you very much, scotlib! I'm glad to hear more good feeback on Rabbies. And the Heart of Scotland website looks good too. I was interested to see that they offer students discounts as it'll be me and my college student son. Didn't notice whether Rabbies offers them too.

Caph when are you going?? I watched Edinburgh bring in the new year from our apartment in Paris and swore one day I would like to do that :)

Hi, Dawn. In June. DD's Irish wedding is June 6th. We'll arrive in Ireland about a week before. Then DH, DS and I are going to Barcelona for a few days the week after. DS and I are staying for a week after DH flies home.

We're hoping to go to Edinburgh and London with a possible stop in York. But we're trying to do it as economically as possible while still making it reasonably comfortable for this 56 year old!

http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/o...ile-tours.html
here is a link to a list of tour companies within Edinburgh,most are for local tours but a few do day tours out of the city with quite a few good options.
I don't know when you are visiting but would suggest you avoid the Loch Ness tour in the wintertime.
This is a LONG tour and much of it will be spent sitting on the bus (as much as 8 hours).in the summetime you will be able to enjoy the scenery but in the winter time much of the tour will be spent in the dark.
Some of the foreign students i work with have done the Loch Ness tour with Scotline tours and very much enjoyed it.

I can give you a word doc with some things you might like to think of doing independently,. by car or by train, if you email me

Hi CAPH52, if your son is attending college, tell him to definitely bring his college ID.

I am back in school, brought mine, and used it at least 4x .. both day tours, getting into Rosslyn Chapel, and the Mary Kings Close tour. A few pounds saved were pounds I could spend later!

The day tours were convenient ways to see things (someone else to drive and some of the drivers are great storytellers), but you may want to take up Sheila on her offer of instructions of doing some of this on your own, and compare costs.

Also, if you go independent, you are not always worried about getting back to the bus on time to rush to the next stop.

Thank you, unclegus. We'll be there in June so should have plenty of daylight! I appreciate your info.

Thank you so much, Sheila! I'll take you up on that offer. We're going to be so limited on time that one day tour is probably all we'll have time for. And I'm definitely not planning to rent a car this time. But now that we have in-laws in Ireland, I'm sure we'll be visiting more often. And my husband and I would really like to take a more leisurely trip to Scotland in the future. So your info would be very helpful in planning that trip.

Thanks for that advice, scotlib. He's planning to get one of the student IDs as I know there are some places that insist on those official ones rather than just his one from school. But he'll take that one along too! We're also planning to get 7 day Heritage Passes. Since we're going to be in London and probably York, I think we'll way more than get our money's worth.

I really appreciate all of the wonderful feedback I've gotten on this thread so far!

I've also often seen good reports of Robbie's on this site. Loch Ness isn't the most scenic loch, though, so you may like to look at what else is on offer.

Thanks for that insight, Caroline. I'll make sure we read through the itineraries of all of the tours before we decide which one we want to take.

Which area do you feel would be the most scenic for a day tour?

Caph - I cannot wait to read of the wedding and your travels :)

Thanks, Dawn. I seem to fluctuate between being very anxious and not wanting it to come too fast. KWIM?!

I'm sure you remember all too well what it's like to have a child getting married! Even though in this case they're already legally married, I have a feeling the one in June will be the more emotional of the two.

However, it sure is nice to have a trip to plan in the dead of winter. Somehow, walking to work in the snow is a little easier when you have something like that to look forward to! :)

Just wish I'd win the lottery between now and then! :D

Hi Caph -
I remember when you were planning your trip to Ireland with a daughter in school there. I guess this is what happens when they go away to school! What a wonderful event!

Rose

Thanks, Rose! It truly is. Dealing with all of the immigration issues (including two weddings!) hasn't been easy. But we feel so blessed that she met such a wonderful guy.

And I feel sure that the wedding in June will be a wonderful experience for all of us. Not to mention giving us the opportunity to travel!

However, our son is hoping to do his semester abroad in South Africa next year. I've already given him strict instructions that he's not allowed to fall in love while he's there! I don't think the odds are in our favor that he would also meet someone willing to live here. And South Africa is just too far away! :D

Take Sheila up on her offer. I did and her advice is generally outstanding.

We traveled independently and had a blast on a four-night circuit of the Highlands. We went to Loch Ness, Culloden, Cawdor, Blair, Brodie and Dunrobin Castles and stayed two nights in Inverness; then we stayed just west of Aberdeen and went to about seven other castles, the Highlander infantry museum and more.

Thanks, BigRuss. Sounds like you had a great trip!

Hi CAPH52 -- We took a Rabbie's day tour to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, and we took an overnight through the Highlands to Inverness. Both were great. We liked the itinerary and the drivers very much.

Sally

Thank you, Sally! Rabbie's is sounding better and better!

Caph - I know it is stressful but I sense so much joy and am so excited to read all about it. What a great event!!

Sorry, I did mean Rabbie's and not Robbie's.

Having had a quick look at their one day tours, I think the one including Loch Ness would be good actually - although Loch Ness itself isn't that special, the tour does also include Rannoch Moor, Glencoe and other places which are worth seeing. It's a long day, but if you want to see the Highlands in a day, it would be very good I think (if you can stand that long in a small bus).

Dawn, if my trip report on this trip is anything like my others, you'll hear much more about it than you'd ever want to! :D

Caroline, thanks so much for looking at that itinerary for me! I'm glad to hear you say that it sounds good. It <i>is</i> an awfully long day! But at least, at that time of year, it should all be during daylight. For us, it'll all be new country passing by the windows. And, best of all, someone else will be doing the driving!

As much as I love traveling by car and having the option of going where you want to and stopping when you want to, there's much to be said for having a tour guide to tell you what you're seeing. I hope we're lucky enough to get one who's a story teller.

And, as I've said before, on this trip, since my husband won't be with us, a car just isn't an option. I'm not an adventurous driver. I don't like driving new places near home. Much less in another country where they drive on the other side of the road! Everyone in Scotland should be grateful I'm not renting a car!

And I realize that much of that had nothing to do with your post, Caroline. Just a little tangent!

If you want to see all that, a tour is the best option - it would be no fun driving it all yourself in a day !

On the three day tour that I took with Rabbies, we spent a lot of time off the bus. I would assume that a day tour would be different, but I think on all tours they try to keep the long hauls to a minimum.

Good to know, Susie!

Oops, hit post too soon!

True, Caroline! And I don't think I'd want to be around my husband if he'd had to do that much driving in one day! ;)

I know we can't see that much very thoroughly in one day. But at least it should give us a good overview so that, when we're able to go back, we'll know what we want to take the time to see better.

Good thinking. Hope you have a nice day for it !

Thanks, Caroline. So do I!

I was just reading another thread that reminded me that I've been wanting to pull this back up to ask a couple more questions.

Does anyone know whether we need to book the tour ahead? Or can we wait until we have some idea which day we're there might be the best in terms of weather? And, if we do need to book ahead, how soon should we do it?

The gentleman at the B&B we booked suggested Grayline because he said they'll pick us up very near to the B&B. That part of it is definitely tempting since the tours leave early in the morning and our B&B is a little ways out of the city centre. But I know there are Grayline tours all over the place, including here in Chicago. I'm feeling biased against them because I'd rather go with a local company. However, if anyone knows anything about the Grayline tours in Scotland, I'd certainly love to hear it!

Sheila, I'm still planning to take you up on your generous offer. But this old, cluttered computer I'm using hasn't been doing a very good job of opening documents lately. As soon as I get that straightened out, I'll e-mail you. But how do I reach you?

Thanks again, everyone!

Where are you staying ?

We're staying at Adam Drysdale House, 42 Gilmore Place.

Oh yes, of course. It's only on the edge of the city centre & you won't have a problem getting a bus to the starting point early enough. I see the Loch Ness etc tour leaves the High street at 0815, and the first (regular bus) number 27 leaves Tollcross (the area where you are staying) at 0552 on weekdays, 0621 on Saturdays and 0714 on Sundays. At that time of day it will only take 10 minutes max to George IV Bridge, then it's just a few minutes' walk. Here's the Lothian buses timetable website - http://lothianbuses.com/index2.php.

I'm not sure the Grayline tour sounds as good, I also think it may be less 'characterful' (i.e. Scottish) and I think it will be in a full sized coach as opposed to the Rabbie's mini coaches (although I don't know this for sure - I can't remember ever seeing a Grayline vehicle around). Also, if they are picking everyone up at their accommodation, how much time does that waste ? I reckpn your B&B owner may be on commission :-) I'd stick with Rabbie's.

In June (it's getting fairly busy here then) I personally would book in advance, but have no personal experience of whether that's necessary.

Thank you so much, Caroline! That's kind of what I was thinking about the B&B owner too! ;)

I really appreciate the bus info. It makes me much less nervous about getting to the tour on time.

And I do think we'll stick with Rabbie's. Everything I've heard about them has been positive.

Caph I am very excited for you!!

Me too, Dawn! The wedding is three months from today. So I've got a while to wait. But once the weather starts getting nice (two 60 + days in a row, woohoo!), the time goes more quickly.

SuzieQ, Scotlib and others who've done a Rabbie's tour, did you book ahead?

Thanks!