Edinburgh Three Bridges Cruise
Recommended by 91% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Edinburgh, Scotland
- 1 hour 30 minutes (approx.)
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Escape the city and see some of Edinburgh’s lesser-known sights on a boat cruise that takes you to Inchcolm Island, home to both a medieval abbey and a colony of sea lions and seals. As well as escaping the crowds on land, you’ll bag the best views of the famous Three Bridges.
- Escape the crowds on land during a cruise to Inchcolm Island from Edinburgh
- Choose a departure time to suit your schedule
- Enjoy the best views of the UNESCO-listed Forth Bridge
- Increase your chances of spotting wildlife such as puffins and seals
What's Included
- Views of the Three Bridges as you have never seen them before.
- Panoramic views of the Edinburgh skyline
- Get your great photos of the seals, puffins, and dolphins
- Stories, tales, and myths of the History of the Forth
- Inchcolm Island landing pass
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Forth Boat Tours Ticket OfficeHawes Pier, Queensferry, South Queensferry EH30 9TB, UK
Please check your booking message for confirmation of meeting point in South Queensferry as this is variable.
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Itinerary
1
South Queensferry
1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking, unless booked within 1 hours of travel. In this case confirmation will be received as soon as possible, subject to availability
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Near public transportation
- Infants must sit on laps
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 200 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
The boat tour was fun, with lots of facts about the area and wildlife, and of course the bridges. The staff were friendly and had lots of extra stories and fun facts to offer as we sailed. Getting off at Incholm Island was the highlight, the Abbey had so much to see, plus walking to the war area was great too. Going through that tunnel and then the views from the top, amazing. Would absolutely recommend the boat tour with the island stop!
Reviews
4.6
based on 482 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Even on a chilly, misty day, the three bridges cruise was a fun trip. Seeing the seals was a highlight.
An exceptional experience from beginning to end. Cruising along the water while taking in the stunning bridges, beautiful island views, and playful sea lions was truly unforgettable. The Island of the Gnomes was such a unique and charming highlight.
A beautifully relaxing way to experience the scenery from the water—elegant, memorable, and absolutely worth experiencing.
This was a lovely ride with great history and beautiful views. The boat was very comfortable and the captain was great at giving interesting information.
Great escape from the city and we had fabulous weather! The crew was amazing. Very engaging……great commentary!
Lovely boat ride. Thankfully calm waters. The only negative was the commentary which was overload. Yes tell us about points of interest but waffling on for almost the entire tour was tiresome and quickly we started to switch off which was a shame as I’m sure we missed some relevant information. Crew were very friendly and informative.
Lovely tour and was a lovely, relaxing evening to view the bridges from the boat. Missed seeing the puffins, but I can always come back and do it again in June/July. Lots of seals and birds entertained us, though!
Prepare for erroneous information about departure point (imparted several times with no correction, with no apologies).
Brace yourselves for long walk to boat with no advance intimation.
Take a book to read. The commentary is recorded, inflexible, corny, wordy, inaudible and inaccurate.
The voyage is long and tedious.
It was not facilitated properly and they didn’t start on time and it was a long queue and waiting time standing and not ideal for elderly we had to queue and wait “standing” for more than 1/2 hour. Moreover, they have an audio recording they play it super loud the entire 90 minutes which was super annoying and goes beyond everything and kills the experience! I don’t recommend it even for free! And the buses in the town are super late and had to take uber back to the station!
The cruise itself was great, but Viator really dropped the ball! We took an uber to the starting point listed by Viator and, very shortly after our uber driver left, saw a sign that said that the boarding of the boat required a “fifteen minute walk”. Since we only had 5 minutes left to check-in, we were at risk of missing our boat ride. Luckily, there was a taxi stand nearby and, for an additional 20 dollars we were able to make it just in time to check-in-no thanks to Viator’s inaccurately listed starting point!
The cruise was great. The reason for the 4 star review is because the audio is extremely hard to hear. Moved to sit directly in front of the speaker. Lucky it was not a full boat! The add on to Inchcolm Island was absolutely amazing. Buy that ticket at the kiosk.
it was not as scary as i thought :). Boat is big enough to be not wobbling. Crew was helpful and kind.
we were shown multiple islands and castles, other than the 3 bridges.
Response from Host, Jul 2026
Many thanks for your valued comments. Delighted that you enjoyed your cruise taking in the Three Bridges, Edinburgh skyline, Inchcolm Island, seals, puffins, and other marine wildlife.
We had great weather and were still a bit cold so dress accordingly. Cruise was perfect, interesting, and timing was spot on. Wish we had time to book another in the opposite direction. Highly recommend!
Response from Host, Jul 2026
Thank you for sailing with Forth Boat Tours. We are delighted that you had a great day out with Forth Boat Tours. The Blackness Castle Cruise, going the other way, is available to book at forthtours.com
Lovely 90 minute boat ride. Nice mix of wildlife (puffins and seals) and bridges/engineering. And a little bit of history along the way. Very friendly and informative crew.
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Thanks for your valued comments. We are delighted that you enjoyed your cruise with Forth Boat Tours.
Excellent skippers and commentary, lovely boat ride, enhances the Edinburgh experience. A bit far, but worth it without a doubt!
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Many thanks for your valued comments. We are delighted that you enjoyed your cruise with Forth Boat Tours.
Great weather, Amazing trip filled with experience of a lifetime.. Great Commentary and of course lots of pictures 😁
Response from Host, Jun 2026
It is a mind blowing cruise! Many thanks for your valued comments. We are delighted that you enjoyed your cruise with Forth Boat Tours.
walking by google maps is inaccurate. many steps on narrow road. took a lot of time from the train station. should take the bus instead
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Your comment has absolutely nothing to do with Forth Boat Tours cruise. It is all about your public transport journey. Nothing that Forth Boat Tours has control of. So, why have you scored our Crusie as 2* Nonsense.
The weather makes the experience. A lovely, sunny day made the walks, sail and exploration of the island a perfect , relaxing day out.
We saw sealions, gulls, the wonderful Abbey and beautiful scenery all day. The Firth was calm and the bridges were spectacular.
The commentary on the boat was difficult to hear where we were sitting. This needs to be improved as the information was so interesting. The crew were a lovely, friendly, informative bunch. Thoroughly good time. Would have been 5 stars if I could have heard the commentary.
Response from Host, Jun 2026
Thanks for your comments. You didn't see sea lions you saw grey seals or harbour seals. The abbey is stunning and delighted that you took time to explore the island.
Easy booking and boarding.
Friendly and very informative staff on board.
The boat was clean, comfortable with both open and covered seating and on board refreshments.
This was the 2nd time we have gone this tour but this time we it's our 13 year old grandson who said it was one of the highlights of his trip.
Brilliant tour, we saw seals which was incredible and learned a lot about the area. Very much recommended!
The boat tour was fun, with lots of facts about the area and wildlife, and of course the bridges. The staff were friendly and had lots of extra stories and fun facts to offer as we sailed. Getting off at Incholm Island was the highlight, the Abbey had so much to see, plus walking to the war area was great too. Going through that tunnel and then the views from the top, amazing. Would absolutely recommend the boat tour with the island stop!
We thoroughly enjoyed this 90 minute cruise, viewing the 3 bridges up close and also spending time cruising other areas of the harbour. We were able to see several groups of seals. The crew were friendly and informative. I would recommend this excursion.
Relaxing and informative. We enjoyed hearing the history of the area and the view was beautiful. Fog at the start quickly changed to a sunny day
Excellent trip, informative, funny, great staff...could have gone for another 90 minutes.
Plenty of seals...well worth the money!
Staff were great with wheelchair access...
Once off the train from Edinburgh, we had difficulty finding Hawes Pier. Got lost and turned around a few times. The locals were very helpful but it is difficult to give directions to total strangers.We walked down some very treacherous, rotting, slippery wooden steps.Better signage would help.
The staff on board the vessel were very informative. Loved seeing Incholm Island- wish we had gotten off to explore but it was a little rainy. A tour well worth doing if visiting Edinburgh.
Interesting information and a lovely couple of hours on the water. We went as my husband was very interested in the bridges, recommend
Excelllent boat trip, sight seeing, guided tour and seals. We loved the bridges, castle and history around it. But for the lods seals were top of the trip!
It was a nice boat that had a friendly helpful staff. The sights that we saw were lovely. Overall, it was a pleasant experience.
Fairly priced and great scenes, there is an additional charge to go to the island but it is optional, still see a decent amount without getting off the boat
The crew was outstanding. It wasn’t crowded and the views and history shared on the tour were wonderful. We loved it. The town is great and you can even walk to the Dalmeny estate or Shell beach.
To reach Hawe's Brae from the Dalmeny rail station, you've got a lovely climb down a long, steep, slippery set of broken, muddy stairs to the harbor. And that means a hike back up later. But it is WELL worth this to experience Graham's narration along the Three Bridges tour, which is absolutely fascinating. Antone provided brilliant live commentary and the wind and sea did their part to make this a genuinely thrilling ride.
Member Pricing
From
$25.84
per personWas $27.21(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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Edinburgh Three Bridges Cruise
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1 hour 30 minutes
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