Three magical days in Edinburgh🪄
Day 1 - ✈️arrival in Edinburgh airport and historical sightseeing
It's fairly easy to either take a bus or tram to the city centre of Edinburgh. I took the train to Haymarket station and had a 10 minute walk to our hotel Moxy Edinburgh Fountainbridge.
Depending on what time you arrive you can start the day! I recommend arriving in the morning.
Edinburgh is all about strolling around and enjoying the architectural sceneries. We did all of our trip on foot so I recommend taking good walking shoes, we did about 20,000 - 40,000 steps per day! I split up our days based on the regions in Edinburgh (New town, Upper old town and lower old town.)
Leith and the new town
We set off on foot to Dean Village. Depending on where you're staying, try to make the most of your walk to Dean village. There might be a few cathedrals or gardens along the way to enjoy. We passed St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. If you're interested you can have a visit inside and enjoy the interior. It's free. We took a quick peek and went around the cathedral to enjoy the surrounding buildings. For a moment I felt like I was outside of Hogwarts!
Arriving in Dean village I was stunned by the scenery. This is a touristy place so do not expect to be alone. Since we were here in the end of april it was raining a bit so there were just only 3-5 other people. After enjoying the scenery we took a quick snap and went on to enjoy a walk along the water of Leith.
I enjoyed walking along the water. The smell of nature and the whistling of the birds gave off such a calming feeling. We passed under the massive Dean bridge and took a moment to look at St. Bernard's Well.
After passing St Bernard's bridge we went on to Stockbridge. Coincidently there was a small local food market on every sunday. So we had a look here and went on to the area of Stockbridge. Here is the perfect time to take a break and enjoy a nice drink in the pub or have a meal in one of the many restaurants.
🍹 We took our break in this lovely pub called 'St. Bernard's bar. It has a sharing policy so you might be seated with a stranger. We didn't mind and had a nice conversation with an Irish man. The owner of the pub had a daily cocktail recommendation that we took (I know it was early on the day but it's a holiday afterall 😜).
After our break it was time to go visit the royal botanical gardens. The gardens cover over 70 acres and houses a vast collection of plants from around the world. The garden serves as a center for plant research, conservation, and education, attracting visitors with its beautiful landscapes and diverse plant species. As it was the beginning of spring a lot of plants were blooming which made the walk in these gardens even more beautiful.
🪷We spent about 1-2 hours over here. I especially liked the Japanese section. There is also the possibility to go to the toilet if needed.
From this moment on we had a pretty good amount of steps done and we were about a 50 minute walk away from our hotel. You can choose to either take the bus, a taxi or just walk back to the hotel. We decided to walk back to our hotel so we could still enjoy all of the scenery. Even taking the shortest route back we saw some pretty amazing architecture. By the time we were at our hotel we could check-in and freshen up in the hotel and let our feet rest for a bit.
🏨After the rest we had dinner in the city centre and went on to do one of the highlights of our trip.
🍴 We had dinner in West End brasserie for some fish and chips.
I had planned an activity a few months beforehand for us to do. As a Harry Potter fan and sucker for good cocktails I had stumbled upon a place called 'The Cauldron' while doing all of the research.
🪄 You enter a pub and go downstairs into a wizardly potion making cellar. You get a seat appointed with your personal wand, potion book and even a wizards robe! The place felt so whimsical because of the decorations and ambiance. Our witch hostess was very friendly and we had a good laugh throughout the whole evening. The cocktails themselves were not the best I had though. Maybe I have a poor skill in potion making 😉. Either way we had a lot of fun despite the cocktails not being the tastiest so I still recommend doing this if you're a HP-fan 🧙.
Do make sure you book your spots atleast a month beforehand!
After this evening our candle was blown out and we decided to end the day in our hotel beds 😴. If you do have some energy left I recommend visiting some pubs. You never know where you end up in Edinburgh!
Day 2 - 🦇Some landscape and the grim side of Edinburgh
An new day, another day of 40,000 steps! We grabbed breakfast in a sandwich bar infront of our hotel and went on about to explore the Upper old town side. We first passed through Grassmarket which is a market square known for it's charming cafes. It's also overlooked by the iconic Edinburgh castle. Next to the cold Town House you can take the steps up to the Edinburgh castle. We were supposed to be doing that on this day but we found out you had to get time specific entrance cards. Most of the cards were sold out so we decided to do Edinburgh castle on the next day. Make sure you get your entrance card on time! You can reservate online or at the castle itself.
Just after going up all of these steps and arriving at the castle, either visit the castle or just go down and visit some shops. There is a tartan weaving mill and exhibition we had visited instead of the castle. After that we payed a short visit at the writers museum and took some snaps 📸.
After visiting The Writer's Museum you can take a stroll through Princes Street gardens or pay a visit to the national gallery of Scotland. We chose to slanter around in the gardens and take some more snaps.
Next to the gardens there are a lot of big shopping stores on Princes St. that you can have a look around or look for a place to have a well deserved lunch break. We brought our own lunch so just sat down in the park.
After our break we walked east on Princes st. and passed by Scott monument.
Our next stops are Calton Hill and Arthur's seat so make sure you are wearing decent shoes. It was raining when we did these two hills and Arthur's seat was quite slippery walking up.
We first visited the Calton burial ground and went up to Calton Hill. Since Edinburgh is all about the grim feeling I felt like the burial is really worth the visit. I was able to take some good photography because the burial is overlooking Arthur's seat.
If interested you can visit the palace of Holyroodhouse after paying an entrance fee. We opted not to do so because we thought it was quite expensive. I'm not sure if the visit is worth the extra money. Although I've read only positive reviews so it might just be worth it. If you do visit the palace do please let me know if it is worth it! It's the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the end of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Holyrood Palace is rich in history and has been a royal residence for centuries. It is still used for royal events, ceremonies, and receptions, as well as being open to the public for tours.
Skipping the palace of Holyroodhouse we went on to climb Arthur's seat! There were many tourist's and runners going up and down to and from the top. Do mind your step because the walk can be quite steep and slippery when it's raining.
The walk is not accesible for disabled and not a breeze either to go to the top. I'm not the sportiest so I had to take a few breaks to catch my breath. Once at the top the view of Edinburgh is quite amazing!
Now that we have a good amount of steps it's time to go back towards our hotel. Instead of taking the same route of Princes St. I recommend taking Canongate. You can enjoy some more architecture taking this route. If interested you pass the museum of Edinburgh which you can visit for free. It's quite small so you only spend about 20-30 minutes in here. Walking further on canongate you also pass a very cool historic pub, The Tolbooth Tavern. If it's open you can rest your feet in here.
As the evening arrives, it was time to go back to our hotel, freshen up and take break. We had dinner in an Italian restaurant called L'artigiano nearby our hotel. The food was delicious and I definitly recommend this place if you like Italian food! It's not very big so you might want to reservate in advance.
For the rest of the evening you can choose to either just do pubs or do an activity. We were full of energy so we decided to do 2 activities. First We went to the Edinburgh dungeon. I made a reservation earlier that day, it was easy to just choose a time stamp and then arrive at the designated hour. The Edinburgh Dungeon is a tourist attraction that offers visitors a unique and interactive walkthrough experience of Scotland's dark history through live actors. The dungeon takes guests on a journey through various historical events and figures, showcasing the more gruesome and chilling aspects of the city's past. It is a fun and entertaining way to learn about Scotland's haunting history while getting a good scare and laugh in the process.
I recommend this if you're travelling with children who are not afraid of a dark atmosphere or if you're just willing to have a good laugh. The actors did an amazing job to interact with the guests as we were with a group consisting of 10 people.
For our next activity I had reservated a tour on Getyourguide a few weeks in advance. I wanted to visit the underground vaults with a guide in a storytelling way. If you do not like following guides or have small children I don't recommend doing this. As we do stop for long moments at certain places.
We did this tour in the late evening wich made the tour so much more grim!
By the end of the tour it was almost midnight and time to go back to the hotel. Edinburgh is very safe at all times so I've never had a uncalming feeling in this city.
Day 3 -👑 Castle, Harry Potter and souvenir shopping
In our last full day in Edinburgh we are finally going to visit the Edinburgh castle! But just before we enter the castle we pass through a famous photoghaphy spot. 'The Vennel Viewpoint. This is a romantic alleyway that perfectly alines with the castle in the background. This is the spot to get those instapix! 📸
As we make our way up from Grassmarket we were able to be one of the first ones to enter the castle. The castle stands on top of an extinct volcano and has been built in the 11th century. It's amazing to see how such an old architectural building is still preserved so well. The inside is bigger than you expect looking at it from the outside. We spent about 2-3 hours inside these castle walls.
After the castle, we went on to have a look at another famous photography spot. Victoria Street. If needed, you can take a break in one of the cosy coffee places in this colourful street.
There are also some shops based on the world of Harry Potter you can have a look around in, like the 'Museum context'.
If you have not visited Greyfriairs Kirkyard yet with the nighttour you can do so now during the day. It is known that JK Rowling got a few of her book's characters names from this cemetary. It's a fun timekiller trying to find the graves with names like Thomas Riddell and Scrymgeour. It was quite gruesome to see how some graves or tombs were build up against the wall of the surrounding houses.
Leave the Kirkyard after visiting Greyfriar's Bobby's grave to Candlemaker row and pay a visit to the cute Bobby statue. His nose has gotten golden because many people have touched it during the years. One of the legends surrounding him is that rubbing his nose brings good luck.
This time around we've visited most tourist attractions you can see. You can now spend some time doing other stuff that we've had missed or go souvenir shopping on the Royal mile. There is also a spectacular church you can enter for free to have a look around in. It's called St Giles Cathedral.
Depending on when your flight is going back. And you're still enjoying to visit some pubs at evening or want a more youthful dancing cafe or nighclubs I recommend checking out Cowgate.
*Most of the pictures used in this itinerary are of my own.
XO Michelle ❣️
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