Caravan holiday in Edinburgh in November... how cold is it?!

[SootspriteSearcher]

We as a family really want to visit Edinburgh, although its mostly for dd1.

It's a big birthday this year in November, and her dream is zookeeping. She is desperate to visit Edinburgh zoo (mostly for the penguin parade!). So we would love to take her as a surprise.

Plus we as a family are all into history and love castles, so would also really enjoy Edinburgh Castle. And I've seen the museum of flight which dh would really enjoy. (Other recommendations welcome as we are looking at a week away)

Now here's the question, due to our tight budget I'm looking at caravan stays (haven seton sands). But how cold is it? We are as far south as you can get and haven't gone further north than London, so we arent toughened to cold weather at all! Will I be severely miserable and cold for a week or be walking around like the marshmallow man?!

We also don't drive so it's all reliant on how good the bus services are too!! Looks like buses are possible from caravan park to all the places above but no idea on cost or reliability!

The buses are excellent but that caravan site is a long way out of Edinburgh and whilst there’s a bus stop outside which will take you into the city and even all the way to the zoo, it’ll take a looooong time (I’d guess at least an hour). It’s £2 adult fare to anywhere on the Lothian buses network or capped at £4.80 for a day ticket if you pay contactless. There’s family tickets too but it’s very cheap. I just don’t know if I’d choose to stay there in November if the main aim of my trip was to sightsee in the city.
It might be cold, it might not be! It’s not always colder than south either!

Hi
I live in Edinburgh and also go to seton sands on hoilday ( child with special needs) Lothian bus 26 stops out train st and will take you outside the caravan site. Overall buses are reliable and they offer a flat fare or you can buy a family day ticket.

Weather wise i dont think its too bad but then again i hate the summer months 🤣

It would be cold in November. Could you perhaps do 3 days in Edinburgh then out towards fife/Stirling trains are good into city and accommodation would be cheaper I’m cold just thinking about it, I work in Edinburgh.

We live near MortonHall caravan site and it's an easy 30-40 minute bus journey into town
It will be cold in November though. Have you looked at Premier Inns or Travel Lodges there are ones in very central locations that might not be too expensive and warmer as well.

It’ll be cold. I’m guessing that as you don’t drive you and dc are used to long bus journeys (I don’t drive either so mine are used to it).

What I would do is get a decent van with proper heating, maybe plan 2-3 days travelling into Edinburgh and the other days on the Haven site using the pool etc. The castle is great, the best we’ve ever been too as is The Museum of Scotland.

It’s a great site, been a few times when kids were wee, I’m even further north than Edinburgh! There’s a bus right at the gates that takes you into princess street, takes about 40 mins I think. Dynamic earth, camera obscura and king Mary’s close are good. If it’s late November Christmas markets will be on which are lovely but expensive 😫 Weather wise who knows!

It'll be cold, but we've always had central heating when we have done October caravan holidays. I's very late in the season, will anything be open?

99.9% chance it will be cold, wet and windy. 1% chance cold, bright and sunny. It will be dark by 3pm. I think staying in a caravan at that time of year will be pretty joyless even though modern caravans have ok heating. Maybe look for a travelodge nearer the city with better transport links. There’s a holiday inn express close to the zoo. Although hotels in Edinburgh are ridiculously expensive especially at weekends.

More likely to be very wet than very cold. But will definitely be very dark.

Edinburgh zoo hasn't done the penguin parade since covid - but the penguin enclosure has fantastic visibility & you can go round the side to see them swimming from under the water. Not sure if her age (& it's £££) but the zookeeper experiences can include feeding the penguins which is an amazing experience.

Edinburgh castle is great but it's mostly a load of Victorian buildings on the site of the castle, if you want a medieval castle Stirling & Aberdour are both easy by train - much more to see & do at Stirling Castle.

I reckon it'd be OK myself, I've stayed at Mortonhall and the caravan heating was efficient enough on cold days that I wasn't cold (and I'm someone who really feels the cold!) I think the heating is adequate in most caravans these days.

It will be dark quite early in Nov.

What about staying somewhere cheaper and getting the train into the city centre?

Falkirk?
Linlithgow?
South Queensferry?

The National Museum of Flight is at East Fortune which is in the middle of nowhere and isn't easy to get to by public transport.

Thank you this does all really help and makes me consider all options.

I wasn't aware they didn't do penguin parade anymore, shes been obsessed watching the videos online! But it appears they are one of the only zoos with king penguins.

I've looked at places closer and more central - travelodge etc but it's over double the cost for 3 nights rather than the 7 nights at a caravan site. £550 for 3 nights or £199 for 7 nights. Considering the journey is going to take at least 7 hours each way plus the cost, I wouldn't want to go for less than a week.

They are very used to public transport we often do 1.5hrs on train or bus for day trips. So I'm not concerned about that aspect.

The caravan I looked at had central heating but as I've only ever done summers in a caravan I didn't know how good the heating is!

I didnt think about how dark it would be and that seems much earlier than here.

Lots of good points to consider, we may well be better off looking at next summer rather than this winter 🤔

The other thing is I want to avoid hotels and would rather self catered due to our many allergies eating out can be tricky.

I recommend phoning the park to check that there is heating in all rooms. I know many if not all Bronze caravans don't have heating in the bedrooms.

I’d look at an Air bnb in Leith, which is lovely and much cheaper than a hotel in the city centre

Vans lose heat quickly so you’ll need to keep heating on low overnight. Check your caravan will have heaters in the bedrooms. Take hot water bottles, even electric blankets if you have them, thick socks and fleeces to wear over pyjamas. As long as you can keep warm overnight you’ll be fine.
Sensible clothes for daytime, layers with hats, gloves. Have caravanned over winter.
And take torches/headtorches which are always useful.

What are your dates, I’ll do a search!

In November it’s as much about it being damp as cold. I’d way rather have a shorter trip than a caravan!

Windy. It is always windy. That can be harder to deal with than the cold if you aren't used to it.

Also look at south Fife, just over the bridge - Inverkeithing, North Queensferry etc. Good transport links (buses and trains) and should be a bit cheaper for accommodation.

We stayed at seton sands last May and you were able to pay a little extra for a heater. The weather was actually really warm when we were there so can't say about the cold but the caravan and site were nice enough.

We are staying in a caravan now are have had torrential rain but not had any issues.

To get into Edinburgh we drove to a small local train station and went in from there. The car park was free and the trains every hour. Took about 20 minutes I think.

We went to the zoo which was quite quick from the station in Edinburgh. We also drove up to Fort William and back in one day to go on the Jacobite train but that was a long day! You drive up through Glencoe which is incredible.

Other things we did were the real Mary kings close, the kelpies and falkirk wheel.

Sorry I know you were asking about the weather but I loved our trip to Scotland 😁

Five sisters zoo may be a good shout. They have recently got penguins. It's not far from Edinburgh and they do zookeeper experiences for kids though I'm not sure of the cost. Pretty sure there's decent bus links.

The Dunbar-north Berwick - haddington bus goes into the museum of flight. Easy peasy from north Berwick.

Caravan will be warm it will be proper heating it's normally panel radiators. Bring jackets you will be fine. I've always used Haven in the winter for different places and never been cold in the caravan.