Six private day tours from Edinburgh, in your own Ford Tourneo Custom minivan with a dedicated local driver-guide. Up to eight travellers per booking. No coach, no strangers, no fixed departure herd.
We pick you up from your Edinburgh hotel, apartment or the cruise port at the agreed time. You travel in a Ford Tourneo Custom van (eight comfortable seats plus your driver-guide). We take you across Scotland at a pace that suits your group, stop where the light is good, and bring you back to the same drop-off point at the end of the day.
Full-day tours run around 9 hours door to door. The Old Town walking tour is a shorter 2-hour format in Edinburgh centre. Every tour is private to your booking: your family, your friends, your travelling group only. We do not mix strangers.
Your driver-guide is one of our Edinburgh-based team: Alison, Angelina, Anastassia, Marie, Emily or Nicolas. You are matched based on your interests and language preferences. All commentary is in English by default, French available on request.
Cheap coach day tours from Edinburgh cost £45 per person. There is a reason our tours cost more. Here is what that reason is.
Never mixed with strangers. Your family, your friends, your travel companions only. Six seats per booking.
Depart from your hotel at 8am, 9am or 10am, whichever works. Coach tours leave when the coach leaves.
Our van fits down single-track lanes, into village car parks, and pulls over where the light is right. Coaches cannot.
History, whisky, wildlife, Outlander, geology, whatever interests your group. Your driver-guide adapts. Not a script.
Coffee in a village nobody stops in. A photo where a rainbow just landed. A castle detour. You ask, we stop.
All full-day tours are priced at £650 per group (up to 8 travellers). The Old Town walking tour is £190 per group. Entry fees to castles, distilleries and chapels are additional and paid on the day.
A private 2-hour walk through the Royal Mile, the closes and vennels, Grassmarket and Old Town corners most tours miss. Led by Emily, Marie or Angelina. History, ghosts, plague pits, Enlightenment coffee houses, whichever interests your group most.
The essential Outlander day from Edinburgh: Doune Castle (Castle Leoch), Falkland (1940s Inverness), the Highland Folk Museum, and stops fans know only from Season 3 onwards. Read the dedicated Outlander tour page for the full route.
The 15th-century Rosslyn Chapel (Da Vinci Code, Knights Templar, real Scottish stone carvings), then south into the Borders: Melrose Abbey, Sir Walter Scott country, a stop at a country pub, and rolling hill country most Edinburgh visitors miss.
St Andrews, home of golf and the oldest Scottish university. Then the East Neuk coastline: Anstruther, Crail, Pittenweem. Fish and chips overlooking a harbour, cathedral ruins, and rolling Fife farmland. Ideal for a slower, less mountainous day.
Two Lowland distilleries in one day, with tastings arranged in advance. Typically Glenkinchie plus another Central Belt distillery, ending at a Leith or Edinburgh whisky bar with a local specialist. Nicolas is a Scotch Malt Whisky Society member and can lead this route on request.
Stirling Castle above the Forth, the Bannockburn battlefield (Robert the Bruce, 1314), the Wallace Monument on Abbey Craig, and the towering Kelpies at Falkirk. A day that tells more of Scottish history than any other in the catalogue.
The list below applies to every day tour. Entry fees are the main thing you pay for on the day.
All prices are quoted in GBP. Foreign currency equivalents shown alongside are indicative only. Contracts and payments are in GBP through Stripe.
Docking at Leith Cruise Terminal or South Queensferry? We regularly pick up cruise passengers and get them back to the ship on time, every time.
We build in a 90-minute safety buffer before your all-aboard time, factoring in Forth Road Bridge traffic and central Edinburgh congestion. Your driver-guide has a scheduled port timing before the day starts.
Tell us your ship name, your dock (Leith or South Queensferry), your arrival time and your all-aboard time when you book. We match a day tour to your window: full-day works with early arrivals, shorter options for tighter windows.
Frequent cruise pick-ups: Princess Cruises, Holland America, Viking, Regent, Silversea, Cunard, MSC. If your line is not listed, we still pick up.
Day tours are the format we run for many US and Canadian travellers on stopover or city-break in Edinburgh. The trip is short enough that jurisdiction, payment and ETA are simpler than a multi-day booking, but the same principles apply. Our dedicated page covers the details.
Same GBP payment through Stripe, same Section 14 consent mechanism (for our booking Terms & Conditions), same Edinburgh team on WhatsApp during your day.
From our Google Business profile at 4.9/5 across 59 reviews. Both reviews below mention Emily's Edinburgh tour specifically.
"In Edinburgh, Emily brought the city's history alive. A great cultural moment. It started with Nico, who answered every question right up to our departure and put together a very detailed travel booklet."
"A team who listens to what you want and does not hover once you are on the road, though always reachable. That is what you want from a travel agency. They love Scotland, and you can feel it, hear it, see it."
Six questions we hear most. For anything else, our full FAQ page covers ETA, driving, tipping, insurance and payment.
We pick you up from your Edinburgh hotel, apartment or the cruise port (Leith / South Queensferry) at the agreed time, we drive you in a Ford Tourneo Custom van with your dedicated driver-guide, and we return you to the same drop-off in Edinburgh at the end of the day. Full-day tours run around 9 hours. Group size is between 1 and 8 travellers, always private to your booking.
No. Our day tour prices cover the private van, your driver-guide, and the running costs of the tour. Entry fees to castles, distilleries, chapels and museums are paid on the day, either individually or as a group. Typical entry fees range from £8 to £22 per adult depending on the site. We can give you an accurate estimate for your specific itinerary at booking.
Day tours run in almost all weather conditions. Scotland's outdoors is designed for weather, and so is our van (heated, comfortable, dry). Only severe warnings (Met Office red weather warning, road closures, ferry cancellations) force us to reschedule, at no cost to you. For a bad-weather day, your driver-guide will swap outdoor stops for indoor ones: a museum, a covered market, a distillery instead of a viewpoint.
Yes. We regularly pick up cruise ship passengers from Leith Cruise Terminal and South Queensferry. We plan the day around your ship's re-embarkation timing and build a safety buffer of at least 90 minutes before your all-aboard time. Tell us your ship name and dock at booking and we handle the timing.
Yes, and this is a good option if you have three or four days in Edinburgh and want to see more of Scotland without committing to a full multi-day trip. Popular combinations: Outlander day followed by St Andrews & Fife the next day, or Rosslyn & Borders followed by Stirling & Kelpies. Ask us about combined pricing.
Free cancellation up to 14 days before the tour date. Between 14 and 7 days, a 50 per cent charge applies. Within 7 days, the full price is charged unless we can reschedule to another available date. Weather-forced cancellations by us (red weather warning, closed road) are always at no cost. Full terms are in our Booking Terms & Conditions Section 12.