Edinburgh fringe festival?

[sooperdooper]

Has anyone been to the Edinburgh fring festival? I know it's on now but I'd love to go next year, does anyone have any recommendations of places or general areas within the city to stay? Is there a particular area that's best to try and stay in to be close to everything or is it easy to get about?

Is it crazy expensive or if we book accomodation really far in advance is it possible to get a good deal? I'd prefer self catering if possible.

We went last year and it was great! We stayed about half an hour on the train out of town, but I would recommend you stay in the centre because we found that the trains were not that frequent and we were ruled by our train times more than we would have liked.

The festival shows are all over the city, so you can stay anywhere and still be close to some of the shows you'll go to. It can be a fair bit of walking but we walked everywhere quite happily. We booked ahead for about four shows while is advisable of there are some you'd definitely like to see, but when you walk down the royal mile, you'll be handed lots and lots of leaflets from performers wanting you to go to their show. It's manic and fun....most performers are dressed up for their show when handing out leaflets. There are also lots of street performers who you will want to stop and watch, so allow time for that.

We went with our kids who were 10 and 7 at the time and we all loved it and would like to go again. I'd also like to go to Edinburgh again and see all the things we didn't get to see as we got caught up watching shows.