The best day trips from Edinburgh stay within about two hours of the city: Stirling and the Trossachs, St Andrews and the fishing villages of Fife, Rosslyn Chapel and the Borders, and the Outlander locations of West Lothian and Fife. Stirling, Linlithgow, North Berwick and St Andrews are easy by train. Loch Ness is possible in a day, but it means about seven and a half hours on the road.
How to choose a day trip from Edinburgh
A good day trip from Edinburgh has one rule: no more than two hours on the road each way. Beyond that, the day turns into a drive with a few stops, and you see more of the motorway than of Scotland. Within that circle, however, you reach castles, lochs, a national park, the working harbours of the Fife coast and a dozen filming locations.
So start with what you want from the day rather than with a list of places. Castles and history point west, to Stirling and Doune. The sea and small harbours point north-east, to Fife. Gothic carving and abbeys point south, to Rosslyn and the Borders. Whisky, in fact, is twenty minutes away in East Lothian.
Two or three stops is the right number for a day. Every extra stop costs about an hour once you count parking, tickets and the walk in, so a day with five stops is a day of car parks.
Six day trips from Edinburgh we run every week
These are the days our driver-guides run from Edinburgh, each one private to your party and planned around the hours that sites actually open. The distances below are measured on the road, without stops.
| Day trip | On the road | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Stirling, Doune and the Trossachs | 138 miles, about 3 h 50 | A first taste of the Highlands |
| Outlander filming locations | within an hour of the city | Fans of the series |
| St Andrews and the East Neuk | 123 miles, about 3 h 25 | Harbours, golf, the coast |
| Rosslyn Chapel and the Borders | 96 miles, about 2 h 40 | History, abbeys, winter days |
| Glenkinchie whisky day | 33 miles, about 1 h | Whisky without a long drive |
| Old Town walking tour | on foot, about 2 km | A first morning in Edinburgh |
Stirling, Doune and the Trossachs
This is the day we call Scotland in miniature, because it fits a royal castle, a medieval fortress, a national park and a loch into one loop. Stirling Castle comes first, then Doune, which played Castle Leoch in Outlander. After lunch in Aberfoyle, the road climbs into the Trossachs to Loch Katrine and a sailing on the Sir Walter Scott steamship, which runs from spring to autumn.
St Andrews and the fishing villages of Fife
The East Neuk of Fife is a string of working harbours: Pittenweem, Anstruther and Crail. Then St Andrews, with its cathedral ruins on the cliff and the Old Course at the end of the town. On the way home, the road crosses the Lomond Hills by Falkland, whose square played 1940s Inverness in Outlander.
Rosslyn Chapel and the Borders
Rosslyn Chapel is twenty minutes from the city centre and is carved inside from floor to vault, in stone laid down from 1446. From there the road runs south to Melrose Abbey, Scott's View above the Tweed and Abbotsford, the house Sir Walter Scott built. It is also our best winter day: the Borders roads stay clear when the Highlands do not.
Outlander locations and Glenkinchie
Most Outlander locations sit within an hour of Edinburgh, in West Lothian and Fife, which is why one day covers six of them. Glenkinchie, by contrast, is a short day: the Lowland distillery is twenty minutes into East Lothian, so we pair it with a private tasting back in town.
Day trips from Edinburgh by train
Several good day trips from Edinburgh need no car at all. ScotRail trains from Waverley reach Linlithgow in about 20 minutes, which puts Linlithgow Palace a short walk from the station. Stirling is about 50 minutes away, although the castle sits at the top of the old town, a steep walk of about 20 minutes. North Berwick, with its beach and the Bass Rock offshore, is about 35 minutes.
St Andrews has no station of its own. Instead, you take the train to Leuchars, about an hour, then a bus or taxi for the last few miles. The Borders Railway, meanwhile, runs south to Tweedbank in about an hour, close to Abbotsford and a short bus ride from Melrose.
What the train cannot do is the countryside between the stations. Doune, Loch Katrine, the East Neuk villages and Scott's View have no railway, and the buses that serve them run a few times a day. That is where a driver earns the day.
By train, you handle
- Tickets and connections
- The walk or bus from each station
- One place a day, two at most
On a private day, we handle
- Pick-up at your accommodation or cruise port
- The route, the parking and the timing of each stop
- Three or four places, at your pace
Loch Ness or Skye in a day from Edinburgh?
Loch Ness is possible, and many coach tours sell it. We measured the usual loop, by Glencoe, Fort Augustus and Pitlochry: 326 miles, about seven and a half hours at the wheel before a single stop. In practice, that makes a day of about twelve hours, with little of it spent by the loch.
Skye is not a day trip. Portree is 236 miles from Edinburgh, a little over five hours each way, so the island would get the middle of the afternoon at best. Both are better as two or three nights on the road, which is how our Highlands and Skye self-drive tour takes them, with two nights by Loch Ness and two on the island.
Coach tour or private day trip?
Coach tours from Edinburgh are the cheapest way to travel alone, and the good ones have guides who know their history. They also leave from a fixed point at a fixed time, stop where the timetable says and fill up to 16 or more seats.
A private day works the other way round. We collect you from your accommodation or your cruise ship, the van is yours, and the day bends to your pace: longer at Stirling if the castle holds you, a second coffee in Anstruther if it rains. Our full days cost £650 for the whole party, from one to eight travellers, so the price does not change with the size of your group. Entry fees to castles and distilleries are paid on the day, usually £8 to £22 per adult per site.
When to go
April to October gives the full version of every day. The Loch Katrine sailings run in that window, and the boats to the Isle of May leave from Anstruther. May, June and September are our favourites: long light and fewer coaches than in the school holidays.
Winter is shorter rather than closed. Edinburgh has about seven hours of daylight in late December, so we pick days with less driving: Rosslyn and the Borders, Glenkinchie, or the Outlander locations close to the city.
