Day Trips

Things are very fluid and competitive at the moment for long distance bus journeys in Scotland.

New players ember and Flixbus are stirring up the market previously dominated by Citylink and Megabus.

Long time Dundee operator Fishers Tours have ceased trading, losing their popular Scottish Express services.

Edinburgh Airport is proving to be the focus of competition with direct services from Dundee and Aberdeen provided by "Fly" and from St Andrews with the JET 787 from Stagecoach.

New services are being introduced or withdrawn almost every month - so we recommend that you do your own trip research to make sure of service dates and times.

But, here is a rough guide to where you can go and with which bus company...

North Berwick - is served by East Coast Buses (part of Lothian Buses) and the Forth Ferry.

Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Border counties all the way across to Carlisle are serviced by Borders Buses.

Dumfries is served by Houston's Coaches from Edinburgh and Stagecoach West Scotland from Glasgow.

Ayr and Prestwick are served by  Stagecoach West Scotland from Glasgow.

Largs by McGills.

Oban and Ullapool will generally involve Citylink.

Fort William usually has a summer service with Citylink that serves Halbeath Park & Ride - but is also now a major destination for ember.

Inverness is served by Megabus and Flixbus - and a route via Aberdeen from ember.

Thurso and Scrabster are served by ember and the Stagecoach X99 from Inverness.

Going elsewhere? Traveline Scotland (who have a local rate number - 0141 465 1878) can be useful for finding journeys, remember to "untick" Train if you are looking for bus only journeys. Citylink are the major provider of services to places like Ullapool and Skye timed to catch ferries to the islands.

North Berwick: going via Edinburgh and changing in Princes Street you can use Lothian Buses service X5 or 124 with up to 3 buses an hour in each direction. 

From May to October about every fortnight (to coincide with "neap" tides) there's also the radical alternative of taking the bus from Leven to Anstruther and catching the Forth Ferry from Anstruther to North Berwick. Since 2021 the Forth Ferry is being run by Sula Boat Trips from North Berwick. When booking your ferry journey make sure to select either "Anstruther to North Berwick Ferry" or "North Berwick to Anstruther Ferry" from the list of boat trips to make sure you book the correct direction of travel for your first journey. 

You might want to do the trip one way by Ferry and the other way by Bus?