10 Things to Do in Edinburgh in April

Beyond the rain, in April in Edinburgh it is spring and the temperatures start to be higher. The days are also longer, and the city begins to fill with tourist proposals for all tastes.

Of course, you will have to count on the possibility of rain. In this aspect, if you are lucky with the weather, you will probably be able to enjoy some things to do outdoors. However, I will offer you several proposals indoors.

If you like movies, you can't miss any of the film tours in Edinburgh. They are good options because the spring weather, mild and friendly, is a good ally for the walks proposed by these tours, especially in the outdoor sites where these incredible fictions were filmed.

This type of tours are characterized by offering a first-person visit to the locations of several popular series and movies. You can choose from several options, for example:

• Harry Potter tours, which include incredible indoor and outdoor rides, with options to even travel on the Hogwarts Express. On these tours, you will get to know the places that inspired J.K Rowling. It's mind-blowing.
• The Outlanders location tours, for fans of the Netflix series. Includes castles, palaces and mansions.
• The Da Vinci Code tours, for fans of the movie or Dan Brown's books, among abbeys and chapels.
• In the tours that include Anwic Castle you will be able to know another filming site of Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. There are exhibitions of both fictions available for fans.

April is an ideal time to book one of the tours to Highlands and Loch Ness, although you should pay special attention to the weather, see that it is not raining and much less snowy. If this is true, it will be ideal, as spring days are very very nice to visit the loch.

Although there are several ways to get to Loch Ness from Edinburgh, perhaps the best option is to book one of the tours to Highlands and Loch Ness from the city.

In April, the opening hours for visiting the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition also increase to 5pm. In previous months, you can only visit until 3:30 pm. In addition, Urquhart Castle, one of its main attractions, extends its opening hours until 6 pm. If you are interested in castles, be sure to read this article that gathers the best 10 castles in Edinburgh.

If you want, you can use one of your April days in Edinburgh to travel to St. Andrews, a coastal town bordering Edinburgh to the northwest. The two cities are about an hour and twenty minutes apart.

Being a coastal town, I recommend you to book your excursion to St. Andrew if you travel to Edinburgh in April or in summer, but not in the other seasons, as you will lose part of its appeal by having to take shelter from the low temperatures. And they are really low.

If you like this option, here you can see how to get from Edinburgh to Saint Andrews and get out of doubts.

If it's raining, an ideal plan to take shelter from the bad weather is to book a tour of Edinburgh's subway. You will see the famous crypts hidden under South Bridge in Edinburgh's Old Town.

This tour is guided, and you will be told the most macabre details of antiquity. I'm telling you, it will make your hair stand on end, so see if you're up for it. If you do, by the way, I also recommend that you find out about the best ghost and mystery tours in Edinburgh.

The Galashiels Walking Festival is a festival held in April to walk around Galashiels, about an hour from the city of Edinburgh.

It's a great way to get around and see other landscapes, meeting people who, like you, are looking for a group walk in the Scottish countryside.

The details of each year are usually announced in January. The landscapes that you will pass through with your group will dazzle you, without a doubt.

The first three weeks of April in the city you can visit the activities proposed by the Edinburgh Science Festival, an ideal set of plans if your trip to Edinburgh in April is with children. Here are 10 other activities to do in Edinburgh with children.

As part of the celebrations for science in Edinburgh, you can visit the Ances-tour, every day at the Edinburgh Zoo and free of charge.

In addition to the above, there are numerous activities for the whole family that you can go to throughout most of the month. From talks given by the experts themselves, to screenings, workshops or interactive exhibitions for all tastes and ages.

You can visit the Japanese Garden of Lauriston Castle all year round, but if you travel in April to Edinburgh, I highly recommend it, because in the middle of the month, it is full of colors.

It is a space where you can enjoy a lot of tranquility, near Cramond Island, and is ideal to visit early in the morning. As you will see, it is one of the best options for tours and excursions in Edinburgh.

If the rain doesn't stop your plans, in April in Edinburgh you have the great option of having a beautiful picnic outdoors somewhere you especially like. Just make sure it doesn't rain, prepare some snacks and don't forget to bring a blanket. The rest is taken care of by **Edinburgh'**s incredible nature.

There are many more options: Edinburgh is a place full of the great outdoors and you're sure to find somewhere you'll love. Some of the places I recommend you to consider are:

• Princes Street Gardens: A colorful and wonderfully ideal setting in Edinburgh's Old Town. Plus, you always have an ice cream truck close by, so you won't have to worry about dessert!
• The Meadows Park: This setting is so peaceful, you can even take a nap and enjoy the calmness of the place. Of course, there will be everything: groups of friends, families, people playing sports. The days are in bloom, and one goes straight to look for some green. Nearby, I recommend the homemade ice cream from Luca's store.

Although it is not celebrated as intensely as in the rest of the world, due to its mostly Protestant religion, Easter still offers some attractions for those traveling to Edinburgh in April. Especially if you're traveling with children.

For starters, you'll find the stores stocked with Easter Bunny chocolates. And there are always activities for all families, as the locals themselves will want to enjoy their and their children's vacations.

In addition, the city usually organizes for this time some proposals for children, such as workshops to decorate Easter eggs or hidden egg hunts.

Egg-Rolling or Egg Race

One of the biggest traditions of this time in Edinburgh is the egg-rolling race. On this occasion, the little ones decorate their Easter eggs to let them fall down a gently sloping hill. So, they watch as it rolls down the hillside, and compete to see which one goes the furthest distance without breaking.

One of the places where you can do this is Arthur's Seat mountain. If you spend Easter Monday there, you can get up close to watch the children chase their colorful eggs.

The Edinburgh sightseeing bus will be an ideal choice when you travel to Edinburgh in April. It is a double-decker bus from which you will have incredible views.

The best thing about this bus is that it allows you to get on and off as many times as you want. Therefore, it is an ideal option to take advantage of some of the spring days that you get in your days in Edinburgh in April.

The entire route takes about half an hour. It departs every 20 minutes and tickets are valid for 24, 48 or 72 hours (depending on the option you choose) from the first time you get on. It's ideal if you don't quite know where you want to go yet: let yourself be guided.

April in Edinburgh is early spring. So you start to see the first sunny pictures, the first warm weather and quite a lot of blooming in the squares and parks of Edinburgh.

There are usually about eight rainy days in the month, so you will probably get some. Temperatures in Edinburgh in April range between 4° and 8° C.

Because of the weather I have already mentioned, ideally, if you travel to Edinburgh in April, to enjoy what to see and do in Edinburgh, you should bring a mix of items so that you are not taken by surprise by any temperature.

My recommendation is that, whatever you bring, you can not miss a change of cool clothes, a coat, a windbreaker or raincoat, and some comfortable shoes, both for the cold and for the heat.

If you are traveling with your family, you can also bring some games to save the day if an insistent rain does not allow them to go out for a walk.

Within the plans mentioned above, there are several that you can choose if it rains and you need to protect yourself from the rain when you travel to Edinburgh in April.

In case you haven't found them enough, here are some others:

• Visit the inside of Edinburgh Castle: here you can access all the information you need about visiting Edinburgh Castle.
• Take the Edinburgh ghost and horror tour: Old Town, cemetery and subway vaults. It lasts about 1 hour and 15 minutes and is ideal, as long as you don't get too terrified.
• Dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Edinburgh: Includes a two or three course dinner with refreshments.