We went searching for amazing castles, and we can say we found them! That city has one of the most beautiful castles we have seen so far, and we also understood how many writers can be inspired, among so many remarkable stories and places such as that one. We can ensure that there will be an excellent place for you to visit in your trips, so follow what we found during our days there!

Arthur’s Seat 

We held a morning by to go up a hill where there’s the place named Arthur’s Seat. It is 251 meters high and is one of the symbols of the city. Be attentive when choosing the route of the uphill, as Google gave us the worst one, with stairways and mud in some parts. But that was the way where we went over and, as we went there very early, there was nobody to ask about the best path. From the top of the uphill, we saw the easiest way to go down.

The day had the perfect weather, that was where we had an overall view of the city, and we could take beautiful photos. At 10am, we started going down, as the crowd of tourists were starting to arrive. The time for going down and up the hill ranges from 30 to 40 minutes of light walk. You don’t pay anything to visit!

Carlton Hill

The place absolutely called us out, once it has some old monuments. As it was for free, we went there to discover it. We got into a museum, but there was nothing that caught our eye there. But the walk is worthwhile, as the view of the city from that point is very beautiful!

At the corner, there is a restaurant with an overall view and, quite next to the observatory, some samples of contemporary arts take place.

Here’s the link for further information: www.collective-edimburgh.artl

The Streets of Edinburgh

The city of Edinburgh has a cinematographic visual, where you walk to a movie scene. Yes, lots of movies have already been recorded there, and even many local stories have become best sellers. You get charmed with so much beauty and the surprising places. Times is needed to get into all of the streets that show up and, out of the blue, a spectacular image arises. It’s essential to discover that city and walk through the streets full of stories and architecture of the past.

National Museum of Scotland

We hadn’t researched anything about the National Museum of Scotland before getting into it, and we rarely go to museums, unless they have a great importance such as that one, then it’s essential! Most of the times, expensive fees are charged, but it’s not the case of that one specially, as the entrance is free. Actually, there are cashiers at the entrance and the exit of the museum where you can donate some money.

Visiting that museum was very interesting and funny, as it is different of the other ones, due to the widely varied collection, from animals of a very ancient era, such as dinosaurs, from nowadays, with machines such as a particle accelerator, karts and many other items with an amazing interactivity such as simulators, energy generators and robots. It’s very worthwhile to visit it, and you’ll need about 3 to 4 hours to see everything calmly, that’s why there’s a café inside it, so that you can enjoy a little more the place.

Here’s the link for further information: www.nms.ac.uk

Free Walking Tour and Cemetery

That’s absolutely the city with the highest number of free tours in the world!

From 10am on, people meet in front of Edinburgh council with their guides, who hold some umbrellas with the name of the company where the tour is booked, and groups of 20 up to 30 people go for a walk every hour on the hour, and the walks range from 1 to 2.5 hours. There are options of languages such as: German, English, Spanish. Possibly, there are other ones, but we saw only those ones then.

There are also different categories, such as: the usual Free Tour, for who wants to learn more about the city, and it focuses on streets and historical buildings; New Town Tour, for who wants to visit the new part of the city; Harry Potter Tour, for who wants to know how the writer got inspiration for some characters and create all the story, and see the cafés where she used to write; and for who likes ghosts stories, there’s also Ghost Tour, which tells some macabre stories and show some haunted places in the city.

We took many of these free tours, they’re very good, and all of them finished at the famous and also haunted Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery. In the end, the guides ask for donations stipulated according to how much you want to give, and if you want, of course!

There are some sites of the companies that carry out the tours, such as:

Here’s the link for further information: www.neweuropetours.eu

Here’s the link for further information: www.edinburghfreetours.com

Some ones ask you to register to ensure your vacancy, as there’s a limit of people per guide, and the demand is high.

Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street Garden

We walked a lot through the huge garden that intersects the new city and the old city, where a lot of people go to enjoy one of the best views of Edinburgh Castle, where it is possible to watch the cannon shot, used by sailors to hit their clocks with the sound of the shot anciently, every day at 1pm.

There’s much space to have a picnic there. Almost everyone buys something and go to the garden to sit down on the grass or at the available tables and enjoy the view, the fountains and the statues.

Whereas who wants to visit inside the castle has to pay an average of 20 pounds (108 reais), where they’ll see the chapel of Saint Margaret, the royal palace, the National War Museum of Scotland and the jewelry of the crown, and an amazing overall view of the city, built on the rocks in around 200 B.C.

Here’s the link for further information: www.edinburghcastle.scot

Where to stay

We chose to stay with Booking, and we found an excellent place, a room with private bathroom and a double kitchen with a shared dining room, the place still had a games room and entertainment, just 2 km from the center very close to some of the places most visited in the region, follows the name of the place Brae House – Student Accomodation.

Means of Transport

We arrived via the National Express bus from Glasgow, worth £ 7 (38 reais) each ticket. Once inside the city, we walked to our aparthotel, which was 800 meters from Edinburgh station.

Link: www.nationalexpress.com/en

The local means of transport are great and very comfortable, it is very easy to use, we use the airlink100 bus that leaves in front of the central station to the airport we pay 4.5 pounds each.

Link: https://www.edinburghairport.com/transport-links/buses-and-coaches

Safety of the City

For the period that we stayed we found it very safe, and we saw little policing in the streets and in the tourist spots. We walked a lot throughout the city during the day and it was very quiet, people are super friendly and helpful. We also avoid walking alone after 9 pm. We love walking around here.

Travel Insurance

For you to travel in peace, it’s important to have a travel insurance which keeps you safe and has a comprehensive coverage. We always ensure with April Brasil Seguro Viagem,  which covers all around the world, it has an app that is easy to access, for you not to keep all that paperwork when you need to use it, the best part, you can access it from everywhere in the world with service in our language.

So, don’t waste time and hire something safe, and we have a discount coupon, we’ll leave the link below too! Run and use it.

DISCOUNT COUPON: COUTRIPS10%

https://www.aprilbrasil.com.br/coutrips

Internet For Your Trip

To keep your connection during all the trip, you need a great SIM card, with a worldwide coverage, internet 3G and 4G. For that, we used Easysim4u, the best internet SIM card in the world for your trip. And see that we have been through some countries and we always had the coverage of the plans of Easysim4u. Don’t waste time, run and hire your SIM card for your next trip.

Here’s the link for you to access and ensure your connection to the internet in the world.

https://www.easysim4u.com/?sourceCode=coutrips

Kind of Currency

Edinburgh’s local currency is the Pound, and the exchange rate in August / 2019 is $ 1.00 to 0.82 Pound. We recommend changing the currency in a safe place such as an airport or an Exchange, bank in the city. It is good to always have the local currency.

Total Expenses

Our currency expenses (REAL) in Edinburgh for 5 days for the couple looked like this:

Food: R$ 107.00 (market, snacks)

Transportation: R$ 45.00 (bus)

Accommodation: R$ 602.00 (Booking)

We got charmed with that really beautiful city, and with a historical center that goes back to the era of ancient knights, and it’s very well preserved, with plenty of amazing stories and curiosities.

We walked a lot through the alleys in a mind-blowing up and down to see each mile of the city, that’s why the free walking tours are worthwhile. They’ll often take you to places where you wouldn’t go to. Get the tip!