steve thanks for that, but unfotunately I have a terrible head for heights - so I'll give that one a miss.

I think that's why my friends bottled out but they won't admit it!

My favourite restaurants in Edinburgh are Wedgwood on the Royal Mile, Mussel and steak bar at the Grassmarket, and Amber at the Whisky Experience near the Castle. All have websites and are within walking distance of your hotel, for me anyway, or a short taxi ride if you prefer. Many good places to eat in the city and old town in particular. I would suggest booking to be on the safe side. Website Royal-mile.com for more info on the area. Enjoy your trip Helen.

I'd say if you have time to go and have a look at Rosslyn Chapel.
it's a bit out of the way but there is a direct bus (but then a 10 min walk down the road)

Thanks for your tips- much appreciated.

Some delicious looking food on those menus Ayrshire Tripper

Just a short report of our three day break to Edinburgh. We jumped aboard a citylink bus from the airport, which we had pre booked on line. A return was £8 pp. We arrived at our hotel - the Macdonald Holyrood around 25 mins later (review already done). By now it was 6.30pm so we dropped off the cases, had a quick freshen up, and went out for a bite to eat. The hotel was a 5 min walk from the Royal Mile, and we called in a couple of pubs on the way. We had supper in a lovely little pub/restaurant around halfway up the Royal Mile. We had 2 courses for £9.95 each, I had haggis fritters as a starter and hubby had the haggis, neeps and tatties. Neither of us had tried haggis before, and it was lovely. We had a nightcap at the hotel before retiring.
Up bright and early the next day and headed over to Princess Street for a spot of retail therapy. We walked for milles, not doing anything in particular, just taking in our surroundings, and generally getting our bearings. We had lunch in the oldest pub in Edinburgh, where hubby again had haggis and I tried the Cullen Skink. Once again both were excellent. In the afernoon, hubby had a couple of bets on the horses and we walked in a delightful park, where we just sat on a bench and people watched. After returning to the hotel for a shower, we did a little pub crawl, before having our evening meal.
An early start again on Thursday, and we headed up to the castle. There was a decent queue there, and it took us around 20 minutes to purchase our tickets. We were realy impressed with the castle - there were some stunning views from the top, and the exhibitions were excellent. We spent nearly 4 hours there. At the entrance to the castle, there was a woollen mill, and as I'm an avid knitter, this was of real interest to me. We had a quick lunch on the way back down, then jumped on a bus to Leith, where the Royal Yacht Brittania was moored. We didn't go onboard, as the Royal family don't really hold any interest for us, but it was nice to be able to take some pics of the yacht. We had a quick drink in the closest pub, then headed back to the bus stop. We ate later this evening, and just had a cheapie meal in a Wetherspoon type pub. It was ok, but nothing like the quality we'd had on previous evenings.
The morning of our departure day had arrived. After brekkie we went for last walk round the shops. There was 2 lovely Christmas shops, but the prices were very hgh. We popped to Princess Street to pick up a couple of things we'd fancied earlier in the week. We then called in to the Lothian bus company depot, to exchange our vouchers for tickets, then headed back to pick up our cases. We caught the city air link bus back to the airport, getting a good view of the Murayfield rugby stadium from the top deck.
We will certainly return to Edinburgh soon, as there are loads of things that we'd like to see and do.

So pleased you enjoyed your weekend Helen . I've never been to Edinburgh so I will have to add it to the list.

Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities in the world, never mind the UK. I have family from Edinburgh and there is so much to see and do. I think I have said before elsewhere that Gav's ancestors had a shop on The Royal Mile right by the castle and was also the taylor for the army when they were based at the castle.

If you get chance to go back..you must go in August when the Fringe is on and the tattoo..

Val -when we were there, they were completely re vamping the area where the tattoo is held. The work semed to be well advanced, and they were hoping that it would all be finished in plenty of time for this year's celebration. It's a city we'll certainly return to in the near future.

It's now 5 weeks until we go to Edinburgh so I'm starting to put together a list of the things we might want to see. This will be our 3rd or 4th visit so I'd welcome any suggestions of 'less obvious' things we might do, particularly on a Sunday (we'll be there for all of Saturday and Sunday).

We're staying in an apartment near the Palace of Holyroodhouse so will probably self cater for one of the 3 nights we are there but would like to hear of any recommendations of nice but not too expensive places to eat (approx £10 for a main course) in that area (or nearby).

All suggestions gratefully received!

Princes Street shuts on September 17 till Summer 2012 for works on the tram lines

It'll be shut to cars and buses. Pedestrians, emergency vehicles, coaches taking people to hotels and delivery vehicles will still have access

Closed to ALL traffic that has at least two wheels except for emergency vechiles and OVERNIGHT deliveries (10 hrs from 8-6) with only 4 loading bays. (Courtesy of Edinburgh Trams own press release).
Until November 24 for the Winter Festivals. Before reclosing in Jan till June/July
It's permenantly shut to cars excluding official taxi's anyway.

Some Edinburgh transport transport info. if anyone would be kind enough.
We'll be visiting Edinburgh late April and staying at the Hilton Grosvenor from a Friday afternoon until early Sunday afternoon. The primary reason for the trip is for her highness to see the Giant Pandas at the Zoo but, not having visited the city before, we would also like to see as much of Edinburgh as possible once the Panda visit is done.
We intend to get to the zoo for 9:00am, spend some three hours there before our booked panda visit slot at midday and leave for the city centre at approximately 12:45pm. Can anyone tell me:
1. Is there a taxi rank at Edinburgh Haymarket railway station ( which is very close to the hotel, I believe) and also a rank at the zoo?
2. Is it possible to catch a bus from Haymarket to and from the zoo and how frequent are they please?
3.Will the city tour buses be running on a Sunday in April just in case m'lady's retail therapy (which is the second priority for the trip) accounts for the remainder of Saturday and we only have Sunday morning to see the rest of Edinburgh?
Any assistance would be gratefully received.

Hi Sagres

We've visited Edinburgh a few times so I think I can answer your questions (although feel free to correct me if anyone knows better).

1 - We've not been to Haymarket station but I definitely don't remember seeing a taxi rank at the zoo

2 - The Airlink bus runs from Waverley Station to the airport and has stops at Haymarket and the Zoo. It runs really frequently and only stops at certain bus stops and would possibly be cheaper than a taxi - see http://www.flybybus.com/

3 - the Red City Sightseeing buses definitely run all year round according to their website (http://www.city-sightseeing.com/tour-Edinburgh) and I expect most if not all of the other companies will also be running buses on a Sunday.

Hope that helps!

Corinne

Thanks, Corinne - looks like, with a service every ten minutes, the Airlink bus is the answer for both the outward journey to the zoo and then a return all the way back into the town centre.
I'm assuming that, bought online, a return ticket would be valid for one outward and one return journey regardless of time.

Hi Sagres, yes, your hotel really is only a short distance from Haymarket station but taking each of your questions in turn:

1) Yes, there is a taxi rank at Haymarket station and, no, there isn't one at the Zoo but as it's on Corstorphin Road which is one of the main arterial roads in and out of the city it should be easy to hail a black cab but I'd use the buses if I were you.

2) If your hotel is the one I think it is you'll have to walk down West Maitland Street to get to Haymarket and nearly every bus that stops in W Maitland Street will take you out to the Zoo and all the buses that stop at the Zoo will bring you back into the city centre including the Airport Express bus which does stop there as Corinne says but it is more expensive - you'll be charged the flat fare for the full distance between the city centre and the airport even though you'll be barely going halfway. You'd be better off using the ordinary Lothian Buses services - you shouldn't ever have to wait more than 5mins for one and they really are the best way of getting around the city using one of their day tickets. I think that they now cost £3.90 (because they cost 3 X the flat fare which has recently gone up to £1.30 per journey), buy it on the first bus you get on after 9am and then free travel for the rest of the day up until midnight when the Night Bus services start and which aren't covered by the day pass. I don't think that you can use the 'day tickets' on the Airport Express but the road works for the new tram way currently means that the so-called 'Express' bus isn't much faster than any other bus at the moment though it is the easiest and cheapest way of travelling into and out of the city centre if you are arriving by air!

3) All the various tour buses run all day and every day including those run by Lothian Buses - I'm not sure whether your day ticket would cover you for them or not but if you do the tour on the Sunday morning then that won't matter anyway. The starting point for all of them is outside Waverley Station but most of the companies running these buses let you hop on and off at any point on the circuit for the price of the trip ticket - you need to make sure that it's the same company each time but you just pay the driver of the first one you get on and then show the ticket each time you get on a new one.

4) Now retail therapy - you're talking to the right woman here! M'lady must make the effort to visit Jenners on Princes Street at the Waverley end - the 'Harrods of the North' has now re-gained it's mojo after a rocky period when it was first taken over by House of Fraser. There's also a decent House of Fraser at the other Haymarket end as well as a large John Lewis in the St James shopping centre (round the corner from the Waverley end of Princes Street). But with the exception of Jenners, most of Princes Street is now filled with either exactly the same high street chains that are to be found anywhere or else shops selling tartan tat. I think that the best shopping is now to be found on George Street which runs parallel to Princes Street and the roads connecting Princes Street and George Street but Rose Street is also worth exploring - it's fully pedestrianised and is behind Princes Street but before you get to George Street. You'll find the big designer names on George Street but smaller, one-off, quirky shops can be found on Rose Street - along with some interesting pubs if you want to sit it out while she flashes the plastic around.

If she's looking for cashmere then there are some really good knitwear boutiques on the Cannongate - the bottom half of the Royal Mile. She's particularly looking for the section that runs from the junction at Jeffrey Street (which itself has some of the most exclusive boutiques in Edinburgh on it) down the hill towards the Parliament and Holyrood Palace. They won't be cheap - designer cashmere never is - but it will be good quality and just that little bit different. The top half of the Royal Mile - especially the section from the Castle down to Hunter Square - is retail hell with an awful lot of poor quality tourist tat being sold at rip-off prices.

I'm down in Edinburgh at least once a month and it has so much to see and do - let me know if there's any other info I can help with.

SM

PS Think about reversing your day and 'doing' the rest of the Zoo after your Panda visit - every afternoon the penguins (their enclosure is next door to the Pandas) are let out and they march round the zoo! They've been doing it for decades (my 84 yr old mother remembers seeing them as a child on family visits) but won't be for much longer because their enclosure is going to get a long overdue renovation shortly and the penguins are going to all be sent away to 'foster zoos' while the work is done and which will take quite a while.

Thanks for the comprehensive detail, SMa.
The Lothian bus seems to be a simple, regular and cheaper option and, by my reckoning, would save us a whole £7:80 which I will generously give to her ladyship - I like to spoil her from time to time - for a major spendfest in the shops you recommend ( all of which I shall be waiting patiently outside unless they happen to be situated next door to a pub. )
As for your suggestion re: reversing our schedule, the zoo website says that the relocation of the penguins has already begun so the Penguin Parade won't be taking place at the time of our visit but thanks for the thought.