Back in 2011 a ManTripping reader sent us the story of his stag weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland - three days in the Scottish capital with his three closest buddies, built around whisky, paintball and a football derby. His account is below, lightly edited for spelling and formatting but otherwise as he wrote it. We updated the rest of this article in 2026, fact-checked the venues in his story, and added more Edinburgh stag weekend ideas that would slot straight into a trip like his.
What Do You Call Your "Guys Trips"?
The story below is fourteen years old and the city has changed around it. Five things worth settling before the group commits to dates.
- Budget for the visitor levy - from 24 July 2026 Edinburgh adds 5% to the cost of overnight accommodation, capped at the first five nights, so a £600 group booking carries about £30 on top.
- Dodge the Fringe unless it is the point - the festival runs 7-31 August 2026 and beds go for two to three times the usual rate while it is on; May, June and September give you the same city at normal prices.
- The tram solves the airport run - Edinburgh Airport to the city center takes about 30 minutes, with departures every 7 minutes through the day.
- Book tastings before flights - Holyrood Distillery tours get booked about a month out on average, and the other big whisky experiences run on timed slots too.
- Confirm the group is welcome in writing - some rental properties refuse stag bookings outright, and finding out at check-in ends the weekend early.
Edinburgh has hosted stag weekends for decades without ever legislating against them, which is a big part of why it holds a spot on our list of European stag do destinations that welcome a group.
A Reader's Edinburgh Stag Weekend
This account first ran in December 2011. When we went back through it in 2026, the whisky attraction, the curry house and the paintball operator in his story were all still open - his group chose well and now so can you. Here it is, in his words.
Getting married last year enabled me to go on a stag do to Edinburgh that will live long in the memory. Why? Check out the itinerary to see what me and my three closest buddies got up to in the Scottish capital.
His Thursday: Whisky And The Royal Mile
Start as you mean to go on, as the saying goes - and we certainly did that. As soon as we arrived at Waverley train station, smack bang in the heart of the city center, we dumped our bags at the cottage we had rented for the weekend and headed straight out to get stuck into a national delicacy.
Scotch whisky may not be everybody's preferred alcoholic tipple, but me and my pals have enjoyed a dram since our university days. And, man, do the Scots make a mean drop of whisky. We visited the Scotch Whisky Experience and went on a specially-booked course where we sampled all the various different types, which as you can imagine soon had a positive effect on us all.
It was then on to the Royal Mile to savour the atmosphere of some traditional Scottish pubs before ending up having an incredible Indian curry at a restaurant called Namaste Kathmandu. After a quick nightcap in the Royal Mile Tavern we turned in for the night, as we had an early start ahead of us.
His Friday: Paintball And A Britney Jumpsuit
None of us had ever been paintballing until the Friday of our bumper weekend and, quite frankly, we weren't exactly relishing the prospect of running around or crawling in a muddy field after enjoying probably one or two more whiskies than we should have. Luckily, a caffeine boost quickly pepped us up and off we went in a taxi to the Bedlam Paintball site, where we instantly met another stag group, albeit five times bigger than ours.
The two stag parties were paired together and then divided into two equal groups before battle could commence. We then slogged it out over loads of different landscapes like a graveyard, a disused double-decker bus, a fort, a river and all sorts of other weird and wonderful make-believe scenarios. It was frantic. It was frenetic. And it was fun.
Well, it was fun until myself and the other stag were stripped of our guns and told to run off into the forest unarmed by one of the safety stewards for a game of paintball hide and seek. Roughly 20 seconds later, 20 or so guys came charging after us and we ended up looking like a Jackson Pollock work of art. Still, it was awesome fun and set us up nicely for the evening's entertainment, which proved to be painful for a different reason.
It's been a tradition for a long time among my friends that we force whoever's special occasion it is to dress up in a ridiculous outfit. Down the years we've had a vagrant, an old person, Mr T, a wrestler, George Bush and many, many more. Hardly surprising, then, that I was dreading Edinburgh in a way. Imagine my reaction when a red latex jumpsuit, blonde wig and make-up were presented to me in homage to Britney Spears. The hours that followed are easily the most surreal I've ever had.
His Saturday: The Edinburgh Derby At Easter Road
I may have gone to sleep in the early hours looking like a butch Britney Spears, but I woke up resembling something out of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's amazing what difference a quick shower made, and I was thankful to get back into my own clothes. Two heavy nights of drinking and shenanigans had left us drained, but if we thought we were in for a low-key Saturday we were sadly mistaken.
That's because my friend Steve had somehow managed to get the four of us tickets to the Edinburgh football derby that day between Hearts and Hibernian. We'd spoken to a few locals over the previous two days and were under no illusions that the atmosphere at the game at Easter Road would be tense. It was definitely that and then some. We sat amongst the 'home' fans in the Hibernian end and were captivated by the action on and off the pitch. Hibs lost 2-1, but the result mattered little to us. It was fantastic to experience such passion before we had one last trip to the Royal Mile.
His account ends there - no summary, no lessons learned, straight back to married life.
More Edinburgh Stag Weekend Ideas
These additions are what we would bolt onto the reader's itinerary today, each one verified as of August 2026.
Upgrade The Whisky Day
The Scotch Whisky Experience is still pouring beside the castle, but the city has added two serious options since our reader's trip. Johnnie Walker Princes Street opened in the West End with its Journey of Flavour tour - roughly 90 minutes, three drinks matched to your flavor profile, from around £30 a head. Worth settling before you book: tour slots cap at eight people, so a group of twelve books two slots or splits up, and on a busy Saturday those slots will not be adjacent.
Holyrood Distillery, a ten-minute walk from the Royal Mile, became the first single malt distillery operating in Edinburgh in almost a century, and its tour ends with a tutored tasting in the cask room. The pub side of the city gets its own section in our guide to the best European cities for bars and pubs.
Tee Off At Musselburgh Old Links
Golf is the other big draw for a guys trip to Scotland, and you do not need Old Course money to make it count. Musselburgh Old Links, a short ride east of the city, lays a strong claim to being the oldest playing golf course in the world - golf has been documented there since 1672, and six Open Championships were played on it between 1874 and 1889.
It is nine holes laid out inside the local racecourse, and a visitor round in 2026 costs £20-25. If the group wants a full golf itinerary rather than one historic round, our Scotland golf course tour maps the East Lothian links sitting within an hour of the city.
Get Tickets For The Edinburgh Derby
Our reader's Saturday at Easter Road is his best single idea, and it takes the most planning luck. Hearts vs Hibs comes around only a few times a season, split between Easter Road and Tynecastle, so check the fixture list before anyone books flights rather than after. Easter Road sits in Leith, Tynecastle on the west side of town, and both are an easy cab from the city center. If the dates refuse to line up, both clubs sell tickets to ordinary home matches that deliver the singing, the pies and the walk to the ground with the locals.
Bedlam Paintball, Fourteen Years On
Bedlam Paintball, the operator from his Friday, never went anywhere. The outdoor Edinburgh site now runs at Winchburgh, about 15 minutes out of the city, and there is an indoor arena on Leith Walk for the weekends when Scottish weather wins. It remains one of the cheaper ways to burn a hungover morning before the evening plans start.
Day Trips: Glenkinchie, St Andrews And Glasgow
Three add-ons that work without a rental car. Glenkinchie Distillery, the Lowland malt out in East Lothian farmland about 40 minutes from the city, pairs a production tour with a guided tasting. St Andrews works as a day trip by rail - about an hour and five minutes from Waverley to Leuchars with advance singles from about £10, then a ten-minute bus into town - for the group that wants to stand on the Swilcan Bridge even without a tee time. And Glasgow sits about an hour away by train, a completely different night out, in case the group wants to settle which city does the better pub.
What His 2011 Itinerary Still Gets Right In 2026
Strip out the dated details, and his plan is the correct shape for an Edinburgh stag weekend: whisky early, one big activity, one shared spectacle, everything based out of a single rental the whole group sleeps in. What has changed is the cost of winging it - festival-season beds, the new visitor levy and pre-booked tastings all reward the best man who locks things in months out.
And if the calendar is flexible, consider the winter version: Edinburgh's Hogmanay turns the New Year into a multi-day celebration with a ticketed street party through the city center, colder than an August weekend and easily more memorable than another Saturday bar run.