First time to Scotland. Trip details.

We had this trip to Scotland  in June 2010. 

I think it will be very useful to share technical details of this trip for first-timers .

It was 14 day tour to UK, and we decided to split this trip into two parts:

1) The first week of the 14 day tour we traveled in Scotland 

2) In the second week we spent time in London.

I've been 3 times in Scotland, but for Alexei it was the first time, so I had the task to show the beauty of Edinburgh and Highlands to Alex without overload him.

The final plan of the 7 days trip to Scotland looked like that:

4 days in Edinburg 

Day 1

Flight Moscow-London, train to Edinburgh, check in the apartements. 

If you have a night flight to London, I recommend you take a sleeper train to  Edinburgh (i.e. Caledonian Sleeper train http://www.scotrail.co.uk/caledoniansleeper/index.html) , it's very nice expirience.

Day 2

Holyrood Palace, the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle, Grassmarket

Day 3

Calton Hill, Majestic Bus tour (from the City Center via Edinburgh's New Town to the Royal Yacht Britannia).

Day 4

The walk to the top of Arthur's Seat, The Real Mary King's Close, Camera Obscura

3 days trip to Highlands
Days 5,6,7

3 days Highlands and Skye Tour 

Travel Guide - DK "Scotland"

Flight tickets

As usual, Aeroflot

I decided to show off and ordered a diet on board meal  -)

Train tickets  London - Edinburgh

We bought tickets on the Eastcoast web-site

We took a second class and chose the time of departure outside the peak hours,  so we paid 48 pounds for one round-trip ticket.

I traveled in first class earlier, and found no big difference between the first and second classes, so I don't see a reason to pay much more  for "free" coffee and tea .

Apartments

Usually we choose hotels on Priceline (option "bid your price"), and we pay about 100-120 dollars per night  for 4-star hotels in the center of London (if you know the rates of hotels in London, you will see the difference).

Unfortunately, this option is not suitable for Edinburgh, so we chose apartments Princes Street Suites on booking.com.

So, everything is ready, luggage is packed - it's time to hit the road!

We flew from SVO terminal D. I like this light, airy and comfy terminal. We had no problems with queues. The flight was excellent except diet meal -)  I was starving, but it was impossible to eat this meal, so I stole the food from Alex's bowl -) 

In London, we got our luggage  very quickly, and took tickets on Heathtrow Express to London. One hour later we were seated in the train to Edinburgh. Rail travel from London's Kings Cross Station to Edinburgh Waverley takes 4 hours and 30 minutes approximately.

Edinburgh's Waverly Station is located in the city's center, and is convenient to public transportation and taxis. The station is also within walking distance of numerous hotels, restaurants and pubs. 

We got to the "Princess Street Suites" very quickly, they are just 50 meters from the Waverly Station. 

When we checked in, we were embarrassed by receptionist's words "Your room is on the minus second floor" 

We were promised Edinburgh Castle's view on the web-site, but his words promised room in basement -)

When we had walked to our room, we were looked very gloomy, because at this time we were watching the stone wall in the window on the right side, and doors to the rooms on the left side. When we opened our room, we ran to the window... OMG, it's fantastic view!!! The house is on the hill, so the floor facing at the Princess Street is first, but the same floor is fourth on the other side of the building. I'm not sure that I explained it very well)

Moving away from the window, we spotted the beautiful living room, the bathroom, the kitchen and the bedroom. And it's exceeded even our most optimistic expectations!

The terrace on the roof

The nice view to the cemetery

Arthur's Seat behind Alex. He doesn't know that he will climb on it two days later.

The view from the front door. The entrance to the bathroom on the right, next door to the bedroom, and next entrance to the kitchen and the living room)

The bathroom

The bedroom

The kitchen and the living room

The kitchen area

The living room

Gym. But we preferred jogging in the park  in the morning.

The view from the roof

The view from our room

You can read more about trip to Edinburgh here: 
Men's day trip to Edinburgh (Only photos)
Useful links for visiting Scotland
3 days in Edinburgh. Day 1. Royal Mile
3 days in Edinburgh. Day 2. Calton Hill and Britannia
3 days in Edinburgh. Day 3. Arthur's Seat 

Stay tuned!