If you support the concept of ridesharing, where random strangers open up their vehicles to take on riders who are going the same route, it seems obvious you should also like public transportation. It’s nice to share a car so that all four seats are used. But it’s even more efficient to share a 50 seat bus. Unfortunately many places in the world lack good public transportation. But where possible I’m a fan of public transit. In Scotland I found an impressive system of busses and trains. And in Edinburgh this is really the only way you should be getting around (except for walking, of course).
Busses dominate the streets of Edinburgh
In Edinburgh you could pay £15 to ride the hop-on-hop-off tourist bus to a bunch of popular tourist sites all day. Or you could pay £4 to ride the public Lothian bus and tram system anywhere you want to go in and around the city of Edinburg all day. With the tourist bus you have a fixed route you must ride. With the Lothian busses you can just download their app (it’s called Transport for Edinburgh) and put in any destination you want and it will give you all the options from wherever you happen to be. The busses are super frequent and with a tremendous number of routes to pick from it’s a very efficient way to get around. In fact the streets are filled with busses: at rush hour there are 5 or 6 busses backed up at some stops in town!
You can take the bus to visit the botanical garden in Edinburgh
If you want to explore Edinburgh, skip the tourist busses and use the delightfully clean, prompt and comprehensive public transit system. You can even sit upstairs in the double decker busses (which are most of them) and enjoy the view.
You can take the busses all the way out to Cramond, a cute seaside town with this walkway to an island