You’re on your dream holiday to Scotland, you’ve landed at Edinburgh Airport, and now,
how do you get to your accommodation in the city centre? Hopefully you’ve
figured that out before you started your trip! In this video, we’re going to tell
you everything you need to know about getting to Edinburgh’s city centre from Edinburgh Airport!
For the purposes of this video, we will simplify this as much as possible and
assume that you are trying to get from Edinburgh Airport to the city centre,
as in, Old or New Towns, and not elsewhere in Edinburgh.
We’re going to list three options for you and leave out the option of
car hire only because if you’re visiting Edinburgh and going to the city centre,
a car is really not needed. Let’s get into it!
The fastest and most convenient way of getting from Edinburgh Airport to the city centre is by
taxi. It takes about 20 minutes, depending on traffic of course, and costs around £25-35. It
is an approximation because there is no flat rate to get from the airport to the city centre.
Most taxis will accept both cash and card payments. There is a taxi rank
outside of the arrivals terminal, which is the dark blue #3 on the bottom of this map,
and the black cabs look the same as the ones found in London, most of them anyway.
Uber does also operate in Edinburgh, and you can use the app to book a car to pick you up from
the Pick-Up Zone. One important thing to mention about the cost of an Uber is Edinburgh Airport’s
drop-off and pick-up fee, which is one of the most expensive in the UK at a flat fee of £4 for
drop-offs and £4 for pick-ups. This fee is chargeable in the Drop-Off/Pick-Up Zone, which is located on the
ground floor of the multi-storey car park outside the terminal building. If you do decide to use the
pick-up point for Uber, it's a little bit confusing because it looks like you would wait for the Uber here,
but this is not the pick-up point.
You have to walk a little bit further to here.
If you want to avoid this fee, the airport has a free drop-off and pick-up area,
which is at their Long Stay car park. At this time, there are no shuttle buses that
run between the terminal and the car park, but it’s only a walk of approximately 5-7
minutes. Just head towards the taxi rank and there are clear signs and a walking route
to the Long Stay car park.
The next way to get to the city centre is by bus. There are three airport buses,
the Airlink 100 and Skylink 200 and 400, but we will focus on the Airlink 100 bus
because that takes you straight into the city centre. The 100 bus is an express bus,
runs 24/7, and takes about 30 minutes to get to the city centre, with its final stop being
South St David Street in New Town. Departures from Edinburgh Airport are every 30 minutes
between 01.00 and 04.30 in the morning and then every 10 minutes out with those times.
The cost for an airport open return ticket is £7.50 per adult, £3 per child,
and £18 per family. The airport open return ticket means that you have a 2-way ticket,
so a return journey to or from Edinburgh Airport on any of the airport buses I mentioned earlier.
The easiest ways to pay for the bus are by Contactless, which means Visa, MasterCard,
ApplePay, or GooglePay, or cash, although do be aware that exact change is needed.
You can get the 100 bus just outside of the arrivals terminal,
which is the green A near the bottom of this map.
And the last way of getting
to the city centre is by tram. Unlike the 100 bus,
the tram does not run 24/7. The first tram leaves at 06.18 in the morning
and the last tram leaves the airport at 10.48 at night. They leave every 7 minutes and take
around 30 minutes to get to the city centre, with its final stop at St Andrew Square in New Town.
The cost for an airport open return ticket is £9 per adult, £4.80 per child, and £22.50
per family. The important thing to remember for trams is that you must buy your tickets
before you board. If you fail to buy tickets before you board, you’ll have to pay the £10
on-board fare per person to the person checking your tickets. The easiest way to buy your tickets
is at ticket machines, which you can find on the platforms and which accept coins and card.
You can catch the tram near the taxi rank outside of the arrivals terminal,
which is the green #7 at the bottom of this map.
And that’s it! We have the map that we’ve shown in this video along with a host of
other information, such as different fares and ways of buying bus and tram tickets,
in our accompanying blog post, which you’ll find in the description below.
We hope you found this video helpful! If you have any other questions about getting
to Edinburgh’s city centre from Edinburgh Airport, let us know in the comments below
and we’ll be happy to help. Don’t forget to give this video a like,
subscribe to our channel, and we’ll see you in the next video!
and the black cabs look the same as the ones found
in London, more or less.
Ugh, I should've said most of the time! *laughs*
Edinburgh, is eh *blows raspberry*