Driving In Edinburgh?

Question

What are the driving conditions like in Edinburgh? We plan on hiring a car for day trips to Loch Ness and Stirling...will it be stressful getting in and out of the city centre where our hotel may be...or should be get a hotel on the outskirts for easier driving? We live in Clapham, London - is it similar to driving there?

Answer 1

Yes it is similar to driving in London. London on a Sunday. The main routes flow freely & we have a bypass to avoid the town centre. Parking is a nightmare in the City Centre though. Make sure your hotel has a car park.

PS With reference to another answer. There is no traffic congestion in Edinburgh. Even with the tram works at the West End & Leith Walk & the works at Seafield Roundabout. Aternative roues have been signposted & these are not congested.

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Answer 2

If you can drive in London, driving in Edinburgh will be like early Sunday morning. Stay wherever you want as long as there is parking available at the Hotel, Guest House or whatever as Edinburgh has, like London, some viciously observed parking restrictions.

15 mins and you are out of Edinburgh, evn from the City Centre.

Stirling is less than an hour away up a motorway, but further North it all deteriorates and Loch Ness will take much longer than the distance looks on the map. It can be done in a day of course, but a long day for the driver.

PS - this information is based on living in the centre of Edinburgh - a city where the traffic wardens dont wear any blue except the background of their job title on their flourescent yellow jackets- and possibly their underwear, as a result it is not surprising I have never heard anyone refer to them as blue meanies - and I have yet to find a junction even with the tramworks that is 'congested' by big city standards for 8 let alone 18 hours. Perhaps one answerer was confusing Edinburgh with another city such as Glasgow or London..

Answer 3

it shouldn't be any worse than London ... usual city centre congestion but fortunately Edinburgh isn't as extensive as London so once you're onto a main road out it should be OK

PS- just make sure the hotel you choose has free parking

Answer 4

The big problem in Edinburgh with a car is trying to park it.

Make sure that your hotel as ample car parking space, because on-street parking is both difficult and expensive.

The city parking attendents are nicknamed the "Blue Meanies" (their uniforms are blue). The Blue Meanies have booked cars loading coffins at a funeral, an ambulance loading a patient on a stretcher, a fire engine attending a bomb scare, even a stationary police car. So the public do not stand a chance.

Parts of Edinburgh are well known for their congestion - some of it for eighteen hours a day. At present, the tramway construction works are causing havoc in certain areas. In particular, the direct route from Haymarket to West End (via Shandwick Place) is closed. Although there are diversion routes well marked, it is nose-to-tail for the whole length throughout the day.

Unless you are confident about driving in unfamiliar, congested areas, I would recommend getting a hotel to the west of the city centre. Somewhere near Corstophine or the Zoo. (There are buses from these areas to the city centre every two minutes during the day; every ten minutes in the evening). Personally I would not stay in one of the hotels in the Ratho or Ingliston areas because you are too close to the Airport for my liking.

Incidentally a day trip from Edinburgh to Loch Ness will be an interesting excursion - a 320 mile round trip which will take seven to eight hours driving. (Did you know that there are only forty miles of motorway north of the River Forth and only one mile of motorway north of the River Tay?) I do not think you realise just how big Scotland really is!