Edinburgh Transport Tickets & Passes Explained (2026 Guide)
Edinburgh’s public transport network — Lothian Buses, Edinburgh Trams, the Airlink 100 airport express, Edinburgh Bus Tours, Lothian Country, East Coast Buses, and the ScotRail commuter network — is brilliantly integrated, but the sheer number of ticket types can confuse first-time visitors. Should you buy a £2.40 single, a £6.00 City DAY ticket, the £14.00 NETWORK ticket that includes the airport, a £26.50 weekly Ridacard, or just tap on with contactless and let the £5.70 daily cap take care of things? This is the definitive 2026 guide to Edinburgh transport tickets — every ticket type, every fare, every loophole, and the exact moment each option starts saving you money.
Fares changed on 22 February 2026, and the ticket names changed with them. If a guide still tells you about a “Day Ridacard” at £8.50, or a Dayticket that excludes the tram, it is describing a product range Lothian no longer sells. Everything below was checked in September 2026.
Quick Recommendation by Visit Length
Before we go deep on every ticket type, here is the short answer.
- Day trip with 2–3 journeys: Tap on with contactless. The daily cap will charge you no more than £5.70.
- One full day, lots of bus and city-zone tram travel: Still just tap — the £5.70 cap beats the £6.00 City DAY ticket.
- One full day including an airport tram or Airlink run: NETWORK DAY ticket (£14.00 adult, £7.00 child).
- Two- or three-day visit, no airport: TapTapCap each day. The cap protects you.
- Five-day-plus visit: Keep tapping — the weekly cap stops at £26.50.
- Family of four: Family City DAY (£13.00) — by far the cheapest option.
- Hop-on hop-off sightseeing: 24-hour Edinburgh Tour ticket (£20) or 48-hour all-tours (£30).
The Heart of the System: TapTapCap Contactless
The single best change to Edinburgh’s transport network in recent years is full contactless integration. Every Lothian bus and every Edinburgh tram has a tap-on reader at the front door. Tap your contactless debit card, credit card or Apple/Google Pay device on the reader and you pay the single fare automatically. Two important features make this the default option for most visitors.
First, the daily cap: keep tapping with the same card all day and you will never be charged more than £5.70 across Lothian Buses and city-zone trams. That is 30p less than the £6.00 City DAY ticket, which is the single most useful thing to know about Edinburgh fares — the cheapest ticket is the one you never buy. The system reconciles in the background. You do not have to do anything.
Second, multi-modal integration: the tap is valid across bus and tram with the same card. Using one card across both is how you trigger the inclusive cap.
The reader is on the right as you board the bus (next to the driver). On the tram it is on each set of doors. A green tick and a single beep confirms a valid tap. A red cross means the card was declined and you need to try a different card or buy a ticket from the machine.
Standard Single Fares
Every standard Lothian Buses route — that is, all routes apart from Airlink 100 and the Edinburgh Tour sightseeing service — uses a flat single fare regardless of distance.
| Service | Adult | Child (5–15) |
|---|---|---|
| Lothian Buses single | £2.40 | £1.20 |
| Lothian night bus single (zone A/B) | £3.50 | £3.50 |
| Edinburgh Trams city zone single | £2.40 | £1.20 |
| Edinburgh Trams to/from airport (single) | £7.90 | £4.00 |
| Edinburgh Trams airport open return | £9.50 | £5.00 |
| Airlink 100 single | £6.00 | £3.00 |
| Airlink 100 open return | £8.50 | £4.25 |
| City services 17 and 18 (call at the airport) | £2.40 | £1.20 |
| East Coast Buses (longer journeys) | £3.50–£7.50 | £2.00–£4.00 |
Single fares checked September 2026, after the revision of 22 February 2026. The night bus single is a flat £3.50 for anyone aged 5 and over, and was one of the few fares left unchanged.
Note that the former Skylink 200 and 400 airport routes no longer exist under those numbers — they were folded into the regular city network as services 17 and 18, at the standard £2.40 flat fare. They are the cheapest way to the airport by some distance, but they take 35–50 minutes and stop everywhere.
Children under 5 travel free on every Lothian service. Scottish residents under 22 and over 60 travel free with their national entitlement card; international visitors do not qualify.
Day Tickets Compared
City DAY — £6.00 Adult / £3.00 Child
The standard Edinburgh day ticket, and since the February 2026 revision it covers both Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams within the city zone — the old split, where a Dayticket bought you buses only and you needed a separate pass for the tram, is gone. Does not include the airport zone. Bought on the bus, in the Bus & Tram app, at tram-stop machines, or from the Lothian Travelshops.
Break-even: three single journeys cost £7.20, so the ticket wins from the third ride. But the honest verdict is that you should not buy it at all — see the cap below.
TapTapCap City DAY cap — £5.70
Tap the same contactless card all day and Lothian charges you a maximum of £5.70 for exactly what the £6.00 City DAY ticket covers. There is no ticket to buy, no decision to make, and it is 30p cheaper. This is the single biggest fare trap in older Edinburgh guides: £5.70 is the contactless cap, not the price of the day ticket, and articles that quote “£5.70 day ticket” have conflated the two.
NETWORK DAY — £14.00 Adult / £7.00 Child
The all-zones day ticket. Unlimited Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams including the airport zone, so you can arrive on the tram from Edinburgh Airport and use the same ticket all day around the city.
Break-even: an adult airport tram open return alone is £9.50, so if you are arriving by tram and expect a full day of travel afterwards, the NETWORK ticket is worth the extra £4.50. If you are only making the airport run and then walking, buy the £9.50 open return instead.
Family City DAY — £13.00 / Day
Two adults plus up to three children for £13.00, on buses and city-zone trams alike. Probably Edinburgh’s best transport bargain: the same group buying individually would pay £12.00 for two adult City DAY tickets plus £3.00 per child.
Airlink 100 Open Return — £8.50
An Airlink open return is £8.50 adult (£4.25 child), saving £3.50 over two singles, and there is a £22.00 family version for two adults and three children. Useful if you are flying in and out within the ticket’s validity. Sold on board, in the app or from the Airlink booth at the airport. Airlink fares were among the few left untouched by the February 2026 revision.
Multi-Day and Weekly Passes
TapTapCap City WEEK cap — £26.50
Keep tapping the same card and your Monday-to-Sunday total stops at £26.50, across buses, night services and city-zone trams. For visitors this has quietly become the best long-stay ticket in the city, because it costs the same as a weekly Ridacard and requires nothing of you at all.
Weekly Ridacard — £26.50 Adult / £23.00 Student / £13.25 Child
Unlimited bus and tram travel within the city zone for seven days. Note that since 22 February 2026 the adult weekly Ridacard costs exactly the same as the contactless weekly cap — and unlike the cap, it requires a passport-style photo, an ID check and a trip to a Travelshop. For a visitor, there is now almost no reason to buy one. The student rate is the exception worth having if you qualify.
Four-Week Ridacard — £80.00 Adult / £68.00 Student / £40.00 Child
The Edinburgh local season ticket. Useful only for stays of about a month or more. Watch out for one trap here: £68.00 used to be the four-week adult price, and is now the student price.
Edinburgh Bus Tours Tickets (Hop-On Hop-Off)
Edinburgh Bus Tours, the sightseeing arm of Lothian, operates three open-top tour routes from Waverley Bridge. Tickets here are separate from the regular Lothian Buses network.
| Tour Ticket | Adult | Child |
|---|---|---|
| 24-hour single tour | £20 | £8 |
| 48-hour all-tours pass | £30 | £15 |
| Royal Edinburgh Ticket (incl. Castle, Britannia) | £90 | £45 |
The Royal Edinburgh Ticket bundles two days of tour buses with entry to Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Yacht Britannia and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. If you would visit all three anyway, the bundle saves £15–£20. Buy on board, at the Waverley Bridge ticket booth, or online via edinburghtour.com.
The Edinburgh Pass: A Different Beast
The Edinburgh Pass (run by Visit Scotland) is not a transport ticket — it is a tourist attraction pass that bundles entry to 25+ attractions and includes an Airlink airport return. Adult prices are £49 for one day, £69 for two days, £79 for three days. Useful if you plan to visit several paid attractions in quick succession. The pass does not include city-centre Lothian Buses or trams.
Where to Buy Each Ticket
On the Bus or Tram
All single fares and Daytickets are available on board. Use exact-change cash on a bus, contactless on either, or buy via the Transport for Edinburgh app and show the QR code. Trams have ticket machines on every platform.
Transport for Edinburgh App
Free download, iOS and Android. Buy any single fare, City DAY or NETWORK ticket, Airlink ticket, hop-on hop-off ticket, or Ridacard top-up. Tickets activate on demand — buy in advance, activate just before you board.
Lothian Travelshops
Two locations: Waverley Bridge (in the Lothian HQ building, open Monday–Saturday 08:30–18:00) and Hanover Street (similar hours). They are the only places to obtain a Ridacard, replace a lost card, or get a tour-bus ticket without buying on board.
Edinburgh Bus Station
For Citylink, Megabus, FlixBus and East Coast Buses tickets — these are intercity coach operators with their own ticketing systems. Located at St Andrew Square, behind the bus station shopping centre.
Online in Advance
Lothian, Edinburgh Trams, Edinburgh Bus Tours, Citylink and ScotRail all sell tickets online. Most app-based tickets are cheaper or the same price as on-board purchase.
Trains and ScotRail Tickets
ScotRail runs Edinburgh’s commuter and intercity train services from Edinburgh Waverley and Edinburgh Haymarket. Standard tickets are bought from the station ticket machines, the ScotRail app or trainline.com. Useful one-day train tickets include:
- Anytime Day Single Edinburgh–Glasgow: £15.30, valid all day.
- Off-Peak Day Return Edinburgh–Glasgow: £18.00 (must travel after 09:15).
- Edinburgh–North Berwick Day Return: £10.50, perfect for a beach-and-castle day trip.
- Edinburgh–Stirling Day Return: £13.00, good for a Stirling Castle day.
- Spirit of Scotland Travelpass: 4-in-8 day pass (4 days of travel within 8 calendar days) £149 adult, covering all of ScotRail plus Caledonian MacBrayne ferries — useful for visitors planning a Scotland-wide loop from Edinburgh.
Citylink Intercity Coach Tickets
Scottish Citylink runs the main intercity coach network from Edinburgh Bus Station. Their useful tickets include:
- Edinburgh–Glasgow single: £8.50 (cheaper than the train, slightly slower at 1h 20m).
- Edinburgh–Inverness single: £24, 3h 30m journey.
- Edinburgh–Skye: £45, an 8-hour journey but a glorious one.
- Explorer Pass: 3-in-5, 5-in-10 or 8-in-16 day passes for unlimited Citylink travel.
How to Decide What to Buy
Here is the decision tree that we use to help visitors.
- Will you take the tram from the airport on arrival? If you also want a full day of travel afterwards, buy the NETWORK DAY ticket (£14.00). If you just want the airport run, a single is £7.90 and an open return £9.50.
- Are you in town for one busy day in the city? Tap on with contactless — the £5.70 cap beats the £6.00 City DAY ticket.
- Are you in town two or three days, casual use? Tap on with contactless — the daily cap will keep you covered.
- Are you in town five days or more? Keep tapping. The weekly cap stops at £26.50, the same price as a weekly Ridacard but with no photo, card or Travelshop visit.
- Are you visiting paid attractions like the Castle and Britannia? Consider the Edinburgh Pass.
- Are you sightseeing for two days? The 48-hour Edinburgh Tour pass (£30) covers three open-top tours.
- Are you a family of four? Family City DAY (£13.00/day) is the cheapest by far, and now covers trams as well as buses.
Daily Caps in Detail
The TapTapCap cap is one of the most important things to understand because it removes the need to guess. Tap on with the same contactless card or device every time you board, and the system charges you the lesser of the cumulative singles or the matching ticket. Here is what each cap looks like.
- City DAY cap: £5.70 across Lothian Buses, night services and Edinburgh Trams in the city zone — 30p under the £6.00 paper ticket.
- City WEEK cap: £26.50, Monday to Sunday.
- Airport zone: not included in the city caps. Buy the £14.00 NETWORK DAY ticket, or pay the airport tram fare (£7.90 single, £9.50 open return) separately.
- Airlink 100: a separate £6.00 single that is not covered by the city day cap.
One crucial wrinkle: night buses count as a separate £3.50 fare rather than the £2.40 daytime fare, and the cap is calculated on a daily basis. If your evening crosses midnight, the second half of the journey opens a fresh day’s cap.
Children, Students and Concessions
Under-5s travel free. Children aged 5–15 pay £1.20 single, or £3.00 for a City DAY ticket. Two children under 15 travel free with a Ridacard-holding adult — a useful family bonus. Scottish residents under 22 and over 60 carry a Young Scot or National Entitlement Card that provides free travel; international visitors do not qualify for this scheme. Students at Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Napier universities are eligible for discounted Ridacards.
Refunds, Lost Tickets and Customer Service
TapTapCap contactless errors (double-taps, declines, refunds) are handled via the Lothian customer service team — email [email protected] or call 0131 555 6363. App-purchased tickets can be refunded through the app if unused. Lost Ridacards are replaced (for £10) at a Travelshop on presentation of ID. Edinburgh Bus Tours tickets are non-refundable but transferable between days.
Tickets to Avoid (or Use Wisely)
- Cash payment on the bus: Exact change only, slower boarding. Use contactless.
- Single Airlink returns paid in cash: Slower boarding, no daily cap interaction. Use the app or contactless.
- Buying a day ticket at all: The £5.70 contactless cap covers the same travel as the £6.00 City DAY ticket, for less, with no decision required.
- Edinburgh Pass for low-attraction itineraries: If you are only visiting two attractions, separate ticket purchases are cheaper.
Mobile Tickets and Apple/Google Wallet
The Transport for Edinburgh app is the canonical mobile ticket source. You can save tickets to Apple Wallet but the simpler approach is to keep them in the app, where they show as a live animation that drivers and inspectors can verify. The app also stores your travel history and reconciles your daily cap, so it doubles as a record of spending.
Group Travel and Larger Parties
For groups of 10 or more, Lothian’s Group Travel team ([email protected]) offers discounted block bookings. Edinburgh Bus Tours offers group rates for school parties, corporate groups and hen/stag-do bookings. ScotRail offers GroupSave: three to nine adults travelling together get 34% off Off-Peak fares — a useful saving for day-trip groups heading to Glasgow or Stirling.
Comparing Edinburgh’s Tickets to Other UK Cities
Edinburgh’s flat £2.40 single remains competitive by UK standards, and the £5.70 daily cap is the number that matters for visitors. What genuinely distinguishes Edinburgh is not the headline fare but the structure: one flat fare regardless of distance, one cap that covers buses and trams together, and no peak/off-peak bands at all. Where it differs most from London is the seamless integration with the tram and the airport — there is no Edinburgh equivalent of London’s tube zones or peak/off-peak fare bands.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest way to get around Edinburgh?
For most visitors, tapping on with contactless and trusting the daily cap (£5.70 across buses and city-zone trams) is the cheapest and simplest. For longer stays, the weekly cap of £26.50 does the same job without you buying anything.
Can I buy Edinburgh transport tickets in advance?
Yes — the Bus & Tram app sells every ticket type and tickets activate only when you tap “Use” or board. Airlink and airport tram tickets can also be bought before you fly.
Does Edinburgh have a travel zone system?
Edinburgh has a single city zone for fares (most of the city) plus an Airport Zone for the tram. There are no peak/off-peak fare bands; fares are the same all day.
Are Edinburgh bus and tram tickets transferable?
A City DAY or NETWORK ticket can be used for unlimited journeys on the day of purchase but is tied to the contactless card or app account that bought it. Paper tickets are not transferable.
Is there a tourist transport pass for Edinburgh?
The NETWORK DAY ticket (£14.00) effectively functions as the tourist transport pass, because it is the only day ticket that includes the airport zone. The Royal Edinburgh Ticket bundles tour-bus travel with three major attractions for £90.
Can I use my Glasgow bus card in Edinburgh?
No. Lothian Buses uses its own ticketing system, separate from First Glasgow’s. Contactless cards work in both cities independently.
What’s the difference between a Dayticket and a Ridacard?
City DAY = one day’s unlimited buses and city-zone trams for £6.00 (or £5.70 if you simply tap contactless). NETWORK = the same plus the airport zone, £14.00. Weekly Ridacard = seven days bus + tram for £26.50, which is also what the contactless weekly cap costs.
Do Edinburgh bus tickets include the airport?
The Airlink 100 (£6.00) is not covered by the City DAY ticket or the city contactless cap. The NETWORK DAY ticket (£14.00) includes the airport tram. City services 17 and 18, which absorbed the old Skylink airport routes, are part of the standard Lothian network at the £2.40 flat single.
How do I get a Ridacard?
In person at a Lothian Travelshop (Waverley Bridge or Hanover Street) with a passport-style photo and ID. Online ordering is available with a 7–10 day postal turnaround.
Can I get refunded for unused tickets?
Yes for unused app tickets within 30 days of purchase. TapTapCap contactless refunds for failed taps are processed automatically by Lothian within 5 working days.
Final Word: Tap, Cap, and Stop Worrying
The genius of Edinburgh’s ticketing system is that for the vast majority of visitors, the right answer is the simplest: tap your contactless card on every bus and tram, use the Bus & Tram app to plan your journeys, and let the £5.70 daily cap protect you from overspending. The exceptions — Family City DAY for families of four, the NETWORK ticket on an airport arrival day, Edinburgh Pass for attraction-heavy itineraries, Spirit of Scotland Travelpass for visitors exploring beyond Edinburgh — all kick in at predictable thresholds and are easy to identify with the decision tree in this guide.
Once you understand the structure, the network is one of the most cost-effective in the UK — a flat £2.40 single, a £5.70 bus-plus-tram day cap, and seamless multi-modal integration are remarkable for a city of Edinburgh’s size. All Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams fares on this page were checked in September 2026, against the revision that took effect on 22 February 2026. Combine this with the dedicated guides to Lothian Buses, the airport-to-city-centre options, and our walking in Edinburgh guide for the complete picture.
Budget travellers should also read our breakdown of the Edinburgh transport pass alongside the Edinburgh budget guide.
