Private City Kickstart Tour: Edinburgh
Recommended by 97% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Edinburgh, Scotland
- 1 hour 30 minutes (approx.)
- Group discounts
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
Explore our promoted experiences
Overview
Enjoy a private introduction to Edinburgh and its top attractions on this flexible tour with a local host. Rather than following a rigid itinerary, pick between multiple daily departure times and then set off on foot. Visit numerous city highlights that you can tweak according to your interests, from St. Giles' Cathedral and Edinburgh Castle to the Greyfriars Kirkyard and National Museum of Scotland.
- Check off plenty of Edinburgh highlights in just one tour
- Forget the rush of large tour groups and explore at a pace that suits you
- Hear insider stories and get tips about where to eat and drink
- Perfect for time-pressed or first-time visitors
What's Included
- Private Tour
- Local Guide
- Local Tips and Tricks
- City Orientation
- Hotel pick-up and drop off
- Food & beverages
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Loch Ness Discovery Centre, 192A High St, Edinburgh EH1 1RW, UK
Outside the main entrance Burgers and Beers Grillhouse.
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Itinerary
1
St Giles' Cathedral
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
2
Edinburgh Castle
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
Writers' Museum (Pass By)
Grassmarket (Pass By)
Greyfriars (Pass By)
National Museum of Scotland (Pass By)
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- Most travelers can participate
- Private tour: only you & your local guide
- Post Covid-19 regulations are applied to this product with regards to the number of participants, delivery methods of the tour and content of the tour.
- This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.9
based on 58 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Our guide Mark Jackson was fantastic. He asked our teenage boys about their interests and then did a great job of including them in the conversations. He has lots of interesting facts and made the tour fun for all of us, especially by adding humor.
Alec was informative and funny. It was perfect for us since we only had one day. He told some great stories.
Chris is an awesome guide! He's extremely knowledgeable and engaging. He gave me a lot of great tips for my stay as well. Be sure to take this tour as soon as you get to Edinburgh and not at the end.
Monica was lovely. Knowledgeable and so personable. We live Viator and this was a great way to see so much of the city quickly, privately and tailored to our needs.
My family and I (6 adults) booked this tour for our first day in Edinburgh to get our bearings and to get ideas for the rest of our trip. Our tour guide, Russell, was fantastic! He was super knowledgeable and funny. He took us to all the major sites while giving us the history and answering any questions we had. His humor kept us engaged, which was necessary as we were all tired from our travels. Following the tour, he gave us recommendations for places to visit both in Edinburgh and outside of town as well as recommendations of where to eat traditional Scottish food. I would absolutely recommend booking this tour!
Great historic overview and insightful information! Love Russell pace and picks that he showed us, we extremely enjoyed the tour 🙏
We had a great tour of the Old Town with Russell. He was extremely knowledgeable and very pleasant. He contacted us before the tour to ask what we were most interested in seeing, and he catered the tour to us. In addition to seeing many of the standard sites, he recommended other museums and locations that we could stop in to visit on our own time, which was great. Highly recommend!
My adult daughters and I met Monica on June 17th, 2024, for the KickStart tour of Edinburgh, Scotland lasting 1 1/2 hours. Monica was delightful and very enthusiastic. She gave us a fantastic tour beginning in Old Town; relaying the key elements in the history of the city’s development and telling us interesting stories behind the monuments and sites we visited including some places that served as inspiration for JK Rowling’s HARRY POTTER book series. We were flying home that same day and were unable to take a longer tour; however we could easily have spent an entire day with her. Tour is a solid 5 stars. Terry S.
Alec was quite entertaining and a wonderful storyteller. He gave us a walking tour that you'd never have known to do and filled us in on many neat facts about Edinburgh. We visited a couple Harry Potter areas and got some great advice on things to do/not do while in town. Very nice experience.
Our tour guide Alice was great! She told us history and legends of the city! She included so Harry Potter paces too.
Alice as a story teller who captivated our imagination through stories of the Royal Mile. From tales of Deacon Brodie’s antics to what went on in the closes around the Royal Mile, this was a lovely tour. Not quite the introductory tour we had in mind, but still a lovely experience if only enhanced by the Scottish rain. Alice was great in accommodating us in the rain and made stops under shelter to avoid us spending too much time in the downpour.
Great tour! Awesome way to start the trip, absolutely recommend doing it as soon as you arrive in town. We got tons of great recommendations!
We could understand Svend, he was engaging, flexible to our interests, knowledgeable, and a wonderful storyteller. He was funny when he would act out his passions about history, Scottish writers and poetry. Thank you Svend!
Nick provided a wonderful tour of St. Giles Cathedral, the Royal Mile and much more! Highly recommend!
If you choose to do this tour on your visit do it first. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable full of tips and facts about the city. Well worth doing but take advantage of the knowledge provided. We did this on our last day but still thoroughly enjoyed it
Alice was wonderful. She told us in depth stories with enthusiasm and answered any questions we had. Would definitely recommend!
Alice was a great guide and an amazing story teller. She knew so many cool historical facts and legends. The tour focused on Old Town but with so much to see it flew by.
Fantastic time. Alice was an entertaining and insightful guide. Made for a great start to the trip. Highly recommend.
Alice was a brilliant guide. Lots of local knowledge. Wanted to know what we were interested in before we set off. She then tailored the tour to us. Gave lots of suggestions for places to explore on our own once the tour was over.
We would certainly recommend.
Laura was a wonderful tour guide with so much fun knowledge of Edinburgh. Thank you for a great introduction to the city.
Excellent short tour. Laura gave us all the info we needed to explore the city better, took us to non-obvious little places and told great stories about the city. Well worth it!
Svend-Erik was delightful! Full of information and a wonderful personality! Great start to our time in Edinburgh! Thanks for the memories :)
Alice was a great guide! She was very knowledgeable , and shared a lot of local stories with us. It was a great way to get an overview of the city.
Alice was so welcoming and friendly. A combination of history, storytelling and sites to see.
Perfect way to start our stay.
Laura was a great tour guide. We loved all the stories and history she told us. You can’t get this much info on a regular group tour. Her pace was great and we really enjoyed ourselves. And thanks for taking the time to take our pictures!
Very informative & interesting tour which was excellent. Our guide Laura was brilliant and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience.
Fabulous tour, Laura was so friendly and knowledgeable, a great experience thank you😁 would highly recommend to others visiting the City
Laura was a wonderful guide. She gave us so much background, history and anecdotes about the city. We totally enjoyed our time with her and highly recommend the tour
Amazing stories and tales tailored to our interest told with such enthusiasm. Best tour we’ve ever been on - highly recommended
It was our first time in Edinburgh. To our surprise, despite the pouring rain, our excursion went excellent. We fell in love with Edinburgh and I think Paul played the most important role in that. Even our 7-year-old daughter was delighted with the excursion and liked Paul very much. She was so impressed with him that even after 3 rounds with other guides she still talked about him.
Member Pricing
From
$84.70
per personWas $89.16(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
Compare Similar Experiences
Current
Member Pricing
Private City Kickstart Tour: Edinburgh
58
1 hour 30 minutes
Free Cancellation
From
$89.16
$84.70
5% savings
Customers Who Bought This Tour Also Bought
Explore Similar Things to Do
Attractions in Edinburgh, Scotland
- Gladstone’s Land Tours & Tickets
- Portobello Beach Tours & Tickets
- John Knox House Tours & Tickets
- Arthur's Seat Tours & Tickets
- Blackness Castle Tours & Tickets
- Real Mary King's Close Tours & Tickets
- Hopetoun House Tours & Tickets
- Alnwick Castle Tours & Tickets
- Edinburgh Dungeon Tours & Tickets
- Greyfriars Kirk Tours & Tickets
- Scottish Parliament Tours & Tickets
- Rosslyn Chapel Tours & Tickets
- Melrose Abbey Tours & Tickets
- St. Giles’ Cathedral Tours & Tickets
- Scottish National Portrait Gallery Tours & Tickets
- Princes Street Tours & Tickets
- Grassmarket Tours & Tickets
- Loch Lomond Tours & Tickets
- Palace of Holyroodhouse Tours & Tickets