Getting Around Edinburgh by Chauffeur

The A720 city bypass runs around the southern side of Edinburgh and carries most through traffic. The M8 arrives from Glasgow in the west, the M9 comes down from Stirling, and the A1 runs south east towards Berwick and Newcastle. For anything crossing the city, the bypass is normally the sensible option even where it looks like a detour.

Its weak point is well known locally. The Sheriffhall roundabout on the eastern side is a grade level junction on an otherwise fast road, and it backs up heavily at peak times. If your journey depends on it, we build in extra time rather than hope. Coming from the west, the airport spur and the Gogar area also tighten sharply during the morning peak.

Within the city, the main arteries are the A8 in from the west, Queensferry Road from the Forth crossings, and Lothian Road running north to south through the west end. None of them are fast at four in the afternoon, and the sequence of one-way streets in the New Town means a wrong turn can cost several minutes rather than a few seconds.

Princes Street is not available to private cars along most of its length. The tramline runs down it, and the road is reserved for trams, buses and taxis, which means the single most obvious route across the centre is closed to us. George Street to the north takes some of the load but has its own restrictions and a much altered layout.

The Old Town is more restricted still. Large stretches of the Royal Mile are pedestrian or access only, the closes running off it are steps rather than roads, and Victoria Street and the Grassmarket are frequently closed for events. Edinburgh also operates a low emission scheme in the central area, and we confirm the current requirements for your vehicle at the time of booking rather than assuming last season's rules still hold.

Waverley sits in the valley between the Old and New Towns, which is scenically remarkable and practically difficult. Access down the ramps has been restricted at various times and the station approach is busy with taxis. For most arrivals we agree a point on the street above rather than attempt the descent, and we tell you which set of steps or which lift to use before you travel.

Haymarket, a mile west, is often the easier station for a car and is well placed for the west end hotels and the financial district around Lothian Road. If your ticket allows either, it is worth asking. For sleeper arrivals in the early morning the calculus changes again, and a Waverley collection is usually workable simply because the city is empty.

Edinburgh Airport sits west of the city off the A8. The run into the centre is commonly twenty five to forty minutes, though the morning peak and any incident on the bypass can extend that considerably. We check published arrival information before the chauffeur leaves and prefer to meet arrivals inside the terminal.

For most of the year Edinburgh is a manageable city for a car. Through August it becomes something else entirely. The festivals fill the centre, temporary venues appear in squares and gardens, streets close for weeks rather than hours, and the Royal Mile is effectively impassable for much of the day. Hotel forecourts fill, and the ordinary set-down points disappear behind barriers.

The realistic approach in festival month is to accept longer walks and much earlier departures. We route around the closed core rather than through it, we suggest collection points on the periphery, and we build genuine margin into anything with a fixed time attached. Anyone with a flight to catch on an August afternoon should leave considerably earlier than instinct suggests.

The same principle applies in miniature to Hogmanay, when the centre closes for the street party, and to any of the larger Murrayfield fixtures, which change the western approaches for most of a day. Tell us the date early and we plan around it rather than discovering it on the morning.

Edinburgh is a fine base for driving. The Forth crossings put Fife, St Andrews and the East Neuk within comfortable reach, usually an hour to ninety minutes depending on where you stop. Stirling and the Trossachs sit north west, Glasgow is often around an hour on the M8 outside peak, and the Borders open up quickly on the A68 and A7.

These are the journeys where a chauffeur is unambiguously the right answer, because the alternative involves either a hire car on unfamiliar roads or a train that goes somewhere approximately near your destination. Within the centre itself we are frequently more useful as a fixed base and a luggage store than as transport, and we would rather tell you that than run you three hundred yards in a car.