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Is there any reason to fly to Edinburgh or Glasgow if flight prices and times are approximately the same? I want to tour around Scotland, so I will visit both cities anyway.

Good reasons would be XXX has an airport which is very prone to closure due to fog, or rental cars are much cheaper in YYY, or it is much shorter to go from ZZZ airport to the city centre. Free Wifi would be a good reason, too.

pnuts
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traindriver
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4 Answers4

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There is virtually no difference where you fly, either Edinburgh or Glasgow are the same.

There are bus links from Glasgow city centre to Edinburgh Airport.

Also, Glasgow has a second Airport called Glasgow Prestwick, which is used mainly by low cost airlines and is about 30 miles South West from Glasgow. There is a train link from Glasgow city centre to that airport. To drive from Glasgow city centre to Glasgow Prestwick airport will take an hour.

Also, Glasgow and Edinburgh are 1 hour commute apart.

I hope that helps.

Richard Ev
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Lucas T
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If you want to visit both cities it really doesn't matter where you fly to. You might even consider flying into Manchester, since Glasgow is only 4 hours away by train. You wouldn't be the first who fly into Manchester while destined for Scotland to safe a buck or two. (I was told the secret here is buying train tickets ahead of time).

To stay on topic, I flew into both on different occasions and usually the price of both tickets and car rental was the deciding factor. I even flew into Edinburgh only to take the train to pick up the cheap rental at Glasgow airport, since I secured a cheap Flight to EDI and a cheap rental in Glasgow.

Mark Mayo
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I second @Lucas with There is virtually no difference where you fly, either Edinburgh or Glasgow are the same. provided the Glasgow version is International (GLA, was Abbotsinch) which is about 10 miles from the city centre as opposed to 33 or so for Prestwick (PIK). EDI (was Turnhouse) is about 6 miles from the city centre.

Fog has been slightly worse at EDI than GLA but I doubt by enough for this to be considered significant, specially if not travelling during the winter.

Both airports offer free wi-fi (GLA one hour, EDI two hours) and a spot check of one major car hire company showed the same prices for the same grade of car for a one week rental from the airport.

pnuts
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Edinburgh airport is to the west of the city. Glasgow Airport is also to the west of the city. There are direct, regular, buses from Edinburgh airport to Glasgow Buchanan bus station; they take about 1 hour, depending on traffic. Buchanan is the main bus station in Glasgow; it has links to the rest of Scotland. There aren't direct buses from Glasgow airport to Edinburgh bus station; indirect journeys take around 2 hr 20 minutes. Edinburgh bus station also has good onward links.

The answer is: Edinburgh airport is more central than Glasgow airport. However, if Glasgow is easier to fly to from your starting point, then fly there.

BTW, the main journey planner for Scotland is http://www.travelinescotland.com/

CSM
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