Travel by road
Edinburgh is linked to Glasgow by the M8 motorway and from there to England and Wales by the M74 and on to the A74 and M6 further to the south (towards Manchester). The A1 east out of Edinburgh leads into the A1(M) and M1 to London.
Driving times
From; London – 7 hours 30 minutes. Manchester – 4 hours 15 minutes, Glasgow – 1 hour.
Parking
There is limited on street parking in and around the Royal Mile and this is limited to a couple of hours.
There are few car parks in the vicinity, the closest being attached to the Radisson Blu hotel and accessed from Blackfriars Street. (this is a good option. It’s expensive but not well known so there’s a good chance of getting a space at most times)
Other Car parks are at Waverley Station, New Street EH8 8BG, Castle Terrace EH1 2EW and St. Johns Hill, 2 Viewcraig
Gardens EH8 9UQ.
Coaches
National Express (tel: 0871 781 8178; www.nationalexpress.com) operates numerous daily coach services from both London and the major English cities to Edinburgh. Scottish Citylink (tel: 0871 266 3333; www.citylink.co.uk) is the main provider of intercity coach services in Scotland, with a comprehensive network of destinations. All coaches both arrive and leave from the bus station on St Andrew Square. This is in the New Town but it’ll only take a ten minute walk to reach the Royal Mile.
Travel by rail
Edinburgh is well connected by rail to other cities in Scotland major cities in the UK.
Waverley Station is the main station and is only five minute walk from the Royal mile.
Operators
Scotrail (tel: 0845 601 5929; www.scotrail.co.uk) operates all services within Scotland, as well as the overnight sleeper between London and Edinburgh (and further north). From London and cities on the East Coast line, the rail service is now provided by East Coast (tel: 08457 225 111; www.eastcoast.co.uk). Routes from North Wales, western England and the Midlands are operated by Virgin Trains (tel: 0871 977 4222; www.virgintrains.co.uk) and Transpennine Express (tel: 0845 600 1671; www.tpexpress.co.uk).
Journey times
From Glasgow – 50 minutes; Inverness – 3 hours 30 minutes; Aberdeen – 2 hours 30 minutes; London – 4 hours 30 minutes; Birmingham – 4 hours; Manchester – 3 hours 30 minutes.
Travel by Air
Edinburgh airport is operated by BAA (tel: 0844 481 8989; www.edinburghairport.com) and is located around 30 mins to the west of the City centre. The airport is well served by budget airlines, including Easyjet, Ryanair, Jet2, Flybe, and Bmi. Full details of operators and destinations can be found on the Airport’s website.
For visitors from the United States, there is only one direct flight to Edinburgh. United Airlines fly daily from New York (Newark)
There is no direct rail link to the city, but a shuttle bus (Airlink 100) runs every 10 minutes, dropping off outside Waverley station. The city is in the process of building a tram link to the airport but its completion is some time away.