I’ve spent a lot of time in Edinburgh over the years. I had family there for a few years and so became familiar with it, making a lot of friends along the way and normally when we go up we stay with one of them and have a big night out.
But we wanted a few quiet days away so decided on a secret trip, nice hotel, nice dinners blah, blah, blah.
We booked some days off work and a couple of cheap flights and off we went.
The money that we saved on the flights went towards a nicer hotel and since we wanted to be central we booked the Radisson Collection on the Royal Mile.
It’s quite a modern place, all clean lines and purple lights, our room was big with a snazzy purple shower room. If I’m honest it wasn’t really my thing. If I’m staying in a nice hotel then I want to feel pampered a bit and the hard wood floor in the room just made it feel a bit barren.
But the staff were great and the location was fantastic. Out of the doors and onto the Royal Mile.
We were exceptionally lucky with the weather. The evening that we arrived had a beautiful sunny glow so we went out for a bit of a mooch. The stone buildings were all lit by the most amazing honey coloured light, as you can see from the pictures. It was nice and warm as well so it was lovely to just get out and enjoy the buzz!
It was great just to have a lazy evening walking around. The weather had brought people out and it made for a really great atmosphere while wandering around what, I think, is one of the most attractive cities in Europe if not the World.
We retired to the hotel at about 10:15 to find that the bar had closed, which was a bit of a disappointment in a five star hotel. Granted it was a midweek night, but it was also the week leading up to Easter so the hotel must have been quite busy.
In fairness the reception staff did rustle us up a couple of glasses of wine and some sandwiches to eat in the reception area which was nice enough bu nowhere near as nice as the cosy bar that we had spied earlier on.
The next morning we were up and about fairly early and had breakfast at the hotel (Scottish fry up and Kippers were delicious, service was a bit hit and miss).
After having had a nice meander last night we decided we would concentrate on a bit of retail therapy.
Edinburgh has some fantastic shops on and around Princes and George Street. A lot of high end stores so a great place for window shopping.
We decided to start at Jenners the famous department store on Princes Street.
While it is now a House of Fraser store Jenners has occupied its place on Princes Street since 1838 and in its current building since 1895. It is a Category A listed building and is beautiful inside with a towering atrium, it is well worth a visit if you are in town.
It’s easy to lose track of time in a place as big as this but after a good look around and a number of purchases, including some amazing bargains from their clearance area upstairs (I’m not one for cheap clothes but I do love getting good clothes cheaply!) we decided to go out and see what else we could find.
One of the best things about staying so centrally was that we could periodically pop back to the hotel pretty easily which is great if you are getting bored of carrying shopping around!
All that shopping made us a bit peckish so after dumping the latest set of shopping bags in the hotel we walked around the corner to Victoria Street to Scotts Kitchen. It is on a walkway which runs around the old tenement buildings so has a nice view of the road down to the Grassmarket.
We had Cullen Skink, a soup made from smoked haddock, leeks and potatoes, followed by Macaroni Cheese and a Croque Monsieur (so delicious they were eaten before we had a chance to take a photo!) and with a couple of beers it made for a really nice lunch! I’d recommend it.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking, OK mostly sitting, in Princes Street Gardens in the sunshine.
Our romp around in the fresh air made us a bit sleepy so we took ourselves back to the hotel for a while to relax for a while before heading out to dinner.
We booked somewhere before we arrive, thanks to the wonder that is Opentable. It’s always worth having a hunt through apps like Opentable and, particularly, TripAdvisor when you are going away somewhere even if it is somewhere that you have been before. The reviews and pictures are always useful though beware of the “moany” review. I’ve been to many wonderful places that have had people being really picky about on TripAdvisor so it is important to look at the overall reviews and not focussing too much on the few at the top of the list.
The restaurant we booked was the WHISKI rooms on The Mound. If had great reviews for Scottish fare. When we arrived we were a little disappointed at it seemed a bit more Pub than Restaurant but once we were seated it felt better.
The food was fabulous. We plumped to share the Chateaubriand and it was cooked to perfection.
Following that we had a cheeseboard and a chocolate malt tart. Cheese was fabulous the tart less so as it had quite a thick pastry base and not a lot of topping.
Overall I would recommend it as it is in a lovely situation with a great view of the city out of the front windows. The food was really good and the service attentive.
The next day we had most of the day to ourselves before we needed to head to the airport so we decided to walk down to the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. It was such a beautiful day we ended up not doing anything else.
The sun was shining, it was lovely and warm and the gardens were a wonderful place to just walk, sit, lie around!
It was a fantastic break.
We were lucky with the weather but Edinburgh is a fantastic place to visit at any time of year!
Work, travel, save, repeat 