2 Days in Edinburgh: Our Itinerary From 4 Years There

Edinburgh was our home for four happy years, and it is still one of our favourite cities anywhere in the world. We lived a short walk from the Royal Mile, saw in five Hogmanays, and worked our way through more festival seasons, whisky bars and cold-but-glorious Calton Hill sunsets than I can count. This guide is built on that time living in the city, not a flying weekend visit.

We think two days is a great amount of time for a first trip to Edinburgh, ideally as a weekend break or bolted onto a longer tour of Scotland and the UK, like the one in our 2 week UK itinerary. You won’t run the city dry in 48 hours, but you can comfortably see the icons and get a real feel for the place.

What follows is a sequenced, timed plan for both days, plus the practical stuff you actually need: which attraction pass is worth it, when to go, where to stay, how to get around, and the mistakes we’d steer a first-timer away from. All the photos here are our own, taken over our years living in and returning to the city.

Table of Contents:

Quick Take: 2 Days in Edinburgh

Two days is enough to see the best of Edinburgh on foot. Almost everything sits along or just off the Royal Mile, the long central street that runs downhill from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, so you can walk the whole core without ever needing a taxi. The one exception is the Royal Yacht Britannia, out in Leith.

Spend Day 1 in the Old Town, top to bottom: the Castle first thing, whisky or illusions near the top of the Mile, St Giles’ Cathedral, a free museum or the underground tour at the Real Mary King’s Close, then Calton Hill for sunset. Spend Day 2 around Holyrood Park (the Palace, Arthur’s Seat or Dynamic Earth) and finish at Britannia in Leith.

The single most important thing to pre-book is your Edinburgh Castle ticket with a timed entry slot. It sells out in summer, advance tickets are cheaper than the gate, and turning up without a slot is the classic first-timer mistake. If you plan to visit the Castle, Holyrood and Britannia, the Royal Edinburgh Ticket bundles all three plus the hop-on hop-off bus and saves you up to 25%.

What Four Years in Edinburgh Taught Us About a 2-Day Visit

Most Edinburgh itineraries read like a happy list of everything that’s wonderful. They’re not wrong, but two days is tight, and a few honest calls up front will save you the rookie errors we watched visiting friends make again and again.

Pre-book the Castle, and grab the earliest slot. The Castle is the one real bottleneck in the city. In summer the timed slots sell out and the gate queue can swallow a chunk of your morning. Book an early slot online, walk straight to the scanner, and you’ve protected Day 1.

Don’t try to do everything on Day 2. This is the big one. You cannot realistically do Arthur’s Seat and Dynamic Earth and the Royal Yacht Britannia in one afternoon. Britannia’s last entry is 4pm in summer (3pm in winter), and getting out to Leith too late is the number one Day-2 mistake. Pick Arthur’s Seat or Dynamic Earth in the late morning, eat fast, and be on the bus to Leith by around 2:30pm.

Arthur’s Seat is a proper little hill. It’s only 251 metres and the walk starts right in the city, but it’s a real climb on uneven ground, and the wind at the top has a habit of arriving from nowhere. Wear actual shoes, not the ones you packed for dinner.

The Old Town is hard on your feet. The setts (those rounded cobbles), closes and stairways are part of the appeal, and they are hard work underfoot, especially in the wet. Good footwear matters more here than almost anywhere we’ve been, which is worth bearing in mind if you’re travelling with a pushchair or have mobility issues.

August is a different city. If you’re here for the Fringe, brilliant, the energy is like nowhere else. If you’re not, August means higher prices, scarcer beds and longer queues at everything. We cover the trade-off properly in the When to Visit section below, but plan around it either way.

Pace the whisky, and know what you’re paying for. Scotland and whisky go together, but you don’t need a ticketed attraction to enjoy a good dram. Any decent pub will pour you something memorable. The Scotch Whisky Experience is worth it if you want to actually learn how whisky is made and how the regions differ, less so if you just fancy a drink.

None of this is meant to put you off. Edinburgh rewards a relaxed pace, and the joy of it being so walkable is that you can drop a stop and add a coffee whenever you like. But get the Castle and the Day-2 timing right, and the rest falls into place.

2 Days in Edinburgh: The Itinerary

This itinerary runs in a logical, mostly downhill progression so you’re never backtracking. Day 1 walks the Royal Mile from the Castle at the top to the museums lower down, then finishes on Calton Hill. Day 2 clusters around Holyrood Park at the bottom of the Mile before one bus ride out to Leith.

There’s far more to see than two days allow, so treat the “or” choices as real forks rather than a checklist. Edinburgh also makes a superb base for exploring Scotland, so see our guide to the best day trips from Edinburgh if you have longer.

Edinburgh Itinerary: Day 1 (Old Town and the Royal Mile)

Edinburgh Castle (from 9:30am)

Start your two days at the top of the Old Town with Edinburgh Castle, which sits on its volcanic rock above the city and gives you a panorama right across Edinburgh on a clear day. Aim for the first or second timed slot of the morning, before the Mile fills up.

Inside you’ll find the Scottish Crown Jewels (the Honours of Scotland), the Stone of Destiny, the National War Museum and St Margaret’s Chapel, the oldest building in the city. If you can time it, the One O’Clock Gun fires at 1pm every day except Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day, and it’s quite something the first time you hear it echo off the Old Town.

A standard adult ticket is £23.50 when you book online in advance, against £26 at the gate, and the Castle is open from 9:30am to 6pm in summer (last entry 5pm) and to 5pm in winter. You can buy advance tickets directly here, which saves money and lets you skip the ticket queue with a QR code.

Alternatively, you can take a skip-the-line guided tour like this one, and the Castle is also included on the Royal Edinburgh Ticket.

Whisky Tasting or Camera Obscura (around 11:15am)

Coming out of the Castle, you’ve got two of the city’s most popular attractions within a two-minute walk of each other at the top of the Mile. Pick one for the late morning (do both only if you’re moving quickly).

The first is the Scotch Whisky Experience. Scottish whisky is my favourite spirit, and whenever I’m back in Edinburgh I’ll always find time for a dram. You can do that in any pub in the city, of course, but if you want to understand how whisky is made and why a Speyside dram tastes nothing like an Islay one, this is the place. The entry-level Silver Tour is £25 and takes you through the production process and a guided tasting where you choose a regional flavour profile to try.

You also get to see the Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection, which holds the Guinness World Record as the largest collection of Scotch whisky on the planet, at 3,384 bottles. You can book your tickets in advance here.

A newer alternative is the Johnnie Walker Princes Street experience, a slick, fun tour that focuses on the Johnnie Walker blends and finishes with personalised drinks. The Journey of Flavour tour is £30 per person, and you can book it in advance here. For more on the country’s distilleries, see our guide to whisky in Scotland.

Almost opposite the Scotch Whisky Experience is Edinburgh’s Camera Obscura, home to the World of Illusions. As a photographer I came for the Victorian camera obscura itself, a clever arrangement of lenses and mirrors that projects a live image of the city onto a table, but I’ll happily admit the five floors of optical illusions below it were the bigger surprise. There are holograms, a mirror maze, a vertigo-inducing tunnel and a rooftop terrace with a brilliant view down the Mile.

We spent far longer in here than we expected to. One tip from experience: the camera obscura show at the very top needs a bright day to really work, so save it for sunshine. A standard adult ticket is £24.95, with cheaper early-bird and online rates if you plan ahead.

If neither whisky nor illusions appeals, head a little further down the Mile to the Edinburgh Chocolatarium, where you’ll learn the history of chocolate, make your own and taste your way through a guided session. It opened in 2019, the tour runs around 90 minutes and costs £28, and we really enjoyed our visit. Advance booking is recommended, and you can read about our visit in our full Chocolatarium guide.

Lunch on the Royal Mile (around 12:45pm)

By now you’re partway down the Mile, so this is a natural point to stop for lunch. The Royal Mile and the Grassmarket just below it are full of pubs, cafés and casual spots. Step one street off the main drag and prices ease and the crowds thin, a useful trick on a busy summer day.

The Royal Mile itself is the lovely run of interconnecting streets from the Castle down to Holyrood. It runs roughly a mile in total, lined with churches, monuments, souvenir shops and the narrow closes that lead off it, and it’s worth slowing down for the architecture between stops.

St Giles’ Cathedral (around 1:50pm)

About a third of the way down the Mile is St Giles’ Cathedral, with its distinctive crown spire. The interior is well worth a look, but the highlight for me is the small Thistle Chapel, home to the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Scotland’s foremost order of chivalry, founded in 1687 and still in the gift of the monarch today.

The Thistle Chapel is packed with intricate carved oak panelling and is well worth the few minutes it takes to find it. Entry to the cathedral is by donation (£10 suggested), and there’s a £2 permit if you want to take photographs inside.

The Real Mary King’s Close (around 2:40pm)

For something completely different, and an Edinburgh experience nearly every visitor we sent loved, drop below the Royal Mile at The Real Mary King’s Close. This is a warren of preserved 17th-century streets and houses, sealed off and built over centuries ago, that you tour underground with a costumed guide who tells the story of the people who actually lived down there.

The standard hour-long guided tour is around £28.50 for an adult, and you’ll want to pre-book as slots are timed and it gets busy. It’s a paid attraction rather than a free wander, but it’s one of the few places in the city that really transports you, and a good rainy-afternoon option given it’s entirely indoors and underground.

Free Museums on the Royal Mile (around 2:40pm)

If you’d rather keep things free, the Royal Mile has several excellent small museums that cost nothing to enter. Our favourites are the Museum of Edinburgh, the Writers’ Museum (devoted to Burns, Scott and Stevenson), the People’s Story Museum and the Museum of Childhood.

They’re all free and generally open daily from 10am to 5pm, so you can dip into one or two for half an hour without committing your afternoon. Jess covers what’s inside each of them in her excellent post on the highlights of Edinburgh.

Calton Hill at Sunset (from around 4pm)

End your first day on Calton Hill, at the east end of Princes Street. It’s a short, easy climb for one of the best views in the city, and it’s long been one of our favourite photography locations in Edinburgh.

The hill is dotted with monuments, including the National Monument of Scotland, which was modelled on the Parthenon and never finished, plus Nelson’s Monument and the old City Observatory. The real reward, though, is watching the sun drop across the Old Town from up here. Time it for sunset if you can, which in midsummer means a very late evening (the sun doesn’t set until around 10pm in late June), and a mid-afternoon visit in winter when it’s gone by about 3:45pm.

Evening: A Traditional Scottish Show (from 6:30pm)

To round off Day 1 with a proper dose of Scotland, we really enjoyed the Spirit of Scotland show. It’s an evening of Highland dancing, bagpipes, fiddle and storytelling alongside a four-course Scottish dinner that, naturally, gives you the chance to try haggis.

Doors are usually around 6:30pm with the show running from about 8pm to 9:30pm, and it’s both central and good value for what you get. Jess and I had a really fun night when we went, and if you have the time and budget it’s a lovely way to finish your first day. The show runs nightly through the main season (roughly April to October), and you’ll need to book ahead here. If a big sit-down show isn’t your thing, a Royal Mile pub with live folk music does the job just as well.

Edinburgh Itinerary: Day 2 (Holyrood Park and Leith)

Palace of Holyroodhouse (from 9:30am)

Day 2 starts at the opposite end of the Royal Mile from the Castle, at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. This is the official residence in Scotland of King Charles III, and when no royal events are on you can tour the State Apartments, the historic chambers linked to Mary, Queen of Scots, and the ruined Holyrood Abbey in the grounds.

The King spends one week a year here (Royal Week, usually around the end of June and start of July), plus the odd state occasion, and the Palace closes to visitors when it’s in use as a working royal residence. In 2026 that closure runs roughly from 26 June to 3 July, so check the official website before you plan Day 2 around it. If your dates clash, lead with Arthur’s Seat instead and enjoy the Palace from the outside.

A standard adult ticket is £22 booked in advance (£26 on the day). You can buy in advance here, and it’s also included on the Royal Edinburgh Ticket.

Scottish Parliament (around 10:50am)

Directly across the road from Holyrood is the Scottish Parliament, the strikingly modern building where Scotland is governed. It’s free to visit, either on a guided tour or under your own steam, and on a sitting day you can watch a debate from the public gallery (you’ll need a free ticket for the chamber). The architecture alone, all the more so after the Castle and the Palace, makes it worth popping in for half an hour.

Arthur’s Seat or Dynamic Earth (around 11:40am)

Here’s your first Day-2 fork, and you really should pick one rather than rush both.

For the outdoors, Arthur’s Seat is the extinct volcano that rises straight out of the city, the high point of the 640-acre Holyrood Park. One of my favourite things about Edinburgh is that a real hill walk starts just minutes from the Parliament. The summit is 251 metres up and gives you a spectacular 360-degree view over the city, the Firth of Forth and out to the hills beyond.

It’s manageable for most reasonable walkers, but as I said up top, it’s a real climb on rough ground, so allow an hour to ninety minutes up and back and wear proper shoes.

If the weather’s grim or you’re travelling with kids, swap the hill for Dynamic Earth instead, right next to the Parliament under the crags. It tells the story of the planet from the Big Bang onwards through interactive exhibits and rides, from a journey back through geological time to a polar gallery with real ice.

It’s good fun and the science isn’t dumbed down, so it works for adults as much as families. Admission is £23 for an adult, and it’s sold as an annual pass these days, so your one visit also gets you free re-entry for a year if you happen to be back. It’s an easy recommendation if you’re visiting with children.

Lunch, then the Royal Yacht Britannia (on the bus by 2:30pm, Britannia around 3pm)

Grab a quick lunch near Holyrood, because the afternoon has a hard deadline. The Royal Yacht Britannia is moored in Leith, a 20 to 30 minute bus or tram ride from the centre, and her last entry is 4pm in summer and 3pm in winter. This is the timing that trips people up, so be on the bus by about 2:30pm to give yourself room.

Britannia was the floating home of the Royal Family for over 40 years and more than a million miles of sailing, carrying them to state visits, retreats and honeymoons, and she was the only ship in the world that required an Admiral as her captain. She was retired in 1997 and never replaced, ending a line of royal yachts to bear the name.

Today you can tour every deck with an audio guide, from the surprisingly modest royal bedrooms to the state dining room, the engine room and the crew’s cramped quarters. It’s an absorbing look at royal life, and if you’ve any interest in boats or the monarchy it’s well worth the trip out. An adult ticket is £21.

A money-saving tip: if you’re visiting the Castle, Holyrood and Britannia, the Royal Edinburgh Ticket covers all three plus a hop-on hop-off bus that runs out to the yacht. See Jess’s full review of the Royal Edinburgh Ticket for the maths.

Day-2 Alternative: Harry Potter Edinburgh (afternoon)

If you’re travelling with Harry Potter fans, an afternoon tracing the city’s connections to the books makes a great swap for Britannia, with the bonus that it’s all in the walkable Old Town with no last-entry clock to beat.

None of the books or films were actually set or filmed in Edinburgh, but the city is where J.K. Rowling lived and wrote much of the series, and plenty of spots here are said to have inspired it, from the gravestones in Greyfriars Kirkyard to the line of the Old Town rooftops. Jess has a full guide to Harry Potter in Edinburgh if you want to do it yourself, or you can take a guided walking tour like this, including one that adds a whisky tasting.

If You Have an Extra Hour: Dean Village

One spot every Edinburgh regular loves and most two-day visitors miss is Dean Village, a pocket of old stone buildings on the Water of Leith just a 15 to 20 minute walk from the west end of Princes Street. It was a milling community for centuries, and today it’s one of the prettiest and most peaceful corners of the city, with the river running through it and barely a car in sight.

It’s free, it’s a lovely short walk, and you can follow the Water of Leith path on to Stockbridge for coffee or to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. If you find yourself with a spare hour on either day, or you’re staying nearby, it’s a beautiful and quiet contrast to the Royal Mile.

Take in a Festival

If you’re lucky enough to be in town for one of Edinburgh’s eleven official festivals, build some of it into your second evening. Edinburgh is one of the great festival cities, and the most famous of them is the Edinburgh Fringe.

Held over three weeks in August (7 to 31 August in 2026), the Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival, with thousands of shows across comedy, theatre and cabaret, from complete unknowns to household names. At the other end of the year, Edinburgh throws one of the world’s most famous New Year’s Eve parties, Hogmanay. We went four times while we lived in the city and it’s still the best New Year we’ve ever had, from the torchlight procession to the fireworks over the Castle. Read more in our guide to the Edinburgh Festivals.

And that’s our two-day Edinburgh itinerary. Now for the practical details that make a trip run smoothly.

Map of Our 2 Day Edinburgh Itinerary

To help you picture the route, we’ve plotted every stop on the map below, which you can also open in Google Maps here.

2 Day Edinburgh Itinerary at a Glance

Here’s the whole plan in one timed table, so you can see how the two days fit together.

Time	Day 1: Old Town	Day 2: Holyrood and Leith
9:30am	Edinburgh Castle	Palace of Holyroodhouse
10:50am	Whisky Experience or Camera Obscura	Scottish Parliament
11:40am	(continue at the top of the Mile)	Arthur’s Seat or Dynamic Earth
12:45pm	Lunch on the Royal Mile	Lunch near Holyrood
1:50pm	St Giles’ Cathedral	Bus to Leith by 2:30pm
2:40pm	Mary King’s Close or free museums	Royal Yacht Britannia (or Harry Potter)
4:00pm	Calton Hill for sunset	Dean Village or back to the centre
Evening	Spirit of Scotland show or a folk pub	A festival show, or dinner in town

Which Edinburgh Attraction Pass Is Worth It?

Edinburgh doesn’t have a single all-in city pass like the London Pass, but there are two passes to consider, plus the simple option of just booking the Castle in advance. Which one suits you comes down to exactly what you plan to see.

Option	Price (adult)	What it covers	Best for
Royal Edinburgh Ticket	£81	Edinburgh Castle, Palace of Holyroodhouse and Royal Yacht Britannia, plus 48 hours of hop-on hop-off bus travel	Anyone doing all three royal attractions on this itinerary, saving up to 25% (around £27)
Historic Scotland Explorer Pass	£48 / 14 days	Over 70 Historic Scotland sites across the country, including Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle	Visitors exploring Scotland beyond Edinburgh
Castle ticket only	£23.50 online	Edinburgh Castle, booked in advance with a timed slot	Anyone not doing Holyrood and Britannia both

The maths is fairly simple for a two-day trip. If you’re visiting the Castle (£23.50), Holyrood (£22) and Britannia (£21) separately, you’d pay around £66.50, so the Royal Edinburgh Ticket at £81 only wins once you factor in the two days of hop-on hop-off bus travel, which is useful for getting out to Leith and back. If you’re skipping one of those three attractions, buy individually instead.

The Historic Scotland Explorer Pass is a different proposition. At £48 for 14 days across over 70 sites it’s excellent value, but only if you’re exploring Scotland beyond Edinburgh, since within the city it really only covers the Castle. For a city-only trip, the Royal Edinburgh Ticket is the more useful of the two.

Whatever you decide, book your Castle ticket online in advance. It’s cheaper than the gate price and lets you skip the ticket queue, and it’s the one booking we’d never skip. The London Pass, by the way, is a separate product for a separate city, but if Edinburgh is part of a wider UK trip you can read about the London Pass here.

When to Visit Edinburgh

Like the rest of the UK, Edinburgh has changeable weather, so come prepared for anything from sunshine to sideways rain in the same afternoon. Layers are the answer, and a waterproof is never a bad idea. Being this far north, Edinburgh runs cooler than the cities of southern England, though it’s noticeably drier than Glasgow over on the west coast.

There’s no bad time to visit, but the seasons feel very different. Summer (June to August) gives you the warmest weather and astonishingly long days, with the sun up until around 10pm in late June, which makes the timed itinerary above easy to stretch into the evening. Winter is cold and dark by contrast, with sunset around 3:45pm in late December, so you’ll want to front-load the daylight stops and lean on the indoor ones. The flip side is a quieter city and, in December, the Christmas market and a real festive buzz.

The August Fringe: What It’s Really Like

August deserves its own note, because it transforms the city. During the Fringe and the other August festivals the population swells, the streets fill with performers and flyer-givers, and there’s a show on every corner from morning to midnight. We loved living here through it, and if festival energy is what you’re after there is nowhere better.

But be honest with yourself about the trade-off. Accommodation gets booked out months ahead and prices climb steeply, the popular attractions and restaurants are busier, and the two-day plan above moves more slowly through the crowds. If you’re coming for the Fringe, book everything early and lean into it. If you’re not fussed about the festival, the city is calmer, cheaper and easier to enjoy in late spring or September. For winter trips, see our guides to visiting Edinburgh in winter, what to pack for Edinburgh and Hogmanay, and Scotland in winter.

Getting to and from Edinburgh

Edinburgh is easy to reach. Flights operate to Edinburgh Airport from across the UK and internationally, and the airport is about 8 miles west of the city centre by road.

Getting between the airport and town is simple. The Airlink 100 express bus runs to Waverley Bridge in the centre in around 25 to 30 minutes, very frequently and around the clock, and you can buy tickets in advance here. The tram is the other option, taking around 35 to 40 minutes to the centre, and there are taxis and ride-hailing too. With luggage we’d usually just take the tram or a taxi door to door.

By train, Edinburgh Waverley sits right in the centre below the Castle, and emerging from the station to that first view of the city is something you don’t forget. There are fast services to London in around four and a half hours (the quickest closer to 4 hours 20). If you’re coming from London, see our guide to getting from London to Edinburgh, which covers every option and works just as well in reverse.

You can also drive, which is how you’d arrive if you’re following our 2 week UK itinerary. There’s parking in the centre, and a car is handy for reaching attractions outside the city, but you won’t need one for day-to-day sightseeing as Edinburgh’s core is so compact.

How to Get Around Edinburgh

As the map shows, almost all of this itinerary is walkable, which is one of the real joys of the city. Wear sensible footwear, as the streets are steep, cobbled and full of steps, and a day on the Old Town setts adds up.

The one stop you’ll need transport for is the Royal Yacht Britannia out in Leith, reachable by Lothian bus, tram or taxi. If you’ve bought the Royal Edinburgh Ticket, the included hop-on hop-off bus runs straight from the centre out to the yacht, which makes the Day-2 logistics easy.

Day Tours from Edinburgh

With more time, or if you just want to get out into the Scottish landscape, Edinburgh is a brilliant base for day trips. A few we’d point you towards:

A day trip to Alnwick Castle (one of our favourite Harry Potter filming locations in the UK), taking in the lovely Scottish Borders on the way
A day trip to St Andrews, the home of golf, and the pretty fishing villages of Fife
A day tour to Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle, with the Trossachs and the Kelpies thrown in
A full-day tour to Loch Ness, Glencoe and a whisky distillery. A long day, but a brilliant way to see a lot of the Highlands
Another Loch Ness and the Highlands tour including Glencoe, but without the whisky stop

There are plenty more where those came from, so see our full guide to the best day trips from Edinburgh.

Where to Stay in Edinburgh

Edinburgh has accommodation for every budget, from hostels to grand hotels. Our main piece of advice is to stay central, ideally in or close to the Old or New Town, so you can walk to everything on this itinerary and save on transport. If you’re visiting in August or around New Year, book as far ahead as you possibly can.

It helps to know the character of the main areas before you book:

Neighbourhood	The feel	Best for
Old Town	Historic, atmospheric, right on the cobbles and stairs	First-timers who want to step out of the door into the sights
New Town	Elegant Georgian streets, flatter underfoot, great bars and restaurants	Walkable but calmer, with the best dining on your doorstep
Stockbridge	Village feel, indie shops, riverside walks, a Sunday market	Repeat visitors wanting a quieter, more local base
Leith	Waterfront and foodie, near Britannia, a short bus from the centre	Value and good food, if you don’t mind a short hop in

Here are some specific places we’d suggest, across budgets:

Budget and hostels:

The Haystack Hostel, with a great central location and strong reviews
Castle Rock Hostel, a large, castle-themed, adults-only hostel with dorms and private rooms, five minutes from the Royal Mile and one of the best castle views of any place to stay in the city. The nearby Royal Mile Backpackers is another solid choice

Mid-range:

Elder York Guest House, a budget-to-midrange B&B we’ve stayed at and like. The rooms are small but comfortable and the breakfast is good, though note there are lots of stairs and no lift
24 Royal Terrace, a great-value option with excellent reviews just behind Calton Hill
Holiday Inn Express, a well-priced 3-star in the Old Town, and The Grassmarket Hotel, a well-reviewed 3-star in the lively Grassmarket
Leonardo Royal Hotel, a business-focused 4-star in Haymarket, about a 20-minute walk from the Royal Mile. We’ve stayed here and found the rooms comfortable and the food good

Luxury and special occasions:

The Kimpton on Charlotte Square, a lovely, beautifully located hotel that’s perfect for a couples’ getaway
The Witchery, one of our favourite hotels in the city, right beside the Castle and with a restaurant to match. If you’re here for something special, this is the splurge we’d make

Our usual approach is to compare options on Booking.com, which tends to have the widest choice and the best deals. If you’d rather a self-catering apartment, we’d suggest Plum Guide, which curates a smaller but high-quality set of Edinburgh listings, or Vrbo. For more options, we’ve written about the best alternatives to Airbnb and our favourite holiday cottage sites in the UK, plus a page of travel resources with our tips for finding good accommodation deals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 2 days enough in Edinburgh?

Yes, two days is enough to see the highlights of Edinburgh, especially as the city is so compact and walkable. In 48 hours you can comfortably visit the Castle, walk the Royal Mile, climb Arthur’s Seat or visit Holyrood, and get out to the Royal Yacht Britannia.

You won’t exhaust the city, and there’s easily enough to fill a longer trip, but two days is a great length for a first visit or a weekend break.

Can you see Edinburgh in 1 day?

You can see the essentials of Edinburgh in one day if you focus on the Old Town. Start at Edinburgh Castle first thing, walk down the Royal Mile stopping at St Giles’ Cathedral, and finish at the Palace of Holyroodhouse or with the climb up Arthur’s Seat.

One day means making hard choices and skipping things like Britannia and the museums, so two days is much more relaxed if you can spare the time.

What is the best time of year to visit Edinburgh?

Late spring (May and early June) and September are our favourite times to visit Edinburgh, with milder weather, long daylight hours and fewer crowds than peak summer.

August brings the famous festivals and an unbeatable atmosphere, but also the highest prices and biggest crowds, so book well ahead if that’s your plan. Winter is cold and dark but quieter, and December adds Christmas markets and Hogmanay.

Does it rain a lot in Edinburgh?

Edinburgh gets its share of rain and the weather changes quickly, so you should always pack a waterproof and dress in layers. That said, sitting on the drier east coast, Edinburgh actually gets less rain than Glasgow and many other parts of the west of Scotland.

Don’t let the forecast put you off. We’ve had glorious sunny days here in every season, and the city looks wonderful in all weather.

Is Edinburgh a walkable city?

Edinburgh is very walkable, and almost everything on a two-day itinerary is within easy walking distance along or just off the Royal Mile. The only stop that needs transport is the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith.

Bear in mind the Old Town is hilly, cobbled and full of steps, so comfortable shoes are essential. Even a spot like Dean Village is only a 15 to 20 minute walk from the centre.

How do you get to Edinburgh from London?

The easiest way to get from London to Edinburgh is by train, with fast direct services taking around four and a half hours from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, right in the city centre. Flights are quicker in the air but slower overall once you add airports.

Many visitors combine Edinburgh with London, Dublin or a wider Scotland trip, and our London to Edinburgh guide covers every option in detail.

Is an Edinburgh attraction pass worth it?

The Royal Edinburgh Ticket is worth it if you plan to visit Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Royal Yacht Britannia, as it bundles all three plus two days of hop-on hop-off bus travel and saves you up to 25%.

If you’re only doing one or two of those, it’s cheaper to book individually. The Historic Scotland Explorer Pass only pays off if you’re touring Scotland more widely beyond the city.

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2 Days in Edinburgh: The Itinerary