Following our Iceland tour with Overseas Adventure Travel, the original plan was to fly directly to Edinburgh, Scotland, and spend six days on our own, before hooking up with Road Scholar for a tour of the Scottish Highlands.  We received a phone call from Road Scholar in June, however, notifying us our tour was canceled.  I won’t get into the reasons why it was canceled, but we were disappointed.  Fortunately, we were able to change the our flight, so we could return home after our six days in Edinburgh.  Not that we didn’t want to see more of Scotland; it was high season, and hotels were already booked up.

As an alternative to completely missing the Scottish Highlands, we decided to book a day tour for one of our days, and spend the remainder of our time seeing everything we wanted to see in the city.  I had done a lot of research on Edinburgh, so I felt like we had a good plan in place.

But first, why Scotland?  I had never been there before; it would be my 70^th country.  More importantly, I had heard nothing but wonderful things about it!  Most importantly, when I first started dating Bruce back in 1986, I asked him what country he would most like to see.  “Scotland” was his reply.  After all, his first name is Bruce, his middle name is Robert, and he was named after Robert the Bruce!

Somehow, over the years, and throughout all our travels, we never quite got to Scotland.  Then, when we finally booked a trip that would have included the country, it was canceled due to the COVID pandemic.  Now, we were finally going to see Scotland!  (We will see more of the country next year on another trip.)

The first thing we wanted to nail down for Edinburgh was accommodations.  My go-to website for advice is always Trip Advisor; however, I had a couple of criteria that were important to me this time around.  First, I wanted a location near a bus stop.  (The public transportation system in Scotland got rave reviews!)  We didn’t mind taking a bus into the city center, but wanted to be close enough for the ride to be short.  Second, we wanted to stay somewhere unique for a memorable bed-and-breakfast experience rather than at a chain hotel.  Third, the price had to be within our budget.  The other criteria are always in play:  Clean, comfortable, quiet, safe, and rated 4-5 in Trip Advisor reviews.

We found just the place that ticked all the boxes: Hotel Ceilidh-Donia.  Ranked #4 of 169 hotels reviewed on Trip Advisor, it met all of our criteria.  The biggest surprise was what I hadn’t listed that ended up being the best part of our stay:  Susan, Kevin, and their staff.  They made our vacation so memorable!  (See my review of our experience.)

Our plan for seeing the city and sights was to purchase the Royal Edinburgh Ticket for the hop-on-hop-off double-decker bus.  It is run by Lothian, the same company as the public city buses, and the tour had excellent reviews.  The ticket included entrance to Edinburgh Castle with a reserved time slot—a very important feature, so you can bypass the lines of people waiting to get in.  (Or, in the case of the week we were there, right before the Fringe Festival, if you didn’t have a pre-booked ticket, it was sold out, every single day!)  The bus ticket lasts for 48 hours, so you can ride the bus and hop on and off as many times you like within that time period.  The ticket with castle admission cost USD $84 per person, but believe me; it was money well spent! 

On our first day in Edinburgh, we rode the bus into town, and then took care of business before sightseeing.  “Business” included checking out where we would be starting our Royal Edinburgh bus tour in relation to where the city bus dropped us off.  There were four different buses (red, orange, green, and blue) with different routes and features; however, we wanted to make sure we took the green bus with a live on-board guide—much better than listening to a recorded narration!

Next, we had booked a Scottish Highland tour for later in the week, so we wanted to locate the bus station on foot, so we would be sure to have a smooth commute on tour day.  (More on that tour in a future post…)

Once we had those details ironed out, it was time to hit the Royal Mile, the main thoroughfare of Edinburgh’s Old Town.  Edinburgh Castle is on one end, and Palace of Holyroodhouse is on the other end; so, I can see why it is such a popular pedestrian street.  Those are two of the most-visited tourist attractions in Edinburgh!

I had read the reviews; the Royal Mile ranks #8 of things to do in Edinburgh.  Some rave about it, and others say it’s a tourist trap with too many shops full of “Scottish” souvenirs made in China.  They’re both right, and I wouldn’t have left Edinburgh without seeing the Royal Mile.  (As it turned out, we ended up walking its entire length several times over the course of our stay in Edinburgh!)

Sure, there were a lot of tourist shops.  I walked past most of them, didn’t purchase anything in any of them, and only spent five minutes browsing in the largest one located near the castle.  I am always curious to see what is made in each country I visit, so I popped in, took a look around, and snapped a couple of shots.  If you like plaid, Scotland is the place to shop!  I’m not a plaid person…

What I loved about the Royal Mile was the architecture (so much history!), the hanging flower baskets, and a large part of the thoroughfare being closed off to traffic.  It was a safe and comfortable place to walk.

Besides seeing the Royal Mile, Bruce and I rambled all over the city on our first day!  By the time we took the bus back to our hotel, we were happy to return to the quiet and lovely residential neighborhood where our little hotel was nestled.

Just by chance, for dinner, we found a casual and reasonably-priced Thai restaurant located just a ten-minute stroll away.  Papaya Thai Street Food wasn’t yet rated on Trip Advisor, but we were hungry, and Thai is our favorite cuisine.  We decided to take a gamble.  What a find!  It was so good I gave them Trip Advisor’s first review!  (I later found them on Google; 20 reviews and a perfect score of 5.)  It was the exclamation point on a wonderful first day in Edinburgh!

Below are photos I shot on and near the Royal Mile during a couple of different days walking in the city as well as a few snapped from the top of the double-decker bus.

(For all pictures, click on the image to see full screen view.)

Next up: A CASTLE AND A PALACE