Which Edinburgh Vaults tour is best?
Pick by what you want, not by what is popular
I have been down all three undergrounds more times than I can account for, usually on somebody else’s ticket, and the question I get asked is always the wrong one. It is never “what do you want out of an hour underground”, it is “which one is the best one”. The six listings split cleanly once you stop ranking them:
- Shortest and most booked — the one-hour South Bridge tour, 12,464 reviews at 4.6. Live guide, English only, daytime and evening slots. Read the review.
- History and artefacts — the 75-minute Blair Street tour, small group guaranteed, with audio devices, a museum, a short film and centuries-old finds you can hold. Read the review.
- Atmosphere and a drink — the two-hour evening tour, also Blair Street, with a candlelit cellar stop and a whisky, beer or soft drink included. Read the review.
- Vaults plus a kirkyard — 90 minutes taking in Greyfriars, the Covenanters’ ground and the Burke and Hare trade before it goes underground. Read the review.
- No stairs at all — the 75-minute witches and history walk, street level throughout, and the highest rated of the six at 4.8. Read the review.
- Adults-only theatre — the 75-minute extreme tour, strictly 18+, a graveyard and the South Bridge chambers after dark. Read the review.
Three of them, side by side
| Edinburgh: Multi-Sensory Small-Group Historic Vaults Tour | Top pickEdinburgh: Underground Vaults Tour | Edinburgh: Underground Vaults Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which vaults | Blair Street | South Bridge | Blair Street |
| Duration | 75 minutes | 1 hour | 2 hours |
| Group | Small, guaranteed | Standard | Small, guaranteed |
| Besides the guide | Museum, film, artefacts | Nothing extra | Museum, film, a drink |
| Minimum age | 5+ | 5+ (12+ with the exhibition) | 5+ |
| Tone | History first | History with jokes | Storytelling by candlelight |
| Rating | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.7 |
| View → | Book this → | View → |
What people on forums keep saying
The question usually arrives with “what does Reddit say” attached to it, so let me deal with that honestly rather than pretending to quote strangers. The advice that recurs, and that matches what I see underground, is this: the guide makes the tour, the rooms do not. The same chamber is a dull brick box with a bored guide and a genuinely uneasy place with a good one. That is why review counts matter more than star averages here. A 4.6 across twelve thousand people tells you the operator is consistent on a Tuesday in February. A high average across a few hundred tells you less.
The second thing that recurs is the split between history and theatre, and people are rarely honest with themselves about which they want. If a guide leaping out of a doorway would make your evening, the extreme tour is built for you and its 4.3 is the lowest of the six for exactly that reason: the people who wanted a lecture felt short-changed. If you want to know why the chambers were abandoned by the 1820s and what the excavators pulled out of the rubble, book the Blair Street history tour and skip the screaming. Neither of you is wrong. See whether Edinburgh ghost tours are worth it.
What works
- A short first tour underground suits almost everyone
- Small-group listings mean you can hear the guide in a stone room
- The Blair Street tours add a museum, a film and audio devices
- One of the six needs no stairs at all
Worth knowing
- No tour among the six is step-free — every vault has a spiral stair
- Age minimums run from 5+ to strictly 18+
- A booking for one set of chambers does not admit you to the other
- Evening slots fill first, and August behaves like a permanent Friday
If you are doing one underground tour and one other thing, put the vaults first and the kirkyard second. Greyfriars in the last of the daylight after an hour in a dark chamber is a better hour than the reverse, and the after-dark tours are built around that order anyway.
The six, as cards
Most bookedEdinburgh: Underground Vaults Tour
History, not ghostsEdinburgh: Multi-Sensory Small-Group Historic Vaults Tour
Small groupEdinburgh: Underground Vaults Evening Ghost Tour with Whisky
Vaults + kirkyardEdinburgh: Haunted Underground Vaults and Graveyard Tour
Above groundEdinburgh: Witches & History Old Town Walking Tour
Adults onlyEdinburgh: Extreme Paranormal Underground Ghost Tour
Check what is running tonight
The flagship is the default answer for a first visit: shortest, most reviewed, both daytime and evening slots. If it is sold out, compare all six.
Frequently asked questions
Which Edinburgh Vaults tour has the best reviews?
By average, the above-ground witches walk at 4.8; by weight of numbers, the one-hour South Bridge tour with 12,464 reviews at 4.6. The two Blair Street tours both sit at 4.7. See all six reviewed.
Is the Blair Street or the South Bridge tour better?
They are different rooms held by different operators. Blair Street adds a museum, a film, audio devices and artefact handling; South Bridge runs the biggest and longest-established ghost tours. More in what the Blair Street vaults are.
Which vaults tour is best for a first visit to Edinburgh?
The one-hour South Bridge tour, because it is short, it runs in daylight as well as after dark, and it leaves your evening intact. If you would rather have substance than atmosphere, take the Blair Street history tour instead.