The streets worth walking
Start on George Street, the spine of the grid, and walk it end to end from St Andrew Square to Charlotte Square. It is the grandest shopping street in Scotland and the only one where the view at each end is a domed church rather than a shopfront. Turn north into Thistle Street or Rose Street for pubs and small kitchens tucked behind the main frontages, then keep going down Frederick Street to Queen Street and the gardens beyond. Heriot Row, where Robert Louis Stevenson grew up, and Great King Street give you the purest run of Georgian terraces in Britain: fanlights, iron railings, and the original sash windows we have restored in our own flats. Moray Place, an oval of towering stone, is worth the short detour west before you drop down towards Stockbridge.
Eating and drinking
Dishoom on St Andrew Square is the reliable full-house dinner — go early or book weeks ahead. For something quieter, The Lookout at Calton Hill does a long lunch with the best window in the city, and Fhior on Broughton Street is the tasting menu locals actually return to. Coffee is easy: Cairngorm on Frederick Street roasts its own, and Söderberg does cardamom buns worth queueing for. For a drink after dinner, the Bon Vivant on Thistle Street and Panda & Sons, a basement bar hidden behind a barbershop front on Queen Street, are two minutes apart.
Art, shops and rainy days
The Scottish National Gallery and the Portrait Gallery on Queen Street are both free, both indoors, and both ten minutes from any New Town flat — the single best answer to an Edinburgh downpour. Stockbridge's antiques and Multrees Walk's designer row cover the two extremes of shopping, and Golden Hare Books in Stockbridge and Topping & Company on Blenheim Place are the bookshops to lose an hour in.
Getting around
Everything central is walkable and mostly downhill from the New Town. The tram runs from St Andrew Square to Edinburgh Airport in about thirty-five minutes, and to Leith and Newhaven in the other direction. Waverley station sits at the foot of the gardens for Glasgow, Stirling and the Highland line. Parking is controlled seven days a week and expensive, so most guests arrive by tram or taxi and leave the car at home — the flats sit inside the zone where you genuinely do not need one.
