Hi! I'm browsing through the boards and found these companies that operate Day Tours out of Edinburgh. Any strong recommendations for any of these?

Heart of Scotland Tours
Haggis Adventures
Timberbush
Rabbies
Astral Travels
Prestige Tours
Sightseeing Direct
Scottish Tours

Thanks!!!

Your looking for tours OUT of Edinburgh or tours of Edinburgh? We did our own tours outside of Edinburgh but the tours of the city (hop on hop off open topped bus) are on Princess St. near the underground Mall and we found them very entertaining and fun to take.

Sorry for the confusion - 'looking for tours OUT of Edinburgh (leaving from Edinburgh).

Timlin, thanks for the recommendation on the hop on hop off tour!

No personal experience but I'm sure I've seen Robbie's recommended on this board more than once. Never heard of any of the others except maybe Haggis.

I have a half day tour set up with Timberbush in October; it's a quick trip to Rosslyn cathedral. I will post when I get back.

So far, they were very responsive to my emails: replied quickly with more information than is on their website, and made recommendations for us.

We did a day trip last year with Timberbush Tours from Edinburgh out to Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle, it was fun and informative and we had the option of a boat trip on loch Lomond for £5 more. Their office is right next door to the Castle in the same building with the weaving exhibits. We also took a half day tour with Gray Line to the Edinburgh Crystal factory. The nice thing about Gray Line is that they pick you up at your hotel. These and the other tour companies all have websites as well as brochures in the hotels, you can also contact the Scottish tourist board at www.visitscotland.com - they have links to various tour agents, or when you arrive in Edinburgh, visit their office which is on the Waverley steps leading up from the train station to Princes Street, just outside the Princes mall.

Where you go may be more important that who takes you. Package tours may work for you if you have a hard time walking and want to see scenery from a bus, but it is so easy to get around with conventional bus passes that I prefer to make up my own iternary as I go. Rosslyn Chapel is pretty easy to get to and you can stop at Morningside on the way back.

If you have a chance take a bus or train over the Forth into Fife.

I've been on a few Haggis Adventure tours - they cater to the backpack set (ie, 20-30 years old).

Very fun, but if you are out of this demographic it might not be a good fit.

I recently did the two Timberbush tours that Dschoening and Daisy54 mention.

The guide on the Rosslyn Chapel / Glenkinchie Distillery tour was a bit less experienced then I would have liked, but I still enjoyed the tour well enough to sign up for the second tour with Timberbush when I returned.

The Loch Ness / Highlands tour started out miserable: crowded; hard to see with my not getting a window seat; and with noisy people sitting behind me that wouldn't shut up. With 380 miles ahead, I though it was going to be a disaster.

But at the first break, the driver asked if I wanted to sit in the jump seat up front next to him. The rest of the trip was great.

A few months back, I was comparing tours and saw IDENTICAL tour descriptions and words describing tours on different companies. I am guessing that they are different booking services for the same tours.

If I recall correctly:

Timberbush Tours = Rabbies Trail Burners = Astral Travels = Sightseeing Direct = Travelers Toolkit.

Lynott Tours = Prestige Tours = Scottish Tours.

Keith

Thank you, all, for the replies!

palmettoprincess - 'glad to know that Rosslyn Chapel can be done on our own!

Daisy54, Keith - thanks for the tour reviews on Timberbush!

Asalamy - hubby and I are in the "old" end of the 20-30 backpacker demographic !

Right now, it's a toss up between Timberbush and Heart of Scotland Tours (recommended by Rick Steves). Since we're thinking of 2 day trips, we may just take one with Timberbush, and another one with H of S!

We're leaving on Sunday! 'Will post back for a review.

Palmettoprincess: intrigued by "you can stop at Morningside on the way back". I like living in Morningside but have never heard of it as a tourist destination ! Why do you think they'd want to visit ? Or do you know they are staying there ?

You will laugh. I liked Morningside because of all of the charity shops. In one stop I picked up Nottingham lace, pretty pottery and a vintage apron. I also stopped at Safeway and filled by bag with cookies and crisps.
I have to admit, I know the area, I used to live in Comiston and went to high school at Firhill.

Palmettoprincess : ah, glad to have that cleared up ! You are obviously one of these people who are good at spotting treasures in charity shops, jumble sales etc. After a few attempts as a student, I came to the conclusion that I don't have the eye for it

So are you Scottish/American/what ? If you come back, try Nicolson Street/Clerk Street - there are even more charity shops there ! There was even a Fringe show in one of them this year but I didn't manage to get to it.

Hi, we spent just over a week in Edinburgh in May of 2004. We took three Rabbies tours and we thought they were great. True, they do not pick you up at your hotel, they leave from their office on High Street. When returning though, if they pass near your hotel they will drop you off close to home. I especially liked that their buses are small and only take 12-15 people. We took the Lock Lomond/Sterling Castle tour, Highlands tour (Loch Ness) and the tour out to St. Andrews. If you can get Donnie as a tour guide, he is a plethora of knowledge. This guy always dresses in a kilt. He talked the whole tour with the history of every place etc. like listening to the encyclopedia of Scotland : ) We also had a young woman named Caroline, she was hillarious.
For food, on High Street, Creelers for fish and Gordon's Trattoria for Italian. For a splurge, the Witchery, yummy, exquisite, expensive, a great memory.
We also took the bus out to Rosslyn chapel. It's easy to get to a worth the trip. While in Edinburgh mu husband bought a book about Rosslyn and said it was fascinating. He finished it before we went to the chapel. Rosslyn-Guardians of the Secret of the Holy Grail by Tim WallaceMurphy & Marilyn Hopkins.
Have a great time! Edinburgh is great.