What Part Of Edinburgh Is Cheapest To Stay In?

What Part Of Edinburgh Is Cheapest To Stay In?

The cheapest part of Edinburgh to stay in is the Cowgate and Grassmarket fringe of the Old Town for beds, where Kick Ass Greyfriars lists dorm beds from £10 per night, and Leith for rooms, where Mayfair Guest House lists doubles from £55 per night for two adults. Both figures are low-season from-prices. Nothing central and hotel-shaped gets close.

That is the headline from the site's own roster of 41 Edinburgh stays, and the gap between areas is wide enough to change a trip budget (see Days In Edinburgh). A dorm bed at the bottom of the Old Town costs about the same as two coffees. A double room two tram stops from the centre in Leith costs roughly a third of what the cheapest Old Town aparthotel charges. The pattern is consistent across every stay type: the closer you sleep to the Royal Mile, the more the same bed or room costs.

The reason is ordinary economics. The Old Town and New Town hold the sights, so they command premiums every night of the year, not just in August. The Southside and Newington, with its student population around the University of Edinburgh, keeps a permanent floor of cheap beds and guesthouses. Leith, once a separate port town, has cheaper land and cheaper buildings, and that shows up in the room rate. Haymarket and the West End sit between the two worlds, and leith's £55 guesthouse doubles beat the airport corridor's £69, without the commute.

Here is how the verified from-prices line up by area. Hostel figures are one dorm bed per night; hotel, aparthotel and guesthouse figures are a double room for two adults per night, all low-season.

Read the table by column, not just by row. The cheapest priced room inside the Old Town starts at £106, nearly double Leith's £55. Meanwhile the cheapest dorm bed in the city is also in the Old Town. Cheap Edinburgh is cheap in two completely different ways: cheap beds right in the centre, and cheap rooms further out.

Which Part Of Edinburgh Is Best To Stay In?

Best depends on what you are paying for. For pure cost, the Old Town hostel belt wins outright with beds from £10. For a private room on a budget, Leith wins with doubles from £55. For a quiet night's sleep at a fair price, the Southside guesthouse rows around £100 to £102 are the strongest value, trading a 35-minute walk to Waverley for peaceful Georgian streets.

Every cheap area in Edinburgh makes the same trade: money for minutes. The Southside and Newington sits about 1.4 miles from Waverley station, roughly a 35-minute walk or a short bus ride on frequent routes such as the 3, 29 and 31 into the centre. Leith has trams to Foot of the Walk and Ocean Terminal, running every 7 minutes at peak times, with an adult single in the city zone at £2.40. The airport corridor has the tram too, but the ride from the airport to the centre takes just under 35 minutes, so a cheap room there buys you a daily commute both ways.

The centre makes the opposite trade. Sleeping in the Old Town puts the Royal Mile, Waverley station and most festival venues within a ten-minute walk, and in August that convenience is worth real money because festival nights end late and buses thin out. But the City Centre ward, which covers much of the Old Town and New Town, recorded 336 crimes per 1,000 population in 2024, the highest figure in Edinburgh, and tenement buildings transmit noise. Budget visitor reports describe some central hostels as basic but unbeatably located. If you sleep cheap in the centre, you sleep where the noise is.

There is a quiet middle path. Leith's ward recorded 118 crimes per 1,000 in 2024, with the Southside and Newington ward lower at 81. For travellers who value sleep over stumbling distance, the guesthouses of the Southside and the waterfront rooms of Leith deliver cheaper beds and calmer streets than anything central.

The standout private-room bargain is in Leith. Mayfair Guest House lists doubles from £55 per night for two adults, rated 7/10 across 821 reviews, the lowest verified room rate anywhere on this roster. See current rates for Mayfair Guest House in Leith before comparing anything central, because at less than half the price of an Old Town budget hotel it changes the arithmetic of the whole trip. For a fuller rundown of the city's B&B belt, the Southside guesthouse and B&B guide covers the area in detail.

Why The Cheapest Rooms Sit Outside The Centre

Edinburgh's cheap rooms sit outside the centre because the centre sells location, not space. With hotel occupancy running at 84.6 percent in 2025 and average daily rates at £165, city-centre owners have no reason to discount, so the budget stock concentrates where land is cheaper: Leith, the Southside, Haymarket's edges and the airport corridor, where a double from £69 exists only because nobody walks to the castle from there.

That occupancy figure matters more than most visitors realise. Edinburgh was the busiest of the sampled European gateway markets in the 12 months to April 2026, with occupancy above 84 percent, so central rooms sell anyway. The price pressure pushes outward. Haymarket's budget stock, like Travelodge Edinburgh Haymarket at £96 or the newly opened hybrid MEININGER with dorm beds from £13, exists precisely because the West End is a 25-minute walk or a 4-minute train ride from the centre, just far enough out to halve the rate.

The transport cost of staying out rarely cancels the saving. A day of city travel costs £6.00 on a City Day ticket, or £5.70 with the contactless daily cap, on both trams and Lothian buses, per the operator's ticket page. A couple staying four nights in Leith at £55 versus £115 centrally saves £240 on the room and spends perhaps £45 on transport, even if they ride everywhere. The maths only reverses during the Fringe, when central convenience is worth paying for after midnight venues.

One genuinely cheap option sits far out: ibis budget Edinburgh Park, double rooms from £85 per night for two adults, rated 7.6/10 across a substantial 9,294 reviews. It sits on the tram line by Edinburgh Business Park, and its cheapest month is November according to price snapshots, when averages dip well below the May peak. It suits early flights and drivers who want to avoid the city's Low Emission Zone entirely.

What Is The Best Part Of Edinburgh To Stay In?

The best part of Edinburgh to stay in, for most budget travellers, is Leith for couples wanting a private room from £55, the Cowgate for solo travellers happy with a dorm bed from £10, and the Southside for families and anyone who wants a guesthouse double near £100 with calm streets around it. The Old Town is best only if you accept paying double for the address.

Matching the area to the traveller is where the decision actually gets made. Solo travellers get the best raw deal in the city: Kick Ass Greyfriars at £10 per dorm bed, rated 8.38/10 across 8,963 reviews, in a building with approval for a five-storey expansion granted in January 2026, so the cheap-bed supply there is growing. Couples should look at Leith first, then the Southside's Arrandale Guest House at £100 or Kingsley Guest House at £102, both rated 8/10 and above, before touching anything central.

Families have a narrower path, because most hostels in the centre are adults-only. Castle Rock Hostel and High Street Hostel both require all guests to be 18 or over, and the Kick Ass sites allow under-18s only in restricted circumstances. That pushes families toward budget hotels and guesthouses, which is one reason the question of areas to avoid, covered in which Edinburgh areas to avoid staying in, is really a noise-and-crime question rather than a danger one.

Whichever area wins, the bill now carries one extra line. The Edinburgh Visitor Levy is 5% of the room or bed price before VAT, charged on the first five nights only, for stays from 24 July 2026 where the booking was made on or after 1 October 2025, per the council's scheme page. On a £55 room that is a matter of pence; on an August central booking it compounds the premium. Choosing the cheap area before you choose the stay is the single biggest saving available in this city, and Cheap Hotels Edinburgh exists to make that comparison in numbers rather than adjectives.

One more Leith option worth a look: Abbotsford Guest House, doubles from £105 per night for two adults, rated 7.6/10 across 1,364 reviews, a step up in comfort from the £55 end while staying well under central rates.

To sum up the bands: beds under £15 cluster in the Cowgate; rooms under £60 exist only in Leith; rooms £83 to £102 stretch from Edinburgh Park through Leith to the Southside; and everything from £115 up is the price of sleeping inside the Old Town's stones. The city rewards anyone willing to ride a tram for ten minutes.

Common Questions About Cheap Areas Of Edinburgh

what part of edinburgh is the cheapest to stay in?

The Cowgate area of the Old Town for dorm beds, from £10 per night at Kick Ass Greyfriars, and Leith for private rooms, from £55 per night for a double at Mayfair Guest House. Both are low-season from-prices; August and Hogmanay cost far more everywhere.

which part of edinburgh is best to stay in?

It depends on the trade you want. The Old Town for walkability at a premium, Leith for the cheapest rooms, the Southside for calm guesthouse streets around £100 to £102 a night, and Haymarket for a middle ground with train and tram links.

Is it safe to stay in the cheaper areas?

Generally yes. The Southside and Newington ward recorded 81 crimes per 1,000 population in 2024 against 336 in the City Centre ward, so the cheaper southern and eastern areas are statistically calmer than the expensive centre. Common-sense precautions apply everywhere.

Does staying outside the centre cost more in transport?

Rarely enough to cancel the saving. A city day ticket costs £6.00, with a £5.70 contactless cap, covering trams and buses. A couple saving £60 a night on the room spends a fraction of that moving around.

Are the cheapest central beds adults-only?

Many are. Castle Rock Hostel and High Street Hostel require all guests to be 18 or over, and the Kick Ass hostels restrict under-18s. Families chasing cheap central stays are usually pushed toward budget hotels instead.