Unbelievably good introduction to Edinburgh.
Firstly I have to say that I am NOT an architect, designer or anything remotely in those areas, but I often wonder about architecture styles when travelling, and like to know a bit more. I felt these tours were so individualised to your level of interest /expertise, my lack of background didn't matter. In fact it made it all the more interesting.
This was the only tour group I found that offered a walking tour of the New Town Georgian architecture. I booked online several days prior to arrival. The tour guide was Nick, and he was interesting, engaging and more than happy to tailor the tour towards my interests. The New Town is quite beautiful, and has a lot of hidden gems and information that I would have struggled to find by myself.
The day before (the day I arrived in Edinburgh) I had done a 3 hour walking tour of the Old Town with Olga, the owner of Cobble Tales, also booked on line a few days in advance. While billed as an architecture tour, it included a lot of history, general interest stuff as well. I thought Olga was amazing, obviously passionate about the tours and just explained everything so well. She really improved my understanding of the higgledy piggledy Old Town, and made subsequent explorations of this non grid town very easy. Again lots of hidden courtyards, alley ways etc.
I am sounding a bit like a Cobble Tales junkie but I enjoyed the Old and New Town tour so much that I also booked the Deans Village Tour the following week with Olga...quite a different slice of Edinburgh suburbia with a fascinating history as well.
I would thoroughly recommend all the tours...very hard to choose a favourite really, as all were (surprisingly) quite different. Both guides had excellent English, were low key, easy going but presented an absolute class act. Would happily do them all again!
PS 3 hours of walking, plenty of stops, wear good walking shoes...
Thank you so much, me and Nick enjoyed your company and loved the conversations! You are our first customer to complete all our tours on one trip!
My wife and I immensely enjoyed our private tour of Old Town, led by guide Nick Mols, who is apparently a new addition to the Cobble Tales team. Nick is an architectural historian and is thoroughly grounded and trained in the detailed history and nuances of Old Town architecture. We learned an incredible amount about Old Town in particular and Edinburgh in general. Really opened our eyes to the richness of this incredible city. We were thoroughly entertained and have already signed up for a second Cobble Tales tour. Highly recommended.
My husband and I booked a private tour of the New Town yesterday. We are residents in Edinburgh but we've not been living here that long and we wanted to know more about the history and architecture of Edinburgh. Olga was absolutely excellent and it was more like going for a tour with a friend and we even stopped in a cafe half way through because it was quite cold! We would highly recommend the Cobble Tours and we're looking forward to doing the Dean Village and Old Town tours at another time. Olga is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic and answered all our many questions!
We had the most amazing time with our tour guide Olga learning about the architectural history about Edinburgh. She had so many amazing stories and insights into the history of Edinburgh. We did the tour at the beginning of our trip, which was wonderful because for the rest of our vacation other tours we went on just added to the knowledge that we had gained and we really felt like we had a deeper understanding of Edinburgh and it's culture because of this tour. Also, I was supper impressed with how responsive Olga was with her emails and how she was able to work with us with our schedule. Also, Olga was amazing when we had to reschedule our tour, we were suppose to arrive in Edinburgh on Friday and then have our tour on Monday morning, however our flight was delayed and we didn't actually arrive until Monday afternoon in Edinburgh. Olga allowed us to meet with her later in the afternoon and then she introduced us to an amazing place for dinner. It was the best first day we could have possibly had in Edinburgh! I would highly recommend this tour, whether you are into architecture or you just want to know more about the history of Edinburgh this tour hits all of that, you won't be disappointed!! I would absolutely do another tour with Cobble Tales!!
This was a really informative walking tour of the Old Town and Cameron really brought to life the history of the city as expressed in its architecture.
Would totally recommend this tour!
