Which Edinburgh attractions/museums are not to be missed
 

Of course there is the Castle and Palace, but there seem to be tons of attractions/museums large and small along the Royal Mile. Which ones are the best of the best? Rank them in order of preference:

National Gallery
National Museum of Scotland set to reopen soon
Writers Museum
Museum of Edinburgh?
Whisky Experience
Real Mary Kings Close
Camera Obscura
Royal Botanic Garden

Anything I didn't mention here that I should have included?

If you didn't have time for all, which ones are absolute musts and which ones are just okay if you have the time?

You missed a couple I really like, St Giles Cathedral and Gladstone's Land

http://www.stgilescathedral.org.uk/
http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/25/


After the Castle - in totally subjective order:
• National Museum of Scotland (Almost as much for the bldg as the contents)
• Holyrood Palace and Abbey
• St Giles
• Gladstone's Land
• National Gallery
• Real Mary Kings Close
• Whisky Experience (but you really don't want to miss it)
• Writers Museum
• Museum of Edinburgh
• Camera Obscura (the old camera obscura would have been higher but they've 'gimmicked it up')

• Royal Botanic Garden - I REALLY like the Botanic Gardens -- but it is a long way from the Royal Mile so you'd have to find a way to fit it in.

Besides the castle and the palace, my top three would be:

*National Museum of Scotland
*National Gallery
*St. Giles and the Thistle Chapel

Gladstone's would be a close fourth along with a walk up to Arthur's Seat on a fine day

All of the above suggestions are good, but my favorite thing in Edinburgh were the Underground Vaults. We did a tour of them with Mercat tours, and I just found the whole history of them to be fascinating. We didn't do one of the ghost tours, just a regular tour.

That's great. How much time should be budgeted for each of those? Some appear to be quick half hour or so to an hour but others require much more time.

For instance, the Whisky experience--an hour? Writer's museum? etc.

Is the National Gallery of Scotland as large as the one in London? Is two hours sufficient to get an overview of some of the collection? Same with National Museum of Scotland?

1. Castle
2. Mercat Underground Vault Tour or the Witchery Tour or the Real Mary King's
Close (prefer the first two mentioned)
3. St. Giles
4. Rosslyn Chapel
5. National Museum of Scotland
6. Royal Yacht Britannia
7. Palace
8. Princess Street
9. National Gallery
10. Camera Obscura
11. Just wondering around

Haven't been:
Writers Museum
Museum of Edinburgh?
Whisky Experience
Royal Botanic Garden

The National Gallery is not as large as the one in London. IMO the best collection is that of the Scottish artists. Can't remember which floor it's on...2nd/3rd? There is also an excellent collection of Old Masters; I still prefer the Scots. Two hours is good. They also have a nice cafe.

I usually spend more time at the National Museum of Scotland. Two hours will give you a fairly good overview.

I haven't been to the Writer's Museum or the Whisky Experience.

Any other ideas on how much time to budget for each venue?

I went out to Roslyn Chapel. Very interesting two years ago. I walked around on the scaffolding and could almost touch the gargoyles and buttresses. Catch bus 15 from York Place at hh:40. The bus runs hourly and takes 40 minutes.