The 24 hour Discover ticket is £22 against a £5.70 daily cap on Lothian buses and trams, the Red Route loop takes 1 hour 10 minutes and a bus comes every 10 minutes until 17:00.
The Old Town is small enough to walk, but it is built on a ridge, and the bus does the climbs for you.
Your knees object to hills. The Mound, the Royal Mile and the way up from the Grassmarket are all climbs.
You have one day and want Holyrood, the Old Town and the New Town in a single 70 minute circuit before walking the parts you liked.
You are travelling with children aged 4 to 15, who pay £12 whichever ticket you choose.
You want the Royal Yacht Britannia and the Botanic Garden with commentary, using the £30 Explore ticket and its hourly Blue Route.
Skip it if
You are fit and staying central. Castle to Holyroodhouse down the Royal Mile is about 1.8 km, all downhill.
Arthur's Seat or Calton Hill is the plan. The nearest stop to Calton Hill leaves a 9 minute uphill walk, and Arthur's Seat is a hike from any of them.
You only want Britannia. The tram to Ocean Terminal is covered by the £5.70 cap, and the cheapest bus ticket that includes the Blue Route is £30.
You are visiting after 25 October 2026 and have not checked the winter timetable. The one we checked ends that day.
Edinburgh sightseeing bus: the fact sheet
Routes and timetable
Route
Stops
Frequency
Full loop
First / last bus
City Tour (Red Route)
14
10–20 min
70 min
09:00 / 18:20
City Tour (Red Route)
The City Tour: 14 stops through the New Town, round the castle rock by Lothian Road and the Grassmarket, then down the Royal Mile to Holyrood and back by Regent Road, 1 hour 10 minutes in all.
From 25 May to 25 October 2026 buses leave every 10 minutes until 17:00 and every 20 minutes until the last one at 18:20.
The timetable we checked ends on 25 October 2026.
The Britannia Tour (Blue Route, 6 stops, 55 minutes, hourly from 09:05 to 18:05) is not listed here because the 24 hour ticket does not include it.
Audio guide in 9 languages. Wheelchair access: yes, according to the operator.
Ticket prices
Ticket
Adult
Child
24 hoursDiscover Ticket
£22
£12
48 hoursEssential Ticket
£27
£12
72 hours
not sold
Online prices checked on 4 October 2026.
Big Bus advertises up to 10% off for booking online.
Discover (24 hours, £22) and Essential (48 hours, £27) cover the City Tour Red Route only.
Explore (48 hours, £30) adds the Britannia Tour Blue Route to Leith.
Children aged 4 to 15 pay £12 on all three and under 4s are free.
Family tickets for 2 adults and 2 children are £50, £60 and £70.
All include recorded commentary in 9 languages and free date changes.
No attraction entry, walking tour or night tour is included, and there is no 72 hour ticket.
Child fare: ages 4 to 15.
The same day by public transport
Lothian Buses
Adult
Single ride
£2.40
One day, unlimited rides
£5.70
The day cost is Lothian's TapTapCap daily cap of £5.70, reached by tapping the same contactless card or phone on every ride.
It covers Lothian day buses and Edinburgh Trams except the airport stop.
The City DAY ticket bought on paper or in the app is £6.00 and a single is £2.40.
Children aged 5 to 15 pay £1.20 for a single or £3.00 for a day ticket, and up to 3 under 5s travel free with a paying passenger.
Do the sum for your trip
Change the numbers to match your group. Fares are adult fares from the tables above.
Sightseeing bus–
Public transport–
Public transport is charged per ride up to the daily maximum. Multi-day passes can be cheaper still.
24, 48 or 72 hours
24 hours£22 Discover Ticket · £22 per day · 3.9 times public transport for the same days
48 hoursLowest cost per day£27 Essential Ticket · £13.50 per day · 2.4 times public transport for the same days
There is no 72 hour ticket. The 24 hour Discover ticket (£22 adult, £12 child) covers the Red Route only, and that is enough for most visits because the loop is 1 hour 10 minutes.
The 48 hour Essential ticket (£27) buys a second day on the same route for £5 more. The 48 hour Explore ticket (£30) is the only one that includes the Blue Route to Leith, Newhaven and the Botanic Garden.
Buy Discover if you have one day. If you have two, buy Explore and skip Essential: the extra £3 adds the Royal Yacht Britannia stop, which is more than 3 km from Princes Street.
A day of Lothian buses and Edinburgh Trams costs £5.70 with TapTapCap: tap the same contactless card on each ride and charging stops at that amount. A single is £2.40.
Bus 35 runs along the Canongate and High Street between Holyrood and Chambers Street, which is the stretch of the Red Route that saves the most climbing. The tram goes from Princes Street to Ocean Terminal for Britannia, and buses 23 and 27 go from The Mound towards the Botanic Garden.
For two adults that is £11.40 against £44 on the sightseeing bus. What you give up is the commentary and the open deck.
Does it suit your trip?
With children
Children aged 4 to 15 pay £12 on every Big Bus Edinburgh ticket and under 4s are free. The family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children is £50 for 24 hours, £18 less than buying four tickets separately.
On Lothian the child single is £1.20 and a day ticket £3 for ages 5 to 15, and a family day ticket for 2 adults and up to 3 children is £13. The bus is still an easy sell with children: 70 minutes is short enough to stay on for the whole loop, and stop 13 is at the door of Dynamic Earth with the Holyrood Park paths behind it.
The top deck is open and the weather here turns quickly. Big Bus says it may run a roofed bus in bad weather, though you will not know until it arrives.
Downstairs is enclosed, and from there the Royal Mile is mostly doorways and other vehicles. The loop is short, so the practical answer is to ride it in a dry spell and spend the showers in the National Museum of Scotland at stop 9 or the Scottish National Gallery at stop 5, both free to enter.
From 25 May to 25 October 2026 the Red Route runs every 10 minutes until 17:00, the best frequency of the year. August is the hard month.
The Festival and Fringe crowd the Royal Mile, and Big Bus warns that city events can close stops or cut frequency. Heat is rarely the problem.
Wind on the open deck is, even in July, so bring a layer. Board at George Street or St Andrew Square, the first two stops of the loop.
If you cannot walk far
Big Bus says most of its Edinburgh buses are wheelchair accessible and asks you to get in touch before travelling to confirm. The top deck is up a staircase.
For anyone who can walk on the flat but not uphill, this is a city where the bus earns its fare: stop 6 on George IV Bridge is level with the Royal Mile and 2 minutes from St Giles' Cathedral, and stop 12 is 3 minutes from the Holyroodhouse entrance. The castle is the exception.
It is a 6 minute climb from stop 6 over cobbles and across the esplanade, and the bus does not go up Castlehill.
Walk the Royal Mile downhill from the castle to Holyroodhouse, about 1.8 km, then take bus 35 back up to Chambers Street for £2.40. That covers four of the ten sights on this page.
Add the tram to Ocean Terminal for Britannia and you are still inside the £5.70 daily cap. If it is the stories you want, a tip-based walking tour of the Old Town takes about two hours and covers the closes the bus cannot enter.
Stop 1 moved from Waterloo Place to George Street, outside number 51, on 7 September 2026 because Waterloo Place is closed. Older maps and vouchers still show the old stop.
For the castle, get off at stop 6 (George IV Bridge) and walk up the Lawnmarket. Stop 8 in the Grassmarket looks closer on the map but sits at the bottom of the rock.
The last bus leaves George Street at 18:20, and after 17:00 the gap between buses doubles to 20 minutes.
The Blue Route leaves George Street hourly from 09:05 to 18:05. Miss one at Britannia and the wait is 60 minutes, so check the time before you go aboard the yacht.
The Discover and Essential tickets do not include the Blue Route. If Leith or the Botanic Garden is on your list, buy Explore for £30 from the start.
Commentary is recorded, in 9 languages. Bring your own headphones if you dislike the disposable ones.
Edinburgh hop-on hop-off bus: quick answers
How much is the hop-on hop-off bus in Edinburgh?
Big Bus charges £22 for an adult 24 hour ticket and £12 for a child aged 4 to 15 when booked online (checked 4 October 2026). The 48 hour tickets are £27 for the Red Route only and £30 with the Blue Route to Leith.
How long does the loop take and how often do buses run?
The Red Route takes 1 hour 10 minutes and has 14 stops. Until 25 October 2026 buses leave every 10 minutes from 09:00 to 17:00, then every 20 minutes until 18:20.
Does the bus go to Edinburgh Castle?
Not to the gate. The closest stop is George IV Bridge (stop 6), a 6 minute uphill walk from the castle entrance. The Mound (stop 5) and the Grassmarket (stop 8) are below the castle rock.
Does the bus go to the Royal Yacht Britannia?
Only on the Blue Route, which runs once an hour and needs the £30 Explore ticket. The £22 and £27 tickets cover the Red Route only.
Who runs the Edinburgh Big Bus Tour?
Big Bus Tours, with open-top double-deckers on two routes starting from George Street. It is a different company from Edinburgh Bus Tours, the Lothian-owned operator whose sightseeing buses use some of the same streets.
Is it cheaper than the ordinary buses?
No. A day of Lothian buses and trams is capped at £5.70 on contactless, so the £22 sightseeing ticket costs about 3.9 times as much.
Big Bus Tours · EdinburghOn Civitatis · rated 8.8/10 by 350 travellers
