Edinburgh Festival first visit: where to stay and useful tips?

[rollonholiday]

Planning to go to the Edinburgh Festival for the first time. For those that have been before where would you stay to visit - we want to go for 5 -7 nights. Prices of lots of the hotels are eye watering. Does anyone know some gem of a hotel or apartment I have not found? Planning on taking train there as seems like parking is an issue. Are there any nuggets of wisdom from those who have been before? Thanks.

We stayed at the destiny student accommodation on Leith walk last time. Might be okay for a family because there's a cluster of rooms with a shared kitchen that admittedly we didn't use.
Everything is very, very expensive

My tip would be to book a few shows on the app in all tickets are in one place that you definitely want to see, but allow lots of time for just seeing things. People told us this and we said yeah yeah but actually it's really true that you'll see people touting to see their play. One of the best ones we saw was in a booth for about 20 people downstairs in a karaoke bar. It's a long day, especially if you're staying outside the city, you'll need sensible walking shoes. !

Book as many shows as early as you can.

Try not to spend hours lining up.

Eat at odd times. Same reasoning. To avoid the waiting.

I ate large slabs of pizza and cup a soups. Cheese and bread. Sit down breakfasts.
It was fabulous!!!

Agree with booking a few, but don't restrict yourself.
Also factor in time to walk from place to place , it's rammed