Destination Guide : Edinburgh
Oh Edinburgh, you are a special place! We quickly wished that we had more than 4 nights in this city. But good news, the capital of Scotland is relatively small and it’s easy to cover much of the city in a short period of time. We were actually shocked during our drive into Edinburgh that we took what to us were side roads, not a main highway, to get into the capital.
We were very lucky to have wonderful, warm weather during our stay. Late July is definitely the right time to visit. We were also lucky to have booked our time here right before the summer festivals. Edinburgh’s festival is known as the biggest arts festival in the world. It last for 3 weeks and the city’s population almost doubles during the month of August!
We spent our time in the Sciennes neighborhood. Situated an easy, 20 minute walk from the city center and filled with great restaurants. Also, very near the Meadows, a large green area with a big playground, which was perfect for our family. We spent our last night in the Leith, the seaside neighborhood further outside of the city.
EAT
No. 1 The Grange - beautiful, cosy pub with a modern menu and great craft beers. Trent’s Sunday Roast (pictured above) was easily the best meal we had.
Amarelo - our favorite, neighborhood cafe with delicious and inexpensive breakfast sandwiches. It’s owned by two women and we loved chatting with them each morning.
Cafe Andaluz - Spanish tapas restaurant in Old Town overlooking Edinburgh Castle.
Salisbury Arms - beautiful restaurant near Holyrood Park with a large garden. Order at the bar and give them your table number. The food is served at your table. This style of dining is very popular throughout Great Britain.
Ship on the Shore - upscale, seafood restaurant in the Leith.
Edinburgh is also filled with the cutest freestanding coffee kiosks and many bagel shops.
DO
Harry Potter Tour : top of our list was a small, Airbnb Harry Potter tour. More info to come in a dedicated Harry Potter post.
Arthur’s Seat hike : an extinct volcano and the main peak in Holyrood Park. The hike was about 2 hours round trip with small kids. Our 4 and 7 year old made most of the hike alone until the very end. The hike is filled with many families and even some strollers. While it’s doable with kids, it was our main activity for the day and by the end T was so hungry he was in tears. But good news was they took a long nap that afternoon!
Museums : many museums in Edinburgh are free to visit (same with many museums throughout Great Britain). We visited the Writers’ Museum, a small museum dedicated to 3 Scottish writers, Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott. If we’re lucky enough to visit again, the National Museum of Scotland was often recommended to us. The Museum of Childhood also sounds interesting. We just couldn’t choose to spend hours indoors when there was sunshine and parks to enjoy!
Edinburgh Castle : this beautiful castle can be seen from many points around the city. A visit is not cheap (£19.50 adults, £11.50 children 5-15 years) and luckily Liv was free, turning 5 in just a few weeks. It was the first castle that we visited and we enjoyed it, but we enjoyed other castles much more later in our travels. (Ljubljana Castle is our favorite!) I think that an audio guide would have made the visit much more interesting.
Royal Yacht Britannia : I took a solo trip to the retired, royal ship. A visit to the ship (£16.50 adults, includes an audio guide) is filled with royal history and so many behind the scenes details. I loved my time there and soaked in every royal detail possible. My favorite sight was the royal blue Land Rover that was always on board.
We loved our summer visit to Edinburgh, but now I’m thinking a fall or winter visit would be a fun, very different way to experience the city. Have you ever traveled to Edinburgh? What did you love about the city?
