Edinburgh Airport Layover Without the City
Part of the full Edinburgh Layover: Royal Mile Walk From EDI
Edinburgh Airport is nine kilometres west of the city and runs on one terminal, and if a connection is too tight for the full trip into Edinburgh, the airport bus stops outside Edinburgh Zoo on Corstorphine Road and the tram calls at Murrayfield Stadium, both roughly twenty minutes out.
Edinburgh Airport runs on a single terminal
There is one terminal building here, which removes the largest variable most connection guides have to deal with: no shuttle between piers, no risk of the wrong building, and a short walk from any gate to the exit. The trade-off is that the terminal is not somewhere with much to look at. There are around seventeen bars and restaurants, nearly all of them past security, and a small gallery in the departures lounge by Gate 13 that hangs work by Scottish artists and rotates it through the year. Everything on the walls is for sale, which is not the usual arrangement for airport art.
The left-luggage desk sits landside, in arrivals near the domestic and international exit, and it runs 04:00 to 22:00. That is the number that decides this whole page: if your departure is late enough that the desk will be shut when you get back, anything you leave the airport with, you carry all afternoon.
Edinburgh Zoo is a stop on the airport bus
The Airlink 100 is an express service with very few stops between the terminal and Waverley Bridge, and one of them is directly outside Edinburgh Zoo’s front gate on Corstorphine Road. That makes an 82-acre zoo, opened in 1913 and laid out up the side of Corstorphine Hill, one of the easiest things in Edinburgh to reach without going into Edinburgh at all.
Adult tickets are £30 online and £32.50 at the gate, so this is not a casual stop, and the hillside means real climbing. What the zoo is known for is the penguin walk, where the birds are let out of the enclosure to waddle a loop past the visitors: it is voluntary for the penguins, which means it does not always happen, and it has been suspended for long stretches, most recently paused in February 2025 for the breeding season. Treat it as a bonus rather than the reason to go, and check before you set out.
Murrayfield Stadium has its own tram stop
Every tram between the airport and the city calls at Murrayfield Stadium, and the stop is right at the Roseburn Street turnstiles rather than a walk away from them, with a lift as well as stairs down to the road. Murrayfield seats 67,144, which makes it the largest stadium in Scotland, and it is the Scottish Rugby Union’s home ground and headquarters.
Behind-the-scenes tours run through the tunnel, the changing rooms and out to the pitch side, take about ninety minutes and cost £18 for an adult, with slots normally at 11:00 and 14:30 on weekdays and three on weekends. They have to be booked ahead and they do sell out around match weekends, so this is a plan you make before you land rather than one you improvise in the terminal. If nothing is running, the stadium from the outside is still a sizeable thing to have looked at for the price of a tram fare.
Whichever of the two you pick, head back with a clear hour in hand: trams come every 7 to 10 minutes through the day and the Airlink 100 about every 10, and the ride itself is 20 to 25 minutes. With more than five hours, none of this is the right call, and the ride all the way in is worth making. The full Edinburgh itinerary starts at Waverley Bridge, thirty minutes from this terminal, and covers Calton Hill, the Royal Mile and the castle.
Frequently asked questions
Can I leave a bag at Edinburgh Airport?
Yes, at a staffed left-luggage desk in the landside arrivals area near the domestic and international exit, open 04:00 to 22:00 daily. The hours are the catch: the desk shuts well before the last departures of the night, so if your flight goes out late, the bag has to come with you or go somewhere in the city instead.
Is Edinburgh Airport worth leaving on a two-hour connection?
No. Two hours is the terminal, and Edinburgh runs a single one, so there is no inter-terminal transfer to budget for and the walk from any gate to the exit is short. Security queues here can still run long at peak, and everything below assumes you have cleared three hours between landing and the next check-in.
How much is Edinburgh Zoo and how long does it need?
Adult entry is £30 booked online, £32.50 at the gate, and it is an 82-acre site laid out up a hillside, so half of the visit is climbing. Two hours covers the main enclosures at a brisk pace. It is the one genuinely substantial thing on the airport bus route, but at that price and that walk it only makes sense on a long connection.
Is there anything to do inside the terminal itself?
A little. There is a small gallery in the departures lounge near Gate 13 showing work by Scottish artists, changed regularly, and everything in it is for sale. Beyond that it is around seventeen bars and food outlets, most of them past security, and a Wetherspoon and a couple of others before it.