EDINBURGH walking tours and amazing BIKE TOUR
 

I spent 2 days and a half in Edinburgh. JUNE 2017
FIRST DAY I did 3 walking tours morning with Gareth, an afternoon walking tour with Erik of Sandemans and an evening tour Ghost and Gouls with mercattours.
Three awesome guided tours but missed visiting EDI Castle, at least if you do not enter the castle, visit the village that closes at 5.30 pm! I have to go back for that.
Gareth is very knowledgeable of Edinburgh history...very pleasant and only takes small groups which is a given for interacting with your guide. highly recommend it. Even if you take another free tour.
I did the afternoon tour with Erik from Sandemans, excellent guide! different from the morning tour..so I suggest you do both!
The ghost and gouls is at 7pm a fun entertaining tour that you can do after coming back from your day excursions.
SECOND DAY I did full day to Stirling, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. Amazing tour, I highly recommend the sailing at Loch Lomond, but had a very unpleasant experience with GoScotland as they are brokers and not providers as Highland Experience who owns their own buses. The tour was conducted by a driver acting also as a guide, who talked non-stop and did not interact.
Highly recommend these 3 stops as Stirling village and the whole road from Aberfoyle to Stirling is amazing.
THIRD DAY Half day bike tour with The Tartan Company- they can provide ebikes, all their bikes are practically new. Do not skip this wonderful bike tour. Johann takes you to unknown places around Edinburgh that otherwise, you will never see. A MUST if you visit Edinburgh. Excellent bikes, comfortable, he even provided of jackets. He makes sure everything runs smoothly.. takes care of you. I highly recommend this bike tour. No matter what your age is. You will miss a lot if you skip it. Amazing itinerary and out of traffic route.

Thank you . We are going to be In edinburgh in September so I will look into these.

live42day...please don't miss Edinburgh castle as I did... at least the surrounding village...let me know abt it when u are back!!

cheers... have a wonderful time

>>...at least the surrounding village…<<

I noticed you also mentioned a 'village' in your OP. What village are you talking about?

janisj..hello...
surrounding the castle which is very very high on the top as it was built over an extinguished volcano sits the castle and the surrounding village...
the visit to the castle is 17 pounds but if u walk along high street you can enter that surrounding village.. please note it closes 5.30 pm and I arrived at that time...

My plan after the morning walking tour was to visit the castle and lost time with an afternoon walking tour..

all the best

cheers

Loved Edinburgh...

>>surrounding the castle which is very very high on the top as it was built over an extinguished volcano sits the castle<<

Yes

>> . . . but if u walk along high street you can enter that surrounding village.. <<

Uh -- no. There is no village.

>>please note it closes 5.30 pm<<

Not quite sure what you mean by a village and it closing at 5:30. The <u>castle</u> closes at 5:30.

This photo shows the Castle from the esplanade at the top of the Royal Mile . . .

no village

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Esplanade.JPG

. . . and this photo is 180º from the above one looking from the Castle across the esplanade to the top of the Royal Mile with the Camera Obscura just to the left of center next to the steeple

http://www.mabbs.co.uk/uk/scotland/e...nburgh3058.jpg

hi Janisj, I wasn't able to cross to the area surrounding the castle..as I said the entrance was closed..and the guard told me I could have visited the surroundings of the castle...that was what I was told.. from Princess street you can see an aerea surrounding the castle..
so when u come back you will be able to confirm this... cheers

>> from Princess street you can see an aerea surrounding the castle..<<

There is nothing surrounding the castle really. It is on the top of the ridge and everything is below the castle - and again there is no village

This photo is from Princes Street looking up at the castle. Everything you see there is . . . the castle

http://www.planetware.com/photos-lar...castle-day.jpg

And this one is from the other side http://www.everycastle.com/images/Th...h%20Castle.jpg

>>I wasn't able to cross to the area surrounding the castle..as I said the entrance was closed..<<

The area 'surrounding he castle' IS the castle.

In front of the castle is the esplanade, sometimes cars are parked there. The only time when one cannot enter the esplanade is at night in August when it is full of the grandstands for the Military Tattoo.

These people are walking across the esplanade to the castle entrance:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Esplanade.JPG

Ah, that is what the grandstands are for!!! They were already set up in the first week of July when we visited and I was not really a fan of how they made the entrance look. I figured they held special events/concerts there year round. Good to know it doesn't always look like that.

This is what it looks like during the Tattoo. Rest of the year it is just a large paved area.

https://files.list.co.uk/images/e/fi...-lst092121.jpg

And this was the Tattoo scene last year that honored David Bowie

http://www.edinburghspotlight.com/wp...87859728_o.jpg

They do set up the bleachers a little earlier now - the new seats are form the Olympic stadium in London and I guess the logistics are a little more complicated - but they are soooooooo much more comfortable than the old seats.

the Village area I presume would be the Ramsay gardens area,some of the buildings actually overlook part of the castle esplanade,btw the most expensive houses in the city.
The stands are for the tattoo are put up in June every year and there are usualy a series of pop concerts there before the tattoo gets going.