Which Part Of Edinburgh Is Best To Stay In For First Timers?

Edinburgh's centre splits into two halves facing each other across Princes Street Gardens: the medieval Old Town stacked along the Royal Mile, and the Georgian New Town grid on the other side. First-time visitors almost always want to be in, or right beside, one of those two. Listing data across this site's roster backs that instinct: the cheapest dorm beds and the cheapest central double rooms cluster in exactly these postcodes, so staying central does not have to mean paying luxury prices.

For a first visit, the best base is the Old Town if you want atmosphere and walkability, or the New Town edge if you want quiet nights at a similar price. A dorm bed in the Old Town starts from £10 per night at Kick Ass Greyfriars, while a double room for two adults starts from £83 per night at Travelodge Edinburgh Central Queen Street in the New Town. Both put the castle, the Royal Mile and Waverley station within a 15-minute walk. Solo travellers and backpackers get the most from the Old Town hostel belt; couples and families usually do better in a New Town budget hotel or one stop out in Leith.

The three options above frame the real choice. A hotel room in the New Town, a famously well-reviewed hostel bed beneath the castle, and a hybrid property at Haymarket that mixes private rooms with dorm beds from £13 per night. That third option matters more than many guides admit: staying one transport stop west of the centre is the single easiest way to cut the bill on a first trip without adding much journey time, since Haymarket station is about 4 minutes from Waverley by train and the tram runs through the same corridor.

What Should You Actually Compare Before Booking?

Before booking, compare four things in this order: walking distance to the Royal Mile, since location shapes your whole trip; the price per night on your exact dates rather than generic averages; noise exposure, which you should check for any room you are considering; and transport after dark, so you know how you will get back each evening. The centre is compact, roughly a mile from castle to palace, so a 20-minute walk saves real money. Listing data shows dorm beds in the Old Town ranging from £10 to £19.53 per night, and central doubles from £83 to £115, so the spread inside the centre alone is often wider than the gap between the centre and the suburbs. A bed that looks expensive at first glance can be the cheap option once you stop paying for buses and late-night taxis. Nightly price is only part of the math, and the guide to picking the right length of stay in Edinburgh shows how an extra night can shift what a cheap trip actually costs.

Noise deserves more weight than first-timers give it. Police-recorded figures put the City Centre ward, which covers much of the Old Town and New Town, at 336 crimes per 1,000 population in 2024, the highest figure in Edinburgh, though Scotland overall is safe and violent crime is rare. The practical issue is noise, not safety: during the August Fringe, venues and pubs in the Grassmarket and Cowgate run until 3am, and tenement walls carry sound. If you are visiting in August and value sleep, the New Town, Haymarket or Leith are calmer.

Budget visitor reports collected in the area research consistently describe the same trade: central hostels can be basic and loud, but you step outside into the middle of everything. Out-of-centre stays trade a short tram or bus ride for a lower rate and a quieter street. Trams run every 7 minutes through the day, a single in the city zone costs £2.40, and the day cap on contactless is £5.70, so a couple staying in Leith or Haymarket pays roughly £11 a day in fares for two, a fraction of the nightly difference in room price during peak weeks. If that trade sounds appealing, our guide to Haymarket as a budget base weighs what the West End area offers against a central address.

Every price above is a low-season per-night from-price: dorm figures are for one bed, hotel and guesthouse figures for a double room for two adults. August, Hogmanay and Six Nations weekends at Murrayfield cost far more, and you should never treat these numbers as a promise for your dates.

Which Part Of Edinburgh Is Best To Stay In?

The best part depends on what kind of trip it is: the Old Town for a first-time solo or backpacking trip, the New Town for couples and families who want quiet, Haymarket for the lowest flexible prices, and Leith for a cheaper, food-focused stay. There is no single winning postcode. The wrong question is which area is best overall; the right one is which area matches your nights budget and your tolerance for walking uphill. A bed at £10 per night in the Cowgate and a double at £83 on Queen Street are both good answers to different questions.

The Old Town makes the strongest case for a first visit. Five of the cheapest dorm beds on this site's roster sit there, including Castle Rock Hostel at 9.42/10 across 25,769 reviews, one of the largest review pools of any stay listed anywhere in the city, from £16 per bed. High Street Hostel and Royal Mile Backpackers are in the same family of well-rated, adults-only hostels within a few minutes of the Royal Mile. The catch is age policies: several of these hostels admit only guests aged 18 and over, so families should skip straight to the hotel sections.

The New Town is where budget hotels do their best work. easyHotel Edinburgh on Princes Street lists doubles from £88, and Travelodge Edinburgh Central Queen Street, a cheap New Town base that anchors this article's comparison, from £83. You are across the gardens from the castle rather than beneath it, which is a fair trade for quieter nights. For a deeper look at the trade-offs, the companion piece on Old Town versus New Town works through the same choice in detail.

What Part Of Edinburgh Is Best To Stay In?

If you want one answer rather than a matrix: book the western edge of the New Town or Haymarket for a first trip, because you keep a 20-to-25-minute walk to the Royal Mile while cutting the nightly rate. MEININGER Hotel Edinburgh Haymarket, which opened in August 2026 in a converted office block, sells dorm beds from £13 and private rooms alongside them, rated 8.2/10 across 503 reviews. The tram from Haymarket reaches Princes Street in minutes, and the train to Waverley takes about 4 minutes.

Haymarket's rise as a budget base is recent and real. Before this year the area's cheap options were limited to a Travelodge; the new hybrid property changed that, and planning approvals through 2026 point to more supply coming, which historically softens rates. The area research also notes Haymarket sits a 25-minute walk from the very centre, flat and straightforward, so many guests barely touch the tram. For the wider picture of hotel pricing, see why Edinburgh hotels cost so much.

Leith is the other cheap alternative worth a first-timer's attention. The tram now runs the length of Leith Walk to the waterfront, the Shore's converted warehouses hold some of the city's best-value eating, and Premier Inn Edinburgh Leith Waterfront lists doubles from £85 per night, rated 4/5 across 77 reviews. The ward's recorded crime rate, 118 per 1,000 in 2024, is the second highest listed in the research, but that figure reflects a dense urban district rather than a specific risk to visitors; the same research describes Leith as regenerated and well-patronised. The wider set of guides lives on Cheap Hotels Edinburgh.

What Is The Best Part Of Edinburgh To Stay In?

By traveller type: solo backpackers, the Old Town; couples, the New Town or Haymarket; families, Leith Waterfront or the budget hotels near Edinburgh Park with tram access; long stays and self-catering, the aparthotels of the Old Town and New Town. The reasoning is purely about price per night and space. A family of four in one Premier Inn family room in Leith at from £85 total often pays less than two dorm beds would cost in mid-August, and university residences open to the public in summer add another cheap layer in the Southside.

Families should also weigh the guesthouse belt south of the Meadows. Arrandale Guest House lists doubles from £100 per night, rated 8/10 across 1,537 reviews, in a student district where food is cheap and buses to the centre run every few minutes. The full rundown of family options is in the family hotels guide, and the guesthouse alternative is covered separately in the bed and breakfast guide.

Long-stay visitors and anyone cooking for themselves should look at aparthotels rather than areas. Stewart by Heeton Concept in the New Town lists doubles from £125, and Holyrood Aparthotel on the Royal Mile's eastern end from £132, both with kitchen facilities in an apartment-style set-up. The per-night figure looks high against a budget hotel, but two people eating one meal a day in the room break even quickly, as the aparthotel guide sets out. Wherever you book, check the listing's licence number and cancellation terms yourself; breakfast and free cancellation policies are things to confirm at checkout, not to assume.

Which Is The Best Part Of Edinburgh To Stay In?

For most first-timers, the cheapest genuinely good option is a bed in Haymarket or Leith, so if budget leads your decision, look there first. The best-value answer overall, though, is whichever area's cheapest stay still lets you walk home after dinner, because that combination of low price and an easy walk back is what makes a location worth booking over anywhere else in the city. The council's visitor levy rules add 5% of the room or bed price, before VAT, to the first five nights of any stay from 24 July 2026, so the levy on an £83 room is modest but real, and it applies equally in every neighbourhood. Cheap Cheap Hotels Edinburgh readers should also factor the tram's £2.40 city single when comparing a suburban rate.

Timing matters as much as geography. Advertised city-wide hotel averages tracked by HotelMonitor show January at £111 per night against £199 in August, and the market data behind those figures puts last August's occupancy at 90.9% with average daily rates of £261. A first-timer visiting in January can stay almost anywhere on this page for the price of a distant August suburb. The official Old Town and New Town description from VisitScotland is worth a read before you choose, since it explains the World Heritage pairing you will be sleeping inside.

One warning that belongs to Edinburgh specifically: check the Murrayfield calendar before you book anything. Concert and rugby weekends produce the sharpest spikes of the year, reported at more than 50% and in one measured case 88% above normal rates, and they hit Haymarket and the West End hardest because of proximity to the stadium. The Murrayfield hotels guide lists the options that make sense when the stadium is hosting a major event.

Common Questions About Where To Stay In Edinburgh

Which Part Of Edinburgh Is Best To Stay In For First Timers?

The Old Town for atmosphere and the cheapest dorm beds, or the New Town edge for a quiet double room at a similar price. Both keep the castle, the Royal Mile and Waverley station within a 15-minute walk, which is what a first visit actually needs.

which part of edinburgh is best to stay in?

It depends on traveller type: solo visitors and backpackers do best in the Old Town hostel belt, couples in the New Town or Haymarket, families in Leith Waterfront or an out-of-centre hotel with tram access, and long-stay visitors in an aparthotel with a kitchen.

what part of edinburgh is best to stay in?

For one answer: the western edge of the New Town or Haymarket. You keep a 20-to-25-minute walk to the Royal Mile, gain tram and rail links, and pay less, with dorm beds from £13 and doubles from £83 nearby.

which is the best part of edinburgh to stay in?

The best-value choice is whichever area's cheapest stay still lets you walk home after dinner. Central beds from £10 per night exist, but Haymarket and Leith often deliver a better room for the money on the same dates.

Is the Old Town too noisy for a first visit?

Outside August it is usually fine, and well-reviewed hostels there include adult-only quiet policies. During the Fringe, venues and pubs in the Grassmarket and Cowgate run until 3am, so noise-sensitive visitors should book the New Town, Haymarket or Leith instead.

Does staying outside the centre cost more in transport?

Very little. A city-zone tram or bus single is £2.40, the contactless daily cap is £5.70, and the tram runs every 7 minutes through the day. A couple staying in Leith or Haymarket pays around £11 a day in fares for two, far less than the usual nightly saving on the room.