Edinburgh Advice

grungefreak1

Hi all,

I'm going to Edinburgh with my girlfriend shortly for 3 nights only. We will be staying in the city centre near Princes St. I would like any advice on the following please:

- Things to do during the day and night (no smart comments please!).
- Sterling, is there any problem using UK sterling as opposed to Scottish?
- Let's say I want to spend €500. Which is best, use credit card?Cash?half and half? Pre-pay credit card before going to avoid exorbitant fees?
- Any advice is welcome on nearly aspect of the trip.

Thanks in advance.
GF

OkayWhatever

I've been to Edinburgh a few times and I love it!

Getting from the airport is handy, you should get the airport bus. it's £6 return i think and takes about 35/40mins, Allow extra time going to the airport from edinburgh though is there's a match on, I made that mistake! http://www.flybybus.com/

The 'Old Town' is amazing to walk around. A good few places to see..

Camera Obscura Is there and is good fun, not sure on prices etc so you're gonna have to google it! It's near enough to the castle, I think it's on the royal mile but make sure you check! http://www.camera-obscura.co.uk/

The Childhood Museum is also in the Old Town on the Royal Mile.. It's free in so you might as well check it out. It's not big so you wouldn't spend a lot of time in it. http://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/Venues/Museum-of-Childhood

Take a stroll around the parks aswell, some of them are nice.

And obviously go up to the castle, don't bother going in though, it's a bit of a rip off! :P

Further down the Royal Mile (walking away from the Castle), on the left hand side of the road there's a lovely little Fudge shop, buy some! It's gorge! Ya can't miss it !

There's a place called Our Dynamic Earth, If that's what you're into it's good! http://www.dynamicearth.co.uk/

There's a restaurant called "The Outsider" just on a street off the Royal Mile! GO THERE! Especially for lunch, Dinner can be Pricey! It's amazing!! If you're going for dinner I recommend making a booking! Everytime I've been to Edinburgh I make it a priority to go there :P

There's a few museums at the bottom of the road that the outsider is on, free entry.

In regards to sterling, you won't have a problem with it. They accept it all.

That's all I can think about right now, not alot but I hope it helps!

Enjoy your trip

roundymac

I'd go into the Castle, I found it interesting but it depends on what you like really.Sterling is the same, but not if your going to England later as far as I know, so I would get rid of any Bank of Scotland notes before you leave. There's also walking tours available, you'll see them advertised every where.

Bogsnorkler

All sterling is legal tender throughout the UK. Regardless of who issued it.

Go do the whiskey experience, beside the castle, thought it was brilliant.

As for things to do, well the festival is on now so basically you will be assaulted by people handing out flyers for cheap and sometimes free comedy, music and art shows. So that is sorted.

jos28

Edinburgh is a great city with plenty to do. I would do the Castle tour, we really enjoyed it. We also spent an afternoon at the National museum http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum/plan_your_visit.aspx. Very cool place, they even had an F1 simulator in the science exhibition. We stopped for coffee on the way there at The Elephant House (where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter). The open top bus tour was a great way to get your bearings and learn a bit about the city. We spent another afternoon doing a pub crawl. There are dozens of really cool pubs. I liked The end of the world'. http://www.bestofedinburgh.com/Page.asp?Title=Pubs&Section=70&Page=3. We got the airport bus in too and as OkayWhatever says, its only £6.
Enjoy the trip, you won't be short of things to do.

corblimey

Yeah, like Bogsnorkler says, the Festival (and Fringe) is on at the moment, so I hope you've got your accom. sorted - the streets will be black with people most of the time, but I found the non-festival related places to be relatively quiet, so the castle (book online to skip some of the queues), Holyrood Palace, the HOHO sightseeing buses, etc. Of course, just getting around will be a pain, it'll take twice as long to negotiate the likes of High st and Princes st. Also, restaurants and pubs will be fuller than normal, so get there earlier than you need to.

I had no problem spending "english" sterling in Scotland, but a scottish tenner was refused in a small shop just outside Pembroke on the same trip. Fair enough. I still have the tenner and will be going back to Edinburgh in a few years.

One last warning, Scotland (and Edinburgh in particular) suffers from the '4 seasons in 1 day' thing, even more so than Ireland. Bring shorts and an umbrella

roundymac

Yes that's what I thought alright, any notes issued by Bank of Scotland will not be accepted in England, I think even the banks are reluctant to change them, strange I know.:eek:

grungefreak1

Thank you all for the advice. I went, had a great time and checked out loads of your pointers.

Will definitely go back at some stage.

GF