Book nowBook the castle slot for Friday and Mary King's Close for Saturday: both sell out on May weekends, and the castle sells no tickets at the gate once online is full.
Hours, prices and coordinates are from general knowledge; re-check them on the official sites the week before you travel.
Three days: the castle on arrival, a hill and whisky on the full day, the museum and the river before the train.
Train in at 11:00, bags to the hotel reception five minutes up the hill. The castle on a 12:30 slot, then Victoria Street and Greyfriars.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →5 min uphill
Leave the station by the Market Street exit and go up Cockburn Street, a curving climb of about 700 steps; reception keeps the bags until check-in.
The royal fortress on the volcanic rock above the city, home of the Scottish crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny.
about £22 eachtimed ticketday's highlightgun at 13:00
Fifteen minutes up the Royal Mile from the hotel. Open 9:30–18:00, last entry 17:00; tickets are online only once sold out, so book the 12:30 slot ahead.
Go to the Crown Room first, where the queue is longest later. The One O'Clock Gun fires from Mills Mount at 13:00 (not on Sundays): be on the battery a few minutes before. Allow two hours; cobbled ramps throughout.
£15–25 each
Down the steps of Castle Wynd to the old market square. The pubs here serve hot food all afternoon: fish and chips, pies, haggis with neeps and tatties. Order and pay at the bar.
A curved street of painted shopfronts, and the graveyard where the terrier Greyfriars Bobby kept watch on his master's grave for 14 years.
free
Up Victoria Street from the Grassmarket, then right along Candlemaker Row to the Bobby statue and the kirkyard gate behind it. The graves along the back wall look up at the castle. Half an hour.
£30–45 eachbook a table
The closes and side streets between the Royal Mile and the Cowgate have small restaurants with tablecloths cooking Scottish produce: lamb, langoustines, venison. Friday tables go by the afternoon; book in the morning.
Arthur's Seat before the crowds, then the Scottish Parliament at its foot. The afternoon walks back up the Royal Mile, under it and into a whisky tasting.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →An extinct volcano in the middle of the city, 251 m high, with a view over Edinburgh to the Firth of Forth.
freeday's highlightslippery when wet
Fifteen minutes down the Royal Mile to Holyrood, about 2,000 steps. Take the path from the car park by the loch-side road up the valley behind the Salisbury Crags; it is a steady climb of 45 minutes.
The last stretch is bare rock, polished smooth and slippery in rain; wear shoes with grip. The summit is windy even on warm days. Allow two hours up and down.
Scotland's parliament since 1999, in a building by the Catalan architect Enric Miralles, facing the King's palace.
freesecurity check
Open on Saturdays about 10:00–17:00; the chamber is seen from the gallery. The palace opposite usually closes for a week in mid-May for the Church of Scotland's General Assembly; if rct.uk shows it open on the 15th, go there instead, about £22 each.
£15–25 each
Ten minutes back up the hill. The lower Royal Mile has quieter pubs and cafés than the stretch by the castle; soup and a sandwich or a pie and a pint.
A 17th-century street sealed under the City Chambers when they were built over it in the 1750s.
about £25 eachtimed tourno photos
An hour underground with a guide in costume, down steep steps and narrow passages; not for anyone who dislikes tight spaces. Saturday tours sell out; book the 15:00. No photography below ground.
A whisky tour and tasting in the castle esplanade, with the world's largest collection of Scotch in its vault.
from about £25 eachbook ahead
Five minutes up from the Close. The basic tour is 50 minutes with one dram; the tasting tours add four or five regional whiskies and are worth it if whisky is the point. The 3,400-bottle collection is the last room.
£25–40 each
Fifteen minutes down the Mound to the New Town. Rose Street is a pedestrian lane of pubs and bistros; the Abbotsford has a Victorian island bar and a dining room upstairs.
The hill at the end of Princes Street with the columns of an unfinished copy of the Parthenon.
freesunset about 21:15
Twelve minutes east along Princes Street and up the steps from Regent Road. The view west takes in the castle, the Old Town and the sun going down behind them. The hotel is 10 minutes back down.
Check out and leave the bags at reception, then the National Museum of Scotland. Dean Village and Stockbridge's Sunday market after, the 17:30 train home.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →Scotland's national museum, from the Lewis chessmen to Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal.
freeday's highlight
Check out first; reception keeps the bags. Five minutes away on Chambers Street, open daily 10:00–17:00, free.
The Scotland galleries are in the modern wing: start on level 0 and work up through the centuries. Dolly is in the Science and Technology gallery. Take the lift to the roof terrace for the view over the Old Town. Two hours.
A 19th-century milling village on the Water of Leith, ten minutes from the West End.
25 min walk
West along Princes Street and down Bell's Brae, about 3,000 steps. The bridge on Damside gives the view of Well Court and the mill houses over the water; this is a lived-in street, so keep voices down.
Sundays only£10–15 each
Fifteen minutes downstream on the riverside path past St Bernard's Well. The market on Saunders Street runs Sundays 10:00–17:00: street food stalls, cheese, bakers. Eat on the benches, then walk the shops of Raeburn Place.
The Gothic spire built for Sir Walter Scott, the novelist who made Scotland a place to visit, above the gardens in the old loch bed.
287 steps up, about £8
Twenty minutes back through the New Town. The gardens are free; the climb up the monument is narrow and steep, half an hour, worth it only if the legs are fresh.
train 17:30
Up to the hotel, then down Fleshmarket Close's steps to the station, five minutes; be on the platform by 17:15.
You will walk almost everywhere; for the odd bus, a contactless card is the ticket.
On Lothian buses and the Edinburgh tram, tap a contactless card or phone on the reader as you board. Foreign cards work. Daytime fares are capped at about £5.70 a day if you use the same card all day. Each of you taps your own card.
Since July Edinburgh charges a visitor levy of 5% on the price of the room for the first five nights, added by the hotel. For two nights in a mid-range hotel it is £18–28; it is in the budget.
Expect 8–15 °C, wind on every hill and a shower most days, with long light evenings: sunset is after 21:00. A waterproof jacket and layers, and shoes with grip for Arthur's Seat and the wet cobbles.
The Old Town is built on a ridge, and the narrow alleys off the Royal Mile, called closes and wynds, are stairways down its sides. They are public and the quickest way between levels, but steep and unlit in places.
In a restaurant, 10% if service is not already on the bill. In a pub you order and pay at the bar and nobody expects a tip.
For two, 3 days and 2 nights in Edinburgh, staying on the Royal Mile. Covers the hotel, the visitor levy, tickets, every meal, drinks and a buffer. Trains are not included.
| Item | Economy | Comfort | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel on the Royal Mile, 2 nights | £360 | £560 | £180–280 a night for a double room, breakfast not included |
| Visitor levy | £18 | £28 | 5% of the room price |
| Edinburgh Castle | £44 | £44 | About £22 each |
| The Real Mary King's Close | £50 | £50 | About £25 each |
| Whisky tour and tasting | £50 | £90 | Basic tour or a tasting tour |
| Lunches | £75 | £120 | 3 lunches for two |
| Dinners | £100 | £170 | 2 dinners for two |
| Breakfasts and coffee | £50 | £90 | Cafés on the Royal Mile |
| Pubs | £40 | £80 | A few pints and drams |
| Buses and taxis | £10 | £30 | Mostly on foot |
| Buffer | £40 | £80 | The Scott Monument, a bottle to take home |
| Total | £837 | £1,342 |
Realistic figure: About £1,000–1,150 for two, without the trains
Cards and phones work everywhere, including market stalls and pubs. A little cash, £20, is enough.
All of them: the WayFriend guide library.
