Trip to Edinburgh

Accomodation in Edinburgh

Took a spontaneous 4 days trip to Edinburgh over the weekends and a little in the week. Booked 2 different hostels over the 4 days as I wanted to meet more people and talk about different travel experiences with others. I stayed in Royal Mile Backpackers Hostel and Kick Ass Hostel. I felt that Royal Mile backpackers Hostel was better in my opinion even though it was much smaller compared to Kick Ass Hostel, but it felt more welcoming. There were late night conversations and drinks in Royal Mile Hostel with the people working there, whereas in Kick Ass Hostel, people just kept to themselves most of the time (maybe they were just tired, but who knows).

Scotch Whisky Tour

The Scotch Whisky Tour is located on the same street towards the Edinburgh Castle, it is pretty close to the entrance of the castle and it is very accessible too.

There are 2 different pricing schemes that you can choose from: The Silver Tour and The Gold Tour. The sole main difference between the both tours is the number of whisky you get to taste. For the Silver, you are entitled to only 1 type of whisky out of 5, while the Gold allows you to try the 5 main whisky produced in Scotland. In addition, there is also some guided tours that start at around 10 am or 6 pm and it includes meal and liquor pairing as well. As I didn’t want to get really drunk in the afternoon after the tour, I opted for the silver one. Don’t forget to show your student pass to receive a discount on the tickets as well!

At the start, the tour brings you on a whisky barrel roller coaster where it will show you the brewing process of whisky through animated motion pictures. Every process of the production would be explained in details, hence you’re definitely going to learn something about the production of whisky after the whisky barrel tour.

Then you will move along to the guided tour where experienced guides would show you the 5 different types of whisky. You will be shown several videos during the explaining and also an introduction to the aromas in whisky around Scotland. You will also be given a rub card where you can rub the patches on the card to smell the different main ingredients of the whisky. Its amazing that you can smell grapefruit, wood chips and even banana in whisky! I even learnt that blended whisky is made up of different whisky around and each blend differs from each other according to the proportion of different whisky used.

Try different whisky

After the explanation, you will move to the round table where you get to choose the whisky that you prefer, but was told not to drink it yet. I was so eager to give it a taste to see if it was different from the rest I ever tasted! As the guides poured the whisky, an animation would be shown on the whisky bottles in the center which gives you a rough idea on how blended whisky is made. Then the whisky showroom would be open where more than 3, 000 whisky bottles are displayed. It started by a whisky enthusiast named Claive Vidiz from Brazil in the 1970s who seek to purchase Scotch whisky of different type, cost and rarity. These bottles are collected over a 40 year period and it is said to be the world’s largest whisky collection with many are worth more than £10, 000. The first 6 bottles ever collected by Claive Vidiz is placed on its lone shelf apart from the rest as it signifies the start of his ever growing collection. There was this whisky chess set that caught my attention and I asked the guide about it. He mentioned that this chess set was to be played in a way that if a pawn gets ‘eaten’ you will uncap and drink the whisky in it. I was thinking to myself:‘damn, I am gonna be dead drunk after a game or two! ’

At the end of the tour, you'll get to keep the glass that you drank in as a souvenir. There are also whisky for sale at the souvenir room where there are almost 500 different types of bottled whisky. Be sure to look for the bottle of whisky that costs £27, 500!

Dean Village

Dean Village is just a short walk away from Edinburgh city centre. It would take around 10-15 minutes walk from Waverley train station. It's a quaint little town with lovely gardens and paths along the river, named Water of Leith. Despite being close to the city, it offers tranquillity and quietness where you can rest your weary souls and immerse yourself in the sounds of nature. It was such a different environment to be in compared to the city. It felt as though your pace of life has slowed down tremendously and you just want to enjoy yourself in this small town. Take a walk along Water of Leith as you navigate around Dean Village. Don’t walk back the way you came back to the city! Be sure to walk down the nature path along Water of Leith towards St Bernard's well. Right ahead as you follow along Saunders street, turn right at the junction towards Circus Place. At there, you will see Circus Lane. The Circus Mews is the most beautiful and picturesque mew in Edinburgh. Hidden from the main road, Circus Lane has become one of the most photographed spot in Edinburgh. Naturally, I found myself taking a lot of photos of the place.

Arthur's Seat

Arthur’s Seat is a dormant volcano that is located on the highest point of Holyrood Park. It is around a 5 minutes walk from the castle.

Climbing Arthur's Seat was no easy feat considering the terrain, which is made up of rough rocks and it is pretty steep as well! Go on a good day if it's possible because the slopes might be slippery which makes your descend so much more difficult. I climbed the Arthur’s Seat on two very different days, one being a rainy day which got me soaking wet, and another on a nice sunny evening where I get to watch the sun set.

After going on 2 different days and on different paths, I realised that at Arthur's Seat, there are more than one path available. At the foot of Arthur’s Seat, you will observe that there are 2 separate paths. The one on the right leads around Arthur's Seat and does not bring you up to the summit. However, if you take the path on the left, which leads to the back to the hill, it would eventually bring you up to the peak. There will be a map at the foot as well. On the rainy day, I went on the path on the left which brings me to the back of Arthur’s Seat where it got pretty steep at times and I was really exhausted by the end of the climb, considering that I didn’t have breakfast at all and it was pouring heavily. However I did make it to the top and the view was as though I was standing on a higher mountain of higher altitude. I thought to myself that I am coming back another day with better weather.

So when the weather got better the other day, I went to Arthur’s Seat again for sunset. Although it is the same sun setting all the time, however what I loved about sunsets is that at every single location, it just feels different! So if you really want to enjoy the view from Arthur’s Seat, be sure to go on a good day.

There is so much more in Edinburgh that I want to see and explore, however my time in Edinburgh has come to an end and I had to return back to work for my internship. Yet I know, it is definitely not the last time that I am here.

Photo gallery