The first time I did Edinburgh with kids I got it wrong in the most predictable way possible. I marched a four-year-old and a seven-year-old up the Royal Mile to the castle in horizontal drizzle, paid a lot of money at the gate, and spent the next ninety minutes carrying one of them past display cases she could not see into. We came back down at two o’clock, damp and mutinous, and ate chips in Princes Street Gardens. The chips were the bit she remembered.
What I have learned since is that this city is superb for families, but only if you stop treating it as one destination and start treating it as four or five different ones depending on the age of the child beside you. A three-year-old and a thirteen-year-old want almost nothing in common here. Every guide I have read lists the same dozen attractions and leaves you to work out which ones will actually land. So this one does the sorting for you.
The short answer
Edinburgh works brilliantly with children if you match the attraction to the age. Under-eights do best at Camera Obscura, the National Museum of Scotland, Portobello beach and the Botanics. Older children get more from Mary King’s Close, Arthur’s Seat and the ghost tours. The castle underwhelms most under-eights. Budget for hills, cobbles and rain.
At a glance: what suits which age
| Where | Best for | Realistic time on site | Cost (2026, check before you go) | Pushchair verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Museum of Scotland | Every age, 0–16 | 3–5 hours, easily a full wet day | Free | Excellent — lifts, ramps, buggy park |
| Camera Obscura | 4–14, the widest age range in the city | 2–3 hours | Adult around £24.95, child 5–15 around £17.95 | Poor — stairs only, just under 100 steps |
| Edinburgh Zoo | 2–10 | 4–5 hours | Adult from around £27, child 3–15 from around £18.70 | Doable but steep — the whole site is a hillside |
| Dynamic Earth | 6–12 | 2–3 hours | Adult around £23 online, child 4–15 around £15, under 4s free | Good — fully accessible, flat site |
| Portobello beach | 0–12 | 2–4 hours | Free | Excellent — flat promenade the whole way |
| The Real Mary King’s Close | 9–16 (minimum age 5) | 1 hour 15 including the wait | Around £25 adult at the time of writing | Not possible — underground stairs throughout |
| Royal Yacht Britannia | 7–16 | 2 hours | Adult around £23 online, child 7–15 around £11.50 | Good on the approach, tight on board |
| Edinburgh Castle | 9 and up, honestly | 2–3 hours | Adult around £22, child around £13 | Hard work — steep cobbled esplanade, cobbles inside |
Start here: Edinburgh is genuinely hard work with a pushchair
This is the thing nobody tells you, and it matters more than any attraction listing. Edinburgh’s Old Town is a ridge. The New Town sits on the flat below it. Between them is a valley containing a railway line, a park and a great deal of vertical distance. If you arrive with a buggy expecting a normal European city break, you will spend day one furious.
The surface is the first problem. Large stretches of the Royal Mile, the Grassmarket, Victoria Street and the closes running off them are laid with setts — square granite blocks with deep joints, not the smooth cobbles you get in Bruges. A buggy with small hard wheels judders across them so violently that a sleeping baby will not stay asleep for a hundred metres. If you have any choice in the matter, bring the pram with the biggest wheels you own, and a sling for the closes.
The second problem is the climb. The gap between Princes Street and the Royal Mile is roughly thirty metres of height gain, and most of the direct connections are stairs: the Playfair Steps beside the National Galleries, the News Steps, the Scotsman Steps, Advocate’s Close, all of them. On a map they look like shortcuts. With a buggy they are walls.
The level and step-free routes that actually work
There are three that I use constantly. First, Waverley Station. Network Rail installed two sixteen-person lifts connecting Princes Street to the station concourse, running down beside the covered steps and escalators. They take a buggy, they are free, and they are the only genuinely step-free link between Princes Street and the valley floor. From the concourse you exit onto Market Street, which climbs gently to Jeffrey Street and the bottom of the Royal Mile.
Second, The Mound. It is a long ramp rather than a flight of steps, so it is pushable in both directions. Going up from Princes Street it is a proper effort with a loaded pram — assume ten minutes and a raised heart rate — but it works, and it delivers you onto Bank Street at the top of the Royal Mile. Cockburn Street is the other pushable option, a curving cobbled climb that is gentler underfoot than it looks.
Third, and best of all, George IV Bridge. Once you are up on the ridge, George IV Bridge and Chambers Street are broad, paved and level, which means the National Museum, the National Library, Greyfriars Kirkyard and the Grassmarket steps are all reachable without another climb. Plan your Old Town day to arrive at the top once and stay there.
When to stop pushing and get the bus
The honest answer is: sooner than you think. Every Lothian bus in the city fleet is low-floor with a dedicated buggy bay, and the drivers are used to families. A single adult fare is £2.40 and a child aged 5 to 15 pays £1.20, but the number to remember is the family day ticket at £13.00 for up to two adults and three children. Up to three children under five travel free with a fare-paying passenger. If you are going to make more than two trips, buy the family DAY and stop thinking about it.
One warning: if you pay cash you need the exact fare, because the drivers give no change. Contactless is far simpler, and Lothian’s TapTapCap caps an adult at £5.70 a day. The trams are included in the City DAY ticket except for the airport section, but for most family days out the tram is not much use — it runs west to the airport and north-east through Leith to Newhaven, and misses almost everything in between. Our full guide to getting around Scotland by bus, train and car goes into the ticketing in more detail if you are combining Edinburgh with the rest of the country.
Toddlers and preschool: roughly nought to four
At this age you are not sightseeing. You are looking for somewhere flat, somewhere warm, somewhere with a toilet and a place to feed them. Everything else is a bonus.
Portobello beach
Two miles of proper sand, twenty minutes from the city centre on the 12 or the 26, and a paved promenade that runs the whole length so you can push a buggy without a single kerb. There are cafés and ice cream shops along the prom, an amusement arcade for grim weather, and public loos. It costs nothing. I would put Portobello above almost anything ticketed for a child under four, and on a warm day it is one of the better urban beaches anywhere on the Scottish coast. Bring a windbreak; the Forth is bracing even in July.
The Royal Botanic Garden
Seventy acres, free to enter, a mile north of the centre and almost entirely flat and hard-surfaced. Toddlers can run. There are two gates — the West Gate on Arboretum Place, served by the 24 and 29 through Stockbridge, and the East Gate on Inverleith Row, served by the 8, 9, 23 and 27. Use the West Gate if you have a buggy, because the John Hope Gateway visitor centre with the café and the loos is right there.
One important correction to almost every other guide: the glasshouses have been shut for a major restoration and are not the ten-greenhouse experience you will read about elsewhere. The restored Palm Houses are due to reopen — check the current position on the Botanics website before you build a day around them. The garden itself has stayed open throughout and remains free.
The Meadows, Inverleith Park and Princes Street Gardens
Edinburgh’s free playgrounds are better than they have any right to be. The Meadows has a large play area at the east end, flat tarmac paths and a tree-lined avenue that is a genuinely nice walk. Inverleith Park, beside the Botanics, has one of the best play areas in the city and a pond. West Princes Street Gardens has a playground with the castle rock directly overhead and a café next to it, which makes it the single most efficient stop in central Edinburgh for a small child who has had enough. All three cost nothing, which matters when a family day out here can otherwise clear £100 before lunch.
Cramond
A small former fishing village on the Forth at the western edge of the city, reached on the 32. There is a flat promenade along the shore, a river walk up the Almond, swans, a café, and a mile-long tidal causeway out to Cramond Island. The causeway is the draw for slightly older children and the reason for the warning: it floods, fast, and people get stranded on the island every single year. Tide times are posted at the shore end. Read them, take a photograph of them, and turn back well before the safe crossing window closes.
Roughly five to eight: the sweet spot
This is the age at which Edinburgh starts paying you back. Children are old enough to walk a few miles and young enough to find optical illusions and penguins genuinely astonishing.
Camera Obscura and World of Illusions
The best paid attraction in Edinburgh for children, and it is not close. Five floors of illusions, a mirror maze, a light vortex tunnel, a rooftop terrace with the best free-standing view of the city, and the Victorian camera obscura itself at the top, where a guide shows you a live projected image of the streets below. It holds a five-year-old and a fourteen-year-old equally, which almost nothing else here manages.
Two things worth knowing. Your ticket is valid all day — get a hand stamp, go out for lunch, come back — which is worth a great deal with children who fade at midday. And the building is stairs only, just under a hundred steps to the top, with a handrail on one side. There is no lift. If you have a buggy you will be carrying it or leaving it. Adult admission is around £24.95 with children aged 5 to 15 around £17.95 and under-fives free; there is a summer reduction and a £4 discount on early online slots before 9am. It sits at the very top of the Royal Mile, right beside the castle esplanade — our walk-through of the Royal Mile covers what else is worth stopping for on the way up.
Edinburgh Zoo
Around 2,500 animals on an eighty-acre site in Corstorphine, reachable on the 12, 26 or 31 from Princes Street in about twenty-five minutes. The koalas and the tigers pull the crowds, but the penguins are the thing: the Wee Waddle, the current version of the old penguin parade, runs Thursday to Sunday at 2.15pm at the time of writing, and small children lose their minds.
Be warned that the zoo is built up the side of a hill, steeply, and the zoo’s own website tells you to wear comfortable shoes. With a double buggy it is a workout. Online adult tickets start around £27.25 and children aged 3 to 15 from around £18.70, with under-threes free and parking at £5. Walking up costs several pounds more per head, so book ahead.
Dynamic Earth
A science centre at the foot of Salisbury Crags, next to the Scottish Parliament, with a planetarium, an earthquake floor, a real block of ice and a 360-degree dome. It suits six to twelve best; younger than that and the narrative sails over their heads.
The ticketing has changed and confuses people. There is no longer a day ticket — every admission is sold as a twelve-month annual pass, which is why the headline price looks steep. Online it is around £23 for an adult, £15 for a child aged 4 to 15, free for under-fours and carers. Planetarium shows run hourly on the hour, first come first served, so get to the waiting area ten minutes early. Allow two to three hours. If you are staying in the city for a few days, the pass genuinely pays for itself on a second rainy afternoon.
The Museum of Childhood
Free, small, on the High Street stretch of the Royal Mile, and a reliable forty-five minutes. Several galleries of toys, dolls, games and school books running from the 1800s to the present, plus a hands-on room. It is honestly more interesting to parents than to children — the recurring reaction from a six-year-old is “why can’t I play with them” — but it is free, it is warm, it is dry, and it is exactly where you need it when the rain comes on halfway down the Mile. Opening days vary, so check before making a special trip.
And now, Edinburgh Castle
Here is the unpopular opinion. Edinburgh Castle bores most under-eights rigid, and I would skip it until nine or ten.
The reasons are specific rather than snobbish. Getting there is a long climb up a steep cobbled esplanade with no shelter. Once inside, it is not one building but a hilltop of separate buildings connected by more cobbled slopes, so you are outdoors in the weather for most of the visit. The exhibits that matter — the Honours of Scotland, the Stone of Destiny, the Great Hall — are things to look at behind glass in a slow-moving queue, which is the single worst format for a small child. Mons Meg and the One O’Clock Gun are the exceptions and both are genuinely thrilling.
If you do go, go early or late rather than at 11am, book online, and treat the gun at 1pm as the reason for the timing. Our guide to Edinburgh Castle tickets and timings has the current prices and the quiet slots. And if the children are castle-mad, Craigmillar Castle three miles south-east is a proper ruin they can climb over for a fraction of the price — one of the better Scottish castles for children precisely because nothing is roped off.
Roughly nine to twelve: the gruesome years
Somewhere around nine, children develop an appetite for plague, executions and body-snatching, and Edinburgh is very well set up for this.
The Real Mary King’s Close
A preserved seventeenth-century street sealed beneath the City Chambers, shown by costumed guides on a tour of about an hour. It is the best history hour in Edinburgh for a nine-to-twelve-year-old: real rooms, real staircases, real stories about people who lived there. The minimum age is five and I would take that as a firm floor rather than a suggestion, because it is dark, enclosed and involves a lot of stairs. Nine to twelve is the sweet spot. Book ahead; it sells out.
The Royal Yacht Britannia
Berthed at Ocean Terminal in Leith and much better with children than it sounds. The self-guided audio commentary comes in dozens of versions including a children’s track, and the appeal is that you go everywhere — the bridge, the engine room, the crew’s bunks, the royal bedrooms, the garage with the Rolls-Royce. Allow two hours. Adult tickets are around £23 booked online for the April to October season and children aged 7 to 15 around £11.50, with under-sevens free year-round and a summer window when older children go free too. Buy online: it is cheaper, and the ticket desk takes card only.
Getting there is easy on the 10, 34, 35 or 36 from the city centre. The entrance is on the second floor of the Ocean Terminal shopping centre, which is worth knowing because first-timers walk round the outside of the building looking for a gangplank.
Arthur’s Seat and Calton Hill
Arthur’s Seat is an extinct volcano in the middle of the city and a reliable hit from about nine upwards. From the Palace of Holyroodhouse the full climb is around an hour up, on rough ground, and there is nothing at the top but the view and the wind — which is exactly the point. Our route-by-route guide to climbing Arthur’s Seat sets out the gentler approaches, which matter if legs are short.
If an hour uphill is too much, Calton Hill gives you ninety per cent of the view for ten minutes of effort from the east end of Princes Street. There are steps, but also a tarmac path. The unfinished National Monument at the top is twelve enormous columns that children climb on without exception, and there is a café. For a family with mixed ages it is the better call.
Harry Potter Edinburgh
The connections are real enough — Victoria Street’s curve of coloured shopfronts, George Heriot’s School behind Greyfriars, the gravestones in the kirkyard with familiar names on them. It costs nothing to walk and takes an hour and a half at a child’s pace. Nine to thirteen is the ideal age. Our Harry Potter walking route through Edinburgh maps it out properly, and there is more of it scattered across the country in our nationwide Potter guide.
Teenagers
Teenagers are the group most guides give up on. Edinburgh is actually good for them, but not in the same places.
Ghost tours and the underground vaults are the obvious one, and the good operators are properly atmospheric rather than jump-scare nonsense; check the minimum ages, which vary by tour and by how frightening the operator intends to be. Our rundown of Edinburgh’s ghost tours and the South Bridge Vaults covers which ones are worth the money.
Beyond that: Surgeons’ Hall Museums for the medically curious and the strong-stomached, which is grimly compelling at fourteen; the St James Quarter and Multrees Walk for shopping; Fountain Park for the trampoline park, bowling and cinema under one roof; Murrayfield ice rink; and Portobello for skating and, in wetsuit season, swimming. In August, hand them a Fringe programme and a budget and let them choose their own comedy shows. It works better than anything you will choose for them.
The rain plan: the National Museum of Scotland
It will rain. Not necessarily all day, but often enough that a plan matters. The National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street is the best free wet-weather asset in the city for children, and it deserves more than a line in a list.
You come in under the Victorian Grand Gallery, a huge glass-roofed hall of white cast iron that stops children mid-sentence. From there the museum splits into two: the modern Scotland galleries going down through the country’s story, and the older wing full of hands-on space.
The four galleries that matter to families are Imagine, a sensory space that works from cruising babies upward; Adventure Planet, natural world interactives and dressing-up; Explore, the science and technology floor with the hot-air balloon lift and the working machines; and Animal World, which is where the big taxidermy is. Between them you can fill four hours without complaint, and there is a roof terrace with a view over the Old Town rooftops when the weather clears.
The practicalities are unusually good. There is a buggy park on Level 1 of the Scotland galleries, behind the Kingdom of the Scots. Lifts and ramps reach everything. Toilets are on every level with baby changing on most. There is a Lunch Space in the Entrance Hall where you can eat your own food, with highchairs on a first-come basis, although it is prioritised for school groups in term time so check at the desk. Three cafés cover Levels 0, 1 and 3. Entry is free, it opens daily from 10am to 5pm, and there are free monthly Relaxed Mornings for families who need a quieter visit.
If you have already done the museum, the other free indoor options are the Scottish National Gallery on the Mound, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art out at Belford with its grassy Landform terraces, and the city’s swimming pools — the Victorian Portobello Baths, or the Royal Commonwealth Pool with its flumes and a proper toddler pool.
What costs nothing
A family day out in Edinburgh adds up alarmingly fast. Two adults and two children at the zoo, with parking and lunch, will clear £120. So it is worth knowing exactly where the free days are.
Free: the National Museum of Scotland, the Museum of Childhood, the Museum of Edinburgh, the Writers’ Museum, the People’s Story, the Scottish National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery and the Modern galleries. The Royal Botanic Garden (glasshouses excepted). Every park and playground, including the Meadows, Inverleith, Holyrood Park and both Princes Street Gardens. Portobello and Cramond beaches. Calton Hill and Arthur’s Seat. Greyfriars Kirkyard. St Giles’ Cathedral, which asks for a donation rather than charging. The street performers on the Royal Mile all summer. Our full list of free things to do in Edinburgh goes further, and there is a country-wide version for the rest of the trip.
Eating out with children: where it works and where it doesn’t
Here is the practical truth about the Old Town that catches families out. A significant number of central Edinburgh pubs either do not admit under-18s at all, or admit them only until early evening — often 8pm, sometimes 6pm, sometimes only when eating. Scottish licensing puts the decision with the individual premises, so two pubs on the same street can have opposite policies. Turning up at seven with two tired children and being turned away at the door is a bad end to a day. Phone ahead, or look for somewhere that describes itself as a restaurant rather than a bar.
Where it is easy: Stockbridge, which is flat, relaxed and full of independent cafés; Leith Shore, which has become one of the better eating streets in Scotland and is far more forgiving than its reputation suggests; Portobello High Street; Bruntsfield and Marchmont, which are student and family territory and cheerfully noisy; and the Grassmarket, where the pubs have big food menus and are used to daytime families.
Where it is hard: the tourist stretch of the High Street between the Tron and the castle, where you will pay a lot for indifferent food; and the smarter George Street restaurants at dinner. For what to actually order, our guide to what to eat in Scotland explains why a child who refuses haggis will usually eat Cullen skink, and it is worth a try.
August with children: both things are true
The Fringe runs through most of August — 7 to 31 August in 2026 — with well over 3,000 shows, and there is a large, serious children’s programme within it. Puppet shows, silly-science shows, family comedy, storytelling, much of it around the £8 to £12 mark and a good deal of it free — prices vary by venue, so check the listing. For a child of six upward it is one of the best things they will ever do, and it is a big part of why Edinburgh dominates the Scottish festivals calendar.
And the Royal Mile in August is overwhelming for a small child. Not busy — overwhelming. Solid crowds, amplified sound, flyerers pressing paper into every hand at eye level for a four-year-old, and no way to move a buggy at anything but walking pace in whichever direction the crowd is going. I have seen more small-child meltdowns on the High Street in August than anywhere else in Britain.
Both are true, so plan for both. Book children’s shows in advance, use the venues away from the Mile — Summerhall, the Pleasance courtyard, the Underbelly at George Square — and cross the Old Town before eleven in the morning or after eight at night. Accommodation prices double or worse, so if August is your only option, book far ahead and read our notes on choosing the right Edinburgh neighbourhood to stay in. Stockbridge and Bruntsfield are calmer bases with children than anywhere inside the Old Town. If you have flexibility, late May, June and September are far better months for a family visit — see our take on the best time of year to visit Scotland.
How long you need, and what to book
Three full days is the right length with children. Two feels rushed once you factor in the pace of a five-year-old; four gives you a day trip. If you only have two, our 48-hour city plan is a sensible skeleton to adapt, and the wider Edinburgh planning guide covers the things that are the same at any age — airport transfers, weather, neighbourhoods, when the crowds arrive.
Book ahead: Edinburgh Castle, Camera Obscura, Mary King’s Close, and anything at the Fringe. Do not bother booking the National Museum, the Botanics, the parks or the beaches. Edinburgh Zoo and Britannia do not require it but are meaningfully cheaper online than at the gate.
Budget roughly. A family of four doing one paid attraction a day, plus buses, plus lunch out, will spend somewhere between £120 and £180 a day before accommodation. Alternate a paid day with a free day and that halves. If you are heading further afield afterwards, day trips out of Edinburgh covers the ones that survive contact with children, and our broader guide to Scotland with children handles everything beyond the city.
What underwhelms, and one thing that has changed
Gorgie Farm. Almost every guide to Edinburgh with kids still lists the city farm at Gorgie as a free morning out with animals. It is not, and has not been for some time. The farm closed to the public in early 2023 and the animals were rehomed. Volunteers returned in late 2025 and it has been relaunched as a community farm, with the gardens reopening in stages, but there are no animals on site and the operators have said it could be five years before there are. Do not build a morning around it. If your children want farm animals, you are looking at Craigie’s Farm near South Queensferry, or one of the family days out beyond the city limits.
The Edinburgh Dungeon. Expensive, actor-led, and pitched at teenagers who like being shouted at. There is a minimum age and plenty of eight-year-olds who meet it will still hate it. Mary King’s Close does the same period far better and is actually real.
The Scott Monument. Two hundred and eighty-seven steps up a spiral staircase that narrows to genuinely tight at the top. Adults with any tendency to claustrophobia struggle. It is not a children’s activity, whatever the lists say.
The hop-on hop-off buses. Fine as a sit-down for tired legs, poor value as sightseeing. A family day ticket on the ordinary Lothian buses costs £13 and goes far more places.
The souvenir shops on the Royal Mile. You will lose £30 to plastic swords and mass-produced tartan before you reach the castle. Set the expectation on the way up rather than the way down.
Two sample days that actually join up
A day for under-sevens
Start on Chambers Street at 10am when the National Museum opens, going straight up to the hands-on galleries before the school groups land. Park the buggy on Level 1. Two and a half hours, then eat in the Lunch Space or at the Museum Kitchen. Walk five minutes west along Chambers Street to George IV Bridge, stop at Greyfriars Bobby for the obligatory photograph, and carry on to the top of the Royal Mile for Camera Obscura at about 2pm — a fifteen-minute walk with only the short rise up Castlehill at the end, because you are already on the ridge. Two hours there, finishing on the rooftop terrace. Then take the ramp down The Mound, which is all downhill, into West Princes Street Gardens for the playground and an ice cream. Home from Princes Street on any bus. Nothing on that day involves a climb with a pushchair except The Mound, and you do that one going down.
A day for nine and up
Start at Holyrood at 9.30am and climb Arthur’s Seat before the crowds — up in an hour, back down in forty minutes. Come off the hill and go straight into Dynamic Earth, a couple of minutes’ walk from the foot of the path on Holyrood Road, for a planetarium show and a warm-up. Eat in Holyrood or walk fifteen minutes up the Canongate. Book The Real Mary King’s Close for around 3pm, which puts you two thirds of the way up the Royal Mile at the end of it. Finish by walking down to the Grassmarket for an early dinner, or up onto Victoria Street for the Potter photographs while the light is still good. If your children are older and up for it, add a ghost tour after dark — the vaults are a five-minute walk from where you already are.
Frequently asked questions
Is Edinburgh good for a family with a baby?
Yes, with caveats. The New Town, Stockbridge, Leith and Portobello are flat and easy. The Old Town is steep and cobbled and hard with a pram. Most museums have buggy parks, lifts and baby changing. Bring a sling for the Old Town closes and a pram with decent wheels for everywhere else.
What is the best free thing to do in Edinburgh with kids?
The National Museum of Scotland, comfortably. Free entry, four hands-on family galleries, lifts and buggy parking, a lunch space for your own food and enough to fill an entire wet day. After that, Portobello beach and the Royal Botanic Garden, both also free.
How many days do you need in Edinburgh with children?
Three full days. That gives you one museum day, one outdoor day and one paid-attraction day without forcing anyone to march. Two days works if you accept you will only scratch the surface; four lets you add Cramond, South Queensferry or a day trip out of the city.
Is Edinburgh Castle worth it with young children?
Below about nine, usually not. It is expensive, largely outdoors, involves a steep cobbled climb and the highlights are objects behind glass in a queue. The One O’Clock Gun and Mons Meg are the exceptions. Craigmillar Castle is cheaper, quieter and far more climbable.
What is there to do in Edinburgh with kids when it rains?
The National Museum of Scotland first, then Dynamic Earth, Camera Obscura, the Museum of Childhood, the Scottish National Gallery, Fountain Park’s trampoline park and bowling, or the Royal Commonwealth Pool. All of them are genuinely indoor rather than partly outdoor, which the castle is not.
How do child bus fares work in Edinburgh?
Children aged 5 to 15 pay £1.20 for a single or £3.00 for a day ticket. Under-fives ride free, up to three of them per paying adult. For any family making more than a couple of journeys, the £13.00 family DAY beats buying separately. Cash fares need exact change.
Is the Edinburgh Fringe suitable for children?
The programme is, very much so — there is a large dedicated children’s strand with plenty of free and low-cost shows. The Royal Mile in August is not, for small children; the crowds are dense and loud. Book shows at venues away from the Mile and cross the Old Town early or late.
Where should we stay in Edinburgh with kids?
Stockbridge and Bruntsfield are flat, residential and full of cafés, with easy buses in. The New Town is central and level. Avoid a top-floor tenement flat in the Old Town with a buggy — Edinburgh’s tenements very rarely have lifts, and four flights of stone stairs with a pram and a toddler is a genuinely miserable start and end to every day.
Final thoughts
The mistake I made on that first soggy trip was assuming Edinburgh would do the work for me because it is a beautiful city. It doesn’t. It is a hilly, weather-beaten, expensive place that rewards a bit of planning and punishes none at all.
Get the ages right, get the routes right, keep one free day between every paid one, and accept that you will spend a portion of your holiday on a bus rather than romantically strolling. Do that and the city is superb with children — and if you have longer, hand the rest of the trip over to our complete Edinburgh travel guide and our family guide to the rest of Scotland. My youngest still talks about the mirror maze. Nobody has ever mentioned the crown jewels again.
About the author: This guide was written and is maintained by the ScotlandTourism.org editorial team — travel writers who’ve spent years exploring Scotland’s cities, Highlands and islands, from bagging Munros to chasing the perfect dram. We update our guides regularly to keep prices, opening details and advice current.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and opening times change — always check the official site before you travel.
Photo credits
All images are used under their respective Creative Commons or public-domain licenses:
- The Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland — Brian McNeil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Cobbled setts on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh — Stanley Howe, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- The promenade at Portobello — Barbara Carr, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Open lawns at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh — ErinBoyle, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- West Princes Street Gardens below Edinburgh Castle — Matti Blume, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
- The tidal causeway to Cramond Island near Edinburgh — G Laird, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Penguins at Edinburgh Zoo — Adam Harangozó, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
- The curve of Victoria Street in Edinburgh’s Old Town — Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- The Royal Yacht Britannia at Ocean Terminal in Leith — David Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- The National Monument on Calton Hill — Saffron Blaze, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Open grass and tree-lined paths at the Meadows — Jim Barton, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Arthur’s Seat rising above Holyrood Park — Mat Fascione, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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