www.thetrainline.com charges for booking tickets. Always use www.nationalrail.co.uk instead which will link you to the individual rail companies who don't charge for bookings.

You may find BTW that it's cheaper to book Gatwick to Kings Cross & Kings Cross to Edinburgh as separate tickets as the 2 routes are run by different companies

Sorry Alan but you're wrong. I've never paid any extra charges to book through thetrainline. But I thought maybe it had changed since I last used it (a while ago since I usually prefer to fly). So I just followed this booking through to the point of payment & there was no extra charge if paying by debit card (though £1.50 charge if paying by credit card). But the cheapest ticket had gone up to £93.10 since I last looked.

Well, I've booked our tickets and the trip has changed a bit: We will be flying straight to Edinburgh, arriving on 6/25, then taking the train to London the afternoon of the 6/29 and flying out of London-Gatwick on 7/2. I've booked a small hotel in London near Victoria station & tickets from Victoria station to Gatwick (on the Southern rail line). I still need to book acccomodations in Edinburgh. I'm undecided about where, though. I would love to stay right near the Royal Mile, but our daughter will be studying at the University, so I'm tempted to stay near her (her dorm will be about 1 1/2 miles from there). Can anyone help make up my mind :-)? We enjoy walking and aren't used to using buses, (though I realize we'll have to use them some on this trip). Is the bus system in Edinburgh simple to use?

Also - would love ideas for a 2 day intinerary in London. We want to do the typical tourist sites, but not the theatres. Also, would love any suggestions concerning prepurchasing any tickets and transportation options around London for those 2 days.

Thanks for the help!

Where is your daughter staying - is it the Pollock Halls ? I think it would be more enjoyable for you to stay in the city centre. What is your budget ? The Radisson SAS is right on the Royal Mile.

The city centre is very walkable but if you need to take buses anywhere, the buses here are very easy to use. Just make sure you stick to Lothian (aka LRT) buses - it's by far the biggest operator, and while a single fare is £1 anywhere, you can buy a day ticket for unlimited use on all Lothian buses for £2.30. You pay the driver & need the right change. So for your first bus of each day, you'd drop £4.60 (for 2 of you) in the box next to the driver and ask for 2 day tickets or daysavers. Pull the tickets out of the machine to your right, then just show them to the driver of each subsequent bus.

There are also open top tourist buses which are separate - not sure how much they are now, but you buy a ticket which is valid for a day & then can hop on & off as often as you like. There are several different services but I think Guide Friday is the best as it has a live guide. Most routes take you round the main sights of the Old and New Towns and it's a good way to get an initial overview. A good idea is to get off at the top of the Royal Mile at the stop nearest the Castle, walk up to & visit the Castle, walk down the Royal Mile to the Palace at the bottom, do that (& the Scottish Parliament if you want) then get back on the bus.

There is also at least one tourist bus which goes to the Royal Yacht Britannia but you'd be better just getting a normal Lothian number 22 bus there & saving your money. It (the RYB) has a very good audio tour.

Any other Edinburgh specifics, just ask.

Our daughter will be staying at Kitchener House. Am I correct in my distance from City Centre? We would prefer to stay in something like a guest house - a nice one, but not overly expensive. I had been considering either the Ceilidh-Donia Hotel or the Southside Guest House, (I had read good reviews about both). I was quoted a price of 80 pounds for the room & full breakfast for both of us at the Ceilidh-Donia.

I was checking biddingfortravel for a trip we're planning in the fall, and it doesn't look like Edinburgh has any reliable priceline deals. octopustravel.com has many choices listed for Edinburgh, just remember that the prices are all in Aus. dollars.

A few years ago we did basically the same thing you've contemplated. Our final destination was Glasgow, but it was much cheaper to fly into London and we planned to make that part of our stay anyway. We did have a longer time to work with, though. We flew into Gatwick and stayed a week in London, then took the train to Glasgow. I will say that while the train trip was pleasant, it was raining and therefore wasn't quite as scenic as we'd hoped. Also, there's a lot of undeveloped (no towns, villages, not even cows!) land between England and Scotland, so quaint villages were few and far between. It would have been better for us to either fly or travel at night on the train. We spent a week in Glasgow, then flew back on Ryan Air for another few nights in London before our departure. The flight was cheap, quick, and easy. I'd say if you're going to include London in your plans, fly.

Have a wonderful trip!

Bendemeer: Your new plan is great - no backtracking and good use of your very limited time. The train from Edinburgh to London is fine - when you factor in the time to from the airports, advance check in a etc - the time to get to your London hotel won't be much different.

The Guide Friday tour bus is a good idea for Edinburgh. Follow it just as caroline suggests - get on at Waverly Bridge and ride just to the first stop up near the castle, After touring the castle walk down the Royal Mile all the way to Holyrood Palace and then hop on another of the Guide Friday buses.

Sorry, I don't know either one of the B&Bs you mention. But hopefully caroline_edinburgh will see your thread again and have some info for you.

I hadn't heard of Kitchener House before, but I've looked it up & I'd say it's more like 3-4 miles from the city centre. It's not the most charming & historic part of town but it's OK - it's mixture of nice Victorian villas, busy roads & a modern shopping centre. It's a short walk from several good bus routes.

I sometimes go past the Southside B&B - it's in the suburban area of Newington, on the main road - so, good for buses but not good if you need somewhere very quiet. About 2 miles out.

I hadn't previously heard of the Ceilidh-Donia but I looked it up & it's just about the same distance out of the centre as the Southside, just off a parallel main road (Dalkeith Road) which is also a good bus route. Since it's not on the main road it should be more peaceful.

As I expect you realise, both of these are between the city centre & Kitchener House. They are both in the sort of area I tend to recommend if you can't get anywhere to suit in the city centre, i.e. a mile or two out but on a good bus route.

Caroline -

Thanks so much for the information. I'm rethinking things now and I'll start looking at B&B's closer to the Royal Mile. 3-4 miles is just too far. I would love recommendations for small hotels or larger B&B's, (Small B&B's might be a little too intimate, maybe?). I really appreciate your insight.

I'm gone for the weekend, but I'll check back Sunday afternoon.

Sorry Bendemeer, I don't think I explained very well. The B&Bs you mentioned are about 1.5 miles out, it's the place your daughter will be staying that is c.3 miles out.

By the nature of the city centre it doesn't have many B&Bs or small hotels at around the £80 mark, mainly large hotels. There are a few exceptions although I can't think of any on or near the Royal Mile. (There's the Witchery but it's c.£300 a night.)The Castle View guesthouse, just off Princes Street, always gets recommended here but I think it gets booked up far in adavance. A couple of posters have recently booked respectively at Ingrams (www.ingrams.co.uk) and the Walton Hotel (www.waltonhotelcom) but I've not heard any reports on either & I think they are more like £100 for 2 people. Also, while they are in the New Town which fits most people's definition of the city centre and is very nice, they are not really any nearer the Royal Mile (if that's what you are really keen to be near) than your 2 B&Bs on the south side.

There is the Bank Hotel which is right on the Royal Mile. We paid £80 a night to stay there while we were having dry rot sorted out but that was 3.5 years ago and in November. But if you don't mind it being a pub on the ground floor (now non-smokimg of course !) it's worth checking out : they have or at least had quite cool themed rooms - we were in the Alexander Graham Bell room which featured telegraph poles & a switchboard :-)