Things to do near prestonpans - east lothian & Edinburgh plse

[Theresa]

We have a cheap sun holiday booked at Seton Sands Haven caravan site week beginning 7th april. Any tips on area? We are only in newcastle so are familiar with northumberland, alnwick etc, anything more 'local' & unmissable in the vicinity? The main draw in choosing this site was edinburgh (half hrs drive apprantly) so will be going there at some stage any particular tips for there? Obviously there's the zoo and castle. Have heard about the underground street (Mary something close?) whihc i quite fancied. children are 6 & 9.
Thanks all

Ooh watching with interest as we are there the week after How much was it with the sun?
Last time we were in Edingburgh we went to see Starlight Express which was fab. My 3 dc are 7,2 and 7mths now and we only had one last time so don't fancy sitting through a show with tiddlers. Might be fun for you though?

Oooh of the top of my head before someone who lives on the east coast comes along:

East links farm (I think this is what its called)

Edinburgh dungeons

Royal Yacht Brittania/Leith Shoping place

Butterfly world

Ratho Adventure Centre

Aquarium at North Queensferry

Dynamic Earth

this website should have some ideas too

If I think of anymore I will pop back

Actually the visitscotland website is better than the one I linked to.

here is a link to all the things that are on in edinburgh that week

Thanks folks. By the time we paid for entertainment passes, electricity & linen hire about £80 mon-fri whihc is a bargain for schoolhols i think!

Absolutely a bargain!
We are going to Yorkshire Thorpe Park sun-fri and then seton sands sun-fri the week after.
It works out as a really cheap base for us to do things in different areas as we have our own caravan. Twas £30 for the first week and £27 for the second.We went to lakeside two weeks ago for £15!
I hope you have a good time and the weather stays fab for us both.
Can you pop up a list of what you did when you get back for me to gleam ideas from please?

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Motherfunk, sadly the open air pool and the avairy and the trampolines are no longer in NOrth Berwick. The sea bird centre is great thought, and the lodge grounds (where the tramplines used to be) have a great play park.

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Gullane beach is beautiful.

Tantallon Castle, which is just past North Berwick, is stunning on a sunny day (it sits right on a cliff edge - v.dramatic).

Have a great time!

thank you again everyone for your wonderful advice. will let you know what we get up to

The Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street is also well worth a visit if you're in the centre.

You should also go to the Seabird Centre in North Berwick -it's great, and there are boat trips round the Bass Rock from the harbour there. It's lovely.

There's also the John Muir Country Park at Dunbar which is good.

There's lots of stuff outside the city actually but it depends what you're after.

Mary King's Close is fab but as someone else said it is also pretty scary!

East Links family park near Dunbar is great fun. www.eastlinks.co.uk

The museum is good but partly shutting for refurbishment this week IIRC.

Tantallon has a great ruined castle and woodland walks down to a beach.

Thank you all again. I need to get out the maps, look at the websites and make some plans!

We're back and had a fab time despite the mixed weather! QueenB the site is full of the usual mix of people and without wanting to sound snobby, there were some awful sorts! However we trouped along to the entertainment every night as our kids love it and they managed to get up on stage a few times!. We went to North Berwick first, lovely beach, fantastic ice cream van by the bird centre so many toppings and lots of friendly chat! We got the no 26 bus into edinburgh (£9 for all day tickets for 2 adults & 2 children, runs every 5 mins and takes about 1 hr). Went to Dynamic Earth, brill a big thumbs up from my none museum family! On another day we drove to Longniddry (5 mins in car) to get train to Edinburgh to pacify my train spotting 6 yr old. With family rail card £9 return fo rthe 4 of us & much quicker. Heeding the warnings I rang Mary Kings Close & they said apart from 1 ghost story we should be fine so we went & it was fine. 6 yr old ds no prob, 9 yr old dd cuddled into me whilst story being told. Only other bit which wasnt nice was the family suffering from the plague! There were 2 other boys on tour aged about 8 asnd they were fine. We also did the HBOS museum on the mound whihc gives the history of money & has £1 million on display. It was free to get in and the children did a work sheet and when they handed it in they got a bar of chocolate & some postcards. We also went to musuem of childhood whihc was also free and very good. Another tip is if you fancy a treat (& are that way inclined!) there is a chinese buffet restaurant on waverley bridge just outside station where all the tour buses stop. It does full english breakfast, buffet style eat as muchas you want for £2.99 for dcs & £4.99 for adults very nice, apart from the fact that next to the sausage, bacon etc were prawn crackers, chips and chicken nuggets!! We also walked long from the caravan site into Cockenzie and had a cheap pub lunch at a pub on seafront called the old ship. The whole area was lovely, beach right opposite site, lots of murals on walls in town and surprisingly graffiti free! A great base, we'd go back. Thanks to everyone for your tips. SUn holidays start again tomorrow!