Edinburgh; The Low Down

Edinburgh!

My home from home, I spent the 2013-14 academic year studying there and it was amazing! A city with amazing transport links, history in every direction and bagpipers on every street corner.

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There's never a bad time of year to visit, however I'd definitely recommend it at Christmas for the markets and the World famous Hogmanay or Summer for the ever popular Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

It has an international airport that serves Europe and the UK with budget airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair, it also has direct flights to the US with United Airlines. To get from the airport to the city centre you can take a tram (£5), the 26 bus (£1.50) or the airport link bus (£3.50?) and also a taxi. It's main train station, Edinburgh Waverley, is centrally located in the city on Princes Street, trains leave every hour for London stations and every 15 mins to Glasgow. 

There's many budget sleep options, theres hostels off both the Royal Mile and Princes Street, ranging from £9pppn for a dorm bed proving Edinburgh on a budget is infact possible! 

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Eating out in Edinburgh; there's a little bit of everything on the Royal Mile, for cheap fast food head to the Princes Mall, underground next to Waverley Station, there's also lots of little cafes and eateries in the back streets around Princes Street. 

A piper next to the train station, welcoming you to Scotland!

Nightlife in Edinburgh is AMAZING, weekdays tend to be busy with students from the city's 4 universities whereas the weekend tends to be full of stags and hens, so i'd definitely recommend a weekday (trust me, it's so much better). The best clubs are Shanghai, Silk, Cabaret Voltaire and Hive (only for the Brave). Entry tends to be cheap with some doing £1 mixers. If you're staying outside of walking difference, there are night buses that run 24hrs, it's £3 each way or £3.50 for a day and night ticket (bought between 6pm and 12pm).

Departing Arthurs Seat, some times it's a good idea to ditch the path

Edinburgh has it all- A castle, a palace, a mile, pandas and a shed load of whiskey. It's easy to see the majority of the city in a day but to really embrace it, I'd recommend two or three days. Unless you're really into medieval history and have a lot of time, I wouldn't recommend buying admission to the Castle as you can still see the castle from all it's glory for free with great photo opportunities. Before sunset, you must must MUST climb up Arthurs Seat, it provides the best view of the city and to watch the sunset is even better. The park where the seat is situated is next to Holyrood Palace, the start of the Royal Mile which ends at the Castle. This provides a great few hours. I'm going to do a separate post of things to do so keep watch.

The best advice I could give to someone visiting this magnificent city is to hit the Royal Mile then ditch all of your maps. Exploring the city I found more than I could ever imagine, all the little alleyways and staircases are what make Edinburgh so great. I once found a pub in one of the 'secret' alleyways! 

On our way up to Arthurs Seat

Edinburgh all in all, is a great stopover and a perfect insight into Scotland!