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Is it feasible to get from Edinburgh airport to Waverley Station in an hour and fifteen minutes?

  • Is it feasible to get from Edinburgh airport to Waverley Station in an hour and fifteen minutes? We're arriving on a flight from the Republic of Ireland. Perfectly happy to pay whatever is necessary. Main question is just if it's possible to reasonably get from Edinburgh Airport to Waverley Station in an hour and fifteen minutes around 1 PM on a Monday in September (Sept 17 to be precise). More than happy to pay for a cab or whatever is fastest. We're Canadians and will be traveling on Canadian passports. I'm mostly concerned with potential customs delays preventing us from even getting out of the airport for like an hour. Longer version is my wife and I will be spending two weeks in Ireland and Scotland in the middle of September. We're spending the first week in Ireland then going to Scotland. In Scotland, the first portion of the trip is going to be in Skye (where her family comes from) before coming back to Edinburgh. We're very much trying to get all the Edinburgh -> Skye travel done in one day, so we can spend as much time on Skye as possible. Tricky bit is, the last train from Edinburgh to Kyle of Lochalsh (access to Skye) leaves at 1:35 PM. Our flight from the west of Ireland (Republic) lands at 12:20 PM. We booked flights from the west of Ireland to Edinburgh already, not realizing that getting from Edinburgh to Inverness by air is not really sensible in September (it's comically expensive and requires going through either Manchester or Belfast and takes like 6-8 hours). Changing that flight isn't really an option at this point. Plus, taking the train all the way would be scenic and desirable anyway. If the flight is delayed or something out of our control occurs, we can always just take a train to Inverness (which are far more frequent), stay the night and go on to Kyle of Lochalsh the next morning. But that means half a day we'd otherwise spend on Skye will still be spent traveling, so we'd like to avoid that if we can. Any insight (i.e. this is totally feasible or absolutely impossible) is much appreciated and if there's some other way to get to Skye from Edinburgh that's better than this, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

  • Answer:

    If you are getting a cab you might want to go out of the city to Kirkcaldy and get on the train there, it is only about twice as far as getting into the centre of Edinburgh, and is one of the first stops on the Edinburgh-Inverness line. This would buy you about half-and-hour of additional time.

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Remember that Haymarket station is closer to the airport than Waverley and will avoid a cab going all the way into the chaos of the centre of Edinburgh - where there is still lots of disruption caused by digging up streets for the tram lines. Haymarket is directly on the road from the airport. Your train should stop there five minutes after the Waverley time. Do not rely on getting fed on the train as the trolley services can be unreliable and have little choice. Make sure you have some drinks and food with you just in case. It's doable if you get out the airport terminal quickly and jump into a cab.

Flitcraft

In my experience (flying on a US passport in Europe), you're not going to have to go through customs on a flight that starts and ends within the EU. So you won't have to worry about that part.

slmorri

(and if there's nothing causing major traffic chaos in Edinburgh - but that's unpredictable)

Flitcraft

Haymarket's definitely a good option -- it's scheduled in at 13:40 -- but following up Jabberwocky, http://traintimes.org.uk/kirkcaldy/kyle+of+lochalsh/12:00/2012-09-17. You could also get a cab or the 747 bus from the airport to Inverkeithing station (20-25 minutes) then take the http://traintimes.org.uk/inverkeithing/kyle+of+lochalsh/12:00/2012-09-17 to Kirkcaldy, which will get you there in good time to join the Inverness train. You'll be able to buy a through ticket.

holgate

Customs is not going to take that long, seriously, I doubt I've waited longer than ten mintues to transit. I'll second all the calls to get a taxi to haymarket station and join the train there. Skip the airport bus, the taxi will have a little bit of speed benefit - and if it is looking rubbish (ask the driver), they'll happily rack the meter up for an Inverkeithing run.

ewan

Have you thought of renting a car? My husband and I did a Highlands road trip last year and I absolutely loved the freedom of having our own transportation.

something something

In my experience (flying on a US passport in Europe), you're not going to have to go through customs on a flight that starts and ends within the EU. So you won't have to worry about that part. The UK is not part of the Schengen space, so non-EU citizens have to go through customs when arriving, even from within Europe (that was the case the last time I took the Eurostar from Paris to London)

bluefrog

Flights from ROI usually do not require passport control for anyone (including non-EU people). It should be pretty straightforward to get through the terminal and onto a bus or taxi quickly. Assuming that you have bags, you need to allow about 30mins to collect your gear and get out (if you are lucky it may be less). This is still enough time to get to Haymarket in a taxi - it's about 15mins or so. If the flight is late or there are groundside delays, some of the other posters have already mentioned how you can catch the train by heading it off at the pass.

Jakey

I know nothing of the area, but forgetting customs (assume it was just a wave and a polite helllo as you stroll by), it can sometimes take 30 minutes just to deplane. If you've got checked bags beyond that, I'd say you'd damn well have a back up plan! I'd be nervous about even taking a connection at Chicago O'Hare with your time frame - if the plane lands ten minutes late and you're at the back of it, and your connecting flight was in another terminal, you could miss it.

pazazygeek

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