Must see places in Edinburgh

[MartagonLilies]

Planning a trip to Edinburgh, and any recommendations would be lovely. It'll just be DH and I, and I'm not sure for how long - at least 3 nights.

Is there anything that is a must see? Also restaurants that you've been to and highly rate?
I'm also a bit stuck on evenings out - we don't want to be clubbing, though would love to get out!

Brewhemia is lovely, Miller and Carter too.. Twenty Princes Street is excellent (including the cocktail bar next door)..The Witchery is expensive, tiny portions and completely overrated.

I see a second vote for Brewhemia, and I really liked the look of it, so that's a definite for us now. It looks like it has theme nights too?

Adding the new suggestions to my list to check out list

Inchcolm island, several castles a bus ride away, linlithgow palace a short train ride away. Portobello beach. Races at mussleburgh if on. Theatres and concert halls for the evening if that's your thing. Pentland hills for lovely walks, bus ride from the west end. Sir Walter Scott monument. A walk through Dean village. So many things to choose from! Think there is a farmer's market at the weekend near Prince's street gardens. Loads of second hand bookshop s, museum of childhood , dynamic earth.

No you have to book Mary Kings Close. It's timed tours only - you can't wander around. Definitely worth going though.

You can’t do Mary King’s Close on your own, OP, it’s booked tours with a guide only, in fixed time slots as it gets v busy. You wouldn’t enjoy it without the guide anyway - you’d miss all the fascinating stories and history, the plague and murders and all sorts! There would be safety issues too, of keeping unchaperoned visitors out of the room with the arsenic impregnated wallpaper and so on.
May I also recommend Our Dynamic Earth, down at the Holyrood end of the Royal Mile. Amazing place and v educational.
Have a scenic walk down the Water of Leith past the waterfalls, to the very trendy Shore area on the waterfront, lined with great seafood restaurants, gastropubs and Mimi’s Bakehouse (good for afternoon tea!)
Edinburgh also has loads of those Eacape the Room adventures, which are great puzzles and v well thought out.
Restaurants - Kanpai on Grindlay St (near the Usher Hall) does lovely sushi, Chaophraya on Castle St is a good Thai restaurant on the third floor with a glassed in terrace and stunning views of the floodlit castle at night, Beirut is a v cheap (but yummy with huge portions) Lebanese restaurant... Edinburgh has thousands of fab eating places with every possible cuisine.

You can’t possibly see it all in a few days - come back at Festival time and see a million shows, along with some of the tourist sights you miss this time! I’m lucky that my two DDs both live there, and I’m only 50 miles away.

Valvona & Crolla at the top of Leith Walk is a great Italian deli and an Edinburgh institution.

Hendersons in Hanover street is another long established really nice deli although note it’s all veggie and vegan food.

Sorry I meant the walk g tour we went in was t very good. It had some underground tunnels/caves but was very very hot and very boring! It was an evening tour and was supposed to be about ghosts etc but we just found it very dull and we saw two places above ground before we went to the tunnels which were just pitch black and a man stood with a candle telling ghost story’s.

The real Mary tour was good. It was underground tunnels and streets as well but we enjoyed that. We went as a group of 8 40 something women and had a brilliant weekend. Our tour guide was called Chris. He had written s book and did mention that a few times but the tour was good and funny in a very bad way. Lots of terrible jokes and over acting but good fun.

When we were there brewhemia had a band called backchatbrass who were amazing. That actually was an evening I was dreading but turned out to be so much fun.