Visiting in early June - does a Skip the Line tour of Edinburgh Castle really get you any advantage vs just pre-ordering the regular castle entry ticket ahead of time? In other words, the pre-purchased regular entry ticket obviously lets you avoid having to wait to actually buy the ticket, but are there other entry lines you have to wait in after that which can be avoided by the more expensive Skip the Line tours on Viator or whatnot? Is there a real time savings?
Posted by
London
358 posts
The main line is usually for people that haven't got tickets - mainly because checking a ticket is a lot faster than buying one. Not convinced you really need a skip the line ticket if it costs more
Posted by
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
4077 posts
I'm curious on what the wording on the skip the line ticket says. Last June on advice, we prebooked our tickets for the first time slot of the day. So did 500+ others, with all of us waiting at the gate for the castle to open. We all had tickets but that just meant we were in a different line to get in.
Posted by
Almost Heaven
2942 posts
I've heard that visiting later in the afternoon is a good idea. My guess is everyone Googles "best time to visit so-and-so."
Posted by
34 posts
Are you using the official site to book? That provides a QR code for your entry, so you skip the ticket buying line on arrival. Don’t be taken in by a third party seller who raises the ticket price, falsely saying they are “skip the line“ tickets any better than what you get at the Edinburgh Castle site.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6503 posts
When we were there last September there were lines of people picking up their online purchased tickets at the kiosks, so while not waiting to buy them you are waiting to print them. From those, one moved slightly closer to the castle to get into the queue for their timed entry. If you arrive a few minutes after the start of your timed entry then there probably won’t be a line. September and June are completely different with regard to crowds, so lines could be longer than when we were there. If you pre-purchased and printed the tickets from home, that would save one line.
I’m not sure spending extra money to skip a few minutes in line would be worth the cost.