travel tips to scotland

Edinburgh Airport, 7 miles west of the city center, offers only a few transatlantic flights. It does, however, have air connections throughout the United Kingdom -- London (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, and City), Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Humberside, Jersey, Kirkwall (Orkney), Inverness, Leeds-Bradford, Manchester, Norwich, Sumburgh (Shetlands), Southampton, Wick, and Belfast (in Northern Ireland) -- as well as with a number of European cities, including Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, and Zurich. Flights take off for Edinburgh Airport virtually every hour from London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports; it's usually faster and less complicated to fly through Gatwick, which has excellent rail service from London's Victoria Station.
There are no rail links to the city center, despite the fact that the airport sits between two main lines. By bus or car you can usually make it to Edinburgh in a comfortable half hour, unless you hit the morning (7:30 to 9) or evening (4 to 6) rush hours. Lothian Buses run between Edinburgh Airport and the city center every 15 minutes daily from 9 to 5 and less frequently (roughly every hour) during off-peak hours. The trip takes about 30 minutes, or about 45 minutes during rush hour. A single-fare ticket costs £3.

You can arrange for a chauffeur-driven limousine to meet your flight at Edinburgh Airport through David Grieve Chauffeur Drive for about £45 plus V.A.T; Little's Chauffeur Drive, £47 plus V.A.T; and W L Sleigh Ltd., £50 plus V.A.T.
Taxis are readily available outside the terminal. The trip takes 20-30 minutes to the city center, 15 minutes longer during rush hour. The fare is roughly £20. Note that airport taxis picking up fares from the terminal are any color, not the typical black cabs.

National Express provides bus service to and from London and other major towns and cities. The main terminal, St. Andrew Square bus station, is only a couple of minutes (on foot) north of Waverley station, immediately east of St. Andrew Square. Long-distance coaches must be booked in advance from the booking office in the terminal. Edinburgh is approximately eight hours by bus from London.

Lothian Buses provides much of the service between Edinburgh and the Lothians and conducts day tours around and beyond the city. First also runs buses out of Edinburgh into the surrounding area.

Edinburgh's main train hub, Waverley Station, is downtown, below Waverley Bridge and around the corner from the unmistakable spire of the Scott Monument. Travel time from Edinburgh to London by train is as little as 4½ hours for the fastest service.

Edinburgh's other main station is Haymarket, about four minutes (by rail) west of Waverley. Most Glasgow and other western and northern services stop here. Haymarket can be more convenient if you're staying in hotels beyond the west end of Princes Street.