By Shawna Cordonnier, Travel Advisor, Roseville Travel
Edinburgh is unusual in that its medieval Old Town and its Georgian New Town are both UNESCO World Heritage sites, sitting a few hundred yards apart across a valley that used to be a loch. Walking between them takes ten minutes and feels like changing century.
Three days covers it comfortably. Two is enough if you are disciplined.
Day one — the Old Town
Edinburgh Castle first, at opening. It sits on an extinct volcanic plug and it is the most visited paid attraction in Scotland, which tells you what it is like at midday. Timed tickets, booked ahead.
Then walk the Royal Mile downhill — it is genuinely a mile, and it genuinely descends the whole way — from the castle to Holyrood Palace at the bottom.
Along the way, duck into a close. These narrow alleys off the Mile are where the medieval city actually lived. The Real Mary King's Close takes you into streets that were built over rather than demolished, and it is the best hour in the Old Town.
Greyfriars Kirkyard is a five-minute detour and worth it — a working graveyard whose headstones supplied a certain author with a good number of character names.
Day two — the New Town and the museums
The New Town is Georgian, planned, and elegant in a way the Old Town is emphatically not. Charlotte Square, Dean Village down on the Water of Leith, and Stockbridge for a Sunday market.
Two museums, both free, both excellent:
The National Museum of Scotland — enormous, genuinely good on everything from Pictish stones to Dolly the sheep, and its rooftop terrace has one of the best castle views in the city. Almost no visitors find it.
The Scottish National Gallery — small enough to do properly in ninety minutes.
Finish on Calton Hill at sunset. This is where the classic Edinburgh skyline photograph is taken, it is a ten-minute climb, and it costs nothing.
Day three — Arthur's Seat and Leith
Arthur's Seat is an extinct volcano roughly 250 metres high, sitting in a park in the middle of the city. The round trip takes one to two hours depending on route, and the view from the top covers the whole city, the Firth of Forth and, on a clear day, the hills of Fife.
Go in the morning. The wind at the top is serious in any season.
Afternoon in Leith — the old port, now the best eating in the city, with several serious restaurants along The Shore. It is a twenty-minute tram or bus ride and most visitors never go.
Whisky, without the tourist version
The Scotch Whisky Experience beside the castle is fine and it is built for tour groups.
You will do better in a bar with a serious back shelf and someone behind it who will actually talk to you. The Bow Bar in the Old Town and The Devil's Advocate off the Royal Mile are both the real thing. Ask for something you have not heard of and say what you usually like — that conversation is the point.
What August does
For most of August the city hosts the Fringe, the International Festival and the Military Tattoo simultaneously. Edinburgh roughly doubles in population, accommodation costs two to three times normal and books a year ahead, and crossing the Old Town takes twice as long.
It is one of the great cultural events on earth and it is a difficult time to see the city itself. Decide which trip you are taking — and if it is the festivals, book a year out, not six months.
Day trips worth taking
Rosslyn Chapel, thirty minutes south, is small and astonishing — every surface carved, and considerably better in person than its reputation as a film location suggests.
Stirling Castle is an hour away and, in some respects, a better castle than Edinburgh's, with a fraction of the crowd.
The Highlands are further than people expect. A day trip to Loch Ness is eight hours in a coach for ninety minutes at the water. If the Highlands matter, give them their own nights.
Where Edinburgh fits
Edinburgh pairs naturally with London — King's Cross to Waverley is about four hours twenty by train, city centre to city centre, and the east coast run past the Northumberland coast is one of the best rail journeys in Britain. Advance fares are a fraction of walk-up ones.
Our London guide covers the other half of that trip.
Call Roseville Travel at (916) 782-6363 and we will work out whether your dates collide with the festivals — that one answer changes the whole budget.