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 Old Town in August, which is where the venues are and not where you should sleep.Photograph Wyatt Simpson · Unsplash
Edinburgh in August is the largest arts festival in the world dropped onto a medieval city built for about a fifth of the people currently standing in it. Roughly three thousand shows run across twenty five days, and every one of the quarter of a million people who come to see them needs somewhere to sleep.
The effect on hotel rates is the most brutal seasonal swing in Britain. A room that costs two hundred pounds in October costs six hundred in August, and the good ones are gone by February. Booking six to nine months out is not cautious. It is the only way this works.
Three hotels that are worth the August number, and the specific thing each one solves.
The Balmoral
The one with the clock tower at the east end of Princes Street, above Waverley station. It opened in 1902 as the North British, which is what a lot of Edinburgh still calls it, and it has the best position in the city for this specific fortnight.
Here is why. The Fringe splits between the Old Town, where the venues are, and the New Town, where you can actually sleep. The Balmoral sits precisely on the seam. You are eight minutes' walk from the Royal Mile and the noise, and on the other side of a very large stone building from it.
The clock is famously three minutes fast, so nobody misses a train. It is set correctly once a year, at Hogmanay.
Book it if: you want to do fourteen shows and still get eight hours' sleep. This is the one that makes both possible.
Expect: upwards of £700 a night in August, against roughly half that in October.
Gleneagles Townhouse
The newest of the three and the most fun. Gleneagles took the former Bank of Scotland building on St Andrew Square and turned it into a thirty three room townhouse hotel with a members' club attached, which means the ground floor has an actual life to it rather than a lobby.
The room where the bank's banking hall used to be is now the restaurant, under a glass dome, and it is the best-looking room to eat breakfast in in Edinburgh. There is a rooftop with a view over the New Town rooflines to the castle.
It is smaller than the Balmoral, younger in feel, and about seven minutes further from the Old Town venues, which in August is a real consideration when you are doing four shows a day.
Book it if: you are here for a long weekend rather than the full fortnight, and you want the hotel to be part of the evening rather than the place the evening ends.
Expect: £600 and up in August.
The Witchery by the Castle
Nine suites at the top of the Royal Mile, essentially at the castle gates, above a restaurant that has been there since 1979. It is not a hotel in any conventional sense. There is no lobby, no spa, no gym, and no attempt at any of it.
What there is instead: enormous theatrical suites full of antique oak, tapestry and roll-top baths, all candlelit, in a building from 1595. It is the most atmospheric place to sleep in Scotland and it is entirely unembarrassed about that.
You are ninety seconds from the castle esplanade and about four minutes from most of the big Fringe venues. In August that is worth more than a gym.
The trade is noise and stairs. This is the Old Town in August, directly above a busy street, and the Royal Mile does not go quiet until well after one in the morning. There is also no lift to some suites.
Book it if: the point of the trip is the festival and you intend to be out in it until late. It is wasted on anyone who wants a quiet room.
Expect: around £500 and up, and it books out further ahead than either of the others because there are only nine.
Which one
- Full fortnight, many shows, need to sleep: the Balmoral. The seam position is the whole argument.
- Long weekend, want a good time: Gleneagles Townhouse.
- Here for the festival above all else: the Witchery, with earplugs.
Booking, honestly
- Book by February for August. By April the good rooms at all three are gone.
- Check the minimum stay. Most Edinburgh hotels impose three or four nights across the festival, and some impose a week.
- Ask which side. At every one of these, the difference between a street-facing and a courtyard room in August is the difference between sleeping and not.
- Consider September. The festival ends late August, the rates halve within about four days, and the city is at its best in the first fortnight of September with nobody in it.
Read next
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 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.