Edinburgh Travel Guide: What to See, Eat & Do in Scotland

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, built across a ridge of volcanic rock and the valley beside it on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, on the country’s east coast. The city divides cleanly in two. The Old Town tumbles down the Royal Mile from the castle on its crag to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, a mile of closes, wynds and tenements that grew upward because the medieval walls left nowhere else to go. The New Town, laid out from the 1760s in Georgian crescents and broad straight streets, sits to the north across the trough of Princes Street Gardens, where a loch was drained to make room for it. Together the two halves form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the contrast between them is the single best thing about walking here.

The city has been Scotland’s political and intellectual centre for most of a millennium. It was the seat of the Scottish crown before the 1707 union, and from 1999 it has housed the devolved Scottish Parliament at the foot of the Royal Mile. In between came the Scottish Enlightenment, when David Hume, Adam Smith and Joseph Black worked within a few streets of each other and earned the city its nickname, the Athens of the North. Edinburgh sits roughly 400 miles north of London, about four and a half hours by train, and 45 miles east of Glasgow. For rail travellers it is the natural gateway to the Highlands, and it is where the Belmond Royal Scotsman begins and ends its journeys, departing from Edinburgh Waverley beneath the castle rock.

What to see in Edinburgh

• Edinburgh Castle — The fortress on Castle Rock has been fought over since the Iron Age and dominates every view in the city. Inside are the Honours of Scotland, the Stone of Destiny, and St Margaret’s Chapel, the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh.
• The Royal Mile — The spine of the Old Town, running downhill from the castle esplanade to Holyrood through four linked streets. Duck into the narrow closes on either side; several, like Mary King’s Close, survive underground beneath later buildings.
• Palace of Holyroodhouse — The monarch’s official residence in Scotland, at the bottom of the Royal Mile, with the roofless ruin of the 12th-century abbey beside it and the apartments where Mary, Queen of Scots lived.
• Arthur’s Seat and Holyrood Park — An extinct volcano rising 251 metres directly out of the city. The walk to the summit takes under an hour and delivers the best panorama in Scotland’s capital, out to the Firth of Forth and the Pentland Hills.
• The New Town — Georgian architecture at its most disciplined: Charlotte Square, Moray Place, and the long sweep of George Street. The Georgian House on Charlotte Square is restored to its 1790s appearance and shows how the merchant class actually lived.
• National Museum of Scotland — A free museum on Chambers Street covering Scottish history, natural history, and design under one roof, with a rooftop terrace that most visitors miss. Dolly the sheep is here.
• Scottish National Gallery — On the Mound between the Old and New Towns, holding Titian, Vermeer, Raeburn’s Skating Minister and a strong Scottish collection. Also free.
• Calton Hill — A short climb from Princes Street to a cluster of neoclassical monuments, including the unfinished National Monument nicknamed Edinburgh’s Disgrace. The view back toward the castle and along the Old Town skyline is the postcard shot.
• Dean Village and the Water of Leith — A former milling hamlet ten minutes’ walk from Princes Street, with a footpath along the river that leads to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

What to eat in Edinburgh

Scotland’s larder is the real draw here: langoustines, hand-dived scallops, Shetland mussels, and salmon from the west coast turn up on menus across the city, alongside Aberdeen Angus beef and Highland venison. The dish everyone comes for is haggis, neeps and tatties — spiced oatmeal and offal pudding with mashed turnip and potato, usually with a whisky cream sauce. Cullen skink, a thick smoked haddock, potato and onion soup from the Moray coast, is the other Scottish classic worth ordering. A full Scottish breakfast adds tattie scones, black pudding and lorne (square) sausage to the familiar fry-up, and porridge is taken seriously.

For sweets, look for cranachan (whipped cream, toasted oats, raspberries and whisky), clootie dumpling, shortbread, and tablet, a crumbly fudge that is far sweeter than it looks. Deep-fried Mars bars exist, and chip shops in Leith and the Old Town will sell you one. Drink is where Edinburgh really shows off: single malt whisky from every Scottish region, gin from the city’s own distilleries, and Irn-Bru if you want the local soft drink. Leith, the old port district a couple of miles north, has become the city’s best eating quarter and holds several Michelin-starred kitchens.

Shopping & crafts

The Royal Mile is heavy on tartan and souvenir shops, but genuine quality is easy to find if you know what to look for. Cashmere and lambswool knitwear, Harris Tweed woven in the Outer Hebrides, and made-to-measure kilts from long-established Edinburgh tailors are the serious buys. Silver Celtic jewellery and Highland dress accessories are widely sold. For whisky, the independent bottlers and specialist shops around the Old Town and Victoria Street carry cask-strength and single-cask bottles you will not see at home. Victoria Street itself — the curved, coloured terrace below George IV Bridge — is the most rewarding browsing street in the city, and the Grassmarket below it has antiques and vintage.

Best time to visit

Late spring and early autumn give the best balance of daylight, weather and crowds. May and June bring long evenings and gardens in bloom, with the light lasting past ten at night in midsummer. August is the busiest month by far, when the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the International Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo run at once and the population roughly doubles — book accommodation far ahead if you want to be here for it. September and early October are quieter, with autumn colour in the parks and comfortable walking weather. Winter is dark and often wet, but Edinburgh’s Christmas markets and its Hogmanay celebrations are among the largest in Europe. Rain is possible in any month; the local advice about four seasons in one day is not a joke.

Good to know

• The city centre is compact and best covered on foot, but it is genuinely hilly — the Old Town sits well above Princes Street, and stairs and steep closes are unavoidable. Bring shoes with grip; the setts (cobbles) are slick when wet.
• Edinburgh Waverley station sits in the valley between the Old and New Towns, which puts almost every major sight within a 20-minute walk of the platform. A tram runs from the airport to the city centre in about 35 minutes.
• Scotland uses the pound sterling. Scottish banknotes are legal currency throughout the UK, though shops in England occasionally hesitate over them.
• Most of the national museums and galleries are free to enter; the castle, palace and Tattoo are ticketed and sell out in high season.
• Pack layers and a waterproof whatever the forecast says, and expect wind on Calton Hill and Arthur’s Seat even on clear days.

Seeing Edinburgh by luxury train

Edinburgh is the home port of the Belmond Royal Scotsman, a hotel-on-rails carrying just 40 guests in mahogany-panelled state cabins, with an open-air observation car at the back of the train. Journeys depart from and return to Edinburgh Waverley, so the city bookends the trip: a night or two here before boarding is the standard way to do it. From Edinburgh the routes fan out into the Highlands, along the West Highland Line to Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh, up to Speyside for the distilleries, and across to the Isle of Bute and the castle country of the west. Palace Tours books every Royal Scotsman itinerary, from short introductory journeys to the extended grand tours.