we just come back from 3 days there about two weeks ago. This is our second short break there.
We drove there the slow route from London (taking 3 days to get there) and ditched the hire car as soon as we got to Edinburgh
Hatfield to Edinburgh (full route) by
uh_simon, on Flickr
I recommend you get the full monty open top bus tickets. At first they might seem pricey, but they proved to be good value for money for us. You can get a ticket that includes entry to Edinburgh Castle, Britannia and the Palace at Holyrood. the 3 bridges boat tour (which is included in one of the tickets it nice). The bus is brilliantly useful for getting to and from places, and the commentary is really good so you get the history.
We really enjoyed the Palace at Holyrood and Britannia but wasn't overly taken by the Castle. It is worth a look at the parliament if it is open and it is free entry.
If you like Gin you can do a tour of the Edinburgh distillery: it is fun and interesting
https://www.edinburghgin.com/distilleries-and-tours#
If you are interested in Whisky and can't get to a distillery. the Whisky experience near the castle:
https://www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk/tour-experiences we did the platinum tour which includes a meal. the tour is excellent.
For accommodation this time we stayed at the
http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/un...splay4DGGeneric_Jun5LocalSearch6EDICAHI7EN8i1 Hilton carlton which has a top notch location at reasonable prices.
Last time we stayed a little out of the centre and found the hills got to us and we resorted to taking taxis to get to/from centre.
As for eating you have everything available to you. If you want up market (appropriately expensive) you cant go wrong with Restaurant Number One in the Balmoral Hotel - the food is stunningly good if Michelin star is your thing
https://www.roccofortehotels.com/ho...lmoral-hotel/restaurants-and-bars/number-one/
Also upmarket we recommend Martin Wishart in Leith:
https://restaurantmartinwishart.co.uk/ again its Michelin Star but the food it stunning. His lunch menu at £32/person is good value.
A little more rustic but also by an excellent and well known chef (Tom Kitchin) is the Scran and Scallie pub in Stockbridge (you can get a 29 bus almost from Princes to the pub):
https://scranandscallie.com/
There is also Castle Terrace restaurant in the centre - same team as the Scran and Scallie; again excellent fine dining:
https://castleterracerestaurant.com/
We walked into and had a fine lunch (some of the best pasta I have eaten) at
https://www.olivieros.co.uk/ on Grass Market we thought it excellent value and would have no hesitation in returning.
There are also some nice pubs on Grassmarket.
In terms of places to avoid re eating: we had an awful meal in Wahaca, and the quality of the Burgers in Byron leaves a lot to be desired.
There are many great pubs and amongt others we really enjoyed the atmosphere in
https://www.ensignewartpub.co.uk/ near the castle (also good for lunch). They have a good range of gins and the live music can be good. We spent a lot of time in the Tron, we liked the atmosphere and the beer and the staff
https://www.thetronedinburgh.co.uk/
Personally, I'd avoid any of the big chains All-bar-One, Wetherpoons etc in Edinburgh IMO there are much nicer. After our recent trip we concluded pints were in general more expensive than London.
As for shopping yes the shops on the Royal Mile and Princes are tacky, but well worth a visit even if you don't buy anything, they are worth the fun experience at least once. As others have said don't be surprised if you see a lot of rough sleepers and homeless. There is an amazing shop just down from the Castle and somewhere near the Ensign Ewart Pub, which looks like a small shop, but opens out to an astonishing cavern when you get down the first flight of stairs
L1010685 by
uh_simon, on Flickr
If there is one thing of all these I would do, and that is the open top bus tickets......