Market Street, Edinburgh
How did I even decide on Edinburgh?
Well, it was because of the Queen’s funeral, funny enough. We were watching the procession to St. Giles on TV (My parents and I) and we all thought, wow, that’s a pretty city! And we are Scottish, on my mother’s side. Dad also said that the city looked very “doable” for a first European visit, and Edinburgh is less expensive than London (true story).
So that’s how Edinburgh was selected.
The first thing I had to figure out was when to go to Edinburgh.
I knew I didn’t want to go in August—that’s festival season, and prices are insane, and the city is also insanely crowed. No, thank you. I knew I didn’t want to go in the winter or late fall, because it would be quite dark (remember how far north Edinburgh is—think Moscow, Copenhagen, southern Sweden, etc.). That left spring and early and late summer. September seemed liked a good time to me, and it was a good time. It wasn’t really crowded, prices were reasonable, and we could get around the city without being mobbed by tourists. The weather was also amazing—quite unusually, according to locals!—but the average temperatures are around the low to mid 60s, which is comfortable for me, personally. (It was in the low 70s for most of our trip.)
As I wrote in my accessibility post, choosing a hotel required two things: elevators and air conditioning. I knew I wanted to be on the Royal Mile, but not in a chain hotel (ie, a Hilton) if possible. The Scotsman Hotel checked all the boxes. If you want to book, book direct on their website, where they have lots of deals and offers! We stayed in a City View Feature Suite. We also added breakfast to our bill and had breakfast at the hotel every day. (They are not paying me to say any of this, btw.)
The reason for the suite? One, I had heard about the smallness of European hotel rooms. Two, I love Amilia and she loves me, but extra space is always good. This room was much bigger than we anticipated!
City view, check.
Flight:
There are no direct flights to Edinburgh from Columbus, so I narrowed it down to two carriers that I’ve flown and like—Delta and United. Delta won, because they routed us through Boston (which I like better than the NYC airports that United was going to use), and it was much cheaper for some reason, even in Delta Comfort (which is what we booked). With Delta Comfort you get more legroom, more food, and a free checked bag. Our flight was from Columbus to Boston to Edinburgh Airport (EDI), and the same on the way back. There were also a variety of times to choose from, which was nice.
Both the flight and the room were refundable. That was important to us! Yes, this meant we paid more, but having the peace of mind that the refundable prices gave us was worth it.
Where to go, what to see:
I used the Visit Scotland site extensively. Just poking around will give you a bunch of ideas of where to go, what to see, and what to eat. There are only a few things I’m not allowed to eat, and neither of us had food allergies or intolerances, which made our food planning easy. Both of us like tea, so afternoon teas were very often our lunches, because, as you saw, you get a lot of food in an afternoon tea!
Food, glorious food.
Most people eat dinner later in Edinburgh, but some places offered early deals, like Howie’s on Victoria Street.
I made reservations via Open Table before we left. I really don’t like hemming and hawing around food choices, and being diabetic I know that I have to eat at certain times or the body gets CRANKY. So reservations were really helpful. It was also really easy to cancel if needed (which we did the first night, since I was so tired!)
Places where we ate:
Ensign Ewart Pub on the Royal Mile
The Grand Cafe, Scotsman Hotel (afternoon tea and lunch)
Cafe at the Palace (of Holyroodhouse)
Mimi’s Bakehouse (don’t take reservations but we popped in several times for drinks and snacks)
Royal Deck Tearoom, Britannia (they don’t take reservations so if you want to eat there, head there first when you get on the yacht!)
Some afternoon teas require pre-booking: the Grand Cafe, the Cafe at the Palace, and Eteaket all needed to be pre-booked (and in the case of the Grand Cafe, pre-paid).
Booking Attractions:
We did this months out, so that we one, saved money, and two, had things booked and pre-paid, so we could spread out the cost of the trip. Britannia, Edinburgh Castle, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse were pre-booked. The National Gallery, and all the National Museums, are free in Scotland and don’t require any advance booking.
Shopping:
Edinburgh is famous for its bookstores, so I made a list of stores for us to check out. We only ended up visiting two—Waterstones and Golden Hare Books. I also knew I wanted to visit at least one yarn shop, which was Ginger Twist Studio. If you like to shop, Edinburgh will not disappoint you.
Making it all work:
On the itinerary, there was generally what I called a big “rock” every day—one “big” thing we were doing, along with any meal reservations. This worked well and gave us a lot of free time; we didn’t feel like we were being rushed around to get to places or do things, but ensured we saw and did everything we wanted. The only things that changed from the itinerary were cancelling dinner the first night, and having to scramble for dinner on Sunday night because the hotel cafe was booked (I got room service and Amilia went out to find some food).