55.95° N · 3.19° W
The Old Town and New Town are walkable, the castle and Arthur's Seat can be seen from almost any street, and the tram brings you in from the airport in half an hour.
Part of Harry Potter filming locations
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
Fortress on Castle Rock with the Honours of Scotland and the one o'clock gun. Adults £23.50 online; allow at least two hours.
Walk · 1.6 km downhill · Free · St Giles', the closes and the Old Town between the castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse
Royal palace at the foot of the Royal Mile with Mary, Queen of Scots' chambers and the ruined abbey. Adults £22 online; about two hours.
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
May, June and September, with long days and normal prices. In August the festivals fill the city and the hotels; in winter it gets dark around four, but the castle, museums and pubs stay open.
How you travel
Choose how you're travelling and we'll tell you where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and which services you'll need. We only show the ways of travelling that make sense here.
Edinburgh has direct flights from many Spanish airports. All year round they leave from Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga, Alicante, Seville and Santander, and from Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, with Ryanair, easyJet, Jet2 and Vueling depending on the route. In season Valencia, Palma, Ibiza, Menorca, Reus, Girona and Bilbao are added, as well as Iberia Express from Madrid and British Airways from San Sebastián. From Madrid the flight takes about three hours. The airport is about 20 minutes by car from the centre, but you don't need one: the tram and the Airlink bus drop you near Princes Street in half an hour.
Central Edinburgh is best explored on foot: the Old Town and the New Town are separated by Princes Street Gardens and Waverley station, and from the castle to Holyrood you can walk down the Royal Mile in half an hour without hurrying. What's further out, like Leith or the Royal Yacht Britannia, is on the tram line, and from the airport you arrive by tram or on the Airlink. Pay with your card or phone: the system never charges you more than £5.70 a day in the city. For a trip to the Highlands, organised coach tours leave from the centre.
Who you're with
A trip with a toddler is not the same as one with a teenager. Pick yours to see what works and what to bear in mind.
Edinburgh works well for families with children of different ages because the expensive and the free are only a few streets apart. Alternate: the castle or the Britannia one day, the National Museum and Calton Hill the next. At the castle, under-7s go free and tickets for 7 to 15-year-olds cost £11.50 bought online; the National Museum, Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill cost nothing. The Old Town is all slopes and cobbles: expect tired legs and a pushchair that suffers.
For 12 to 17-year-olds, Edinburgh hooks them with its dark side: underground alleys, tales of plague and witches, graveyards with Harry Potter names and an extinct volcano in the middle of the city. The centre is compact and walkable, so you can give them some freedom on the Royal Mile or in the Grassmarket with a time to meet up. What wears them out are palace rooms and long queues with nothing to do.
Edinburgh is explored on foot and divides neatly into two halves: the Old Town, with its underground tours and pubs, and the hills, which you climb for free and which finish off the day. For a group it is a cheap city once you skip the paid museums, and the Royal Mile packs almost everything that happens at night into 1.6 kilometres.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: Affordable design hotel on Market Street, next to Waverley and two streets from the Royal Mile. Compact rooms, a bar and a buffet breakfast.
Why we like it: Chain hotel on Princes Street, facing the gardens and the castle, with family rooms, free cots and free breakfast for two children.
Why we like it: Over-18s hostel on Johnston Terrace, below the castle rock, with dorms and private rooms, a large kitchen and 24-hour reception.
Why we like it: Nine gothic suites for two above The Witchery restaurant, on Castlehill, next to the castle. Four-poster beds and champagne if you book direct.
Why we like it: A 1687 mansion turned five-star hotel, with 23 rooms and suites in eight hectares of grounds below Arthur's Seat. Dogs and children welcome.
Services for this trip
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
What to order: the Scottish beef tartare or the Glenfeshie venison; at midday, the two or three-course lunch menu
What to order: a scoop of the flavour of the day; if it's cold, the hot chocolate float, hot chocolate with ice cream on top
What to order: Shetland mussels in white wine, the house fish soup or, to share, the smoked platter
What to order: haggis with neeps and tatties, the steak and stout pie or haddock and chips; a pint of the guest ale
What to order: a tea or a coffee in the back room, the one with the window onto the castle; at the second premises on Victoria Street, their Butterscotch Beer with cream
Takeaway and markets
Map
The places to stay and services on the map are the ones for the way you travel. Turn on the layers you want and tap a point to see its details.
Tips
The Old Town is cobbles, slopes and steps; in the rain they are slippery.
On buses and trams each traveller needs their own card or phone for the daily cap to work.
It opens at 9:30. With an early-hours ticket you see the jewels before the queues.
It is free, a ten-minute climb, and from the top you can watch the castle light up.
It blows harder up there than in the city. Bring an extra layer even if it is not cold below.
The open-top tourist bus: the Old Town is small and best seen on foot, and for Leith the tram goes just as well for far less.
Edinburgh is two cities separated by a valley of gardens. To the south, the medieval Old Town is squeezed onto a ridge of rock that runs down from the castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse: this is the Royal Mile, with its alleys, the closes, hanging off either side. To the north, the Georgian New Town, all straight streets and squares, with Princes Street facing the castle. Everything you will want to see fits into a rectangle you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. What tires you is not the distances but the slopes and the steps.
Start at the top, at the castle, on the rock of an extinct volcano: the Scottish Crown Jewels, St Margaret's Chapel and, every day except Sunday, the One O'Clock Gun. Entry costs £23.50 online; at the ticket office it rises to £26 and, if online tickets sell out, they do not sell any. Further down, beside the Esplanade, the Camera Obscura has projected the city onto a table since 1853 and fills five floors with optical illusions, and the Scotch Whisky Experience offers a whisky tasting with a Spanish audio guide.
Halfway down the street stands St Giles' Cathedral, which since October 2026 has charged £12 to visitors who do not live in Scotland. Beneath the houses opposite lies a piece of the 17th-century city: The Real Mary King's Close, a one-hour guided visit through buried streets, from £25. A few streets further east, under the arches of South Bridge, the underground vaults can be visited with a guide by day or, for those who want a fright, by night.
At the foot of the Royal Mile, the Palace of Holyroodhouse is the King's residence in Scotland: Mary, Queen of Scots' apartments and the ruined abbey, £22 if you book ahead. In winter it opens Thursday to Monday.
Holyrood Park begins behind the palace and, in the middle of it, Arthur's Seat: 251 metres of volcano with views out to sea, an hour's climb by path from the palace, or less from Dunsapie Loch. If it is windy, wrap up. If that is too much, Calton Hill, at the end of Princes Street, is a ten-minute climb up steps and gives the classic view of the castle and the Old Town. It is the place for sunset.
The National Museum of Scotland, on Chambers Street, is free and open every day from 10:00 to 17:00: the stuffed Dolly the sheep, machines, animals and a rooftop terrace with views of the castle. It works with children of any age. If the sun comes out, head down to the river on the west side of the New Town: Dean Village and Stockbridge are a former mill village and a neighbourhood of shops joined by a path along the Water of Leith. On Sundays there is a market in Stockbridge.
Half an hour by tram to the north, Leith is Edinburgh's port. Moored at the Ocean Terminal shopping centre is the Royal Yacht Britannia, the ship on which Elizabeth II travelled for forty years; the visit takes about two hours. Afterwards, The Shore, the edge of the old harbour, has seafood: Fishers in Leith is at number 1, next to the tram stop.
No Harry Potter film was shot in Edinburgh, but J.K. Rowling lived and wrote here. The Harry Potter walk separates what is documented (the cafés where she wrote, such as The Elephant House, which reopened in December 2025, or the room at the Balmoral hotel where she finished the last book) from what is only said, such as the graves at Greyfriars or Victoria Street. The Potter Trail does it with a guide, for free, with a tip at the end.
To get out of the city without a car, the Loch Ness, Glencoe and Highlands tour leaves early in the morning and returns at around 20:00. Rabbie's runs it in a minibus of up to 16 people and Timberbush by coach, both from £56. It takes about twelve hours, a good part of it on the road, with stops at Glencoe and Fort Augustus or Fort William.
From the airport to the centre you have the tram, £7.90 one way and about 30 minutes to St Andrew Square, or the Airlink 100, £6 and running 24 hours; until 7 January 2027 it stops on George Street because of the Christmas markets. In the city, buses and trams are paid for by contactless, one card per person, with a daily cap of £5.70. Trains arrive at Waverley station, in the valley between the two cities.
With three days you can see the Old Town, Holyrood, Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill. With four, add Leith or the Highlands tour. May, June and September are the most rewarding months. In August the festivals fill the streets with theatre and music, and sleeping costs much more. In December there is a Christmas market and it gets dark at four.
Next to Waverley station, the Motel One Edinburgh-Royal is the budget option for arriving by tram or train and walking up to the Royal Mile. With children, the Premier Inn on Princes Street has family rooms and free breakfast for two children per adult who asks for it. To spend little, the Castle Rock Hostel, at the foot of the castle, is for over-18s only. For two, the suites at The Witchery, right on the castle Esplanade, or the country house of Prestonfield House, at the foot of Arthur's Seat.
The first time, three nights to see the essentials. With children, Edinburgh with the family. As a couple, two nights for two. For fans, a day of Harry Potter and buried streets, and for a day out, the Loch Ness and Glencoe day.
Questions
Three for the castle, the Royal Mile, Holyrood, Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill. Four if you want Leith or a day in the Highlands.
By tram, about 30 minutes and £7.90 one way, or by the Airlink 100 bus, £6, which runs 24 hours.
The castle, with a time slot; Mary King's Close; The Potter Trail's free tour; and, in August, your hotel, months ahead.
The National Museum of Scotland, Arthur's Seat, Calton Hill, the Royal Mile, Dean Village and the Harry Potter walk on your own.
Yes, on an organised tour of about twelve hours that passes through Glencoe and returns at around 20:00.
Yes: the castle, the Camera Obscura and the National Museum work well with children, and Arthur's Seat is a short climb for them. Keep the slopes in mind if you have a pushchair.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/scotland/edinburgh
