Best area to live in West Edinburgh

[Amazonmulu]

We are thinking of moving to Edinburgh for my work and looking at areas in west of the city.

Ideally somewhere with good secondary schools, easy access to cafes / restaurants / shops.

What areas are nice?

Boroughmuir catchment if you can afford it, or Firrhill catchment area - parts of Colinton and Bonaly are lovely, near local shops but a schlep from the city, so limited in restaurants. Craigmount catchment area another option as Corstorphine has lots of amenities, and is on a good bus route into the city if you want restaurants.

It depends on your budget - there are nice areas if you've got 300k for a house and there are nice areas if you're looking to spend 700k+. In general though housing is very expensive in Edinburgh - you pay for the surrounding environment (lots of green space) and facilities of the city and great public transport rather than getting a lot of actual house for your money. If you want more house for your money you're better outside the city but if you like to be able to walk to amenities and get night buses then the extra cost is worth it.

It really depends on your budget and what type of property you can afford. For cafes, restaurants and shops then Stockbridge would fit the bill but family sized houses are very expensive (even flats are expensive!) and you'd be in the catchment for Broughton High which is ok but not great. Royal High usually ranks highly and has a good mix of houses in the catchment but there's less in the way of cafes & restaurants and you're more into "suburbia" compared to Stockbridge. Corstorphine has a range of shops and good transport connections along the A8 to the airport and city centre. I'd love to know where @museumum is finding houses in nice areas for £300k!
You can search by school catchment on the espc website.

Baberton, Swanston etc. have some options around £300k but actually the reason I'm asking is that most people would suggest in that budget to go out of town to west lothian.

we clearly have different ideas of what's a "nice area"! The houses for sale in that price range in those areas are the size of a shoebox and practically on top of the bypass.

Murrayfield and Corstorphine tick your boxes. Also Colinton if your happy with south west.
You'll need a healthy budget for a family home in any of those areas.

The espc is a popular website to search for houses in Edinburgh. They have a function where you can search by school catchment. For West End your best secondaries are Boroughmuir, Firhill and Craigmount. Maybe start there and see what your budget gets you?

Firhill and Boroughmuir catchment areas aren’t really what I’d class a west Edinburgh, they’re more south. OP you need to consider public transport or driving routes to work too.

Corstorphine is the west of Edinburgh, along with Murrayfield for shops/cafes. We lived at the Gyle for our first home together but it felt a bit far out sometimes. We moved into Corstorphine nearer family. Mainly walkable and the tram is in easy reach for us to get into town.

Colinton is south West Edinburgh but popular with families with all the lovely walks and woods and access to the Pentlands.

Really it comes down to your budget. The ESPC is quite good for looking.

I'd say Corstorphine, in Craigmount catchment or Blackhall in Royal high catchment.

Both pretty good places to bring up children.

Silverknowes, Blackhall, Barnton for Royal High Catchment.
A lot of people have mentioned Corstorphine which is nice but I find the traffic on that side of the Queensferry road is too much.

Bear in mind the flight path for EDI...if looking at West Edinburgh.