A Guide to visiting Edinburgh, Scotland

Our second month long stay was in Edinburgh, Scotland! We were so excited to spend time here after hearing so many wonderful things from people who had been before. We stayed right on the royal mile, which is a great stop if you want to be in the middle of the action. We were nestled right in the middle between the Edinburgh Castle & Holyrood Palace! The Royal Mile is filled with lots souvenir shops and restaurants and worth the visit just to take it all in! There is usually someone playing bagpipes too, which is a sure way to set the Scottish tone.

The other famous road in Edinburgh is Princes St! On one side you will find the famous gardens that is worth a long stop - there is even a playground nestled in there that is great for kids! On the other side is filled with all kinds of retail shops & restaurants where you could easily spend an afternoon window shopping before lunch.

The most essential part of exploring Edinburgh for us, was learning the local bus system! There is one app you can download to actually purchase bus tickets easily called TfE M- Tickets. This allows you to get a day pass, or pay per ride! Then you need the Transport for Edinburgh app which allows you to plug in where you want to go & when you want to arrive and then it gives you the best bus stop to go to, and tells you what bus to take! I am telling you, get these two apps and you will feel like a local quickly as you hop from one side of town to another.

Edinburgh is made up of lots of little neighborhoods, and we loved exploring their weekend markets during our stay too! If you have time make sure to visit some places other than the Royal Mile & Princes Street. Some of our favorite stops were:

Morningside for brunch at Montpielliers and they also had a great park for the kids! (Google search: The Meadows Play Park)
Stockbridge for their Saturday Market & then walk up to Circus Lane for a picturesque view
Deans Village for yet another, incredible storybook view
GrassMarket for their cute weekend market with lots of local vendors
Victoria Street, for that classic Edinburgh photo :) and a trip to the birthplace of Harry Potter - The Elephant House.

The best brunch of your visit, hands down

Some of our favorite restaurants were Dishoom for Indian, Montpielliers for a killer brunch and Kampong Ah Lee if you want some authentic Malaysian food! If you are planning to save some money and shop at a grocery store for meals, you can find the closest Lildl, Sainsburys or Tesco. We shopped at all three and could always find what we needed!

The best views in Edinburgh can be found from Calton Hill at sunset and Arthurs Seat if you are up for a hike. However, my favorite would probably be sitting on a bench in Princes St. Gardens overlooking Old Town.

We know we only scratched the surface during our time there, but miss it already! We were big fans & hope you make a stop there and fall in love with it too.