Edinburgh in 2 Days

The gate opens at 09:30 every day of the year and closes at 18:00 from 1 April to 30 September, 17:00 from 1 October to 31 March, with last entry an hour before. Adult entry is £23.50 online and £26 in person; concession £19, child 7 to 15 £14, Young Scot cardholders £1, members free. Two hours is our allowance rather than the site's — Historic Environment Scotland publishes no recommended visit length.

Leave the luggage elsewhere. Rucksacks of 30 litres and over and suitcases are refused at the gate and nothing is stored, and neither are prams or pushchairs. The approach is a wooden-slatted bridge and then a steep curved cobbled climb; a mobility vehicle and manual wheelchairs are available, sensory backpacks and ear defenders are lent from the ticket office, and up to two carers per transaction go free with no proof required.

The castle guide has the layout, and the ticket page compares the official shop with the resellers. A guided walking tour with entry included is £35 and rates 4.7 from 13,901 reviews; the two-hour in-depth version is £46 at 4.9 from 3,216.

Five minutes to the top of Castlehill, five more to Parliament Square. This is the walk the whole city is built around, and on a two-day visit you can afford to turn into the closes rather than march past them: the Writers' Museum in Lady Stair's Close is free, seven days, 10:00–17:00 with last entry 16:30, and Gladstone's Land at 477B Lawnmarket is £11 with self-guided entry only until 14:30.

St Giles' Cathedral is free on a suggested donation of £10 and open Monday to Friday 10:00–18:00, Saturday 09:00–17:00 with a Quiet Hour until 10:00, and Sunday 13:00–17:00. The audio tour is £5.50, runs 25 minutes on your own phone by QR code and needs about 25 MB — there are no handsets to borrow. Guided tours were paused for guide training when we checked, with a stated return in mid-October.

If whisky rather than architecture is the reason you are on this street, the Scotch Whisky Experience at 354 Castlehill runs the Silver Tour at £25 every 20 minutes from 10:00, 50 minutes long and the only one of its tours that admits children; the Gold Tour is £39.75 and 18 only. The whisky page compares it with the distilleries.

Seventy-five metres from the cathedral door, on Warriston's Close, and the one paid hour on this plan that has no equivalent anywhere else. The Signature Guided Tour runs about an hour through the closes built over when the Royal Exchange went up in the eighteenth century. Adult entry is £24.95 under the summer reduction, reverting to £28.50 on 1 September 2026; child £18.25 rising to £21.

It is 58 steps down and 38 back up, with no wheelchair access — a listed site where a lift is not possible. Handrails run throughout, support chairs come on request by email, the ground-floor toilets and the gift shop stay usable, and guides carry radios and will walk you out at any point. The site says plainly that many areas are dimly lit and that some guests experience disorientation or claustrophobia, and it recommends sturdy footwear. Children under five are refused.

Book a slot a few days ahead — the operator's own advice — and note the specialist tours on the close tour page: the 17th Century Medicine Experience at £30.50 on Friday to Sunday, and Above & Beyond at £49 for two hours ten minutes.

Six minutes down the West Bow. Victoria Street curves into the Grassmarket under the south face of the castle rock, and on Saturdays the Grassmarket Market runs on the central reservation, 10:00–17:00 all year, free to enter.

We do not print a meal band for the city, because no authority publishes one and a made-up number is worse than none. The only food prices we can source are guided ones — the food and drink walking tours run £94 and £95.50 for three hours — so read the menus in the windows, which is what everyone here does anyway.

Two minutes east, Greyfriars Kirkyard is free and open 24 hours a day, 365 days, owned and maintained by the council rather than the church. The Kirk interior keeps its own hours and closes for general visiting many days in August as a Fringe venue.

Three minutes from the kirkyard along Chambers Street, and free — general admission costs nothing, seven days a week, 10:00–17:00, with charges only for some special exhibitions. On 26 December and 1 January it opens at 12:00; it closes on 25 December alone.

Ninety minutes is enough for the Grand Gallery, the Scottish galleries and the roof terrace, which is the free viewpoint most day plans miss. The two Level 3 exhibition galleries charge differently and only one is signposted as paid: Scotland's First Warriors is free and runs to 16 May 2027, while Giants is £13 in advance or £14.50 on the day and closes on 14 September 2026 — the advance rate dies at 23:59:59 the night before you visit.

This is also the building the whole plan falls back on when the weather turns: lifts to all floors, free wheelchair loan from any information desk, level access at the Tower Entrance that avoids the busy main hall, and a sensory map marking the calmer galleries. The museum page has the room order.

Fifteen minutes north-east, across the valley and up the stair at the east end of Princes Street. The hill is free and open at any hour; the Nelson Monument charges £7.50 for the monument and tower, £3 for the monument without the view, and the venue's own panel gives 10:00–16:30 while a second page on the same site says 15:30 — so on this timing you are here for the hill, not the tower. If you want the tower, buy the £14 combined ticket at the Scott Monument kiosk earlier in the day and save £2.50 on the pair.

The hour is the point. Sunset here runs from 15:38 in mid-December to 22:00 in mid-June, computed for the summit's own coordinates; mid-September gives 19:31, mid-October 18:12, mid-January 16:10. The Old Town ridge and the castle stand west of the hill, so the evening light falls behind them and the city goes to silhouette. Cafe Calton on the summit is open until 20:30 for a long summer wait.

The paths are unlit and the steps uneven — the Calton Hill page carries the month table and the honest note about coming down in the dark.

Eleven minutes back down into the Old Town. The South Bridge vaults are the city's standard evening, and the tours differ more than the marketing suggests: the original underground tour is an hour from £19.44 and rates 4.6 from 12,496 reviews, the haunted vaults and graveyard tour adds Greyfriars at £21.06, and the small-group multi-sensory version is £27 for 75 minutes. The ghost tours page sorts the historical ones from the theatrical ones.

If that is not your evening, the alternative is a dram rather than a spectre: the Scotch Whisky Experience runs its last tour at 19:00 and its Amber restaurant to 21:00, and the underground whisky tasting combines both at £31 for two hours. Bring physical photographic ID — under Challenge 25 a photo of a passport on a phone is refused.

Either way, keep it near the ridge. Day two starts at the other end of the same street at 09:30.

The palace opens at 09:30 and closes at 18:00 from 1 April to 31 October, with last admission at 16:30; from 1 November to 31 March it closes at 16:30 with last admission 15:15. Adult entry is £22 booked in advance against £26 on the day, a young person aged 18 to 24 pays £14, a child 5 to 17 £11, under-5s and access companions go free, and there is a £1 ticket for visitors on Universal Credit and other named UK benefits. The multimedia guide runs about an hour, which is the only duration the palace publishes.

Check the day before you build a morning around it: outside 21 May to 14 September 2026 the palace is usually closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Historic Environment Scotland states that the ruined abbey behind it can be reached only by paying the palace admission — Historic Scotland members and Explorer Pass holders included. No photography inside, and bags are checked on arrival.

The palace page has the closure calendar and the combined tickets, including the Private Apartments tour that runs 21 May to 10 September at £71.

Holyrood Park begins where the palace gates end, and Historic Environment Scotland's own line is that the park is open 24 hours a day, year-round, and free to visit. The summit stands at 250.5 m. Our estimate from the palace end is 45 to 60 minutes up at an unhurried pace with photo stops, and about two hours for the whole outing — which is not a guess pulled out of the air, but the door-to-door length both guided hikes on this route are sold as.

Two closures to know before you pick a path: the Radical Road under Salisbury Crags is closed for falling rock, with ranger-guided walks the only way onto it, and the High Road is closed to motor traffic. All park roads shut to vehicles every Saturday and Sunday, with barriers closing between 08:15 and 09:00 and reopening by 22:00 — good news on foot. There are toilets by the Education Centre behind the palace, open from 08:00, and none at all once you start climbing.

If you would rather have a guide and a fixed start, the two-hour guided hike is £24 and rates 4.9 from 124 reviews; the walk that takes both hills is £26 over three hours. The Arthur's Seat page has the four routes and what each one costs you in effort.

Down off the hill and out of the park. Britannia sits two miles from the city centre and its own visitor page says local buses and trams travel direct and stop outside, with a free multi-storey car park if you are driving. A Lothian single is £2.40 and the Tap Tap Cap contactless daily cap £5.70 — but capping only works through Tap Tap Cap, and plain contactless on board buys a single with no cap. Cash must be the exact fare; drivers give no change.

Leith is the part of the plan that rewards being early rather than punctual. Ocean Terminal, where the yacht tour starts on the second floor, is open Monday to Friday 10:00–20:00, Saturday 10:00–19:00 and Sunday 11:00–18:00, so a late lunch here has somewhere to happen.

If you would rather stay on the ridge, this is the natural point to cut Leith entirely and spend the afternoon in the New Town and Dean Village instead — about 24 minutes on foot from Princes Street, free, and the prettiest half-hour of the Water of Leith walkway.

From April to October the ship takes its first visitors at 09:30, its last at 16:00 and closes at 18:00; from November to March that becomes 10:00, 15:00 and 17:00, which is the single most important line on this page for a winter visit — a 15:00 arrival in January is the last one of the day. It is open 363 days a year, closed only on 25 December and 1 January.

Adult entry is £23 booked online in advance, £25 on the door and £27 for the date-flexible ticket, with young people 16 to 21, students and children 7 to 15 at £11.50 online and under-7s free. Tickets bought on arrival are contactless only — there is no cash. Britannia recommends two hours for the visit, and the audio guide comes in 42 language versions with a BSL and ASL tablet, a Braille script and a children's tour. The visitor centre, tour route, shop and the Royal Deck Tearoom are all reachable by lift.

The Britannia page compares the official ticket with the platform version; the entry ticket card here is £25 and rates 4.9 from 3,210 reviews.

Ten minutes from Ocean Terminal along the water. The Shore is where the day is meant to end: dockside, off the tourist ridge, and with the one kind of whisky stop that is not on Castlehill — the Port of Leith distillery tour and tasting is £25 for 90 minutes and rates 4.7 from 254 reviews. The Holyrood distillery whisky and gin tour is £27 and back on the city side if you would rather not double the journey.

Getting back is easy and worth checking before dinner rather than after: trams are running the full route again after the July disruption, every 7 minutes between 07:00 and 19:00 and every 10 minutes outside those hours, at the same £2.40 city single. Lothian's night single is £3.50 and the City LATE ticket, valid from 18:00 to 04:30, is £5.50.

That is 48 hours. If a third day is coming, the three-day plan is where the day trip goes, and the day-trip comparison is where you choose it.