First Time in Edinburgh: What You Need to Know

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (three weeks in August) is the largest arts festival in the world: 3,000+ shows across 300 venues. Edinburgh during the Fringe is extraordinary and expensive and crowded and worth it, or calm and cheap and pleasant, depending entirely on whether you are there for the Fringe or not. If you are going for the Fringe: book accommodation 6 months ahead minimum (hotel prices triple in August), buy Fringe tickets in advance for the shows you want (the box office opens in late June at edfringe.com), and use the Free Fringe (shows at pubs and community halls, officially free, tip the performers GBP 2-5). The Military Tattoo (castle esplanade, three weeks in August, GBP 27-90) requires booking a year ahead. If you are not going for the Fringe: May, June, and September are better months. Same architecture, same pubs, same hills, half the price, quarter of the crowds.

Edinburgh has British weather: unpredictable, often wet, rarely extreme. Average temperature is 9 degrees C across the year, ranging from 4-5 degrees in winter to 17-18 degrees in July. Pack a waterproof jacket regardless of the season: the wind off the Firth can be significant on Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill. The summer evenings are long (light until 10:30 PM in June). In winter the days are short (dark by 3:30 PM in December) but the city is atmospheric: the Christmas Market on Princes Street (late November to early January) and Hogmanay (New Year's Eve, one of the largest street parties in Europe) make winter worthwhile.

Edinburgh has more whisky bars per head than anywhere else in Scotland. You do not need to be a whisky drinker to enjoy them. The basics: Scotch whisky is divided by region (Highland, Speyside, Islay, Lowland, Campbeltown) and by style (single malt from one distillery, or blended from multiple). A standard dram is 25ml and costs GBP 5-8 at a pub for a standard single malt, GBP 10-30 for rare or aged malts at a specialist bar. Start with a Speyside (Glenfiddich 12, Glenlivet 12: accessible, slightly sweet) before trying an Islay (Laphroaig, Ardbeg: peaty, medicinal, polarising). The Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile (GBP 18) is touristy but well-structured and includes a dram: it is the most efficient introduction to the categories. The Bow Bar in the Grassmarket has a list of over 200 bottles: ask the bar staff for a recommendation based on your flavour preferences.

The restaurants and shops immediately on the Royal Mile charge tourist prices for average quality. Walk 50 metres down any close to find better food at lower prices. The specific traps: tartan shops and shortbread tins on the Royal Mile are the same products sold at lower prices in any Scottish supermarket. The restaurants between the Castle and St Giles' Cathedral are reliably overpriced. The whisky shops on the Royal Mile are fine but the specialist whisky bars (Bow Bar, Cadenhead's shop on Canongate) give better value. The pubs in the Grassmarket, 5 minutes from the Royal Mile by any of the closes heading south, are significantly cheaper and more local.

Lothian Buses cover the entire city: GBP 1.80 single (contactless or exact change), GBP 4.50 day ticket. The central area (Old Town, New Town, Holyrood) is walkable. Leith is 3 miles from the centre: bus 11 or 22 from Princes Street, 20-25 minutes. Edinburgh Trams run from York Place along Princes Street to the airport: GBP 6.50 single from the city centre to Edinburgh Airport. Waverley Station is the main rail hub and is buried between the Old Town and the New Town: exits go uphill in both directions. There is no underground.