Edinburgh -- best day trip from the city
 

What would be the best day trip from Edinburgh? I would appreciate any suggestions. For the middle of September.

What kinds of things do you enjoy? Will you have a car?

Best is very subjective - my favorite day trips are:

1- St Andrews - lovely old uni town on a nice sea coast plus the Old Course of golfing fame, etc. Bus or train about an hour. A plus is going over one of the world;s most famous train bridges - the cantilevered Firth of Forth bridge - a real treat - great views from the middle.

2- Sterling - neat regional town with a sweet castle - of Braveheart associations - a Scotish national patrimony - huge battles fought here with the hated English. About an hour by train or coach.

3- Borders Abbeys - an hour or so south of Edinburgh by bus (or car) to Melrose and its famous ruined abbey and two other historic ruined abbeys easily reached by bus and or foot - Jedburgh Abbey is one.

And though I have not done the Scottish Highlands as a day trip but rather stayed there for some days this is probably the mos tpopular day trip from Edinburgh - usually by mini-bus tours - several competing ones and all a good deal - check the Scottish Tourist Office (or whatever they call it) atop Waverly station in Edinburgh for various mini-bus tours and bookings.

Well there are many more but these were my three favorites - others will find 'best' to mean something in their special interest perhaps.

Lundin Links standing stones are an hour drive, and could easily be combined with St. Andrews (which is more like 1-1/2).

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24405

C'mon now, if we all said "Go to Stirling Castle" and you don't like castles, what good would the advice be?

Best is subjective and that means it must cater to your tastes. What are those tastes?

We enjoyed going to the Falkirk Wheel, the most magnificent useless thing I have ever seen.


https://www.google.com/search?q=falk...w=1920&bih=899

I'm not associated with them in any way, but I did a three-day tour with Rabbie's Trail Burners out of Edinburgh and really enjoyed it. They have a few day trips out of Edinburgh that you could look at, either to consider joining or at least to see what some day trips options are: http://www.rabbies.com/one_day_tours..._ed.asp?lng=en

<<the most magnificent useless thing I have ever seen>>

Or magnificently useless.

Everybody is an editor.

We won't have a car. Lets say it will be an organized tour that we would join. We are open to anything -- history, nature.

We enjoyed the Falkirk Wheel also. We didn't ride on it, just watched it plucking canal boats out of one canal and lifting them up to another. It definitely has no purpose, and the only reason people take the ride is because it's there.

I would say that it's a magnificent useless thing, not magnificently useless.

alias, I think your best bet might be a Rabbies day tour. They offer about 8/9 different one day tours from Edinburgh.Have a look at their website ( see Margo's link ) and see which ones are of interest. Their offerings include all the above suggestions ( plus many more ) with the Falkirk Wheel being the only exception. I don't believe it's included in any of their stops. Although the wheel is interesting, I'm not sure I'd recommend it as one's only day trip from Edinburgh.

We did take a ride on the Falkirk Wheel and it was a bit disorienting. (Big Russ that has nothing to do with Asia.)

When we were there we chose not to ride the wheel. Good choice as the wheel was stuck for over an hour.

thank you very much, everybody!

Hi alisa23, I've done public transport day trips from Edinburgh, also a couple minibus trips with Rabbies mentioned above. I've made various day trips, but this is over 4 trips to Edinburgh. With short time, a minibus trip could be good option. If you choose a trip without too much distance from Edinburgh (ex, to St. Andrews) then you'll have more time off the bus. Cheers.

http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/ .. by train
http://www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-flight/ .. by bus
visited Carlisle by train .. it's "wrong" direction, south, but I did really enjoy its cathedral and http://www.tulliehouse.co.uk/

St Andrews might make a lot of sense, thank you. Actually my parents are going and not me (I thought it would be easier not to get into the details) and they like exploring different towns.

Bus or train to St Andrews?

buses go direct to the old city on the sea (where Prince William matriculated from uni) but trains only go to Leuchars, about 5 miles or so from St Andrews proper - they meet trains - but maybe the bus is more convenient on this route - not sure how long either form of transport takes - trains get to Leuchars in about 1 hour then 20 minutes or so by bus to the town proper.