- 14 of 38listings include the ride
- $270our pick · one day from Edinburgh
- $203cheapest with the train option
- 3 citiesEdinburgh · Glasgow · Inverness
- 1–6 daysday trips to Hebrides loops
Book the Edinburgh Day Trip Unless One of Four Things Is True
Most first-time visitors should book the From Edinburgh: Hogwarts Express, Glenfinnan & Highland Tour — $270, 4.5 from 790+ verified reviews, and the steam-train leg is in every booking rather than sold as an upgrade. It is the best-reviewed single-day departure from the city most people are staying in, it drives you through Glencoe on the way, and it holds a block of Jacobite seats so it is often bookable when West Coast Railways' own 2026 sales show sold out. The homepage covers that tour hour by hour.
Four situations change the answer. If price matters most, Gray Line's Magical Highlands Tour does the same day for about $203 — but only if you pick the steam-train option at checkout; its $67 headline is the bus-only version. If you are in Glasgow, two near-identical $270 day tours leave from Buchanan bus station. If you are in Inverness, Highland Explorer runs the most-reviewed Jacobite tour of all from there, down Loch Ness. If fourteen hours in one day is the problem, the 2-day Highlands tour is the format experienced visitors recommend, and the Isle of Skye loops fold the train into a longer trip.
What nobody else tells you: eight of the fourteen are multi-day tours where the train is one option among several room types, and the train-inclusive options sell out first. Two of them had no train-inclusive date left for all of 2026 when we checked. Each pick below says exactly which option to choose.
Choose a one-day tour if
- You are based in Edinburgh, Glasgow or Inverness and the Jacobite is the one Highland thing you must do
- You want the ride guaranteed in the booking, with no room-type options to get wrong
- You can handle an early start and 13–14 hours door to door
- You are booking late — the day tours had dates within a week when we checked
Choose a multi-day tour if
- One long coach day sounds worse than an overnight in the Highlands
- The Isle of Skye, Loch Ness or Glencoe are on your list anyway
- You will select the including Steam Train option and check it shows a date
- You are booking a few weeks out — the train-inclusive rooms go first
Already know the Edinburgh day trip is the one? Check a date here and skip the rest.
All 14 Jacobite Tours Side by Side: Price, Rating, Departure City, Length
Per-person price is for the nearest bookable date we found for two adults on 21 August 2026 — not the lowest headline figure, which on optional-train tours is the price without the train.
Every name links to the operator's own GetYourGuide listing, where every figure comes from. Always = the ride is in every booking option; Option = only the booking option that names the steam train includes it. Ratings drift as reviews land; the booking page always shows the current number. Our worth-it verdict covers whether to ride at all.
Other Scotland Experiences Travellers Pair With a Jacobite Day
Whichever row you pick, it fills one day. Loch Ness cruises from Inverness, Edinburgh's Old Town and castle tours, whisky distilleries on Speyside and Islay, and Isle of Skye day trips all sell from the same three cities.
The Right Jacobite Tour for Each Kind of Traveller
Seven situations, one recommendation each — and the listings to avoid this season.
The one most people book — Edinburgh day trip, $270
The Hogwarts Express, Glenfinnan & Highland Tour is the default for a reason: 4.5 from 790+ reviews, the ride in every booking, and the day built around it — coach north past Stirling and Perth, the one-way steam leg from Mallaig to Fort William across the viaduct, then Glencoe and Rannoch Moor on the way home. Two departure options exist on most dates; both include the train. Nearest date when we checked: the next morning. If nothing below describes you, book this one. Our full breakdown of this tour →
Lowest price that still rides — Gray Line Magical Highlands, about $203
Gray Line's Magical Highlands Tour with Jacobite Train is the same Edinburgh day-trip shape — Glencoe, Fort William, the viaduct, Mallaig — with a single journey on the Jacobite sold as a selectable option. Choose the option called with Hogwarts Express and you pay about $203; the $67 option watches the train from Glenfinnan and then meets it in Mallaig by coach. 4.5 from 780+ reviews. The saving over the featured tour is about $65 a head; the trade is a 14-hour day and a guide who rides with you only on some departures.
Starting from Glasgow — two $270 day tours, pick by crowd
Highland Explorer's Jacobite Steam Train & The Highlands Tour (4.5, 85 reviews) and Haggis Adventures' Scottish Highlands & The Hogwarts Express Day Tour (4.6, 31 reviews) are sister brands running the same route from Buchanan bus station: Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor, Glencoe, then a two-hour Jacobite ride. Haggis pitches to a younger, backpacker crowd with audio guides in six languages; Highland Explorer skews to couples and families. The low reviews on both are about value, not the itinerary. Both were next available within three days.
Starting from Inverness — the most-reviewed Jacobite tour of all
Highland Explorer's From Inverness: Jacobite Steam Train and Highlands Tour has more reviews than any other listing here — more than 1,000 at 4.4 — and a better first half than the Edinburgh version: down Loch Ness with a photo stop above Urquhart Castle, the Commando Memorial, then the one-way steam leg and lunch in Mallaig. $270, 7:30 and 9:30 departures. The identical itinerary is also listed as Harry Potter Train & Scottish Highlands under the Haggis brand at the same price with 17 reviews averaging 3.3 — book the listing with the thousand.
Not doing it in one day — 2-Day Highlands Tour, $484
The 2-Day Highlands Tour with Hogwarts Express is what the long-day complaints in the one-day reviews point towards: an overnight at Fort Augustus on the southern tip of Loch Ness, a Loch Ness cruise and Urquhart Castle included, and the Jacobite leg taken fresh on day two. 4.7 from 450+ reviews, the highest of any tour with a real sample size. $484 for a double or twin, $607 single. It also happens to be the easiest multi-day to book right — every room type includes the train.
Making a Skye trip of it — three loops, three budgets
Haggis Adventures' 3-day Isle of Skye, Highlands & Jacobite Steam Train ($721, 4.9 from 40) is the cheapest Skye loop with the ride in every booking, in mixed hostel dorms and strictly 18-plus — small groups fill fast, and the 22–23 August departures had one seat left. Highland Experience's 4-day Isle of Skye and Hogwarts Express ($1,077, 4.8 from 160+) is the comfortable version: three B&B nights, Eilean Donan Castle, the ride included, the best-reviewed multi-day here. Timberbush's 4-day Skye, Jacobite & Whisky adds Oban and Talisker distilleries — but its $443 headline is the tour without accommodation or train; the option you want, Accommodation & Steam Train, was $1,201 (4.6 from 26). From Inverness, Highland Explorer's 3-day Skye & Optional Steam Train ($653 with the including Steam Train room, 5.0 from 27) is the northern equivalent.
The three to skip for 2026
Highland Explorer's Isle of Skye & Optional Jacobite Train 3-Day Tour is a good tour (4.7 from 200+) but on every departure we checked from late August to mid-November only the excluding Steam Train rooms were bookable — the train option is sold out or withdrawn for the season, so for this page's purpose it is a Skye tour, not a Jacobite one. The 6-day Isle of Skye and Outer Hebrides tour lists the Jacobite as an optional ticket but showed no bookable date in the next twelve months. And Highland Explorer's 5-day Isle of Skye and Loch Ness tour (4.5 from 52) sells the ride as an April–October option — but only the without Jacobite rooms were bookable on every departure we checked through mid-December. All three are worth re-checking when 2027 dates open.
Still deciding whether to ride at all
Read is the Jacobite worth it first — it compares the steam train with ScotRail on the same line and with the free Glenfinnan viewpoint, which is the better choice if the famous photo is what you actually want. Then how to get to the Jacobite from Edinburgh covers doing it without a tour.
Six Things the Listings Don't Make Obvious
The headline price is often the price without the train. GetYourGuide shows each listing's cheapest option on any date. On Gray Line's tour that is the $67 bus-only day; on Timberbush's 4-day it is $443 without accommodation or train; on Highland Explorer's Inverness 3-day it is the $421 excluding room. The table above uses the price of the option that actually rides.
"Always" beats "Option" if you are booking late. Where the train is one option among room types, the train-inclusive options sell first: on one Edinburgh 3-day tour none were left for all of 2026, and on another the including room opened a week after the excluding one. On the one-day tours and the 2-day and 4-day Highland Experience tours every booking includes the ride — nothing to get wrong.
Ride included does not mean the whole route. Every day tour here puts you on one leg of the Jacobite — Mallaig to Fort William on the Edinburgh and Inverness tours, described as a two-hour ride from Glasgow — with the coach covering the other direction. You still cross the Glenfinnan Viaduct by steam; you do not get the 84-mile round trip the direct ticket sells. For that, see the Fort William to Mallaig route guide.
Two listings can be one product. Highland Explorer Tours and Haggis Adventures are sister brands, and the Inverness day tour appears under both names at the same price, departure times and dates. The rating difference (4.4 from 1,000+ against 3.3 from 17) is sample size, not a different tour — but book the one with the reviews, because that is the page whose recent feedback you can actually read.
Seat sides are auto-allocated. For the viaduct sit on the left from Fort William, on the right from Mallaig; the tours cannot pre-select a side, and West Coast Railways swaps sides between legs on the direct service anyway. The door windows are where the photographers stand. None of this changes which tour to pick.
Steam is likely, not promised, and 2026 is a short season. The Jacobite resumed on 21 August 2026 on a reduced morning-only timetable after a regulator dispute, may run diesel-hauled on high fire-risk days, and is using a mix of Mark 1 and Mark 2 carriages during a door-locking retrofit. Every tour here cancels free up to 24 hours before departure, so holding a date costs nothing — book early in your trip and keep a spare day. The complete 2026 guide has the timetable detail.
Which Jacobite Tour: Frequently Asked Questions
The questions people ask when choosing between the tours, answered with figures checked on 21 August 2026.
Which Jacobite Steam Train tour is best for first-time visitors?
The From Edinburgh: Hogwarts Express, Glenfinnan & Highland Tour by Highland Explorer Tours, at $270. It is the best-reviewed single-day departure from Edinburgh that includes the steam-train leg in every booking — 4.5 from 790+ reviews — with the coach, the Mallaig to Fort William ride and a live guide in one price, and free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
What is the cheapest tour that includes a ride on the Jacobite?
The Gray Line Magical Highlands Tour with Jacobite Train from Edinburgh, at about $203 per person once you select the steam-train option. Its $67 headline price is the bus-only version, which only photographs the train from Glenfinnan — choose the option that says with Hogwarts Express at checkout or you will not ride.
Is there a Jacobite tour from Glasgow that includes the train ride?
Yes. Two day tours leave Glasgow with a two-hour Jacobite ride included: Highland Explorer's From Glasgow: Jacobite Steam Train & The Highlands Tour, 4.5 from about 85 reviews, and Haggis Adventures' Scottish Highlands & The Hogwarts Express Day Tour, 4.6 from about 30. Both cost $270, both run through Loch Lomond and Glencoe, and both were next available within three days when we checked on 21 August 2026.
Which Jacobite tour runs from Inverness?
Highland Explorer's From Inverness: Jacobite Steam Train and Highlands Tour, at $270 with 4.4 from more than 1,000 reviews — the most-reviewed Jacobite tour of all. It drives down Loch Ness past Urquhart Castle and the Commando Memorial before the one-way steam leg. The same itinerary is also listed under the sister brand Haggis Adventures with only 17 reviews; book the better-reviewed listing. A three-day Inverness option with an optional steam train also exists.
Which multi-day Scotland tours include the Jacobite Steam Train?
Five bookable ones on 21 August 2026: the 2-day Highlands tour from Edinburgh ($484, 4.7), Haggis Adventures' 3-day Isle of Skye tour with hostel dorms ($721, 4.9, adults only), the 4-day Isle of Skye and Hogwarts Express B&B tour ($1,077, 4.8), Timberbush's 4-day Skye, steam train and whisky tour ($1,201 with the train option), and Highland Explorer's 3-day Skye tour from Inverness ($653 with the train option). Three more — the Edinburgh 3-day and 5-day tours with optional train and the 6-day Outer Hebrides tour — had no train-inclusive dates left for 2026.
Do all Jacobite tours on GetYourGuide actually include riding the train?
No. Of 38 listings that mention the Jacobite, Hogwarts Express or Glenfinnan, only 14 include a ride; the other 24 stop at the viaduct viewpoint to photograph the train, chase it by boat, or list boarding the Jacobite under Not included. Several of the viewpoint-only tours have thousands of reviews, so a high rating is not evidence that you will ride. Check the Includes list for a train ticket before you book.
What does 'optional steam train' mean on a multi-day tour listing?
The operator sells the same departure as two or more booking options — for example Twin Room excluding Steam Train and Twin Room including Steam Train — and only the including option carries the ride. The train-inclusive options are the ones that sell out first: on the Edinburgh 3-day Skye tour we found no train-inclusive room bookable on any departure through mid-November 2026. Pick the including option explicitly and check it shows a date before you commit.