Hopefully this post is a case of better late than never.
Back at the end of March, over the Easter weekend, my friend and I took a trip up to Edinburgh. I’ve been to a fair few places on my travels so far but before heading up to Scotland for the weekend I’d never been to another country that makes up the United Kingdom, and my knowledge of Scotland was minimum at best. For me it was whisky and shortbread and the Loch Ness.
But there is so much more to Scotland, and so much more to Edinburgh; it’s an amazing city, so full of culture and history.
Our first stop was Edinburgh Castle, which felt like the centre of Edinburgh’s old town. There’s so much history within its walls and honestly just walking around for an hour you can learn so much about the past of both the castle and Edinburgh itself. Then from the Castle you can walk down the Royal Mile which takes you all through the Old Town of the city; a mixture of shops, restaurants, pubs it will take you past Tron Kirk and through Parliament Square as well as other tourist attractions. If you have the time just wander through the streets and side streets and see what wonders you can find.
If you’re feeling up to a hike, and even if you’re not, then definitely make the climb up to Arthur’s Seat. It’s a tough journey but when you get to the top the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel will be more than worth it, and it offers some spectacular views of Edinburgh as well.
It took my friend and I quite a while to get to the top, I needed to stop a couple of times for a break and we wandered off the path to explore other sights a couple of times, but the view when we got to the top was more than worth it. And when heading back down again, and seeing the people just starting off the journey was kind of fun as well, knowing how long they had to go before reaching the top (I’m a cruel person at times).
Now in my opinion going to Scotland and not seeing the highlands is not acceptable. We booked a day trip which took us to some of the best sight’s within Scotland’s beautiful highlands. We saw Glen Coe and Ben Nevis, saw the Loch Ness and took a boat ride around part of the famous Loch (sadly we didn’t catch a glimpse on the monster itself). There is so much more to the highlands than what we saw but we got a great taste as to what else Scotland has to offer.
Advice (a.k.a. learn from my mistakes)
- Take good walking shoes…There is a lot of walking if you want to experience the best of the best of Edinburgh and plenty of hills as well which brings me onto my second point…
- Take breaks…Don’t push yourself too much at the beginning of the day because by the time it gets to the late afternoon, no matter how comfy your shoes are, your feet will be killing you.
- Book ahead…If you want to skip the queues at Edinburgh Castle, if you want to go on a highland tour, and if you want to see many of the other attractions Edinburgh has to offer see if you can pre-book tickets. It will skip you past the queues and ensure you actually get what you want.
Like with every holiday I’ve been on take a day or an afternoon to just wander around the city. Some of the best experiences I’ve had while travelling have come from when me and my friend, or me and my sister have had nothing else to do and just wandered around the city. We saw what we could find and ended up doing something we wouldn’t have planned on a whim. Planning is good don’t get me wrong but there’s a lot to be said for some spontaneity as well.
I CAN’T WAIT to go there someday, really, I can’t. I’m SO impatient, it sounds absolutely gorgeous, I love these pictures 🙂
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Oh I would highly recommend going to Edinburgh (or anywhere in Scotland for that matter) someday, it’s such a beautiful city and I loved the weekend I spent there. I’d love to go back one day and maybe spend a weekend in the highlands or something because I feels there’s still so much of those left to explore.
Thank you ❤️ I’m glad you liked my pictures too! 🙂
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Oh that would be great. And seeing the Loch Ness is on my bucket-list, so…. 🙂
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Maybe you’ll be able to spot the Loch Ness monster. I kept an eye out but didn’t see anything 🙂 and I totally believe there’s something down there! 😀
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REALLY? ME TOO!! I believe it haha, it makes me feel crazy, but I do ahah 😛 I’ll keep an eye out for sure! It just seems like such a mysterious place…
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I really want to believe there’s something there, no matter how crazy it may seem! And seeing the Loch Ness in person it was so much bigger than I ever thought it would be, there’s a good chance there could be something somewhere out there!
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Yeah, me too! It seems SO big, really, I think whenever I go there, I will be impressed by how big it is. And I’m betting you had tons of Nessie goodies you could buy ahah
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It was insane seeing it for myself. I didn’t even think it was that big before I went,so seeing it in real life was such a shock because it was massive! Oh god yeah, even before we got to Loch Ness we saw tons of Nessie souvenirs. I got a little statue which is sitting on some of my books right now!
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Ohhhh that’s so cool! you can be sure I’ll buy one of these little statues as well 😛
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It kind of looks like the Loch Ness monster is rising from my books! 😀
And yeah, you can’t go to Scotland and not buy a Loch Ness souvenir!
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Ah, Beth, you’re KILLING me with these posts 😂 Scotland is definitely on my must-visit list. These photos are again so beautiful. I adore all the history and castles so much. Not to mention as a paranormal investigator, there are so many haunted places I would love to investigate!
I love that you just wander around the city because that is something I would definitely do too. I feel you can discover so many things that way.
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Sorry 🙂
Yeah if you’re interested in the history and castles Scotland is definitely the place to go, also I didn’t think of that but yeah there must be tons of ghosts and ghost stories over there too.
Exactly, when my friend and I go away we can’t do the whole weekend spontaneously because we’d end up getting bored half way through if we hadn’t planned something, but there’s something to be said for wandering around and seeing where the city takes you (for us in Edinburgh it was up Arthur’s Seat!) 🙂
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Haha, it’s okay 😆 I actually love it. I’ll definitely be interested in more posts like this in the future 😊
It seriously sounds so amazing. Hopefully one day I can visit!
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I’m thinking I will definitely post more of these after I’m back from my holidays in the future! And hopefully I’ll get around to them quicker than it took me to post my Edinburgh one! 😀
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It looks like you had a great time! The photos are absolutely beautiful – they make me want to travel to Scotland ASAP. 🙂
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Yes it was a brilliant weekend away! And thank you, I’m glad you liked my photos, I would say if you ever get a chance to go to Scotland definitely definitely go there, you won’t regret it! 😀
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Your photos are AMAZING. I need to be there, stat.
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Thank you 😀 I’m glad you liked my photos, and yes, if you ever get a chance definitely go to Edinburgh, it’s such a beautiful city!
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Edinburgh! Now this one I’ve been to. I actually visited The Elephant House (where Rowling allegedly wrote Harry Potter) and that’s kind of what I remember the most, save for the cobblestone roads. Can’t remember if I saw the highlands (oops), but I definitely will make a note on that on future trips. 🙂
Haha, I definitely agree with what you said about how planning is good but there’s something about spontaneity as well. I’m not a huge planner but my family I think takes it to the next level – whenever I travel with them we’ll end up booking our accom on the spot and daily, which is just super stressful. 😛
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Oh god those cobblestone roads were sooo painful after a little while, honestly we did so much walking that by the end of the day it felt like we were walking on the roads in bare feet, not nice at all. We didn’t get a chance to go to The Elephant House, something to remember for next time I guess, but I would definitely recommend going to the highlands if you ever get a chance to go again, they are honestly so beautiful and there’s so much out there to see.
When me and my friend go away we try to do a bit of a mixture of planning and spontaneity. We’re not good at doing a whole weekend spontaneously because we’ll get bored with nothing planned but at the same time there’s something to be said for just seeing where the city takes you. God I can imagine that would be stressful, I would not be able to do that, I freak out about some of the littler things when planning and I can’t leave anything to the last minute!
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I definitely want to see Scotland one day! 😊
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There’s so much to see up there, and while Edinburgh is a gorgeous city I’d definitely recommend going to the highlands because, what little I saw of them, was truly breathtaking! 🙂
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great pictures! edinburgh looks great! 🙂 i’m a travel blogger on here too! 🙂 love your blog 🙂 http://www.tifness.com
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Edinburgh’s a beautiful city as well, there’s so much there to see and do we didn’t manage to fit it all in one weekend but maybe one day I’ll go back again 😀
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