hpeabody

Just beginning to consider going to Edinburgh this year. I can't stop thinking about it since I met a couple on a cruise that were from Edinburgh. I could tell they really love their city and the festival sounded sinply awesome.

I am not sure where to begin, I do want stay in a place with easy access to get around to the different "events" Is public transportation good in Edinburgh? Is a B&B a possibility. (Price wise I am looking for a good deal) Do you need to buy tickets to certain "events' far in advance? How many days would be a good length to stay? Oh, any idea on how to get the best airfare from LAX, Can I avoid London-Heathrow? These are some of my questions to get started.

janisj

You will love Edinburgh in August IF you find a place to stay and don't mind crowds. The transport is very easy, and there are B&Bs in all parts of the city which are still w/i easy reach of the center and all venues.

it isn't one festival - there are several festivals plus the Military Tattoo all running at the same time. So places fill up far, far ahead, and most accommodations raise their rates significantly for the entire month. There will not be any "deals" since they can rent anything for just about any price during August.

What is your projected budget for hotel/B&B?

As for flights - you can check lots of different options. In to Edinburgh; London and then a train or plane to Edinburgh; Glasgow/train to Edinburgh; Manchester and then a train, car, or plane to Edinburgh; Amsterdam and flight to Edinburgh; Dublin or Shannon and flight to Edinburgh.

From LAX you have all sorts of options to explore.

danon

it is indeed a lovely city but the crowds are huge!
Finding a spot in a restaurant or a bar can be a challenge at times.
If you e-mail the festival organizers , they will mail you the program.
There is a lot of amateurish theter
and some excellent offerings.
Not cheap !

Bree

There are some Edinburgh experts on this board who can give you good advice about practicalities like where to stay, public transportation, etc., so I'll confine my advice to ticket-buying tips, based on my experience last year.

First of all, there isn't a single "festival" in Edinburgh in August: there's the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe Festival, the Book Festival, and probably some others I'm forgetting at this late hour. The first thing you should do is find the websites for the various festivals and sign up for e-mail notification of next August's events.

The program for the Edinburgh International Festival will be available online (www.eif.co.uk) on April 2, and public booking opens on April 12. If you see something listed that you absolutely have to see, buy a ticket for it in April, because very hot-ticket events will sell out ahead of time. But don't fill up your whole dance card in advance, because Fringe Festival and Book Festival events aren't announced until June, and you want to have the flexibility to go to some of those events. And leave some time unaccounted-for until you get to Edinburgh, just to leave room for spontaneity (and down time, if you need it).

I stayed for five days, and thought that was a good length of time for me. On the other hand, if I were coming from the west coast, I might want to stay longer. Tough call, since it's such an individual choice.

On the flights issue, you can avoid Heathrow by flying Continental from LAX to Newark, and then taking Continental's nonstop flight from Newark to Edinburgh. But a quick check of prices on Expedia just now showed that option to be about $300 more than the BA flights that go through Heathrow, so shop around.

Edinburgh is a great city. I really enjoyed my time there, and hope you do too.

alanRow

www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk contains links to all the sites for the Festivals and the Tattoo

Main thing to note is that if you stay in the centre then it's going to be noisy until the not-so wee small hours and as public travel in Edinburgh is cheap and easy there's no real benefit in staying central

BUT you need to book early for accommodation

Last year there were something like 3000 different shows in the Fringe Festival alone covering every subject known to mankind so there's something for everybody

One thing to note is that there is a half price hut on Princes Street above Waverley Station for various Fringe performances - but it can be pot luck as to what's available.

if there is anything that you really want to see or which gets a good write-up should be booked as soon as you can ESPECIALLY for the Book Festival events where most of them are one offs - I tried booking 7 events 3 days after booking opened - I got NONE of them

There's also a big parade (Edinburgh Cavalcade) on the 1st Sunday of the Fringe Festival and a big FREE Fringe Sunday on the 2nd Sunday of the Fringe Festival which is held on the Meadows and finally on the 1st Sunday in September there are the Festival Fireworks which officially close the festival season

http://www.edfringe.com/story.html?id=920
http://www.edinburghcavalcade.com/

crazychick

I have been to the fringe (comedy) festival a couple of times. Each time I booked everything up as early as I was warned you had to book accomodation early. The first time I was all booked up by the end of Jan and got just where I wanted to stay. The next 2 times, due to others not being able to confirm dates, it was later. About a month later on the 2nd trip and it was about March on the 3rd. I did have to do more ringing and emailing around to find acomadation. In fact on the 3rd trip both I and another friend spent ages before we could find anything. So listen to the advise about booking accomadtion as early as you can. Now for tickets I can only comment on the fringe. I would register on the firends website http://www.edfringe.com/story.html?id=920
I was told to and this provved very usefull on all visits. The full programme does not come out until I think about June. You will then be able to see the listings for all of the shows and get some idea of what the shows are about, and you can but tickets for shows on this site. It has has avery nice planner to help you plan your shows. They will be there ready to pick up in their ticket office.Now for some of the big shows or if there is an act you really want to see I would advise you to buy the tickest on line before as some of these sell out before the festival even starts. I was very dissapointed one year that I could not get Billy Bailey tickets. I would not book too many before and leave yoursef some time for shows to buy tickets while there. You might wnat to catch the odd off the wall show that had a good review and play it by ear on the day for some. Last time I went 2 years ago, as well as the main office they had set up a big arena type thing by pricess garden with loads of PC's in there for you to book them online on the day and then just go to the person on the desk with your booking number and payment. There are newspapers, I cn not remeber the name but it prints a review daily of shows that they have seen with some recamendations to go and see so worth looking at that in morning to help you decide what to go and see in the gaps you have. Yes there is plenty of free stuff mostly in the day but there are so many shows on all over the place with out some guidenece it can be mind blowing so the website is very useful. So is the reviews in the paper. I also found it good to buy tickest before as the ones I really realy wanted to see and were more expensive were paid for a few months before I went so I knew just what my budget was while there. One warning becareful of over committing yourslef by buying too mnay online, also check where the venues are and the start times. The first time I went I bought far to mnay before hand, did not look at the locations and was running around from one venue to another as I nearly missed the start times.
Yes it is very very busy the places is packed we noticed in bars and resturants most of the staff were from Oz,South africe, New Zealand etc when we got talking they said most of the locals move out of Edinburgh while it is fetsival time.

So the main thing is to plan but not over plan leave yourseolf some free adhoc time to go with the flow and enjoy.

isabel

I would suggest you first find a place to stay. One year I tried to find accomodations many months in advance and everything was booked. Prices double or more. I can recommend the Edinburgh Metro hostel though - only open in July and August, it's a university dorm the rest of the time. But the rooms are all singles, lockable (no "dorm type accomodations where you share rooms with people). You share a kitchen and bathroom with a few other rooms, very nice really. No lift, no TV and no AC but other than that it's very nice actually. http://www.syha.org.uk/SYHA/Web/Site...burghMetro.asp

The benefit to staying there is that it's very central - five minutes walk to the Royal Mile. Also, since there are kitchen facilities you won't have to worry about finding restaurants, etc all the time.

hpeabody

Thank you for the great responses all

meks

Edinburgh during Festival time is manic but can be great fun and enjoyment. As has been mentioned the population more than doubles and there is so much going on that you need to sit down as early as possible and try to organise where you want to stay and what you want to do - and the sooner accommodation is booked the better the chances are that you can get good accommodation in a good central location. That way you can walk everywhere and take in both the heritage of the city and see any shows / events which interest you.
Normally regulars attending the festivals will as they leave their Edinburgh accommodation, book for the following year hence the reason why good accommodation is harder to find.
I believe that already all performances for the 2008 Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle are almost sold out and as each nightly performance holds 10,000 that may give you some idea as to numbers in the city over the 4 weeks. There will still be quite a bit of accommodation available for 2008 however check out all the websites (already given and still too be suggested by others on this forum) for events / accommodation etc.
I am sure that you will enjoy it even if you decide to delay your visit until 2009 you could benefit as the dollar should by then have a better rate against the GBP

joanz

My family and I, 4 in total attended several of the festivals last August in Edinburgh. We bought our Military Tattoo tickets on craigslist from someone in the San Francisco area. We stayed at the Marriott just outside the city center and drove in everyday. We called the Marriott property directly and made the reservation just a couple of weeks before we left on the trip. We had no trouble driving or parking in the city center. We had a fantastic time and stayed 5 nights. We bought full price tickets for the Fringe and also bought some 1/2 tickets all while we were there. The restaurants were crowded but we managed to eat some great meals without making reservations. The city was crowded overall but we expected this and just let it be part of the overall experience. We really had a great trip.

marly528

There's a great Travelodge just off the main Royal Mile in St. Mary's Street.It is just walking distance to where the Festival is happening, but because it is in a side street you don't have the noise.
OK, it's quite small and basic, but has a small restaurant, bar and breakfast.We enjoyed our stay and would go there again. Reasonably priced too!

alanRow

<<< We had no trouble driving or parking in the city center >>>

As an Edinburgh resident I neither park or drive in central Edinburgh unless I have no other option.

Care to tell us the secret?

SiobhanP

God you don't need a car in Edinburgh! We brought ours as we took the ferry to Scotland from Dublin but left it parked in the street ourside the B&B. I cannot remember the B&B but search my name and I amy have posted here. We staryed in Bruntsfirld area and I liked it as it was walkable to the grassmarket. I would reccommend going to the tattoo one night its beautiful. Go to the later show as its dark and the castle is lit with torches..stunning and great fun.

We just chilled, ate drank and went where looked interesting. We did not see any shows but tix were for sale but the best gigs were sold out fast. Its a real festival feel the whole month...even the bars were open late.

sheila

Edinburgh at the Festival is terrific. You'll easily find a goo, well located B&B but only if you book NOW. Pricewise, there'll be no "deals" in the Festival. The rooms could be let 3 times over.

Public transportation in Edinburg is very good, and teh city is very walkable.

Watch for the production of the programmes, and if there's anything you definitely want to see, book it asap. If not, just go with the flow. The Scotsman- the daily newspaper- produces a daily supplement full of reviews. Keep an eye on that and, if anything takes your fancy, book it then. Note that if something gets a good review teh tickets go very quickly afterwards. And if it gets a "Fringe First" or Perrier award they become like golddust.

I couldn't stand it at my advanced age for more than 3 or 4 days, but in my youth, I could have stayed the whole month (if I'd had the money!)

Don't assume that the Fringe is all comedy. It's not- lots of drama and music and stuff as well