Last weekend, I took the train to visit Scotland from London. It was a cold February weekend, but the difference in weather between there and London was minimal. We spent most of our time in Edinburgh, but we took one day of the extended weekend to go to the highlands of Scotland.
To my surprise, a few of my coworkers who grew up in the UK had never been to Edinburgh. This struck me as odd because of how close it seems, but then I thought a bit more and it kind of made sense. The cost of doing this trip was equal or more to some trips we had planned to Spain or Portugal, plus it’s colder! However, I’m super glad we did it as Scotland is now one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited and I hope to make it back sometime this year.
Getting to Scotland from London
Whether you’re just visiting London or live there, you have a few good options to get to Scotland.
My personal favorite is via train. LNER has routes quite often from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverly. It’s about a 4-5 hour train ride depending on a few things. I will say I found it to be a bit expensive (£70 per person probably the cheapest round trip you could find, but we paid closer to £200). I still prefer this to flying though because it takes you from city center to city center, and you get to see more along the way.
The next option is to fly. While the actual travel time is much less, by the time you factor in traveling to the airport and all that comes with visiting an airport, it’s not too different time wise. You can definitely find some cheap flights to Scotland from London. Depending on your dates there’s a good chance you’ll save, even with extra fees that come with budget airlines.
The last option is to drive. I believe the drive to Edinburgh, Scotland from London is about 7.5 hours. This can swing a couple hours depending on the traffic leaving London. As such, it’s probably not the most comfortable option but it may be good if your plan is to spend a lot of time driving around outside of Edinburgh.
How we spent our weekend
I decided to take Friday off of work, so we took the train from London up to Edinburgh on Thursday night. We got in late, so we pretty much just checked into our hotel and went to sleep. We stayed in “New Town” at 28 York Place Hotel, which was pretty close and mostly downhill from the train station. “New Town” was planned and built in the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s much more “planned” than the old town, which is anywhere from 500-1000 years older. In some cases, probably even more.
The next morning, we woke up and headed out for brunch. We went to a cute café in New Town called Greenwoods. They had some really good options. I am a simple man, so when I see an Eggs Benedict on the menu, my decision is made. So, I ordered that and some fresh squeezed orange juice. Anyways, if you’re in the area, I definitely recommend this place and both my dish and “The Dutchman” ,which my wife got, were delicious.
From here, we headed uphill to the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is the main tourist area of Edinburgh. There is the Writers Museum, Scotch Whisky Experience, Camera Obscura World of Illusions, and many other historic sites here. The main attraction, however, is Edinburgh castle. We got tickets to go inside the castle. It provides great views of the rest of Edinburgh, as well as a series of museums such as the Scottish War Museum and numerous about Scottish royalty and military units. Depending on time of year you’ll want to book this in advance as they tend to sell out their tickets.
After the castle, we decided to warm up with some ramen at a restaurant we passed. It was called Bari Uma Ramen. It was a great ramen shop which seemed to be family-run. Then, we did a tour at the Scotch Whisky Experience. Here, we learned about the history of Scotch, the different types and how they’re made, and finished off with some tastings of the 5 different types of scotch. Finally, we capped off our day at Bar Napoli. This was a really tasty, somewhat casual, Italian restaurant in New Town.
Day 2
Saturday, we booked a tour with Highland Experiences. I don’t typically do too many organized tours, but this tour was super organized and basically allowed us to see as much of the Scottish countryside as you can see in one day. The tour took us up through Stirling to Glencoe, then to Inverness via Loch Ness, and finally back to Edinburgh via the Cairngorms National Park. Along the way we saw numerous lochs, both Scottish National Parks, and learned about some of the area’s history.
One thing we noticed, was that there were lots of other tour operators along the same route. So, if you’re trying to see Scotland from London on a time crunch, I would recommend doing something like this. This tour was honestly incredible and cemented Scotlands rank as one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited. I hope that I’ll be able to make it back see more of Glencoe and the Cairngorms this year, because it was stunning even from the highways. I can only imagine what it’s like when you get off the beaten path.
Day 3
On Sunday, we didn’t have to leave until 2:30 in the afternoon. So, we wanted to wake up and try and see more of Edinburgh. We got up, went to a restaurant called Pantry for brunch. Once again, I had Eggs Benedict. This was another good spot for brunch and it was not far from New Town. It was in an area called Stockbridge. We stopped at the Stockbridge market after eating, which was a small farmer’s market with produce, sweets, and artwork.
After this, we walked down the Leith walkway to Dean Village. This was a picturesque walk, capping off with Dean Village itself. From here, we walked up to the West End of Edinburgh and hopped on a tram. For £2, the tram takes you pretty much from end to end of Edinburgh. Perfect if you need access to the port or the airport.
I enjoy stopping in bookstores, and we went to one called Topping & Company bookstore. I would definitely recommend this place for book-lovers. It was two floors of floor to ceiling book shelves, with many signed first-editions available as well.
After that, we stopped at another ramen shop called Maki & Ramen (also listed as Ramen & Ramen on some maps) before picking up our bags and heading to the train. Maki & Ramen’s hell ramen hits the spot if you’re looking for some spice.
With our time to depart coming up, we capped off our weekend trip to Scotland from London and hopped on the train.
Edinburgh sites I would visit if I were to re-visit
Obviously, it’s impossible to do everything in one weekend. If I were to revisit Edinburgh in particular, there are a few things I would still like to do.
The first thing I wished I had more time for was the Arthur’s Seat hike. This hike takes you atop an extinct volcano that overlooks Edinburgh, providing views of the city. We didn’t go partially because we lacked good shoes for it (simply shoes we didn’t care about getting muddy), and also we opted to see Stockbridge and Dean instead.
We also missed a few museums that seemed great. The Scottish National Museum, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and Edinburgh writers museum being the main ones. In all honesty, I would do a few of these if I was in Edinburgh again. But, I will probably prioritize other parts of Scotland to revisit over coming back for some of these things.
Other things to do in Edinburgh
One thing that may interest you is trying to find somewhere to listen to traditional Scottish music. You will have very little trouble finding bagpipers if you hang around the Royal Mile. However, if you want to find a cozy pub to tuck into and listen to live music, there are a few well-known ones. They are:
You can also spend time going to a rugby match at the Murrayfield stadium. We were there for the Six Nations Rugby tournament, so there were lots of Irish visitors the day we left.
Conclusion
Scotland is one of my top three places I’ve ever been (please don’t make me pick a #1). Edinburgh was fantastic and felt very approachable in every way. It’s not super big, particularly the parts that most visitors tend to stay in. For us in February, it was not very busy. I have heard this is a much different story in the summer though, so beware it could be quite crowded.
In the summer they have festivals such as Fringe and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
My suggestion to you is to set aside at least a day to get out of Edinburgh, however, and see the countryside. The Scottish Highlands are one of the most MAGICAL places I have ever been. From rolling green valleys to tall snow-covered mountains and beautiful flowing rivers and lochs, it has a bit of everything.
I hope you found something useful and let me know if you have any questions about my trip to Scotland from London in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this content, please consider checking out some of my older posts below:
–How to plan your first trip to Europe
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