Edinburgh has no underground. It has an excellent bus network, one tram line, and a compact centre where walking beats both for most journeys.
Walking
The centre is small. Waverley to the castle is fifteen minutes uphill. The Royal Mile is, as advertised, about a mile end to end. Princes Street to Stockbridge is fifteen minutes downhill.
The complication is not distance but gradient. Edinburgh is built on a ridge and a series of hills, and routes that look flat on a map involve stairs, closes and steep wynds. If mobility is a consideration, plan around the contours rather than the distances — the walk from the Grassmarket up to George IV Bridge is short and brutal.
Lothian Buses
The main network, and a good one: frequent, clean, and covering the whole city. Buses are maroon and white for Lothian, and there are separate operators.
Fares are flat within the city — one price wherever you are going. Pay contactless on boarding, and the system caps automatically at a daily maximum, so you cannot overpay by tapping too often. Alternatively there are day tickets and the Transport for Edinburgh app.
Exact change is required if paying cash, and no change is given. Contactless removes the problem entirely.
Useful routes: 35 to Holyrood and the parliament; 37 to Rosslyn; 8, 23, 27 to the Botanics; 24, 29, 42 to Stockbridge; 41 to the Royal Mile.
Night buses
Lothian runs night services on the main corridors, roughly every half hour, at a slightly higher flat fare. They are well used and unremarkable.
The tram
One line, running from Edinburgh Airport through the west of the city, along Princes Street, then down Leith Walk to Newhaven. The Newhaven extension opened in 2023.
The tram is on the same contactless capping system as the buses for city journeys; the airport section costs more and needs its own fare.
Its construction was a civic scandal — years late, hundreds of millions over budget, an inquiry that reported in 2023. It now works well and has made Leith genuinely convenient.
Trains
Waverley is the main station, buried in the valley between the Old and New Towns, with exits at both levels. Haymarket is the second, west of the centre, and is often more convenient for the west end.
Waverley serves Glasgow (about 50 minutes), Stirling, Fife, Aberdeen, Inverness and the London main line.
Taxis and ride-hailing
Black cabs can be hailed on the street and are metered. Uber operates, as does Bolt, and Central Taxis and City Cabs both have apps.
Bikes
Edinburgh’s cycle network is patchy but improving, and the Water of Leith walkway and the Innocent Railway path are traffic-free routes across the city. The hills are the real obstacle: this is not a flat city and an unassisted bike will make you aware of it.
Cars
Do not. Parking in the centre is expensive and scarce, much of the Old Town is restricted, and a Low Emission Zone has applied in the city centre since 2024 with penalties for non-compliant vehicles. If you are arriving by car, park outside and use a park-and-ride.
Accessibility
Buses are low-floor with ramps across the Lothian fleet, and the tram is fully step-free. The obstacle in Edinburgh is not the transport but the terrain and the buildings: the Old Town is built on a slope, closes are stepped, cobbles are everywhere, and historic buildings frequently have no lift.
The Royal Mile itself is walkable but steep, and the closes running off it are almost all stepped. The New Town is flat and much easier.
Edinburgh’s council publishes an access guide, and the major attractions each publish their own — worth reading rather than assuming.
Luggage
Waverley has left luggage, as does the bus station on St Andrew Square. Both are useful given how many people arrive early or leave late on a fixed train.
One thing worth knowing
Just tap contactless on every bus. Edinburgh’s fare system caps automatically at a daily maximum, so there is no calculation to do, no day ticket to buy in advance and no risk of overpaying. Tap on boarding, every time, and stop thinking about it. The tram uses the same system for city journeys, though the airport leg is charged separately.
The closes and the levels
Edinburgh’s Old Town works vertically in a way maps do not show. The Royal Mile runs along the top of a ridge, and narrow closes and wynds drop off both sides — many of them stepped, some of them covered, and several passing under buildings.
South Bridge and George IV Bridge are streets that look ordinary and are in fact viaducts: the Cowgate runs beneath them, several storeys down. Understanding that there are two or three levels stacked on each other explains most of Edinburgh’s confusing shortcuts, and using them will save you a good deal of walking.