Family Encyclopedia >> Travel

Amazing Edinburgh #1

Packing down in New Town

Head to the ibis Styles St Andrew Square, ideally located. Shop at Harvey Nichols (30-34 St Andrew Square) or Princes St, climb Calton Hill at the foot of the local Acropolis to enjoy the views, or visit the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy . It starts strong!

Where to have lunch? At Gardener’s Cottage, an early 19th century gardener’s cottage converted into a farm to table restaurant.

Where to brunch? At The Refinery (5 St Andrew Square) to try the gargantuan “Scottish breakfast”:eggs, bacon, haggis (stuffed sheep’s stomach)…

Go back in time in Old Town

Gothic atmosphere in the old town listed as World Heritage. Kilts are stalked along the Royal Mile, the oldest street in the city. Between the old castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, learn the secrets of whiskey at the Scotch Whiskey Experience (354 Castlehill), play at being scared in the underground passages of Mary King's Close... A concentrate of Scotland!

Where to dine? At the Devil's Advocate, a pub hidden in an old Victorian house.

Where to have a coffee? At The Elephant House (21 George IV Bridge), where J.K. Rowling is said to have written the first Harry Potter adventures twenty years ago.

Oxygenate in Dean Village

This former village attached to Edinburgh in the 19th century still retains, here and there, traces of its mills and stables. We walk along the river Leith (pictured). We rest in front of St Bernard's Well and its statue of the goddess of health, on the site of the old thermal baths... Between chirping birds and bubbling waterfalls, we forget all notion of time!

What to visit? The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1 and 2.

To download:the Water of Leith audioguide on Google Play or the Apple Store, for a bucolic and guided walk.