Rabbie Tours from Edinburgh

Would you be willing to do a 2-day trip instead? They have a 2-day-1-night highlands + Loch Ness trip that might hit the right highlights for you.

https://www.rabbies.com/tours_scotland_edinburgh/loch_ness_inverness_highland_2_day_tour.asp?lng=en

You could:
Day 1 arrive in Edinburgh
Day 2 embark on the Rabbies tour
Day 3 return to Edinburgh
Days 4+ explore Edinburgh

Thank you for your response. We decided to stay at the same B & B in Edinburgh for the first 4 nights of our trip and avoid moving around, so need to just look at the one day tours.

We did the castle tour and it was great! Lots of stops and beautiful scenery. We saw the highlands without having the drive to Loch Ness, which was too long of a drive for my tastes. Our guide was fun ,funny and informative.

I understand wanting to stay in one place and not have to pack & repack all the time!

Their day trips generally leave around 8:30 or 9:00am and you'd be back in Edinburgh by dinner time, so while it sounds like a really long day, it probably won't feel like one.

We did a 4 day trip with Rabbies a couple years ago (our very first guided tour) and thought it was amazing. Our guide was very nice, full of information and super helpful. Plus their vehicles are small 16-person vans which means you're not in a huge tour group. Not sure whether we'll do tours from other companies, but we'd do another Rabbies tour in a heart beat.

Tripadvisor has reviews of Rabbies tours: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g186525-d654641-Reviews-Rabbie_s_Day_Tours-Edinburgh_Scotland.html
All the tours are lumped together under Rabbies, but you can search for reviews of the specific tours you're interested.

Good luck choosing your day trips!

Last July I was in Edinburgh for five nights and did two day trips....one was Rabbies (St. Andrews) and the other was Highland Express (Stirling Castle, Loch Lomand, a distillery). Both were great, but the latter provides a better, broader overview of Scotland. Point being, there are other companies besides Rabbies. They all offer similar trips and they're great. Enjoy!

I did the Loch Ness, Glencoe and Highlands day tour from Edinburgh with Rabbies several years ago and loved it. For me it was the perfect way to get a taste of the highlands without the stress of driving or changing hotels. I loved just getting to relax and stare out the window at the beautiful scenery and I enjoyed all the little stops we made along the way. Our guide also did an amazing job of filling the driving time with historical facts, folk tales and Scottish music. Some might think it was a long day in the van, but I've always loved road trips and this was no exception for me. This tour has an optional boat ride on Loch Ness which I opted out of because I wanted a more leisurely lunch and to walk around and stretch my legs a bit on the shores of the loch before getting back in the van. Don't be scared off just because it's a long day. I loved it and would do it again, but only you know how much "car time" you can handle.

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I think we will try the West Highlands Loch & Castles tour and then maybe consider taking the train somewhere another day. We arrive in Edinburgh around 1 pm so assume we will attempt to stay awake and explore a bit before getting some sleep. Plan to explore Edinburgh the next day, Rabbies tour the following day and then we will have one more day and night to decide what we would like to do.