One day in Edinburgh - must-sees

[MegBusset]

Going to Edinburgh in May - will only be there for a day, been before but years ago and not with DC! Kids are 10 and 12, what are the must sees in the city centre? Castle, Royal Mile... What else? Needs to be within a fairly easy walk of the train station.

The Real Mary King’s Close is near to the station.
Holyrood and Dynamic Earth are not far either but they’re in the opposite direction from the Castle.
Camera Obscura and World of Illusions are great fun and right by the castle.

Don't bother with dynamic earth. The museum of Scotland is good and free. Has a natu history museum and a science museum inside.

Museum of Scotland, castle - but its expensive,

Definitely Camera Obscura

Camera obscura and Edinburgh dungeons, Mary's close aswell

Harry Potter tour

We went last May and went on a ghost walk which sounds cheesy but it was BRILLIANT! And we learnt so much about the city. We also went for cocktails in The Dome. We were very lucky with the weather and happy to mooch about in Old Town. It's one of my favourite places I've ever been, I hope you have a lovely time!

Oh and the Royal Yacht Britannia. It's out of the city but we did a bus tour and it stops there.

Buy a bus tour ticket, you get a wonderful view from the open deck if the weather is good, and you can nip on and off at whatever site you want. Mary King’s Close, and the Parliament building would be on my list to see. Also the National Museum, or even The Surgeon’s Hall. And the Botanic Gardens are lovely. Have a great trip OP.

Camera Obscura, our kids love it. Skip dynamic Earth. You could climb Arthur's Seat or Salisbury Crags in a couple of hours if the weather is nice. Lovely views.

You can hire citybikes now and hit the cycle paths if you want to.

The museum of Scotland was fab recommend a visit there. We walked up the royal mile to the Castle we didn’t go into the Castle.
If anyone is a Harry Potter fan the elephant cafe is worth a visit, we enjoyed brunch.

I would get the open top tour bus, as suggested above, if something takes your fancy you can hop off. The tour buses leave from right outside the station.

I would just go up and down the Royal Mile, Castle if you can because it’s great for views and general Scottishness. Go in and out some of the closes (alleyways) up and down the Mike, there are some really interesting ones. Make a detour down George 4th Bridge to Museum of Scotland/Greyfriar’s Bobby/Greyfriar’s Kirkyard. That’ll fill a day easy and its all relatively close to the station.