Edinburgh on my own - ideas please!

[OnlyTeaForMe]

Meant to be going to the Edinburgh Book Festival week after next with a friend, but her mum is in hospital so it looks as if I may end up going on my own!

I'd be OK with that, as I have lots of events booked (and some work to do in between) but can any locals recommend:

• cafes with good wifi where I can hang out unnoticed for an hour or two
• any 'must-sees' in terms of galleries, museums etc
• best areas/ districts of the city to visit/avoid
• good places for breakfast/ early dinner on my own

I'm staying in the Queen's Street/ York Place area.

Edinburgh is hoaching at the moment with the festivals. It will take you hours to walk 10 meters - that's his busy it is. But it's great fun. If you're st the book festival, you can sit in the gardens in a deck chair or the cafe there and work. Most places will have wifi. The national museum of Scotland is great, and so is the portrait gallery. The pubs and restaurants will all be busy, but there are loads of great places. Enjoy.

PS - who have you got book festival tickets to see?

Agent - Can't remember them all off the top of my head, but Sebastian Barry, Vince Cable, Linda Grant, Louise Doherty, Elif Shafak.... to name a few.

Are you in Edinburgh / going to any?

Wow - you must have booked early! I'm in Glasgow but I'll be through on 19 or 20th, and I'll get tickets for something, or wait in the returns queue. Great selection of authors you're going to see. I'm quite

if you're a Harry potter fan there's a new shop called diagon alley.
also for curry....mother indias cafe. yum

Agent - well, yes, I was a little 'keen' on the booking front! Was clicking from 8.28 am on two computers and was something like 205th in the queue!
But I knew I was going to be there, so it was quite important that I/we got tickets for things.

calmanban - thanks, will look that up!

I agree the town is heaving just now - the buzz is great but if you want a couple of hours away from the madness and a nice cafe, Modern 1 and 2 are both great galleries only fifteen mins stroll from the centre of town. There's a very good temporary exhibition on at Modern 2 (British Realists) and the cafe in 1 is great.

There's also Beyond Caravaggio at the National Gallery if that's more your thing but as it's in the middle of town it's likely to be very busy.

Most of the cafes will be busy but these days most have free wifi. So do the buses!

Thanks again for all the ideas!

A couple of questions for locals:

• do I need to pre-book a taxi from the airport or is the taxi rank there quite quick & efficient? (I've had nightmares with pre-booked taxis at airports before when flights have been late and they've tried to charge me for extra parking!)
• what's the best way to buy tickets for the bus/tram network? Do I need to pre-buy using the m-app, or can I buy from a machine somewhere when I arrive?

Thanks!

I would get the tram from the airport. Cheaper than a taxi and goes to York Place. You buy a day ticket at the machine on the platform, this lets you on buses too.

I love the gallery on the Mound, the Museum on Chambers St. Go for a wander round Stockbridge or get a 23 from the Mound up to Morningside and walk back down into town from there. Lots of nice wee shops and cafes in both districts.