The Edinburgh Tour Guide
Search "hop on hop off Edinburgh" and you'll find three differently coloured buses that all look like separate companies fighting for your money. They mostly aren't. Edinburgh Bus Tours, the operator behind edinburghtour.com, is run by Lothian Buses and sells three branded routes: CitySightseeing (red), Edinburgh Tour (green), and Regal Tour (blue). City Sightseeing's own booking page confirms it: the small print lists the supplier as "Lothian Buses, 55 Annandale Street", the same operator, same address as the official site. The only tour on this page that's a genuinely different company is Big Bus Tours, a separate global operator with its own two Edinburgh routes.
Doing one loop of the Old Town and Royal Mile: book CitySightseeing (red). Want a live guide instead of headphones: book Edinburgh Tour (green), it's the smallest of the three by reviews but rates the highest on Viator. Want the Royal Yacht Britannia or the Botanic Garden: Regal Tour (blue) or Big Bus's Britannia combo, both skip the Royal Mile to get there. Doing more than one route in the same visit: the Grand 24 ticket costs just £3.40 more than a single route and covers all three, almost always the better deal (see the maths below).
It's one operator wearing three colours, not three companies
This is the bit every AI Overview and most blog guides skip. Edinburgh Bus Tours (edinburghtour.com) is a Lothian Buses operation, and it doesn't run one tour, it runs three, each with its own branding, bus livery, and ticket page, so it looks for all the world like independent competition. It isn't. If you buy a CitySightseeing ticket and an Edinburgh Tour ticket separately thinking you're comparison shopping between two companies, you're paying twice for the same business. The confusion is common enough that it shows up as an actual question in Edinburgh travel Facebook groups: which of the "three companies" do most people use. There are two operators, not three, and knowing that changes how you should buy.
The three official routes, compared properly
Individual tickets for any one of the three official routes cost the same: £20 for an adult, £18 for a senior or student, with up to three children free per paying adult. What actually differs is where each bus goes and how the commentary works, not the price.
CitySightseeing (red and yellow)
The default pick, and the one most people mean when they search "hop on hop off Edinburgh". Covers the City Centre Loop, the Royal Mile, and both the Old and New Town, with multi-language recorded audio commentary (free headphones handed out on board, worth keeping for future rides) plus a dedicated "Horrible Histories" audio track for kids. On Viator, it's the most-reviewed of the three by a wide margin: 4.4 out of 5 across 2,823 reviews. It also passes directly along the Royal Mile stops covered in things to do in Edinburgh, so it doubles as an orientation loop if this is your first day in the city.
Edinburgh Tour (green and yellow)
Same core route as CitySightseeing, City Centre Loop, Royal Mile, Old and New Town, but with a live guide on board speaking English instead of a recorded, multi-language track. No headphones needed, no language options beyond English, but real, in-the-moment commentary from a local guide who can react to what's actually happening on the street that day. It has far fewer reviews than CitySightseeing on Viator, but the highest rating of any hop-on hop-off product covered here: 4.7 out of 5 across 112 reviews, ahead of every other route including the ones with thousands of reviews behind them. Worth reading that gap carefully, see "what the reviews actually tell you" below before assuming it's simply the best option.
City Sightseeing Edinburgh Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
City Centre Loop, Royal Mile, Old and New Town, multi-language audio, free headphones, kids' Horrible Histories track. Kids go free.
Edinburgh Hop-On Hop-Off City Tour with Live Guide
Same core route as CitySightseeing, but a live English-speaking guide on board instead of recorded, multi-language audio.
Regal Tour (blue and yellow, formerly "Majestic Tour")
The odd one out on purpose. According to Edinburgh Bus Tours' own current side-by-side comparison, Regal Tour is the only one of the three that skips the City Centre Loop and the Royal Mile entirely. Instead it heads for the shoreline: Leith and Newhaven, plus the Royal Botanic Garden and the Royal Yacht Britannia, neither of which the other two routes reach. Multi-language recorded audio, free headphones, same £20 adult price. Older Edinburgh guides (including the most established independent blog write-up still ranking for this search) call this route the "Majestic Tour", that name was retired and it now sells as Regal Tour, same route. It doesn't have its own separate Viator listing, it's sold through the Grand tickets and Royal Edinburgh Ticket covered below.
Big Bus Tours: the actual independent alternative
Big Bus is not part of Lothian Buses. It's a separate global hop-on hop-off operator running in dozens of cities worldwide, and in Edinburgh it sells its own two routes with commentary in 9 languages, priced close to the official buses: a 24 or 48-hour ticket from £22, and a combined City and Britannia route from £30. On Viator, the standard 24/48-hour ticket rates 4.2 out of 5 across 473 reviews, and the City-and-Britannia combo rates 4.0 across 190 reviews, both a step below Edinburgh Bus Tours' routes. The case for booking Big Bus instead isn't that it's better, on this data it isn't, it's that some travellers specifically want an operator independent of the city's own bus company, or already have Big Bus loyalty from another trip.
Big Bus Edinburgh 24 or 48 Hour Hop-On Hop-Off Tour
A genuinely separate operator from Lothian Buses, running its own two routes with commentary in 9 languages.
The maths nobody puts in a table: cost per route
Every listing shows the sticker price. Almost none show what an extra route actually costs you, and the answer changes which ticket is obviously correct.
| Ticket | Price | Routes covered | Effective cost per route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-route ticket | £20.00 | 1 | £20.00 |
| Grand 24 (all 3 routes, 24h) | £23.40 | 3 | £7.80 |
Adding the other two routes costs £3.40 total, not £3.40 each. Unless you are certain you'll only ever board one bus for one loop and get off for the day, the Grand 24 is close to a free upgrade. If you were already planning to pay for Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the Royal Yacht Britannia separately, the Royal Edinburgh Ticket goes a step further: 48 hours across all three city tours plus guaranteed entry to all three attractions in one purchase.
Royal Edinburgh Ticket: Hop-On Hop-Off + Attraction Admissions
48 hours across all three official routes plus guaranteed entry to Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the Royal Yacht Britannia.
What the reviews actually tell you
What the data supports: Edinburgh Tour's 4.7 rating is real, and a live guide genuinely changes the experience for people who book it. CitySightseeing's 4.4 across 2,823 reviews is a much larger, more statistically solid sample, and 4.4 is still a strong score by any standard, most tours on this route map sit in the same band.
What the data does not support: a confident claim that Edinburgh Tour beats CitySightseeing outright. 112 reviews is a small sample next to nearly 3,000, enough to trust that people who take the live-guide route love it, not enough to say it would score the same at CitySightseeing's volume. And Big Bus's lower 4.2 rating doesn't mean it's a worse product bought by the same travellers, it's a different company with its own review pool, own routes, and own audience. Comparing the number across operators is a rough guide, not a verdict.
Practical details before you book
- All three official routes start at Waterloo Place, just off Princes Street (stop ZG), but you can join at any stop along the loop, not just the start.
- Kids go free: up to three children per paying adult or senior, on any individual route or the Grand tickets.
- All buses are wheelchair and Class 2 mobility scooter accessible, with low-floor ramped access and two wheelchair spaces.
- Dogs are welcome on board every Edinburgh Bus Tours route.
- For deaf and hard-of-hearing passengers, the lower decks of CitySightseeing and Regal Tour buses have screens showing the commentary as text. Edinburgh Tour's live guide doesn't have a text equivalent, worth knowing if that matters to your group.
Once you're off the bus, the Vaults and Mary King's Close and the whisky tours are both a short walk from stops on the CitySightseeing and Edinburgh Tour routes. If you want to get properly out of the city instead, day trips from Edinburgh covers where the buses can't take you.
Side by side
| CitySightseeing | Edinburgh Tour | Regal Tour | Big Bus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Lothian Buses | Lothian Buses | Lothian Buses | Big Bus Tours (independent) |
| Royal Mile | Yes | Yes | No | Varies by route |
| Royal Yacht Britannia | No | No | Yes | Yes, on the combo route |
| Commentary | Recorded, multi-language | Live guide, English only | Recorded, multi-language | Recorded, 9 languages |
| Viator rating | 4.4 (2,823 reviews) | 4.7 (112 reviews) | Not separately listed | 4.2 (473 reviews) |
| Adult price | from £20 | from £20 | from £20 | from £22 |
Quick answers
Is City Sightseeing Edinburgh the same company as Edinburgh Bus Tours?
Yes. City Sightseeing Edinburgh, Edinburgh Tour, and Regal Tour are three branded routes run by the same operator, Lothian Buses, trading as Edinburgh Bus Tours. City Sightseeing's own booking page lists "Lothian Buses, 55 Annandale Street" as the supplier in its small print, same address as edinburghtour.com. Big Bus Tours is the only genuinely separate company on this route map.
Which route should I pick if I only have time for one?
CitySightseeing (red) if you want the classic Old Town and Royal Mile loop with multi-language audio. Edinburgh Tour (green) if you'd rather have a live guide than headphones, and it happens to be the highest-rated of the three on Viator. Regal Tour (blue) only if the Royal Yacht Britannia or Royal Botanic Garden matter to you, since it skips the Royal Mile entirely.
Is Big Bus Tours actually different, or just another name for the same buses?
It's a real, separate company: a global hop-on hop-off operator with tours in 25+ cities, unrelated to Lothian Buses. In Edinburgh it runs its own two routes with 9-language audio, priced close to the official buses (from £22 for 24/48 hours). Worth it mainly if you're already loyal to Big Bus from another trip, or specifically want its Britannia-combo route.
What happened to the "Majestic Tour"?
It was rebranded. The blue-and-yellow bus that older guides still call the Majestic Tour is now sold as the Regal Tour, same route down to the Royal Botanic Garden and the Royal Yacht Britannia, new name. If you're reading an older Edinburgh guide and it mentions Majestic Tour, that's what it means.
Is the Royal Edinburgh Ticket worth the extra cost?
Only if you were already planning to pay for Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the Royal Yacht Britannia separately. At that point the combined ticket saves a real amount over buying each entry plus a bus pass individually, and it's the highest-rated product across every hop-on hop-off option here. If you only want the buses, it's overkill.
Can I use one ticket across City Sightseeing, Edinburgh Tour, and Regal Tour?
Not with a single-route ticket, each one only covers its own bus. For £3.40 extra per adult on top of one ticket, the Grand 24 (or Grand 48 for two days) covers all three routes, which is usually the better deal if you plan to hop between more than one.
Where do the buses actually start?
All three official Edinburgh Bus Tours routes depart from Waterloo Place, just off Princes Street (marked as stop ZG). You can join at any stop along the route, Waterloo Place is simply the start of the loop, not the only place to get on.
About this guide
Written by Diego Fresno, Independent travel writer and researcher. Guides are based on first-hand research in Edinburgh and verified against operator and official sources for the 2026 season. Verified: August 2026. About the author →