5 Days in Britain: The Overnight Loop

Five days is where this loop earns its name: the same York opening as the 2-day and 3-day plans, then a direct LNER push north to Edinburgh for the two full days that city genuinely needs. Doing Edinburgh as a day trip from London means roughly 8.5 hours on trains alone; this version does it properly instead. Want the Lake District and Liverpool too? See the 6-day and 7-day versions.

Book these before you go

Day Destination Travel time from London
1-2 York ~2h direct, LNER from King’s Cross
3-5 Edinburgh ~2h24 direct from York, or ~4h20 direct from London

Day 1: London to York

LNER’s fastest King’s Cross to York run takes about 1 hour 45 minutes. Settle into York, then walk the Shambles, the crooked medieval street a five-minute walk from the Minster, and stop for tea at Bettys Café Tea Rooms before the Minster’s exterior at golden hour.

Day 2: York Minster and the National Railway Museum

Book the Minster’s tower climb for opening time (part of a ticket from about £13, closer to £28 with the tower, valid a full year with free entry for up to four under-18s per adult), then spend the afternoon at the free National Railway Museum, home to the Flying Scotsman.

Day 3: York to Edinburgh

LNER runs York to Edinburgh Waverley direct in about 2 hours 24 minutes, arriving in time for an afternoon on the Royal Mile, free to walk end to end between the Castle esplanade and Holyroodhouse. Check into your Old Town base and save the Castle itself for a full day tomorrow rather than rushing it on arrival.

Day 4: Edinburgh Castle and Arthur’s Seat

Book Edinburgh Castle for the morning, £21.50 online against £24 at the gate, then climb Arthur’s Seat in Holyrood Park in the afternoon, a free hike with the single best skyline view over the city. The Royal Yacht Britannia , £21 adult, is worth the tram out to Ocean Terminal if royal history interests you and you’ve got the energy left.

Edinburgh’s Old Town or New Town: where to base yourself

The Old Town, the tangle of closes and tenements running down from the Castle to Holyroodhouse along the Royal Mile, puts you inside walking distance of everything in this itinerary and is where most first-time visitors should book a room. The New Town, the Georgian grid laid out across the valley now filled by Princes Street Gardens, trades a few minutes’ extra walking for wider streets, better-value dinners, and a quieter night’s sleep away from Royal Mile foot traffic. Either works for this trip; the Old Town wins if you’d rather walk everywhere, the New Town wins if you want your evenings calmer than your days.

Day 5: Edinburgh to London

A free morning for the Royal Mile’s closes and whisky shops (Scottish banknotes are widely accepted everywhere in the UK, though technically not legal tender anywhere, including in Scotland, a genuine quirk that won’t cause you any actual trouble), then LNER direct back to King’s Cross, about 4 hours 20 minutes on the fastest service.

Is 5 days enough to do Edinburgh justice?

Yes, two full days is the honest minimum. One day covers the Castle and the Royal Mile; the second covers Arthur’s Seat, Holyroodhouse or the Britannia, and the Old Town’s closes properly, without the rushed, single-afternoon visit a day trip from London would force.

Before you go

No car needed anywhere on this route, York and Edinburgh’s centres are both entirely walkable. Pack for genuinely cooler, wetter weather than London in both cities, and build slack into Day 3’s connection, York to Edinburgh trains run every 30 minutes or so but delays on the East Coast line aren’t rare. Book the York and Edinburgh legs together on LNER rather than as two separate one-way fares, the combined advance price is consistently cheaper than booking each leg the week before you travel, and it locks in your seat on both the busiest days of this whole trip.