Our recommended private tour of Edinburgh
Discover the history of Edinburgh's UNESCO World Heritage Site on this five-star rated three-hour private tour. Start in the magnificent Georgian New Town, get some of the best views in the city (be sure to charge up your camera phone!), discover the history of the incredible Royal Mile, and let our award-winning Edinburgh tour guide take you into picturesque closes and wynds often missed by most visitors.
Top tip; the High Street and Lawnmarket sections of the Royal Mile can be very busy in July and August. During those months, we highly recommend this tour because you'll spend more time in some of the quieter but equally fascinating parts of the historic Old Town.
Prices start from £90
Your private tour starts at 10 am or 2 pm
5-star rated tour on Tripadvisor and Viator
"Local knowledge meant that on my tour I was shown the nooks and crannies, the hidden gems and the photo opportunities that I had expressed an interest in. 10 out of 10! What a great time, the perfect mix of fact and story telling and worth every penny and more!"
Cheryl C, Tripadvisor, October, 2022
Choose from our range of Edinburgh tours
Private Old Edinburgh tour
Get an intimate understanding of Edinburgh's world-famous Old Town. Learn about some of our most important buildings and explore evocative historic side streets, courtyards, and Greyfriars Kirkyard. Your Edinburgh tour guide will use incredible archive images to help you imagine the capital as it was centuries ago!
Prices start from £85 for a private tour for one person
Your private tour starts at 10 am or 2 pm
5-star rated tour on Tripadvisor
Viator Badge of Excellence winning tour
Private Royal Mile tour
Explore Scotland's most historic street on this Royal Mile tour. Visit picturesque little closes which most visitors miss and walk in the very places where so much of Scotland's history happened.
Top tip: we recommend this tour during July and August. You'll spend more time in the less crowded parts of the Royal Mile than on our Private Old Edinburgh tour.
Prices start from £85 for a private tour for one person
Your private tour starts at 10 am or 2 pm
5-star rated tour on Tripadvisor and Viator
Viator Badge of Excellence winning tour
Private Greyfriars Kirkyard tour
Our award-winning Greyfriars Kirkyard tour is perfect for anyone who wants to explore one of the world’s most famous burial grounds. Learn about bodysnatchers, murderers, tortured lords, executed Covenanters and our famous wee dog.
Prices start from £70 for a private tour for one person
Your private tour starts at 10 am or 2 pm
5-star rated tour on Tripadvisor
Viator Badge of Excellence winning tour
Bespoke tours for larger groups
Want a tailor-made Edinburgh tour? We LOVE planning tours to suit larger groups. We can offer tours to cover areas of interest and specific start/finish locations, and we can put together a tour for the time you have available. So please email us, and let's start planning your Edinburgh experience!
Edinburgh tours for primary schools
We believe there's no better way to learn about old Edinburgh than to be IN the Old Town. Our tours for Edinburgh schools have been expertly designed by our tour guide, a primary teacher with over 25 years of experience as a primary teacher. Your learners will hear stories, see sights, and use archive maps, images, and documents. We currently offer activity tours on Castles, Old Edinburgh, Mary, Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites, and also a tour which focuses on life for Edinburgh's poorest Victorians.
£3 per pupil (some tours add an additional 50p payment to City of Edinburgh Council for the use of Greyfriars Kirkyard.
Led by a qualified teacher with PVG certification.
"The tour lasted for two hours but the time flew by with Mr Howie telling tales of old and providing the children (32 of them!) with a selection of primary and secondary sources so they could be the history detectives and investigate dark goings on with torture, body snatchers, ‘rubbish’ walls, explosions, Royal visits and quite a bit about poo too.
I cannot recommend this tour highly enough for any educator studying the local history of this city with children at first or second level (ks1 and ks2). Reliable and unreliable sources? Check! Primary and secondary sources? Check! Compare and contrast society then and now? Check! Interpret historical evidence? Check!
The tour that really does tick all the boxes. And it’s fun too!"
MsFMorse, Tripadvisor, March, 2022
What our guests are saying
Excellent attention to detail and helpful access
I am a wheelchair user and my travel agent booked this tour because she knew I was a history buff. My experience with Robert I think started almost immediately. He started communicating with me via Viator and asking what I needed in terms of access and what interested me so that he could tailor the tour to my needs. We met at the hotel and he had a rough route planned out. He tweaked this slightly according to our needs. The end result was an informative and fun tour which we very much enjoyed. I don’t feel as if I missed out on anything and was very happy with our tour.
Tripadvisor review by Kirsty T - August, 2023
BEST Tour Ever!
Our private tour of Old Edinburgh with Robert Howie was AMAZING! Best tour each of us has ever been on. Robert was engaging, knowledgeable, funny, and tailored the tour to our interests. We were hanging on his every word and didn't want the tour to end. So glad we saw Old Edinburgh this way. Thank you Robert!
Tripadvisor review by Ron H - September, 2023
Please consider leaving us a review
Every review you leave makes a HUGE difference to our company. We're a very small company and the Edinburgh tours market is incredibly competitive. We really do appreciate your kindness in leaving a review on either TripAdvisor or Google.
Please, a small plea from us; if you're thinking of booking a tour with us, please book directly on this website. A direct booking with us (rather than on TripAdvisor, allows us to use greater flexibility with any requests you may have and you have all the security and benefits you'd have if you booked through a third-party.
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