Edinburgh

Planning a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland

Lively Edinburgh is a city of glowering castles and craggy hill walks, friendly pubs and fascinating museums. Whether you prefer the twisting stony alleys of Old Town, the genteel Georgian grid of New Town, the hopping university district to the south or the fishing village of Newhaven down on the Firth of Forth, Edinburgh has a facet for you to explore.

Edinburgh is called the “Athens of the North,” partly for its renowned university and intellectual life (Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns lived here, and Robert Louis Stevenson is a native son) and partly because some neoclassical ruins top one of its hills.

It’s a town of fine arts and shopping, and some of the kickingest nightlife in Britain. The city is a cultural capital of Europe and hosts a performing arts blowout every August called the Edinburgh International Festival (and the accompanying Fringe Festival, which has, if anything, become more famous than the main festival).

I’ve done Edinburgh in a day before, but it deserves two or three—more if you can spare it.

This article was last updated in December 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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Copyright © 1998–2012 by Reid Bramblett. Author: Reid Bramblett.