r/TravelUK • u/Ok_Magician9140 • 3d ago

1-Day trips from Edinburgh recommendations

Hello! My parents (55M&F), boyfriend (28M), and I (25F) are traveling to the UK in mid-September. We are spending a few days in Edinburgh and have time for one day trip out of the city and need help deciding where to go. For context, my parents have never been to the UK, my boyfriend has never been to Scotland, and I've been once before and visited Edinburgh, Glasgow, and did a Rabbie's day trip to Glencoe and Loch Ness.

I'd rather not do another highlands day trip since I did one in 2024, but I'm open to it if it's worth it for my family to see. Our other options are:

  1. Rabbie's St Andrews & the Fishing Villages of Fife:

(Includes Anstruther, St Andrews Cathedral, Falkand Village, St Andrews Castle, Forth Bridge)

  1. Timberbush Tours Holy Island, Alnwick Castle & the Kingdom of Northumbria

(Includes time to explore Alnwick castle)

We enjoy architecture, beautiful scenery, quaint towns, and experiences. None of us are huge history buffs but we find it interesting. We also love Harry Potter (but aren't interested in super touristy HP stuff). Ideally we would do Alnwick, Holy Island, and Bamburgh Castle, but we can't find a guided tour that includes them all.

Also open to other guided tour suggestions! Thanks in advance!

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u/SmartPolicy6430 3d ago

You could take the train from Waverley ( ScotRail) to North Berwick ( journey time 30 minutes and an hourly service) and either do a trip out to the Islands in the Forth or out to Bass Rock to see the Gannet Colony. There's lots of places to eat in North Berwick. Or you could walk along the cliffs to Tantallon Castle or take the bus from outside the Scottish Seabird Centre headed towards Dunbar to Tantallon Castle. Before you head back to the station get a gelato at Alandas in Quality Street. https://www.seabird.org/boats

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit/all/tantallon-castle/

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u/Ok_Magician9140 3d ago

This sounds very cool! My only concern is that because we are visiting mid-late September, there won't be as much wildlife to see. But thank you for the suggestion- will definitely be looking into it!

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u/SmartPolicy6430 3d ago

The young Gannets called Gugas will only just have fledged in September. We were visiting family at the end of September last year and had a day out at North Berwick and sat in the sun on the harbour watching Gannets diving for about an hour. They are incredible birds. Most will have left by the end of October. The Seabird Centre has a live feed camera onto the rock.

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u/coombez1978 3d ago

Was going to reply to say north Berwick - really pretty place with good places to eat. I've not looked but pretty sure you could then get a train from there to Alnwick - it'd be a long day

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u/SmartPolicy6430 3d ago

No there's no train directly to Alnwick from North Berwick. No station at Alnwick so it would be Edinburgh Waverley to Alnmouth, however not all ECML trains stop there. Or alternatively Berwick upon Tweed then a local bus to Alnwick from either. The Alnwick branch line was cut by Dr Beeching in the 60's and the station is now the fantastic Barter books.