Scotland Trip: Edinburgh
We made it to Scotland! Check back here to view our entire itinerary. This post covers our first two days which includes travel and our first walks in Edinburgh!
Travels:
Evan found our tickets at a discounted price the day before Thanksgiving; however, this gave us a multi stop trip over to Edinburgh. We flew out of Charleston and into Dulles. We experienced delays on the first flight getting us to Dulles just in time to jump on our second plane, but then we ran into weather delays and sat on the tarmac for a while. Once we finally took off, we settled in for a roughly 7 hour flight from Dulles to Brussels, Belgium.
The airport in Brussels was interesting. You sat on the second floor and waited for an announcement of your flight number. Our plane was small, so once our flight was announced, we headed downstairs to catch a bus out to the airplane and loaded on the tarmac. One short bumpy ride into Edinburgh left!
Arrival in Edinburgh
We flew into the Edinburgh Airport. After deplaning, we went through customs and collected our luggage. I researched transportation prior to leaving, and we decided to take the tram to our hotel. As soon as you exit the airport, you walk right up to the tram station. They had ticket vending machines prior to boarding but also had an employee stationed at the vending machines to answer any questions. Our tickets allowed for all day travel in the city in addition to the airport transfer.
Our Hotel
When looking for places to stay, I compared hotels to short term rental apartments. Since we needed two hotel rooms for each stop, I thought an apartment might make more financial sense. In the end, I chose the Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor for its price and location near a tram stop. Being a Hilton Honors Member, we received complimentary breakfast each morning and a drink ticket for the hotel bar when we arrived. The rooms came nicely furnished and had ample space.
This image is from the Hilton website as I somehow did not take a picture of our hotel!
This is the main stairwell for our side of the hotel. Very ornate, but lots of twists and turns!
The view from our room.
Time to Eat!
By this point, everyone was running on little sleep and we were all hungry! Tim became our restaurant finder for the remainder of the trip and left with an Almost perfect record. Only one meal of the entire trip was a bust! For our first stop, we stayed very close to the hotel and ate at Ryrie’s Pub across the street. They offered a 2 course lunch menu for a very reasonable price. I ate a hamburger and the boys ate fish and chips. We also experienced our first Scottish beers of the trip (Tennents).
Time to Explore
First, we took the tram from Haymarket to the Princes Street stop. Tram travel in the downtown area was super easy and inexpensive. After exiting the tram, we walked up our first hill of the trip. Mr. Jack came to love all of the hills in Scotland.
At the top of the hill was the Scotch Whisky Experience. The experience included a ride through a virtual distillery followed by a presentation of the different regions of Scotland and one tasting of your choice. As a paid upgrade, you could taste multiple samples from the different regions. Though I enjoyed the history lesson, the ride itself was short and lacking in entertainment. Tim was the only one in our group that enjoyed his whisky tasting. Evan, his dad and I decided beer is our drink of choice! All the whisky landed in Tim’s glass. 😉
Just up the hill from the Scotch Whisky Experience is the Edinburgh Castle. While it was on the agenda for the next day, we still walked up to the entrance and took a few pictures.
Edinburgh Castle
Then, I checked off a few more placed on my bucket list!
Greyfriars Bobby
The Elephant House
The Elephant House is where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter!
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland was the last stop of the day. I mainly had the museum of the to do list because Rick Steves suggested going to the rooftop level for the views of the city. Entrance fees are Free with donations accepted! However, we loved exploring parts of the museum while we were there. It is a huge building with tons of exhibits and I can’t tell you how many times we got lost in the twists and turns. Had we not all been so tired, would have been a great way to spend the rest of the afternoon. We did go up to the terrace for a few pictures.
running on no sleep!
End of the Day
After checking out the rooftop views, we took the tram back to our hotel to find a place for dinner. Dinner was at the Mercat Bar and Kitchen near the hotel. We sampled more Scottish beers and had some great appetizers and main courses. The chicken goujons appetizer was wonderful. After this, we were all exhausted and went straight to bed!
Our walk for the day:
My name is Ali and I'm learning how to be a country girl! I'm a physical therapist, wife, lover of running and reading and I love to travel!