Background
A lot of friends visit Edinburgh and want recommendations for things to see and do. When this happens I sometimes have a mental blank and things only come to mind about 5 minutes after they’ve started their journey home. To make their lives easier, and hopefully yours, I’ve started collecting the recommendations here.
About this guide
This guide is intentionally succinct. Far too many guides, especially online recipes, are now 90% back story and dross. If you want to hear stories buy me a drink, if you just want recommendations from a local keep reading!
There are lots of websites full of info about Edinburgh and lots of well known tourist attractions, the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle, the Scott Monument, etc. etc. The reality is lots of these can be seen quite easily whilst walking around Edinburgh. Although these recommendations are not completely off the beaten track they are places I would take my friends who wanted to see the city but a little off the beaten track.
Most of the things on this list are in central Edinburgh by which I mean “less than an hour’s walk from the castle”.
Principles
- We must have been there ourselves
- For food and drinks we must have been there on two or more occasions
- No paid promotions
Ratings
Once in Japan I went to an excellent saké bar. Being a little overwhelmed I asked the owner what he would recommend, his response was “I wouldn’t stock it if I didn’t recommend it”. With a few caveats, that’s the philosophy in this guide.
- Recommended: We have been their multiple times and would go back
- Conditional: Significant pros and cons leading to a conditional recommendation.
- Trial: We’ve heard good things but have either not been there or have only been once
- Hold up!: You might be tempted to go here either because it seems convenient or someone else recommended it but perhaps you should reconsider.
Feedback
Pages on the internet inevitably become stale and things change. If you try one of these places and it doesn’t live up to your expectations let me know! Similarly if you find somewhere you love that isn’t on this list I’d like to hear about it.