Best Day Trips from Edinburgh

🚐 Group Tours from Edinburgh

There are loads of incredible group tours you can book to experience Scotland in just one day from Edinburgh. We usually book through GetYourGuide because it’s easy to compare routes, reviews, and timings.

You can download the app here: https://gyg.me/twoadventureseekers-app
Use our code “ADVENTURESEEKERS5” to get 5% off your first booking through the app.

Our favourite group day tours from Edinburgh:

1. 🚂 Glenfinnan Viaduct, Glencoe & Highlands Tour: https://gyg.me/k8lj5Xxd 

2. 🏞️ Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Scottish Highlands Tour: https://gyg.me/uiAESCIy 

3. 🌄 Glenfinnan, Glencoe, and Highlands Day Trip: https://gyg.me/QIjSWsbN 

4. 🏰 Loch Lomond, Stirling Castle & Kelpies Tour: https://gyg.me/4l14t59R 

5. 🌊 Loch Ness, Glencoe & Scottish Highlands Tour: https://gyg.me/ZEFQ6TyU 

6. 🐮 Glenfinnan, Fort William and Highland Cows: https://gyg.me/dHWg5eUt

7. 🏔️ Loch Ness, Glencoe & The Highlands: https://gyg.me/ZJrJUvQH

8. 🐧 Puffin Boat Trip & Tantallon Castle: https://gyg.me/Ose123Gs 

9. 🎬 The Outlander Experience Guided Tour: https://gyg.me/NxkQdf5e

10. ⚔️ Outlander, Palaces, and Jacobites Day Trip: https://gyg.me/PxQkANu2

🚌 Day Trips by Public Transport

These are the easiest places to reach from Edinburgh without a car — all doable in a relaxed day with trains or buses.

1. 🍺 Glasgow – museums, shopping & food scene

2. 🏰 Stirling – castle + Old Town views

3. 🌊 North Berwick – beaches & coastal walks

4. 🌉 South Queensferry – views of the Forth Bridges

5. 🏰 St Andrews – historic university town & golf heritage

6. 🌿 Pentland Hills – hiking just outside the city

7. 🏘️ Dunfermline – abbey + royal history

8. ⛪ Linlithgow – palace ruins + loch walk

9. 🎬 Roslin – Rosslyn Chapel & woodland walks

10. 🌸 Melrose – abbey ruins + Tweed Valley

🚗 Best Day Trips by (Rental) Car

Having a car opens up some of the most scenic and flexible routes in Scotland — especially for hidden gems and Highland landscapes.

1. 🏞️ Glencoe – dramatic mountain valley drives

2. 🏔️ Cairngorms National Park – wildlife, mountains & forest roads

3. 🌊 Loch Lomond – lochside villages & viewpoints

4. 🏰 St Andrews – beaches, ruins & golf coast

5. 🏰 Dunnottar Castle – clifftop castle views

6. 🌊 North Berwick – coastal drives & Bass Rock views

7. 🌉 South Queensferry – iconic bridge viewpoints

8. 🌿 Scottish Borders – rolling hills, abbeys & quiet roads

9. 🍺 Dundee – waterfront + V&A museum

10. 🏞️ Perth – riverside city + gateway to Highlands

🎬 Top 10 Outlander Locations near Edinburgh

If you’re a fan of Outlander, there are some incredible filming locations just outside Edinburgh that bring the series to life. Most of these are easy to combine into a full day trip by car.

1. 🏰 Midhope Castle – Lallybroch, Jamie Fraser’s family home and one of the most iconic spots from the series

2. ⚔️ Blackness Castle – used as Fort William, with dramatic fortress views over the Firth of Forth

3. 🏘️ Culross – charming cobbled village featured as Cranesmuir

4. 👑 Linlithgow Palace – used as Wentworth Prison in the series

5. 🏛️ Hopetoun House – grand estate featured as various Duke of Sandringham locations

6. 🌲 Falkland – doubles as 1940s Inverness in the very first episodes

7. 🏞️ Drummond Castle Gardens – Versailles garden scenes in Season 2

8. 🌊 Aberdour Castle – one of Scotland’s oldest surviving castles, featured in multiple scenes