As places to holiday go, Edinburgh skates relatively under the radar. But if you’ve been, then you’ll know it’s one of the best cities in the world, maybe even the best and here’s ten reasons why you definitely need to visit Edinburgh if you haven’t already.
Historically, Edinburgh is superior to many other places in the world and just one of the many reasons that it needs to be visited. Walking around its old town is a history tour in itself because you’re practically walking on a historical goldmine with each step. But if that’s not enough, there’s Edinburgh Castle which was home to former Queen of Scotland Mary Queen of Scots and the fourth oldest chapel in England. Not to mention St Giles Cathedral, Balmoral and Holyrood. I mean really, what else needs to be mentioned to warrant a visit?
You need to visit Edinburgh for its ghost tours. If you haven’t heard of Niddry Street, Blair Street or Mary Kings Close then you’ve been living under a rock. All of these streets are popular attractions in Edinburgh because of the haunted vaults that they lead to underneath Edinburgh’s Old Town. There are at least ten different spooky ghost tours to go on, not including the comedic Ghost Bus which gives tours of all the most haunted areas of the city.
If you explore long enough, you’ll find a lot of places to shop vintage whilst in Edinburgh. Armstrong & Sons is just one of the most popular places to find anything and everything vintage. From kilts to cashmere it can all be found at Armstrong’s, and what with more than one of them in the city – there’s actually three to go searching for – they’ll give you a few days worth of shopping time and prove why Edinburgh is worth the visit.
For the month of August, Edinburgh is known for hosting the Fringe Festival – an arts and comedy festival which is really popular throughout the world. The fringe essentially gives you access to see acts like Katherine Ryan, Bwani Junction and Rhod Gilbert for a hell of a lot cheaper than usual. There are even shows to see for free. The streets are fuelled with performers, acting troops and people from all over the world. It’s a cultural extravaganza and another reason why Edinburgh needs to be visited.
There’s the incredible performance by 48 world militaries and performers encased in the courtyard of the Edinburgh Castle. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, fireworks close the show every night and each performing group then marches out of the castle followed by The Massed Pipes and Drums playing ‘Scotland the Brave’, storming out in all of Edinburgh’s glory. If that’s not enough to make you visit Edinburgh, I don’t know what is.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Scottish food, it’s just haggis and deep fried mars bars right? But in Edinburgh you can find any type of food from the yummiest Mexican enchiladas at Viva Mexico! to traditional cranachan at The Albanach – I highly recommend that restaurant by the way. The cuisine is incredible and should be the main reason you book a week in the Scottish capital.
You can practically find a whiskey bar an every street corner which is a great reason to visit Edinburgh. In Edinburgh Old Town, most whiskey bars are filled with the fantastic locals, great traditional music and such an array of whiskey to try it’ll make you dizzy just looking at the selection. To make it easier to choose why not visit the small but quaint Whiski Bar and Restaurant on the high street of Edinburgh Old Town, it’s definitely worth the minuscule space to sit down.
Just these few words should be enough to prove you need to get to Edinburgh asap. Arthur’s Seat is a monument at the top of a large hill situated at the end of the Royal Mile, where you’ll also find Holyrood Palace and the new Scottish Parliament (aka Holyrood). The climb takes about two hours, if you take the harder route and once at the top the views go on for miles – no really, you can see Berwick Law (another large hill) which is at least 25 miles away! It’s not easy but it’s definitely worth the walk.
If you didn’t already know, JK Rowling – yes, the mother of the wizarding world – wrote the majority of the Harry Potter books in Edinburgh and actually took a lot of inspiration for the books from the city itself. For instance, if you take a trip to Greyfriars Kirkyard you’ll find the names Riddle, McGonagall, Black and even Potter amongst the gravestones. Not only that, you can visit the famous Elephant House where she wrote the Philosophers Stone, Diagon House a purveyor of all things Potter and even do the Harry Potter tour – wands and spells included. What better reason do you need to visit Edinburgh?
The Royal Mile in all its glory is one Scots mile long and is one of the best attractions Edinburgh has to offer. In the old town, the Mile runs between the two Royal palaces of Holyrood and Edinburgh Castle – hence the name – and has St Giles Cathedral and Mercat Cross lining it, is crossed by the North and South Bridge and has a numerous amount of shops and streets leading off it to the many other places Edinburgh boasts. The architecture surrounding the Mile is breathtaking and it is one of the best places to find somewhere to stay because of its brilliant location and fantastic views. The Royal Mile will surely be the highlight of your imminent visit to Edinburgh.
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