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Edinburgh for First-Timers: Trams, Closes, and the Walkable City That Trips You Up

Edinburgh for first-timers is gloriously walkable, which is exactly how it trips you up. Here's why you barely need transit, the airport tram-vs-bus call, and how the Old Town's hidden staircases actually work.

Planning the trip? Start with the our full Edinburgh itinerary, with maps — it lays out exactly where to go, and when.

Edinburgh for first-timers is a bit of a trick city, and the trick is this: it looks small and walkable on the map, and it IS walkable, but the map is lying to you about one dimension. Up. Edinburgh is built on volcanic ridges and the whole Old Town is a cliff that someone decided to put a city on. So the distance between two points might be 300 meters and also a 60-step climb you didn’t see coming. First-timers learn this with their calves. Let me prepare yours.

Here’s the first surprise. For a capital city, you almost don’t need public transport at all in the center. The Royal Mile, the Castle, the New Town, Princes Street, Calton Hill, Holyrood, the National Museum, they’re all within an easy walk of each other. I tell first-timers not to bother working out the bus map on day one. Just walk. You’ll see more and the layout sinks in fast.

When you DO want a bus, Lothian Buses run everything and they’re excellent, but they’re exact-change only if you pay cash (have coins, the driver won’t break a twenty). Far easier: just tap a contactless card or phone on the reader as you board, it caps your daily fare automatically so you never overpay. No need for a paper ticket or a special card. Tap and go.

The one genuine gap is reaching things on the edges, the Botanics, Leith for dinner, Portobello beach, and for those the buses are quick and frequent. But the postcard core? Feet.

This is the one real transit decision a first-timer makes, and it’s closer than people think.

The tram runs from the airport right into the center, terminating around York Place / Picardy Place at the top of the New Town, with a stop on Princes Street (St Andrew Square). It’s smooth, takes about 35 minutes, and it’s lovely if your accommodation is near that end.

The Airlink 100 bus also runs from the airport and goes to Waverley Bridge, dropping you slap in the middle, right by Waverley station and the bottom of the Old Town. It’s frequent (every 10 minutes or so), comparable in price, and often a touch faster, and it puts you closer to the Royal Mile.

So the honest call: if you’re staying in the Old Town or near Waverley, take the Airlink 100 bus. If you’re in the New Town or up toward Leith Walk, the tram might land you closer. Neither is wrong, it’s purely about where your bed is. A taxi or Uber is there if you’ve got heavy bags and it’s raining sideways, which, this being Edinburgh, it might be.

Now the genuinely magic bit, and the thing that turns a confused first-timer into someone who looks like they live here: the closes.

A close is a narrow alley or staircase running off the Royal Mile, threading down between the tall old buildings, and they are public, they’re shortcuts, and most tourists walk right past them. The Royal Mile sits along the top of the ridge, and the closes drop steeply off both sides down to the streets below. Some are named (Advocate’s Close, Fleshmarket Close), some are just steps. They’ve got worn stone treads and old date-stones over the arches and they feel like a film set, because films do shoot in them.

Why you care, practically: the city is layered vertically, the Royal Mile up top, then streets below it on either side, then more below that. Walking the long way round on the main roads means a big detour. Cutting down a close drops you a level in 30 seconds. Once you start using them you move through the Old Town like water finding the quick way down. Fleshmarket Close, for instance, is a steep stair that links the Royal Mile area down toward Waverley, saving a real slog.

The catch: they’re steep, often slick when wet (and it’s frequently wet), and they go DOWN easily and UP brutally. So I plan routes to descend the closes and walk up the gentler main streets. Going up a long close is a workout you’ll regret. Going down one is a delight.

A few last first-timer notes. Wear shoes with grip, the cobbles and wet steps are no joke. Pack a layer and something waterproof regardless of forecast, the weather changes in an afternoon and “four seasons in one day” is not a cliché here, its a Tuesday. And don’t overstuff your days, the hills mean you cover less ground than you’d plan for, everything takes a bit longer and a bit more leg than the flat map suggests.

That’s Edinburgh’s whole secret really, it’s tiny and it’s vertical, and once you stop fighting the hills and start using the closes, the city folds open and you barely touch a bus the whole trip.

Walk it, use the closes to drop levels fast, take the Airlink bus from the airport if you’re Old Town-bound, and wear real shoes, Edinburgh rewards the prepared and ambushes the rest. Welcome to the steepest small city you’ll love.

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