Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh was a beautiful city for a weekend trip. It had beautiful medieval architecture and a really fun atmosphere. We had a wonderful time.

Day 1

As is typical with our weekend trips we arrived in the early evening on a Thursday. We took the tram from the airport and checked into our amazing hotel Cheval the Edinburgh Grand which was a well located apartment hotel with a couch and a small kitchenette. I would definitely stay there again. We took a short walk to dinner after that.

Edinburgh Street Food

This spot was close to our hotel and had lots of restaurants inside. We like to choose a spot that doesn’t require reservations for the day we arrive in case of flight delays, long airport waits, etc. This spot was great. You take a seat and then you can order everything from a QR code from all the different restaurants and they bring it to your table. This is nice compared to many of these places because you don’t have to walk around to each individual place and wait there - you can just keep your table and order!

We ordered an amazing duck confit sandwich, a reuben and some chicken tenders. We also had an amazing miso caramel sundae!

Day 2

The Milkman

The next morning we woke up to get coffee at The Milkman. We got there quite early so it wasn’t busy yet which was nice.

Edinburgh Castle

We had heard the lines at the castle can get long so we headed straight to Edinburgh castle to get there when they opened. We got there about 30 minutes early and checked out the views and then waited in line. The line was super long by the time they actually opened! We were the 3rd people inside. We followed the advice of this article about how to beat the crowds - we went straight for the crown jewels and saw them with no crowds at all and then worked our way back through the castle. It was a really great castle! We really enjoyed the exhibits and it was very beautiful inside.

After the castle we walked down the royal mile back into town for our lunch reservation at Dishoom.

Dishoom

I ate at Dishoom in London and loved it so much, so I was so excited to see that we had one RIGHT BY our hotel in Edinburgh! They only take reservations until 5 PM so we decided to go for lunch (also so I could have some masala chai, which they can make with oat milk!).

We shared the chef’s special salli boti, which was a braised lamb, chole puri (a chickpea curry), and the chili broccoli salad. It was amazing as I expected!

Exploring

After our big lunch we walked around and explored - Grassmarket, Calton Hill, Victoria Street, and checked out the Princes Street Gardens for some cherry blossoms. It’s such a beautiful city!

Edinburgh Street Food (part 2)

After our huge lunch we took a long time to get hungry, so we decided to go back to our spot and try some of the other places we were interested in. This time we got some Peruvian cheese sticks, pasta and pizza. The pizza wasn’t my favorite, but the Peruvian cheese sticks (called tequeños) were the star of the show!

Day 3

Lowdown

We had breakfast and coffee at Lowdown. It was a pretty low key place but they had avocado toast which is always a nice breakfast before a day of exploring!

Scottish Design Exchange

While walking to Dean Village we stumbled upon this amazing store full of art, jewlery, souvenirs and more all from local artists. We bought a few souvenirs here and had a great time looking around.

Dean Village

This is one of the classic photos you see of Edinburgh. It was so cute over here! There is a nice path along the water that you can walk and explore. It was quite beautiful!

Maison de Moggy

We love a good cat cafe and had to check this one out! They really seem to care about the cats and took good care of them. We were there in peak naptime so mostly just pet them while they slept but they were all very beautiful cats!

Make sure you make a reservation here! They were turning away people who tried to just walkin.

Makars Mash Bar

I saw this place on a blog and saw that it seemed to book up far in advance. I booked a reservation for 5:15 PM because it was all they had left! The place was really nice and service was really friendly. You choose your main dish and some mashed potatoes to pair it with.

I had the lamb shank with cheddar chive mashed potatoes. We also got some haggis to share as they had a small “trial” portion. As we were eating the people next to us got some delicious looking broccoli delivered and I decided I needed some of that too! They had a lot of veggie options and fun non alcoholic drinks as well which we always appreciate.

The Guildford Arms

We wanted to have a drink in a Scottish pub to end our trip but the original one I chose was in the middle of the most touristy area and it was SO BUSY. We found this one on the way back to our hotel and thought it looked neat and opted to sit there instead. It was a fun and lively spot to have a beer at the bar!

Day 4

Urban Angel

For our last morning, we had breakfast at Urban Angel. We had a reservation and were able to sit down immediately. It was very cozy inside and the food was great! It was also very convenient to our hotel. I had an amazing goat cheese and tomato sauce egg bake.

After our brunch we relaxed at our hotel until it was time to take the tram back to the airport.

It was an amazing trip and I’d love to go back!