Edinburgh in Two Days: Two Cities and a Volcano

Edinburgh's two halves are both UNESCO World Heritage sites and they sit a few hundred yards apart, separated by a valley that was once a loch.

Crossing between them takes ten minutes and feels like changing century. That contrast is the reason to come, and it is why Edinburgh in two days works where it would not in most cities.

Day one: the closes most visitors miss

Edinburgh Castle at opening, on a timed ticket booked ahead. It sits on a volcanic plug above the city and is Scotland's most visited paid attraction, which tells you what midday looks like.

Then walk the Royal Mile downhill to Holyrood Palace. It is genuinely a mile and it genuinely descends the whole way.

The part most visitors miss is the closes, the narrow alleys running off the Mile where the medieval city actually lived. Several are open to walk down. One has been preserved underground, built over rather than demolished, and an hour there is the best thing in the Old Town.

Greyfriars Kirkyard is five minutes off the route and worth the detour.

Day two: the New Town, and the volcano

The New Town is Georgian, planned, and elegant in a way the Old Town emphatically is not. Charlotte Square, then down to Dean Village on the Water of Leith, which is a river walk inside the city.

Two museums, both free: the National Museum of Scotland, whose rooftop terrace has one of the best castle views in the city and which most visitors never find, and the Scottish National Gallery, small enough to do properly in ninety minutes.

Arthur's Seat is an extinct volcano about 250 metres high sitting in a park in the middle of the city. One to two hours round trip depending on the route, and the view covers the city, the Firth of Forth and the hills of Fife. Go in the morning, because the wind at the top is serious in every season.

Finish on Calton Hill at sunset: a ten-minute climb, no ticket, and the view that ends up on the postcards.

Whisky without the tour-group version

The large whisky attraction beside the castle is competent and built for coaches.

You will do better in a bar with a serious back shelf. Say what you usually enjoy and ask for something you have not heard of. That conversation is the point, and it costs the price of a dram.

What August does to everything

For most of August the city hosts the Fringe, the International Festival and the Military Tattoo at once. The population roughly doubles, accommodation runs two to three times normal rates and books close to a year ahead, and crossing the Old Town takes twice as long.

It is one of the great cultural events anywhere, and it is a difficult month to see the city itself. Decide which trip you are taking before you book the flights. We will happily book either, but not both at once.

What Edinburgh in two days leaves out

Rosslyn Chapel, thirty minutes south, is small and extraordinarily carved. Stirling Castle is an hour away with a fraction of the crowds.

The Highlands are further than people expect. A day trip to Loch Ness is around eight hours in a coach for ninety minutes at the water. If the Highlands matter, give them their own nights.

If the two-night city break is the shape you like, visiting Bruges works the same way, and building a route out of several of them is what our custom itineraries service is for.

Call Exquisite Travel Group on (916) 757-6300. The first question we will ask is your dates, because August changes the entire budget.