Every tour, compared
There are twelve of them on sale and they are not twelve versions of one thing. Four go underground into the chambers beneath the South Bridge. One goes into a street the city built over in 1753. One is a comedy show on a double-decker bus. The rest are walks through the closes with a guide and a lantern. This page puts all twelve side by side on price, length, group size and — the thing the listings never state — which underground, if any, you are actually getting.
Quick answer
The short answer. The standard underground vaults tour at $25 is the one most people should book: an hour in the chambers under the South Bridge, and 12,500 reviews behind it. If you want history rather than fright, take the Real Mary King’s Close at $36. If somebody in your group is nervous, take the comedy ghost bus at $27. Everything here cancels free up to 24 hours.
Start here
Not how scary it is. Where it takes you.
People arrive at this decision thinking the variable is how frightening each tour is. It is not. Every operator in this city can make a stone room feel unpleasant for sixty seconds, and they all do it in roughly the same way — a story, a pause, and the lights off. The real variable is where the tour takes you, because that is the part you cannot get any other way.
There are exactly three answers. A tour takes you into the chambers under the South Bridge, or it takes you into the Real Mary King’s Close under the City Chambers, or it keeps you on the street. Those are three different tickets, three different sites and three completely different evenings, and a surprising number of people book one thinking they have booked another.
Everything else — the actors, the lanterns, the sound effects, the guide in a cloak — is presentation. Good presentation is worth paying for and the best guides in this city are very good indeed. But it is not what separates a twenty-dollar ticket from a thirty-six-dollar one. Access is.
The three kinds
Decide this first and the list of twelve shrinks to three or four immediately.
Chambers formed inside the arches of a bridge finished in 1788 — about a hundred and twenty of them, entered from Niddry Street or Blair Street. Enclosed, windowless, roughly ten degrees all year. Five tours on this page go in. This is what most people mean by "the Edinburgh vaults".
Not a vault at all: a genuine street with houses on it, which the city partly demolished and built the Royal Exchange over in 1753. People carried on living in what was left until 1902. One ticket, one operator, and the most documented hour you can buy in this city.
The closes off the Royal Mile, the Grassmarket, Greyfriars Kirkyard. Cheaper, longer, and entirely at the mercy of the weather — but nothing is enclosed and the history is the same history. Four of the twelve, and the cheapest tour in the city is one of them.
A refurbished vintage double-decker with an actor working the aisle for seventy-five minutes. It is comedy horror and it says so. If you are travelling with somebody who does not want to be underground or on their feet, this is the compromise that nobody resents.
Every trip, current fare
Ordered by price. "Underground" is the column the listings do not give you, and it is the one that decides which of these you actually want.
| Tour | Length | Price | Underground | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark History Walking TourThe cheapest walk, and it is a good one | 1.5 h | $20 | No | $13.33 | 5.0 · 72 |
| Ghosts, Mysteries & WitchesKirkyards, closes and the witch trials | 2 h | $22 | No | $11.00 | 4.9 · 32 |
| Old Town History & TalesThe Old Town explained, best-rated walk here | 2 h | $23 | No | $11.50 | 4.8 · 2,796 |
| Evening Underground Ghost TourInto the vaults after dark | 75 min | $24 | Yes, the vaults | $19.20 | 4.4 · 4,063 |
| Underground Vaults TourThe standard vaults tour, most reviewed in the city | 1 h | $25 | Yes, the vaults | $25.00 | 4.5 · 12,500 |
| Dark Secrets of the Old TownCanongate, the plague and the body snatchers | 2 h | $25 | No | $12.50 | 4.6 · 2,456 |
| Comedy Horror Ghost Bus TourA comedy show on a vintage double-decker | 75 min | $27 | No | $21.60 | 4.5 · 4,546 |
| Late-Night Vaults Terror TourThe late slot, run harder | 75 min | $27 | Yes, the vaults | $21.60 | 4.6 · 4,571 |
| Haunted Vaults & Graveyard TourGreyfriars and the vaults in one evening | 1.5 h | $27 | Yes, the vaults | $18.00 | 4.6 · 7,277 |
| Darkside Ghost TourTwo hours with a licensed local guide | 2 h | $28 | No | $14.00 | 4.8 · 1,497 |
| Multi-Sensory Haunted UndergroundThe original Blair Street vaults tour | 75 min | $34 | Yes, Blair Street | $27.20 | 4.5 · 2,754 |
| Real Mary King's CloseA street the city built over in 1753 | 1 h | $36 | Yes, the close | $36.00 | 4.7 · 4,405 |
The underground five
Five tours on this page put you below the street, and four of those five are in the same set of chambers under the South Bridge. They are not identical, but the differences are smaller than the marketing suggests.
The standard vaults tour at $25 is the baseline: one hour, one guide, the chambers and the history. It carries 12,500 reviews, which is more than any other tour in Edinburgh, and a 4.5 rating — respectable for a tour that runs several times a night in high season with large groups.
The late-night terror tour at $27 is the same underground run harder and later, with more time spent in the dark and less spent on dates. 4,571 reviews at 4.6. If the point of the evening is to be frightened rather than informed, this is the one.
The vaults and Greyfriars tour at $27 is ninety minutes and does both halves — the kirkyard above ground and the chambers below. 7,277 reviews at 4.6. For a first visit to the city it is arguably better value than either half alone.
The multi-sensory tour at $34 works the Blair Street vaults and adds sound and smell rather than relying purely on darkness. It is the dearest of the four and the most divisive: people who like it describe it as the only one that felt designed.
And then there is Mary King’s Close at $36, which is not in this group at all. Different site, different operator, a guide in period costume, and by some distance the most historically careful hour on this page.
Not sure the underground is for you? The vaults are enclosed, windowless and cold, and that is a reasonable thing to dislike. Four tours here never go below street level.
Read the honest verdict→The other seven
The above-ground tours are where the value sits. Edinburgh’s Dark History walking tour at $20 is the cheapest thing on this page and holds a perfect 5.0, albeit across only 72 reviews — it does Greyfriars, the Covenanters’ Prison and the Grassmarket in ninety minutes. The Old Town History and Tales walk at $23 is the best-reviewed walk here at 4.8 across 2,796, and it is closer to a proper history tour than a ghost tour.
Ghosts, Mysteries and Witches at $22 is a two-hour night walk through kirkyards and closes, rated 4.9. Dark Secrets of the Old Town at $25 works Canongate Kirkyard and the body-snatching sites. The Darkside walk at $28 is the highest-rated substantial tour on this page — 4.8 across 1,497 reviews, two hours, licensed local guide.
The comedy horror ghost bus at $27 is its own category. Seventy-five minutes, a costumed actor, a vintage double-decker, and no pretence that any of it is real. For a group that cannot agree, it is the tour nobody vetoes.
The evening underground tour at $24 sits awkwardly between the two groups: it goes into the vaults but its 4.4 is the lowest rating on this page, and the gap between it and the standard vaults tour is a dollar.
Book direct
Twelve tours, live prices and ratings from GetYourGuide. Free cancellation up to 24 hours on all of them.
★ 5.0 · 72 reviews
★ 4.9 · 32 reviews
★ 4.8 · 2,796 reviews
★ 4.4 · 4,063 reviews
★ 4.5 · 12,500 reviews
★ 4.6 · 2,456 reviews
★ 4.5 · 4,546 reviews
★ 4.6 · 4,571 reviews
★ 4.6 · 7,277 reviews
★ 4.8 · 1,497 reviews
★ 4.5 · 2,754 reviews
★ 4.7 · 4,405 reviews
When to go
Underground it makes no difference at all — the vaults are the same temperature and the same darkness in July as in January. Above ground the month decides everything.
Oct
The peak by a wide margin, and the city is genuinely in the mood for it. Dark by half six, every slot running, and the late ones sell out weeks ahead. Book early or take an odd hour.
Nov – Dec
Dark by half past three, cold, and often wet. The vaults do not care and the walks become proper night walks. December gets busy again around the markets.
Jan – Feb
The best value in the year. Small groups, no queue, and still dark by five. If you want the vaults with eight people rather than thirty, come now.
Mar – May
The light comes back fast and the evening walks lose their edge. Underground is unaffected. Prices and crowds both middling.
Jun – Jul
It is not properly dark until eleven. An above-ground "night" walk in June is a walk in daylight, and that is the single biggest mismatch people book into. Go underground instead.
Aug
The Festival. The city is full, the Royal Mile is impassable in the evenings, groups are at their largest, and it is still light late. The worst month for this specific purchase.
Sep
Quietly the best compromise. The Festival crowds have gone, the dark comes back, and October prices have not started.
Before you book
None of these are anybody being dishonest. They are simply not fields on a booking page.
Thirty people in a stone chamber on an October Saturday is a completely different hour from eight people in February. Listings that cap the group say so explicitly; the rest are telling you something by staying quiet.
They are doorways in closes with small signs, at night, often in rain. Walk past the address in daylight if your itinerary allows it, and turn up fifteen minutes early either way.
Neither is worse. They are different evenings. If jump scares would ruin it for you, or if their absence would, read the reviews rather than the description.
All year, in still air. A jumper is more use than a coat, and the floors are uneven stone in low light — footwear matters more than people expect.
Several operators ask you not to shoot inside. Worth knowing before you plan the evening around photographs.
They overlap heavily. Two in a night is repetition, not value. If you want a second evening, make it a completely different kind — the close, or the bus.
The honest part
Nobody sees a ghost. No reputable guide in this city will promise you one, and the tours that lean hardest on the supernatural are generally not the best-reviewed ones on this page.
What you are buying is access and a storyteller. The vaults are locked the rest of the time. Mary King’s Close is locked the rest of the time. For somewhere between twenty and thirty-six dollars you get a door opened and an hour with somebody whose job is to explain what you are standing in — and in a city built in layers, that turns out to be the fastest possible way to understand the place.
Some of what you will be told is legend rather than record. The best-known example is the story that plague victims were sealed alive into Mary King’s Close and left there. It is a superb story and it is not supported by the historical record: the close was built over in 1753 and people went on living in it until 1902. We say so on the page where it belongs, and the tour is still worth going on.
Common questions
For the underground, the standard vaults tour — 12,500 reviews, more than any other tour in the city, at $25. For history over fright, the Real Mary King’s Close at $36. For the highest-rated substantial walk, the Darkside tour at $28, which holds 4.8 across 1,497 reviews.
From $20 for an above-ground walk to $36 for the buried close. The underground tours cluster between $25 and $28. Every tour on this page has free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
Between one and two hours. Seventy-five minutes is the commonest. The underground tours are the shortest because the chambers are small; the above-ground walks run to two hours because they cover more ground.
Atmospheric rather than frightening. The reliable moments are the cold, the low ceilings and the minute somewhere in the middle when the guide turns the lights off. The late-night vault tours push hardest; the bus tour is comedy; the Old Town walks are history with the dark as a setting.
On five of the twelve. Four go into the South Bridge vaults and one into the Real Mary King’s Close. The other seven stay on the street. The listings do not always make this obvious, which is why it is a column in the table above.
October if you want the city in the right mood, but book weeks ahead. January and February are the best value: dark by five, small groups, no queue. June and August are the worst — it is light until eleven and the Old Town is full.
In October, yes, weeks ahead. In February you can usually walk up. Everything on this page has free cancellation up to 24 hours, so booking early costs nothing and holding a slot in a busy month is worth it.
Yes. They cover much of the same ground and the same stories. If you want a second evening, make it a genuinely different format — the buried close if you did the vaults, or the bus if you did a walk.
Go deeper
About 120 rooms inside a bridge, abandoned by 1795 and lost for a century.
The closeA street built over in 1753 and lived in until 1902 — and the legend it did not earn.
The busSeventy-five minutes of comedy horror from a seat, and who it is really for.
KirkyardThe most-visited kirkyard in Scotland, and what the tours do there after dark.
WitchesWhat the trials actually were, and which tours tell it straight.
VerdictTwelve tours ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
