Edinburgh shares one thing with Budapest. The city centre is divided into two halves — a craggy old part on a hill, and a relatively flat newer part. Edinburgh’s New Town dates from the end of the eighteenth century. While the mighty Danube may separate Buda from Pest, the trough which keeps the Old Town and the New Town apart is a swamp which was drained to bring the railway through. Edinburgh Waverley station is the only one in the world to be named after a novel: Sir Walter Scott set Waverley in the time of the Jacobite uprising in 1745.
There are many online guides to Edinburgh, but the big two are
- Forever Edinburgh — the view from the City Council
- Top 13 things to do in Edinburgh — the view from Visit Scotland, the tourist board
I think the Visit Scotland page is better balanced and more suited to a short trip, though the maps and brochures on the council’s site could be very useful.
After these official documents, what follows in the pages linked below is my personal take on the city and its surroundings.
- The Royal Mile — the thoroughfare in the Old Town between the Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse
- Princes Street Gardens and the New Town — Princes Street, George Street, and their surroundings
- Calton Hill and Leith — from Nelson to Britannia
- Edinburgh suburbs — options beyond the centre of the city
- Days out from Edinburgh — North Berwick and elsewhere
There is also a page on logistics — transport to and within Edinburgh, hotels and food.
Lwalks.London 