A witch on Edinburgh's Royal Mile holding a broomstick hovers in front a large, cheery, Harry Potter tour, gaily posing in Harry Potter costumes

A visitor from New Zealand told me "Everywhere has castles, there are two unique things to do in Edinburgh, the underground city and Harry Potter". Well actually Seattle has an underground city, so that just leaves one…

Potter trail was formed in 2012, they are the trailblazers, thus having more reviews from happy customers.
👉 Potter tour formed 2017 and I love every last one of my five star reviewers from their eyebrows up.

Pottertrail has HUGE groups, 35+, it's like going to the Quidditch world cup, their guides probably have whistles & referee.
👉 In 2019 Potter Tours had upto a dozen. If you're interested you can get individual chat.

Pottertrail is for tips so you can walk away with no loss.
👉 I get everyone to swear an unbreakable vow at the beginning of my tour, if you walk away, you die.

Potter trail has won certificates of excellence from Tripadvisor for a high number of good reviews.
👉 So have I.

Potter Trail has an award from 'THA' for hospitality. Swanky. So have I. But it was probably more for my offering than my welcome.

LUX life magazine awarded the Potter tour for Edinburgh's most magical pop culture tour

👉 Moreover LUX life magazine has declared me amongst the best in class for family & visitor attractions Scotland. Gawd bless them all!

Potter trail is 75 minutes with a flatter route. Less walking arguably makes it better suited to those who are disabled or who have a casual interest.
👉 PotterTour has 'The Complete Potterhead' a 8 hour activity tour for witches & wizards on a pilgrimmage. PotterTours are longer, Sam likes reviving the magic, Potter fans do some wand work on the tour, but Sam loves what Rowling's life has to teach.

A family write thankyou letters to JK Rowling, using Quills & ink, to leave in the Elephant House cafe on a 8-hour, experiential Potterhead tour
18th birthday! Writing thankyou letters to JK Rowling to leave in the Elephant house on a 8 hour Complete Potter-head

Potter trail is fun and Funny.
👉 I hope to provide something useful, perhaps inspiring and worthy of spending more time on. I want to make memories, laughter is satisfactory.

Potter Tour's longer tours take in more sights (& more walking).
🏆 Potter Trail includes Favourit cafe & some Edinburgh ghost stories celebrating the gothic tradition, I don't. These are good things.

Nice robes…
Will, PotterTrail guide

Never has Sam been complimented by a wizard — like an equal!

Bless you master William. Master has nice robes too.

Oh Good Lord.

OK well Sandemans are a multinational based in Germany? Spain? They have an excellently rated historical tour and a well paid executive class. Too often their 'serf' guides, paying £3 per head for each customer, earn less than our legal minimum wage. Their company makes us poorer and the bloated battalions they march around make passage of the city worse for people who live here.

Is it run by Grindelwald? No.
But they could be.

My tours are run by me. I'm pretty bad too. If you do a quiz on my blog, you can see I probably idolise Alan Rickman too much. But he's just sooo silky.

…the guide included everyone and was genuinely interested in what you had to say. The only down side was it said 2 hours when I booked and it was only 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Laura_M, Tripadvisor
 The local run Potter Trail's 75 minutes. Funny that eh? Where does the money go then? Abroad largely. Thanks!

👉 Please don't visit if you're going to do this to us.
A golden review from Angela Bowen on GoogleMaps
Angela Bowen
24 reviews
⭐
⭐
⭐
⭐
⭐
This is my second Harry Potter tour in Edinburgh and Sam's blew the other one out of the water, I will be bragging to everyone back home about it and definitely going again
😁
😁
This was a wonderful surprise, my first review from someone who has been on both tours & I'm very grateful for it.

Compare Potter walking tours

All my tours are jam packed with Old Town gothic-romance…

Potter Tour Edina Potter
head
Length / hrs 2½ 4½ 8
The Tron Kirk ✗ ✓ ✓
Kwidditch postbox ✗ ✓ ✓
George Heriots ✓ ✓ ✓
The Nor Loch ✗ ✓ ✓
Nicolsons café ✓ ✓ 🍽️
Surgeons Hall ✗ ✓ ✓
Potterrow ✓ ✓ ✓
Teviot Row House ✗ ✓ ✓
The Grassmarket ✗ ✓ ✓
Tom Riddle's grave ✓ ✓ ✓
Carnegie's library ✓ ✓ ✓
Elephant House cafe ✓ ✓ 🍽️
A dragon flies by Edinburgh Castle, heading for an upmarket Harry Potter tour
Edinburgh Castle grounds ✗ ✗ ✓
The witches fountain ✗ ✗ ✓
Mcgonagall ✓ ✓ ✓
The Witchery ✗ ✗ ✓
Riddle's court ✗ ✓ ✓
Victoria Street 🍨 👍 👍 👍
Lady Stair's mansion ✗ ✓ ✓
Royal Academy ✗ ✗ ✓
The Balmoral Hotel ✓ ✓ ✓
St Giles Cathedral ✓ ✓ ✓
Parliament Square ✗ ✓ ✓
Rowling's Edinburgh Award ✓ ✓ ✓
Old Parliament Hall ✗ ✗ ✓
Café witchcraft ✗ ✗ ✓
Small Harry Potter tour groups keep you safe from Coronavirus

You don't need a 4½ hour Harry Potter tour!


- Copies… 😔

I admit you don't need 4½ hours. You don't need  a Harry Potter tour at all. Do not be astonished but some folk come to Edinburgh, leave without taking one and proceed with happy, fufilled lives. And no, they're not mentally ill.

Not Sybill Trelawney level anyway 🦇

Do you want a shady 90 minute tour from some dam busting gang-bangers rolling straight outta Knockturn Alley, or do you want something crafted with love?

~ ½ DAY TOUR ~

Mount Your Broom!

A cyclist keen to embark on his Harry Potter cycle tour A cyclist racing away on his Harry Potter e-bike tour

NEW Edinburgh bike tours of JK Rowling's world with a sprinkling of heavenly Harry Potter inspirations.

While our nucleus, the Old Town, is Harry's maternity ward & creche, Rowling began her retreat to greater Edinburgh quickly into Harry's adolescence. It's where she usually writes, plays minecraft with her son, walks her dogs, loves her daughters & packs merch to sell at her husband's gigs. It's the soil of Rowling's genius, come sample the sap.

So…
Short tour, long tour; loooong tour, short?

💫

If you're a fan it's like choosing between Butterbeer & Fire Whisky. One will make you jolly, the other will make you soar.

Why choose Potter Tour?
More Rowling, more of her inspirations, more magic, more memories.
Two families on enjoying a 4½-hour JK Rowling's Edinburgh tour, pose in Harry Potter cosplay on Victoria Street
Victoria Street, acclaimed as Diagon Alley, now dethroned. Over summer we stop here for Scottish ice-cream; this class just had a standard Cheering charm, I love a fizzy brain
 Young Witch in a Sorting Hat floats in mid air above Princes Street Edinburgh, the Castle in the background on a large public Harry Potter tour
Had a young witch on the tour today, she doesn't even need a broom
 St Giles Cathedral stands in for the gates of Hogwarts as a steely family pose, wands pointing at the camera, on a 4½-hour tour of JK Rowling's Edinburgh
St Giles Cathedral is not the doors of Hogwarts, however if Professor McGonagall cast Piertotum Locomotor the stone saints would surely spring to life
 Riddle's Court Edinburgh with prentice stair rising above a small group, 4½-hour, Harry Potter tour
Lions tigers and bears oh my!
Some come for passion, some come in Loopy hats, all are welcome
 Multiple families on a Harry Potter tour pose dynamically on stairs to the side of Makars Court
Defend yourselves, servants of the Dark Lord incoming! Obviously some take this more seriously than others; they're probably better at Apparition
 Tour guide Sam, in his wizard robes, stands before Tom Riddle's grave, explaining JK Rowling's true inspirations on a 4½-hour Harry Potter tour
The tour is open to all denominations so sometimes we'll do a eulogy to Thomas Riddell for practioners of the Dark Arts. I see you
 St Columba journeys on a boat to bring Christianity to Scotland, an important feature on my 8-hour Potterhead private tours
At the fortress of King Bridei near Loch Ness St Columba took down the old ways. The gates were barred but Columba made the sign of the cross & they were flung asunder. He confronted a Pictish Druid & a battle of supernatural wills followed… Rowling's a Christian, discover its significance
 A family with two children & an excited couple, all in Harry Potter costume, pose outside St Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile
What do we want? Elf liberation. When do we want it? Now!
But bless their flappy ears, they look so happy. Goblin oppression & unionisation covered at the bank reputed to have inspired Gringotts
Demonic imagery adorns the sign of the Witchery restaurant on Castlehill, JK Rowling's fine dining is unpacked on my exhaustive 8-hour private tours
What happens when Britain's biggest mystery, fantasy, childrens, literary novelist philanthropist meets the most seductive & demonic restaurant there is?
 Two friends & a mother & daughter, on a public 4½-hour, Harry Potter tour, pose with wands held aloft, outside Edinburgh's Writers museum
Sometimes we pop inside the Writer's museum here for an exhibit & story about master Potter
 A larger group of friends pose with wands in Riddle's Court, one time home of Professor Mcgonagall
Riddle's Court… how many bodies have come out off this place? Poor Scottish historic buildings trust have to keep repainting the walls
 A large group of Harry Potter fans on a experiential Harry Potter tour practice witchcraft outside St Giles Cathedral
It's a spell to… I dunno, make things really glowy? When you no longer need the library or doddering balding professors & you begin improvising your own magic, that's when you've hit mastery
 A happy family on an extensive 4½-hour Harry Potter tour, pose in Wizard-costume, beneath Bucephalus, outside City Chambers on the Royal Mile
A class wraps up outside City Chambers before Alexander the Great taming his horse Bucephalus. Goodbye friends!
Book a Potter walking tour
Why I created my Potter Tour
A detective's magnifying glass indepth
⚜
JK Rowling's pen writing strategies
⚜
A magic wand magic
reviews stink