The Best Hotels in Edinburgh
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There's plenty to love about Edinburgh—the rich history, the neoclassic architecture, the lively pub culture. The hotel scene is also at the top of its game. To book a room at one of the city's historic and grand addresses—particularly The Balmoral—is less about a typical hotel stay and more about a prized experience. And then there are the chic boutique hotels and smart apartments that are popping up around the city, from secret and serene hideaways in the Old Town to converted Victorian townhouses. Whisky bars are naturally a given, as are opulent and colorful interiors. This is also a city where it's worth booking a room with a view, or making the most of a hotel rooftop bar should the temperamental weather be in your favor. To help you narrow down your search, our editors have reviewed the best hotels in Edinburgh.
How we choose the best hotels in Edinburgh
Every hotel on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveler journalist who knows the destination and has stayed at that property. When choosing properties, our editors consider both luxury hotels and boutique and lesser-known boltholes that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination. We’re always looking for beautiful design, a great location, and warm service—as well as serious sustainability credentials. We update this list regularly as new hotels open and existing ones evolve.
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100 Princes streethotel100 Princes Street
$$$A discreet address with castle views
The city's latest newcomer combines the plush seclusion of a member’s club, with the personal service that Red Carnation hotels are known for. There’s no doorman, so a black “100” flag is the main giveaway. Inside, it’s a place of low-lit and low-key velveteen elegance, with 30 discreet rooms over five floors. At The Wallace, a leather-walled lounge and bar area on the second floor, there are vintage globes and oil paintings of tiger fights and steamers on storm-lashed seas. Over a Penicillin whisky cocktail on a tartan-upholstered chair, I take in unobstructed golden views of the lowering sun hitting Edinburgh Castle—a rare treat, even for locals.
Each of the 30 rooms shares a certain cocooning tactility—many taking reddish or greenish color schemes from walls covered in one of the hotel’s bespoke tartans. All have marble bathrooms and a similar thematic fusion of the intellectual and the exotic. Beyond the building, the hotel offers an impressive list of experiences—from fishing on the River Tweed with a packed lunch to private visits to the atelier of designer Araminta Campbell, with the chance to commission bespoke fabrics. There’s room for golf bags downstairs, so for many, this may well be the city stop before heading for Muirfield or St Andrews or perhaps the fly fishing beats to the north. —Toby Skinner
Address: 100 Princes St, Edinburgh EH2 3AB
Price: From around $659 per night
Courtesy Gleneagles TownhousehotelGleneagles Townhouse
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Hot List 2023The member's club-meets-hotel
Everyone knows all about the original Gleneagles in rural Perthshire, which has long been the stuff of legend. Acquired by Ennismore in 2015, it was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and an invigorating defibrillator blast—and it worked. The place has surely never looked better or felt more lively than it does today. You can perceive a family resemblance in the Townhouse, though in terms of temperament—as well as scale, tone, and emphasis—she is very much her own person. This is ostensibly—though not entirely—a members’ club, though it most respects it also functions as a normal hotel. Non-members can dine in the restaurant (spectacular), stay in the rooms (delightful), and drink in the rooftop bar (terrific). Senior staff members are notable for their presence. You see them all the time, they remember your name, they are actively solicitous of your well-being, and they will actually take time to chat—all of which is more impressive and less common than it might sound.
Address: 39 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh EH2 2AD
Price: From around $664 per night
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Courtesy The Balmoral, A Rocco Forte HotelhotelThe Balmoral Hotel
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Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024Edinburgh's original grande dame hotel
While there are other hotels synonymous with a city, few can claim to be such an integral part of its hometown’s landscape as the Balmoral in Edinburgh—or to be as well-loved by locals. Thanks to its imposing 190-foot clock tower it is an unmistakeable part of the Scottish capital’s skyline, perhaps the most unmistakable in the UK—with the possible exception of London. If you're after a full-on, north-of-the-border experience without having to tramp through scratchy gorges or be devoured by midges, then head to The Balmoral.
The neo-Renaissance building is Edinburgh's most famous hotel, opening as the North British Railway Hotel in 1902. It recently had a multi-million-dollar makeover: Rocco Forte Hotels' Olga Polizzi aims to whisk guests off on a virtual grand tour of the country with a color palette taking in the golden lichens and fern greens of the lowlands, the moorland's heathery purples, and the stony grays and sultry blues of the Highlands and islands. The food at Brasserie Prince has also had an update, where French techniques are used to cook Scottish ingredients, with rich Normandy onion soup and steak tartare on the menu. The interiors, meanwhile, have been spruced up by Martin Brudnidzki, whose designs at member’s club Annabel’s are among the most photographed in London. As everyone here will tell you, the great clock of the Balmoral has always been set three minutes fast to help the good people of Edinburgh catch their trains. (Except on Hogmanay—unsurprising when you think what a big deal New Year is to the city.) Now, it will help you get to lunch on time, too.
Address: 1 Princes St, Edinburgh EH2 2EQ
Price: From around $671 per night
Virgin Hotels EdinburghhotelVirgin Hotels Edinburgh
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2023, 2024A new vibe for Edinburgh’s Old Town
A fabulous addition to Edinburgh’s UNESCO-listed Old Town—itself a place of great drama, with its mysterious lanes, moody shadows, looming stony facades and suddenly expanding vistas. The hotel occupies a prime spot on curvy, hilly Victoria Street. Though much of the 19th-century charm of the original India Buildings, as they were known, has been preserved—the three-tiered domed rotunda is especially lovely—the overall feeling inside is one of carefully choreographed postmodern mischief. The 222 rooms are thoughtfully configured, pale and creamy in tone with vivid red accents (in case you forget for a nanosecond that you’re in a Virgin-branded property). Each of the eight Grand Chamber suites has something delightful and/or unexpected about it—a mezzanine decorated in the style of a Bedouin tent, for example. In a city blessed with more than its share of excellent restaurants and bars, the Commons Club Restaurant and Bar more than hold their own—they’re outstanding. Though the hotel is by no means short on the kind of whimsical, self-referential touches for which Sir Richard Branson is famous, this is offset by an appealing sense of fun mixed with seriousness of purpose. —Steve King
Address: 1, India Buildings, Victoria St, Edinburgh EH1 2EX
Price: From around $402 per night
Courtesy House of GodsHouse of Gods
An intimate, velvet-clad hotel where beige is blasphemy
Though any and all are welcome, this is not, perhaps, going to be a house for every god. But if you’re the right kind of god—that’s to say, one with a disdain for natural light, a fondness for velvety opulence, neon signage against Gucci heron wallpaper, and an atmosphere of playful debauchery—then you’ll fit right in and have an absolute ball. With the exception of a single suite, the 22 rooms are, shall we say, compact; but what they lack in scale they make up for in attitude. (The design of the smallest rooms was inspired by the compartments on the Orient Express—another kind of minimalist space with maximalist ambitions.) There’s a gadget by the door with three buttons: one for your butler, one for milk and cookies, one for prosecco. An ace mixologist may also be summoned to prepare cocktails in your room; not only that but, to make the decision-making process simpler, you can order your drinks based on songs you like—which your mixologist will play for you while he or she prepares the relevant concoction. (You might consider ordering pizza to be delivered in the meantime.) Directly opposite the hotel’s Lounge Bar, on the other side of a tiny courtyard (the crossing of which may be the only time you spend outside during your stay), are two additional House of Gods bars, Lilith’s Lounge and the Casablanca Club, where, somehow, the decadence-factor has been dialed up even higher. Lord have mercy. —Steve King
Address: 233 Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1JQ
Price: From around $268 per night
Nicholas Worley/Courtesy Eden LockehotelEden Locke
$Studio apartments made for hipsters
Eden Locke calls itself an aparthotel for self-sufficient people staying in downtown Edinburgh, but don’t be put off by the description. From the street, it looks just like any other classical New Town Georgian townhouse: staid and rather imposing. But inside, the Mint Julep walls, wicker chairs, tropical plants, and rag rugs on pale oak floors beat the ubiquitous tartan to the punch. This place is a hipster headspin. Check-in happens at the ground-floor third-wave coffee shop Hyde & Son, which transforms at night into a lively bar serving razor-sharp cocktails, artisanal gins, and beers. On Saturdays, a DJ plays funk and soul. Apartments are a perfect storm of millennial pink and Elephant’s Breath, brass detailing, and anglepoise-style lamps, curated by Manhattan design firm Grzywinski+Pons (other projects include New York’s Nolitan Hotel and Hotel on Rivington, and sister property Bermonds Locke in London). The original sash windows give views down to the clickety-clack of George Street. Kitchens are equipped with a Smeg cooker, a stash of Rude Health granola and T2 tea bags, plus spot-on listings of the closest grocers and provisions that can be delivered to your door. Or step out to one of the delicious restaurants in Edinburgh. And the longer you stay, the cheaper it gets.
Address: 127 George St, Edinburgh EH2 4JN
Price: From around $201 per night
Courtesy The RoseateThe Roseate
A super-smart boutique hotel
This 16-room William Playfair-inspired Victorian townhouse in Edinburgh's West End has huge fireplaces and ornate cornicing reflecting the building's solid Victorian past. Peacocks strut their stuff across bedroom wallpaper, there are Persian rugs, velvet sofas, and free-standing copper bathtubs. Previously known as The Dunstane Houses, the owners' Orkney heritage is celebrated in oatmeal tweeds, fringed wool throws, stone-topped tables, while the bar's whisky cabinet contains a wide-ranging selection of over 80 fine Scottish single malts. All-day dining includes hearty dishes like Highland rump, Aberdeen beef sirloin, and an impressive spread of traditional Scottish cheeses for pudding.
Address: The Roseate, 4 W Coates, Edinburgh EH12 5JQ
Price: From around $268 per night
Courtesy The Witchery by the CastlehotelThe Witchery by the Castle
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2023A deeply romantic hotel that takes you back in time
The Witchery by the Castle would be Count Dracula's choice of hotel were he to visit Edinburgh, and you may feel apprehensive about encountering him as you climb the stone turret staircase into the Inner Sanctum on your way to bed. One of the hotel's nine suites, the Sanctum is swathed in crimson, claret, and port, and styled like a scene from a vampire movie staged within a Gothic castle. Feast on classics like Lobster Thermidor in the restaurant, then wallow in a claw-footed, roll-top bath before climbing into a huge four-poster bed made from an old church pulpit. Children are not welcome at the Witchery, although they would probably enjoy the experience even more than you.
Address: 352 Castlehill, Edinburgh EH1 2NF
Price: From around $1,073 per night
Will PrycehotelIntercontinental Edinburgh The George
Readers' Choice Awards 2021, 2022, 2023An impressive hotel with a superb location
There has been a hotel on the George’s site since 1881. Its prime heritage suites—as well as its popular Burr & Co café—are spread across five adjoining townhouses on George Street, diagonally opposite the Assembly Rooms. But the hotel is bigger than it looks from the outside. Thanks to two modern extensions that are almost invisible from the street, it comprises more than 200 rooms. Some of the loveliest views, in fact, are those from the upper floors of the modern buildings, which overlook a patchwork of Georgian rooftops and gardens, and, beyond them, the Firth of Forth.
A subdued palette has been employed throughout—neutral oatmeals and grays perked up here and there with liturgical greens, blues, and purples. Original architectural features have been preserved, and the interior design mixes contemporary and period elements—Victorian-style leather armchairs and velveteen sofas alongside pendant lamps and geometric side tables. The George may not be quite as imposing as the Balmoral or as enchanted as the Waldorf Astoria Caledonian, and nothing as wildly quirky as The Witchery, or as sweetly intimate as Rock House. But it occupies a superb location in the heart of the New Town and does what it does with modesty and grace. —Steve King
Address: 19 - 21 George St, Edinburgh EH2 2PB
Price: From around $262 per night
Courtesy Porteous' StudioPorteous' Studio, Grassmarket
A secret hideaway in the heart of the Old Town
One of the best things to do in Edinburgh is to sign up for a walking tour of the city and pry into many of the Old Town’s haunted nooks and crannies. But not, however, the cobbled alley off the Grassmarket that leads to the Porteous' Studio. A former 18th-century blacksmith’s workshop, it’s now a beautifully honed example of stealth architecture—a minimal bubble of texture and woodgrain and light amid the doughty medieval brickwork and cobbles. It’s the work of Izat Arundell, a local design practice run by a couple who wanted to do something a little different. There’s certainly nothing like Porteous' Studio anywhere else in Edinburgh. It’s like having your own hideaway just off the Mall in London, or a speakeasy boudoir next to the MoMA in New York. A single oak was used by a cabinet-maker friend to craft the table, sofa, and worktops, as well as the slatted doors and screens that cast a pleasing interplay of shadows as the light streams in—bringing to mind komorebi, the word the Japanese have for when sunlight filters through the trees. Walls were cast from clay-based plaster, which seem to catch the light and make you want to run your hands over them; the limestone-tiled floor is heated in the winter and spring. Simple shelves hold vintage ceramics, copies of Cereal and Kinfolk, and foodie books to stick your snout in. The bed is set below a set of stairs from the flat above, like an inverted sculpture by Rachel Whiteread. Considering the limited space, the bathroom is surprisingly large. This isn’t just another holiday home—the couple uses the space for supper clubs and craft-makers showcases. At night, draw the floor-to-ceiling drapes across and cozy up, then walk out in the morning to see the castle high above. There are plenty of bars and restaurants nearby—Timberyard for Noma-inspired plates, and Sandy Bell’s around the other side of Greyfriars Kirkyard for live fiddles. But you may want to stay indoors and make your own entertainment.
Address: 25 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2HP
Price: From around $390 per night
Courtesy The Edinburgh GrandhotelCheval The Edinburgh Grand
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021Family-friendly apartments on St Andrew Square
The huge oak doors to Cheval The Edinburgh Grand reopened a few years back with a no-expense-spared reinvention: a mass of checkered marble floor, wood paneling, and the soaring ceilings so familiar to Edinburgh. But this isn't your average grand hotel, because inside are 50 family-friendly apartments in all shapes and sizes—the huge penthouse suite with wrap-around views of Edinburgh sleeps six, and all apartments come with sofa beds for extras. In the bathrooms, there are roll-top baths and framed RBS cheques from the 1950s hanging above the loos. And in the vaults, is a Hawksmoor steak restaurant—the city's first; and in the west wing, is a champagne bar that dishes up lobster rolls. With a great spot on St Andrew Square, The Grand is a self-catering option with all the best bits that a hotel has to offer, too.
Address: 42 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh EH2 2AD
Price: From around $402 per night
Courtesy KimptonhotelKimpton Charlotte Square Hotel
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024Colorful townhouse hotel with feel-good weekend flavor
This is a Penguin Classic of a hotel—part Arthur Conan Doyle, part Muriel Spark, and set designed with real attention to detail: with prints, maps, and memorabilia in the blue drawing rooms riffing on the golden age of travel—the kind of salon that explorers such as David Livingstone or Mungo Park would be at ease in, peering out onto the square from behind velvet drapes.
Polished banisters lead upstairs to the bedrooms—go for one in the original townhouses for the fireplaces and high ceilings. All are designed in a well-upholstered Edwardian style, embellished with succulents, letterpress-style illustrations, and record players—and if you’re lucky a copy of Ziggy Stardust.
The subterranean spa continues the foliage theme seen in the hotel’s central sky-lit ‘garden’ restaurant, with a living wall that's home to lavender, fern, and eucalyptus. With a strong focus on results, facial treatments begin with a full assessment of your skincare hopes and hang-ups and culminate with a very deep cheek (and arm and leg) massage. Post-treatment, make a beeline for a session in the UK's first sound wellness room.
Address: 38 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4HQ
Price: From around $268 per night
Market Street Hotel
A contemporary Design Hotel right by the station
Step off the train at Waverley and you’ve practically already arrived at this new-build Scandi-meets-Scottish bolthole. Its rooftop reception and Champagne bar, and its best rooms, have an enviable panorama over to the Balmoral’s clock tower and the New Town beyond. It’s the Carlton Hotel group’s first opening in Edinburgh and the first member of the Design Hotels club anywhere in Scotland, which means aesthetic standards are high: rooms inspired by baronial Highland castles have wooden floors, granite walls, and sliding oak shutters to block out sound and light, along with mid-mod furniture with a tartan twist, and impressive carved marble basins in the bathrooms. The free minibar full of Scottish drinks and snacks is a bonus. Friendly staff and a hearty Scottish breakfast (with tattie scone and haggis-and-beef sausage) provide the perfect start to a day exploring the Old Town, which rises up directly behind the hotel. There are Champagne cocktails and canapé-style small plates to welcome you home, too. —Sonya Barber
Address: 6 Market St, Edinburgh EH1 1DE
Price: From around $221 per night
This article was originally published on Condé Nast Traveller UK.
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