Biscotcha

Hi. I'm trying to figure out the best way to allow time to tour the Castle and still take a walking tour of the Royal Mile. The Mercat Tour starts at 11. The castle opens at 9:30. An hour and a half seems too short to do the castle justice. Are there other companies that provide these historical tours, perhaps with a later starting time? Or should we plan to tour the castle after the 11:00 tour, (which would mean trudging back up to the top of the mile, I'm assuming.)

Biscotcha

ttt

historytraveler

Hopefully some of the Scottish experts can give you a better answer. Ninety minutes seems a sufficent amount of time to tour the castle if you don't get side-tracked with gift shops and cafes. Last fall the freebie castle tour I took was very disappointing, but perhaps it was the guide. I'm not familar with any company doing castle tours other than those offered at the castle itself.

Feiny01

What's the walking tour of the Royal Mile? Today I just found out we will be going to Edinburgh and I am just starting my search. Thanks!

historytraveler

Referring to my post and the time element: I'm assuming you're a typical, interested tourist (whatever that means), and not a history buff who has to see absolutely everything and ponder its historical significance.

Barbara

But you wouldn't have an hour and a half. You have to check in for your Mercat Tour 15 minutes before the tour begins and it'll take a few minutes to walk there from the castle. So you'd have just over an hour in the castle. In my opinion, that's not enough time, especially if it's busy. If you don't want to walk back up to the castle after your walking tour, could you do them on different days?

Biscotcha

Thanks, all.

Barbara, that's exactly what I'm trying to figure out. We only have 2 days, so trying to hit the things we must (really want to) do to allow for some leisure time. We may do the Castle on the day before, then do the 90 minute royal mile the next day.

Mercat Tours offers a 90 minute "Secrets of the Royal Mile" walking tour at 11:00 am. We did the tour about 11 years ago and enjoyed it. It was interesting (and a little gross sometimes) to learn about the history of the town, the buildings and the Mile itself.

historytraveler

After reading your last post, I'd try to do the castle the day before if you're really not up to tracking back up to the castle. I don't think it's that bad, but I'm a runner and triathlete so I look at it as just another form of exercise. If you are there at 9:30 when it opens (it should be less crowded then), you'll have plenty of time to see everything and still have the afternoon available for further sightseeing at your leisure.

marshacarlin

We just returned from a trip to Edinburgh in May. You can buy a ticket for the double decker tour buses; even if you buy it at the end of one day, it's good for 24 hours. So you could jump on the bus and take it back to the castle when you were done with your tour. Also, the bus tour was a good way of seeing (and getting off to see) a lot of the other sites as well as getting an overview of the city.
We also really enjoyed our tour of the castle by the kilt-wearing well informed guide. It about an hour long as I recall, and then we were left to wander on our own, which we did for about another 1- 1/1/2 hours. We could have spent more I suppose, but it was enough. We went toward the end of the afternoon and pretty much had the place to our selves.
enjoy.