Greetings
I am beginning to plan a trip to Edinburgh. I have never been to Scotland and I have no clue how to budget for this trip.

Please give me an idea what to expect to pay for a 3-star hotel in a central location. If you have specific suggestions, I welcome them.

What can I expect to pay for a decent pub-type meal?

I'm sure I'll have other questions once I have an idea about costs and I do some additional research.
Thanks

WHEN is the most important info. In August room rates will be double and sometimes triple what they are in say mid-June.

Janis is spot on, as usual.

Here's my process. Go to a website such as booking.com. Enter your dates, and I think you can filter by 3*. You don't have to book anything, this is just window shopping to get a feel for what's available. When you find something interesting, post back with questions about the accommodations and/or accommodation in a certain neighborhood. We will be glad to help if we can.

Janis When? Mid April
PM thanks for that tip. I'll investigate

FYI, we stayed at the Ibis St. Andrews Square in New Town. The location is very convenient. Easy walk to the Royal Mile in Old Town, Edinburgh Castle and the National Museum of Scotland and about a 20-minute walk to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Easy walking distance to many restaurants. I think we paid around $300 per night in late May/early June 2023. Our room was small as is typical, but clean. Nice breakfast is included, and the staff were friendly and helpful.

My process is to start with Google Maps with "Hotels near Edinburgh, Scotland". After that, you can enter your dates. This will give you results from many booking sites.If you are going at a popular time, best to book early before prices go up. As always, pay attention to which deals offer easy cancellation or no cancellation.

There is sometimes an advantage to book with the hotel directly, and this will often be listed on Google Maps.

Check out this 3-star hotel, 28 York Place Hotel, right in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town. It’s just a 5-minute walk from Waverley Station, with good connections to Edinburgh Airport, and steps away from Princes Street, shops, and restaurants. Another big plus: room rates in April are under €200 per night.

I also stayed at the Ibis Styles St Andrew’s Square and would certainly recommend it. I cannot recall what we paid in October 2023 but I know we had a discount for joining the Accor group and our room was very comfortable plus it included a small terrace. Great location and very nice breakfast buffet included

We stayed at Apex City of Edinburgh on our last visit. We got a great deal of four nights for around 800 GBP, including a wonderful breakfast. This was two years ago though, but even then the price was terrific.

The hotel was right in the heart of Edinburgh, in the Grassmarket. Some rooms had a Castle view, unfortunately we didn't but you could see it from breakfast every morning.

Grassmarket is full of pubs with typical Scottish pub fare at pretty good prices.

Thanks everyone for your help