Scotland fits in a week. Just about.
Which Highlands coach actually stops in Glencoe. Whether the vaults are worth the queue. What a distillery day costs once the admission is in. Reviews of every tour you can book here.
The days people come to Scotland for.
Glencoe and Loch Ness in one long day out of Edinburgh, the castle on its rock, the road over to Skye, a still house with the smell of hot barley, and the chambers sealed under the South Bridge. Six ways to spend a day, and the best booking for each.
One day in the Highlands: pick your version.
Every Highlands day tour →
Nearly every Highlands day leaves Edinburgh on the same road and then splits — north for Loch Ness, west through Glen Coe, or all the way out to the Glenfinnan viaduct. These three carry the most travellers.
Loch Ness, Glen Coe and Pitlochry
Down through Glen Coe with the Three Sisters on your right, an hour at Urquhart Castle, and a boat out onto the loch if you take the cruise option.
Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe, Fort William
The pass everyone photographs, the Buachaille at the top of it, and the long empty stretch of moor before it. The day for people who came for the mountains.
Glenfinnan, Glen Coe and Loch Shiel
Twenty-one arches curving above Loch Shiel, and a schedule built so you are standing at the viewpoint when the steam locomotive crosses.
Scotland’s most popular tours.
Every review →The bookings more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what each one gets right.
1
The World Famous Underground Ghost Tour
Night Ghost Tour in Edinburgh: Royal Mile wynds, Greyfriars Kirkyard, and 400-year vaults with a costumed guide, about 75 minutes.
From · $26
Read our review →
2
Underground Vaults Walking Tour in Edinburgh Old Town
from $33
3
Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands, Glencoe and Pitlochry Tour
from $67
4
Loch Ness & Highlands Small-Group Tour from Edinburgh with Cruise
from $84
5
Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry Ticket
from $51
6
Edinburgh Castle Guided Walking Tour in English
from $52
7
Glenfinnan Viaduct, Glencoe & Fort William
from $62
8
The Chocolatarium Chocolate Tour Experience in Edinburgh
from $44
Edinburgh sells out before your train gets in.
The castle on its rock, the closes dropping away off the Royal Mile, the chambers bricked up under the South Bridge. The capital keeps its best hours inside one square mile, and the good slots go early.
Whisky in Scotland is a place before it is a drink.
Speyside, the Lowlands, a warehouse ten minutes from Waverley — each pours a different answer, and every distillery will tell you its water matters more than its barley. Start with a tasting under the Old Town, then give a whole day to a still house.
What a day out in Scotland actually costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by price. A good Scottish day starts at about the price of a round.
Old Town walks, vault tours, city bus tickets and an hour in a tasting room.
The full Highlands day: Loch Ness, Glen Coe, Skye out of Inverness, castle admission included.
Private drivers, small groups capped at eight, and the multi-day runs out to the islands.
Three things you can only do in Scotland.
Castles and green hills you can find all over these islands. The chambers under the South Bridge, the houses that play Lallybroch and Leoch, and a working Scotch still house belong to this country alone.
The Underground Vaults
The chambers inside Edinburgh’s South Bridge were built as storage in the 1780s, leaked from the first winter, and ended up housing the people who could afford nothing drier. They were filled in and forgotten until the 1980s. Tours go down by lamp and the temperature drops as you descend; the early slots run smaller.
- 1The World Famous Underground Ghost Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 9,272 reviews
- 2Underground Vaults Walking Tour in Edinburgh Old Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 8,506 reviews
- 3Ghost Bus Tour of Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,761 reviews
The Outlander Houses
Doune Castle plays Castle Leoch, Midhope is Lallybroch and Falkland’s square doubles as wartime Inverness — real buildings, all inside an hour of Stirling, all open to visitors who have never watched an episode. The good tours get you inside two or three of them; the rest drive past and point.
- 1Outlander Film Locations Day Trip from Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,776 reviews
- 2Loch Ness Cruise, Outlander & Urquhart Castle Tour from Inverness★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,384 reviews
- 3Outlander Locations Tour Including Admissions from Edinburgh★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,116 reviews
The Still House
To be Scotch it has to be distilled here and left in oak on Scottish ground for at least three years, which is why the warehouse is usually the best part of the tour. Edinburgh tastings run about ninety minutes and cost less than lunch. A Speyside or Highland distillery day takes the whole thing, transport included.
- 1The Scotch Whisky Experience Guided Whisky Tour – An Introduction to Whisky★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,578 reviews
- 2Edinburgh Food Tour with Scotch, Haggis, a Secret Dish & More★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,172 reviews
- 3Scotch Whisky Tasting & Stories — Bespoke Whisky Lounge★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 972 reviews
Glasgow is a walking city with a brewery at the end of it.
All Glasgow tours →An hour west of Edinburgh and a different country: red sandstone tenements, the loudest football in Britain, a brewery that has been on the same Wellpark site since 1740. It is also the shortest run to Loch Lomond and the west coast.
City Sightseeing Glasgow Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
Read our review →Book these before you fly to Scotland.
Most of Scotland can be sorted from your hotel the night before. These cannot. They run on steam-train seasons, timed castle entry and minibuses that cap at sixteen.
- 01The Magical Highland Tour Including the Jacobite Steam Train JourneyTrain seats are released by season and go months out. The viaduct viewpoint below never sells out.
- 02Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry TicketEntry is timed and each slot is capped. A tour with the ticket included saves you the second queue on the esplanade.
- 03The Isle of Skye and Eilean Donan CastleSkye is five hours from Edinburgh each way, so the tours worth taking are small-group and fill weeks out.
- 04Loch Ness & Highlands Small-Group Tour from Edinburgh with CruiseSmall-group Highland minibuses cap at sixteen seats and run full through the summer.
It will rain. Scotland has a room for that.
Four seasons in an afternoon is not a joke here, and the best answers are all under a roof: a tasting room below the Old Town, a still house with the wash running, a vault tour that was never going to see daylight anyway.
Seven days, Edinburgh out to Skye and back.
Stirling
Glen Coe
St AndrewsBy base — where are you sleeping?
Edinburgh596 tours
Glasgow186 tours
Inverness170 tours
Aberdeen30 tours
St Andrews13 tours
Invergordon51 tours
Fort William12 tours- Every part of Scotland →
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