Edinburgh
A city of about half a million that hosts the largest arts festival on earth every August, which means it spends eleven months as one of the most liveable capitals in Europe and one month as something closer to a very beautiful riot. Both versions are worth seeing. They require completely different bookings.
Hotels reviewed here
The Balmoral: the clock tower, the whisky, and the best address in Edinburgh
A hundred and eighty seven rooms above Waverley station, a bar holding five hundred whiskies, and a clock that has been three minutes fast since 1902. The grand hotel Edinburgh built for people arriving by train.
Gleneagles Townhouse: a bank on St Andrew Square, and the best breakfast room in Edinburgh
Thirty three rooms in a former banking hall, a restaurant under the glass dome where the tellers used to be, and a rooftop the city cannot get into. The most enjoyable hotel in Edinburgh.
The Witchery by the Castle: nine suites, no lift, and the most theatrical rooms in Britain
Candlelight, oak panelling and roll-top baths in a building from 1595, ninety seconds from the castle gates. Not a hotel in any conventional sense, and all the better for refusing to be one.
Read first
Three hotels for the Edinburgh Fringe, and what each one solves
Three thousand shows, a quarter of a million people, and the most brutal seasonal rate swing in Britain. Where to sleep in August, and when to book it.
The Edinburgh Fringe, explained by someone who has queued in the rain
Three thousand shows, no curation whatsoever, and about a third of them bad. How the largest arts festival on earth actually works, and how to find the good two thirds.