Driving Excursions/Day Trips outside of Edinburgh
 

I will be in Edinburgh after a London trip for 4 days, aside from what there is to do in Edinburgh, anyone can suggest day trips to be able to drive around and see the "countryside"?

I would obviously rent a car and just explore.

The Falkirk Wheel and then the coast opposite Edinburgh is one day trip.

Rosslyn Chapel is a half day trip at most.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...7623437796997/ and subsequent pictures

You could also take a Rabbies tour to Stirling Castle and Loch Lomond. That would take the pressure off of driving on the "wrong" side of the road.

Any one of these can be done independently . . .

Stirling Castle
Linlithgow Palace
St Andrews
Rosslyn Chapel
North Berwick/Tantallon Castle

and many others

Or any of the great one day Rabbies tours.

https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-...urgh/day-tours

Thanks everyone I'll have to look into those things. I plan to rent a car. Does anyone know how far all these places are? Can they be done in a day drive back to Edinburgh?

I'm not sure what is considerably reasonable to accomplish. I don't expect to do it all but out of all the suggestions, what is not a miss.

The problem is, depending on where you are staying in Edinburgh, you probably don't want a car there. It is very expensive and difficult to park. I have done day trips from the city on two different trips, but we were staying at the University B&B and could park for free. We did those trips because of circumstances 9 (we had occasional days off from our itinerary with a Pipe Band), but I wouldn't plan it that way if we were on our own.

You do NOT want a car in Edinburgh and you really don't want to drive in Edinburgh.

Some of those sites are easily reached by train (Stirling, Linlithgow - St Andrews w/ a bus connection from Leuchars)

>>Does anyone know how far all these places are? <<

Everyplace mentioned so far is an easy day trip either by train or car (but again you really don't want a car while staying in Edinburgh) -- If you want to know how far each one is from Edinburgh -- google it. Googlemap will show the locations None are hard to find.

Now -- if you were staying in Edinburgh a few days and then staying somewhere else a few days -- then you could rent a car the day you leave the city.

Given your time available and various other factors that really don't need to be gone into in detail, just take a Rabbie's Tour as suggested.

I agree -- a car would be a total inconvenience and Rabbies will get you more places more efficiently than you can on your own in such a short time.

They are great . . .

When is this taking place? Time of year matters, both for daylight hours and obviously weather.

Some possibilities:

1. Northumberland coast - Holy Isle, Bamburgh - https://goo.gl/maps/nQaJ9nefdyH2 . Spectacular coastal scenery, awesome castle at Bamburgh, remarkable history at Lindisfarne/Holy Island. This is even better as an overnight trip, but quite doable as a longish day trip.

2. Fife - East Neuk fishing villages, St. Andrews, Falkland. Picturesque villages, lovely St. Andrews and historic Falkland. https://goo.gl/maps/vLWwyKqYd1N2

3. Glen Lyon and the Trossachs - The historic and very pretty village of Fortingall and splendid Glen Lyon, then back via Killin and Callendar. https://goo.gl/maps/hS9VptYaMXT2

4. Stirling, Culross and Dunfermline - Visit Stirling Castle and Bannockburn, then stop in Culross, a stunning preserved medieval village and maybe historic Dunfermline with its spectacular abbey. https://goo.gl/maps/CVXE4vjbvYS2

All of these loops start and end at the airport; use the tram for access from central Edinburgh.

Look up these places on Undiscovered Scotland - http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/ - if you're not familiar with them.

<<1. Northumberland coast - Holy Isle>>

Holy Island never Holy Isle - Holy Isle is in the Firth of Clyde.

Lindesfarne . . . >)

Blah blah blah. Medcaut. ;)

well now you know :)

Lindesfarne - oh dear - it's Lindisfarne

https://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/

Watch the tide times

Oops . . . .

And I knew that but I can't even blame it on autocorrect. Oh well

Thanks all, I'm only entertaining a car due to suggestions for doing day trips from Edinburgh. I don't plan to keep a car within Edinburgh or use a car within Edinburgh. The car would strictly be used to go outside out of the city.

With that said, If I did rent a car for two days, I will have to find a place to park my car for the night, however, while I do have the car rental, I do plan to only use it when I do my day trips.

The point of the drive is to explore and visit the surroundings with a bit of freedom, versus taking an actual tour.

Last but not least, I do plan to go in Mid-April.

When we went, we got a rental car at the airpot and then just parked it in town for a few days before we ventured off. There was a parking garage near our hotel, so that worked for us.

Definitely do Arthur's Seat! We did that as a family, and then when DS went back with friends they did a sunrise run from their hostel near the castle up to the top of Arthur's Seat. He said it was cook to do it again, and he remembered our family trip of hiking to the top.

I for one understood you only wanted to car for daytripping. Nevertheless, that does not change the fact that you say you only have 4 days. If that includes your arrival and departure day, you will in fact only have 2 full days on which you could use the car to daytrip and less than 4 full days overall obviously.

Now you are talking about adding on to lost time to go and rent the car, drive it into the city, find a place to park it overnight (which will not be cheap) and then at the end of your stay, return the car to the rental location.

Edinburgh has more than enough to keep anyone busy for 4 full days without having to leave the city at all. But if you wanted to see a tiny bit outside of the city, fair enough, take a Rabbie's Tour.

While a car gives you freedom, the cost in time lost that it will incur to get that freedom simply isn't worth it. That's why I wrote, " Given your time available and various other factors that really don't need to be gone into in detail, just take a Rabbie's Tour as suggested."

If you had a week or more in Edinburgh I would be suggesting renting a car and exploring on your own. I am not a fan at all of organized tours. There are however times when they make sense if you insist on trying to do more than you actually have time to do and that is in fact what you are planning to do. You don't have enough time to go outside of Edinburgh really but if you insist, then do it in the least costly (timewise) way. That's a Rabbie's Tour.

There could be some circumstance that makes car rental logical, like there are 3 or 4 people to split the cost (and someone to navigate!) or you are there on business at a suburban hotel with free parking and want to fill up empty hours or evenings. Otherwise, the Rabbie's tours look really convenient.