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Travel to Edinburgh

Flying to Edinburgh

Flights to Edinburgh are offered by a number of different carriers including British Airways, BMI, KLM and Jet2.com. Cheap flights to Edinburgh are also available thanks to a wide range of low cost airlines, such as Ryanair and easyJet. New Year and the summer festival season are among the most expensive times to fly to Edinburgh so avoid these periods in order to buy cheap flights to Edinburgh.

Flight times: 

From London - 1 hour; New York - 8 hours 30 minutes.

Travel by road

Summary:

Traffic in the UK drives on the left. The speed limits are 113kph (70mph) on motorways, 97kph (60mph) on single-lane main roads and 48kph (30mph) in built-up areas. Non-British national driving licences and International Driving Permits are valid for driving in the UK for up to one year; drivers must be over 17 years. Insurance is mandatory. Overseas visitors bringing their own cars should bring registration documents and check with their insurance company as to whether a Green Card is needed. Breakdown service and general motoring information is available from the Automobile Association (tel: 0800 887 766; www.theaa.com), the Royal Automobile Club (tel: 0800 828 282; www.rac.co.uk) and Green Flag (tel: 0845 246 2766; www.greenflag.co.uk).

Emergency breakdown service:

AA (tel: 0800 887 766); Green Flag (tel: 0800 051 0636); RAC (tel: 0800 828 282).

Routes:

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 Glasgow - 1 hour; Manchester - 4 hours 15 minutes; London - 7 hours 30 minutes.

Coaches:

National Express (tel: 0871 781 8178; www.nationalexpress.com) operates regular daily coach services from both London and other 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. There are frequent services to Glasgow (journey time - 75 minutes) and Aberdeen (journey time - 3 hours). Cheap pre-booked tickets between Scotland's major cities are available from Megabus (tel: 0871 266 3333; www.megabus.com), which is now part of Scottish Citylink. All coaches leave from the bus station on St Andrew Square.

Travel by rail

Services:

Edinburgh is well connected by rail to other cities in Scotland major cities in the UK.
Edinburgh has two mainline train stations - Waverley station (located in the heart of the city on Princes Street) and Haymarket station (to the west of the city centre).

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:

To Glasgow - 50 minutes; to Inverness - 3 hours 30 minutes; to Aberdeen - 2 hours 30 minutes; to London - 4 hours 30 minutes; to Birmingham - 4 hours; to Manchester - 3 hours 30 minutes.

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