Travel Diary: 48 Hours in Edinburgh, Scotland, for NYE and Hogmanay

I'm finally getting around to recapping my very last trip of 2022: Edinburgh!

Edinburgh is definitely somewhere I want to return to some day... but I have to say, while normally I always leave places wanting to visit them again during the Christmas holiday, with Scotland, I'd love to see it during warm weather!

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My husband and I try to use birthdays and anniversaries as an opportunity for experiences, rather than gifts. Since we got married on New Year's Eve in 2019, that means our anniversary always comes with a day off from work — which makes it a little easier to take a trip.

I've wanted to visit European Christmas markets the last few years, and we had the opportunity to plan such a trip in 2022. We planned a trip to London around a visit to the Harry Potter Studio Tour for Hogwarts in the Snow and then decided to add on Edinburgh since it was a relatively short train ride away from London!

We were also excited about spending New Year's Eve in Edinburg because Scotland's celebration of the last day of the year is known as "Hogmanay" (which is also the Scots word for the last day of the year). In Edinburgh, this means a street party!

Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Edinburgh, our bodies were pretty run down from stress of the previous month and being on the road since before Thanksgiving, so we decided to take it much easier than we'd planned to. We were fine with this because we only had 48 hours on this trip, anyway, and upon arriving we knew immediately that we would want to come back some day. 

tips and general info:

  • We stayed at the Apex Waterloo Place Hotel and highly recommend it. The room was spacious and clean, the location was perfect for our needs, and staff was extremely helpful when we needed help (like when our flight home was cancelled and we had to get to the airport on short notice to catch an earlier one). It was also just a short walk from the Edinburgh Waverley train station. (And the hotel shower got hot and had high water pressure, which is very important to me!)
  • Hotels I daydreamed about staying at if we had unlimited funds included the Balmoral Hotel (where J.K. Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!); the Witchery; or the Caledonian.
  • Pack a waterproof jacket and comfortable shoes, since the weather can change quickly and you'll likely be walking a lot on cobblestone streets.
  • Edinburg has lots of free activities and attractions, from museums to tours.
  • Consider buying an Edinburgh Royal Ticket, which includes entry to Edinburgh Castle, Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the Royal Yacht Britannia, as well as unlimited use of all three Edinburgh Bus Tours City Tours, for 48 hours.

itinerary + photo diary:

We arrived in Edinburgh by train from London around 12 noon on Friday 12/30, stayed for New Year's Eve on Saturday 12/31, and flew back to the U.S. on Sunday 1/1.

We initially were going to split our time in London and Edinburgh more equally, but by the time (September) I got around to booking Harry Potter Studio Tour tickets in London, they only had availability at 6:30pm on Thursday 12/29! So we resigned ourselves to only 48 hours in Edinburgh, since we wanted to fly home on New Year's Day.

But we realized the moment we stepped out of the train station that 1) 48 hours wasn't enough and 2) we wanted to see much more of Scotland in addition to Edinburgh. So although I had a whole list of things to do in Edinburgh, we ended up just taking it slow and promising ourselves we'd come back and do it all.

Friday:

  • Lunch at Café Edinburgh (no reservation, we walked in)
  • Explored Edinburgh Old Town
  • Dinner at the Queens Arms in New Town (no reservation, we walked in — and yes, during our trip we ate at two different places called the Queens Arms, haha! Once in London and once in Scotland.)

The Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile

St. Giles' Cathedral

Me in my element, ha! Photographing Christmas scenes

The entrance to Balmoral Hotel! We looked into afternoon tea, but it was booked.

Then we headed back to the hotel to shower, change, and get ready for dinner.

When in Scotland, drink whisky... it took me an embarrassingly long time to finish this glass but at least it did warm me up!

Beanie: Kyi Kyi (mine is old but similar here, and here, affiliate links) | Turtleneck: J. Crew (also available at J. Crew Factory, affiliate links) | Vest: J. Crew Factory (affiliate link) | Nail Polish: Essie (also available here, and here, affiliate links)

The Scott Monument

Saturday (New Year's Eve and Hogmanay!):

  • Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour. We love these kinds of bus tours as ways to see a city quickly and to get from place to place; we've done them in Sydney, Rome, Paris, and Crete and Athens. And since by this point in our trip we were feeling pretty tired, this enabled us to see the highlights and learn some history without walking all over.
  • Drinks at Panda & Sons (no reservation, we had a maybe 5- or 10-minute wait)
  • Dinner at Dirty Dick's (no reservation, we walked in after walking by while we were hungry)
  • Hogmanay! We bought tickets in advance, and the gates were supposed to open at 8pm, but we walked through closer to 9pm, just in time for a round of fireworks.

The Scott Monument with the Ferris Wheel nearby

We walked from our hotel to St. Andrew Square in New Town, to catch one of the Hop-On, Hop-Off buses.


The route of our Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tour

The tour took us past St. Cuthbert's Kirkyard (which I wrongly thought had inspired J.K. Rowling, but apparently that was Greyfriars Kirkyard)

FYI: "Kirk" is a Scottish word meaning "church"

We sat on opposite sites to take more photos and ended up taking some great photos of each other

The tour took us by Greyfriars Kirk and we learned about Greyfriars Bobby, a dog known for guarding the grave of his owner until his death. This fountain in his memory is said to bring good luck if you rub its nose, but so many people rubbing its nose every day for years has caused damage to the monument!

This was one of the many times during our trip that made me think about how much I want to come back and see this country during summer!

Dynamic Earth... I wish we'd had more time to spend a few hours here!

Our tour guide joked that if you want to make the big bucks in Scotland, invest in scaffolding.

Just such picturesque streets and buildings

The Prince Albert Memorial (behind the tree haha) in Charlotte Square (our bus tour was slightly different than usual because streets had already started being closed off for Hogmanay)

Better view of the Prince Albert Memorial



Beanie: Nordstrom (also available at Bloomingdale's, affiliate links) | Scarf: J. Crew (mine is old but similar here, affiliate links) | Jacket: Cole Haan (mine is old but similar here, and here, affiliate links) | Gloves: Kohl's (affiliate link) | Jeans: Old Navy (affiliate link) | Boots: Sam Edelman (affiliate link)

Haha my scarf was making a run for it...

Fixed the scarf...

Posing with the Edinburgh sign! I was mistakenly under the impression that my jacket was water-resistant... but it definitely was not.

Celebrating 3 years of marriage! (By having an early night on New Year's Eve because of our flight the next day, haha. But it ended up being a good thing since our flight got cancelled and we had to rush to find a new one!)

where to eat and drink:

what to do:

  • Hike Arthur's Seat! This was probably #1 on my list, but I didn't feel up to it and the weather wasn't great for it.
  • Tour Edinburgh Castle (or Stirling Castle, about an hour away)
  • Take a hop on, hop off bus tour
  • St. Giles Cathedral
  • Tour Real Mary King's Close
  • Do a whisky tour and tasting experience
  • Visit Palace of Holyroodhouse
  • Visit Dynamic Earth (a museum)
  • Visit Greyfriar Bobby (but don't rub its nose!)
  • Explore Victoria Street and Vennel Lane
  • Take a ghost tour
  • Tour the Royal Yacht Britannia
  • Visit the National Museum of Scotland (head to the rooftop terrace for a view)
  • Find a ceilidh (pronounced "kay-lee")!
  • Try to catch the Northern Lights/aurora borealis at Calton Hill, Blackford Hill, or Arthur's Seat
  • Purchase tickets to a torchlight procession around the holidays
  • Do a Harry Potter tour of all things Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling! There are official tours, or you can just wander on your own.
  • Afternoon tea! You could visit the Balmoral; the Caledonian; the Café at the Palace of Holyroodhouse; Colonnades at the Signet Library; the Grand Cafe; Prestonfield House; the Dome (for a Christmas experience); the Red Bus Bistro (for a unique experience) or the Cauldron Co. (for a magical experience!).

links I used or recommend:

I think Edinburgh may be the prettiest city I've visited yet in Europe, the architecture was just stunning. (Although Amsterdam is gorgeous in its own way — more postcard dreaminess than incredible architecture, though.) I really wish we'd had more time because there were so many things I wanted to see and do. But Scotland is now at the top of my list for a visit during summer; I'd like to spend a few days in Edinburgh, then visit the Highlands, or the Isle of Skye, or Glasgow, or Inverness, or Aberdeen... or all of them! 

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