How to Get Around Edinburgh, Scotland
Last updated: 12 October 2023
There are a multitude of ways to get around Edinburgh, and in this blog post, we dive deep into the most common ways!
This blog post accompanies our YouTube video about how to get around Edinburgh! Be sure to check it out!
Walking
Edinburgh is a very compact city, so the easiest way to get around is to walk! Edinburgh is quite hilly though, and many of the pavements have lots of cobbles, so be sure to pack a good pair of walking shoes.
Bus
Lothian Buses is the bus company that serves Edinburgh and the surrounding areas (also known as the Lothians), and they have multiple branches under that umbrella, including Airlink and Skylink, which serve Edinburgh Airport, and East Coast Buses and Lothian Country, which serve areas outside of Edinburgh.
Lothian City buses serve the Edinburgh area, and the way to distinguish them is the maroon and white colour of the buses, and they should say Lothian City on the side. There are over 50 bus routes on the Lothian Buses network, making it really convenient to get around by bus.
Fares
Below is a fare table for Lothian City:
| Ticket | Adult | Child (5-15) | Family (up to 2 adults and 3 children) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Ticket (One journey on a day service) |
£2.00 | £1.00 | |
| Day Ticket* (Unlimited journeys on day services) |
£5.00 | £2.50 | £10.50 |
| Day Ticket TapTapCap | £4.80 | ||
| Network Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day and night services across entire network) |
£12.00 | £6.00 | |
| Night Single (One journey on a night service) |
£3.00 | ||
| Late Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day and night services between 18.00 and 04.30) |
£4.50 | ||
| Late Ticket TapTapCap | £4.30 |
* A day ticket is worth it if you plan to take the bus at least three times in one day.
Fares for East Coast Buses, which serve the areas east of Edinburgh, are split into zones, based on the map below.
Below are simplified fare tables for East Coast Buses:
| Single Tickets (Valid for one journey on any day service) |
Adult | Child (5-15) |
|---|---|---|
| Travel in 1 zone (or 2 zones if it includes city zone a) |
£2.00 | £1.00 |
| Travel in 2 or 3 zones | £3.00 | £1.50 |
| Travel in 4 zones | £4.00 | £2.00 |
| Travel in 5 zones | £5.00 | £2.50 |
| Travel in 6 zones | £6.00 | £3.00 |
| Day Tickets | Adult | Child (5-15) | Family (up to 2 adults and 3 children) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day services in city zone a and county zone b, and Lothian City day services) |
£5.00 | £2.50 | £10.50 |
| Day Ticket TapTapCap | £4.80 | ||
| County Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day services in county zones b-f) |
£5.50 | £2.75 | £13.50 |
| County Plus Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day services in all zones and Lothian City day services) |
£8.50 | £4.25 | £19.00 |
| County Plus Day Ticket TapTapCap | £8.30 |
Additional fare options and a fare finder can be found on the Lothian Buses website.
Fares for Lothian Country, which serve the areas west of Edinburgh, are split into zones, based on the map below.
Below are simplified fare tables for Lothian Country:
| Single Tickets (Valid for one journey on any day service) |
Adult | Child (5-15) |
|---|---|---|
| Travel in 1 zone | £2.00 | £1.00 |
| Travel in 2 or 3 zones | £3.00 | £1.50 |
| Travel in 4 zones | £4.00 | £2.00 |
| Travel in 5 zones | £5.00 | £2.50 |
| Travel in 6 zones | £6.00 | £3.00 |
| Day Tickets | Adult | Child (5-15) | Family (up to 2 adults and 3 children) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day services in city zone and Lothian City day services) |
£5.00 | £2.50 | £10.50 |
| Day Ticket TapTapCap | £4.80 | ||
| City West Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day services in city and city west zones, and Lothian City day services) |
£5.50 | £2.75 | £13.50 |
| Country West Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day services in country west zones a-d) |
£5.50 | £2.75 | £13.50 |
| Lothian West Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on day services in all zones and Lothian City day services) |
£8.50 | £4.25 | £19.00 |
| Lothian West Day Ticket TapTapCap | £8.30 |
Additional fare options and a fare finder can be found on the Lothian Buses website.
How to Buy a Ticket
Contactless
The easiest way to buy a ticket is to use contactless payment when you hop on the bus. For adult tickets, there is TapTapCap, which means the system will automatically cap your taps at £4.80 per day if you take the bus multiple times, so it’s slightly cheaper than buying a day ticket for £5.
Note: TapTapCap only works properly when you use the same contactless card or device for every journey.
When you hop onto a Lothian City bus, just tap your card or device, wait for the beep, and you’re good to go.
If you’d like to use your card to pay for others’ tickets, just tell the driver the ticket or tickets that you’d like, and then tap your card or device when prompted, and you’ll get a paper ticket or tickets. For example, if you’d like to use TapTapCap for yourself but you’d also like to pay for a single ticket for your friend who’s accompanying you, then when you get on the bus, tap your card for your ticket and then tell the driver that you would like a single ticket for your friend, and tap again when told to.
If you’re travelling on Airlink, Skylink, East Coast Buses, or Lothian Country buses, you’ll have to tell the driver where you’re going before tapping so that you get charged the correct fare.
Cash
Another way to pay for the bus is by cash, but keep in mind that it needs to be the exact fare. You won’t receive any change if you overpay. Just put the cash in the slot when you get on the bus and tell the driver what type of ticket you would like and they will dispense a paper ticket for you.
M-Tickets
You can also download m-tickets for Lothian City, Airlink, Skylink, East Coast Buses, and Lothian Country via the Transport for Edinburgh M-Tickets app on iPhone and Android. The minimum purchase is £4. After you buy m-tickets, you have 180 days to activate and use them.
Keep in mind that you will need an internet connection to purchase m-tickets and download them to the app, but you’ll be fine without an internet connection to activate them to use on the bus. Just ensure that your phone has enough battery to be able to show your m-ticket to the driver!
When you activate an m-ticket, you will have five minutes for single tickets and until the end of day services for day tickets to use the m-ticket before it expires. Late and night tickets expire at 04.30.
One thing to note about m-tickets is that you can only activate one ticket per device, with the exception being the family day ticket. This means that if you would like to use m-tickets for multiple people, you can buy them all on one device and then use the ‘Share Tickets’ function in the app to send tickets to each person.
Additional information about m-tickets can be found on the Lothian Buses website.
How to Know Which Bus to Take
Lothian Buses has a great app called Transport for Edinburgh, which allows you to plan your journey and see real-time arrival times. Most bus stops will also show real-time arrival times.
If you won’t have mobile data during your time in Edinburgh, you can always download an offline Google Map of Edinburgh and use the journey planner there. It just won’t provide you with real-time arrival times.
Tips for Taking the Bus
There are bus stops on Princes Street that have USB chargers, in case your phone is running low on battery.
Even if you’re not waiting at a bus stop on Princes Street, the newer buses have USB chargers between the seats!
You’ll also notice that the newer buses announce the next stops, so you should never miss your stop!
Tram
Taking the tram is another way to get around Edinburgh. Edinburgh Trams works with Lothian Buses and provides services from Edinburgh Airport through the city centre to Leith and Newhaven in the north of Edinburgh.
Fares
Below is a simplified fare table focusing on the city zone, which is all stops except for Edinburgh Airport:
| Ticket | Adult | Child (5-15) | Family (up to 2 adults and 3 children) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Ticket (One journey) |
£2.00 | £1.00 | |
| Day Ticket (Unlimited journeys on tram and Lothian City day services) |
£5.00 | £2.50 | £10.50 |
| Day Return Ticket (Return journey) |
£3.80 | £1.90 | |
| Late Ticket (Unlimited journeys on tram and Lothian City night services) |
£4.50 |
Additional fare options and a fare finder can be found on the Edinburgh Trams website.
How to Buy a Ticket
Vending Machines
The first way to buy a tram ticket is at the vending machines located at each tram stop. You can pay by cash or most debit and credit cards. If paying by cash, you need to give exact change.
M-Tickets
The second way to buy a ticket is with m-tickets, so exactly the same as the m-tickets for riding the bus.
Edinburgh Trams Website
The third way to buy a ticket is on the Edinburgh Trams website. You can pre-purchase a ticket and display the ticket on your device when needed.
Pre-Purchase Policy
Edinburgh Trams has a pre-purchase policy, so with any type of ticket, you have to purchase and validate or activate the ticket before you board the tram. Once on the tram, a Ticketing Services Agent will go around and check that your ticket is valid. If you didn’t buy a ticket before boarding the tram, you’ll have to pay the on-board fare of £10 per person.
Taxi or Uber
If you are looking for a more convenient way to get around, you can take a black cab. City Cabs and Central Taxis are the standard black cab providers in Edinburgh and they look like the black cabs that you would find in London. The minimum base fare is £3.60.
Uber is available as well if you prefer to use them.
Travelling to/from Edinburgh Airport
If you’d like to know about how to get to or from Edinburgh Airport, we have an entire blog post dedicated to that!
Further Afield
Edinburgh Bus Station
For going further afield via public transportation, there are several bus companies that operate at Edinburgh Bus Station, including CityLink, MegaBus, Stagecoach, and National Express. Buses can take you all over Scotland and to other parts of the UK as well.
Edinburgh Waverley Train Station
Another option for going further afield via public transportation is taking the train at Edinburgh Waverley Train Station. Some of the train companies that operate from Waverley include ScotRail, London North Eastern Railway (LNER), TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast, and Cross Country, and they go to many areas around the UK.
We hope you found this blog post helpful! If you have any questions about any of the ways to get around Edinburgh that we’ve mentioned above, let us know in the comments below!
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