Edinburg5 Days

Inner Bohemian

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Introduction

About This Guide..................................................3How to Use This Guide..........................................5

Before you go

About Edinburgh...................................................9What to consider...................................................10What to Bring........................................................14

Itineraries

Wander 1: Holyrood Park & Arthur’s Seat.............16Wander 2: The Royal Mile.....................................21Wander 3: Dark Edinburgh....................................26Wander 4: A Bit O' Culture....................................31Wander 5: Path of Leith Resistance......................36

Listings..........................................................................43

References and Further Reading..................................50

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About this guideWho the hell do we think we are, exactly?

Vacations are supposed to be fun. An escape from usual. A wandering down unexplored paths. A wild dive into new terrain, new culture, and new people. The specific purpose of getting away is unique to each individual, but the core is always the same: to enjoy yourself.

Why, then, do vacations so often turn to crap? Well, lots of reasons. Maybe you can't stop thinking about the Myers contract, or Aunt Sarah's new weirdo boyfriend. Maybe you and your phone decided to spend a week on a Punta Cana beach finalizing powerpoint presentations. We can't help you with that kind of stuff. We're guidemakers, dammit, not psychologists!

But we can do something about the other side of the equation, what we'll call vacation itinerization. That's all the planning, prep work, and decision making that goes into travelling. On it's own, it can become a wearisome burden of time-consuming drudgery that drains colour from your time away. When you feed it too much, it can devolve into a monster that rips the beating heart from your trip and squashes it under a cloven hoof of maps, deadlines, arguments, and harried exhaustion.

Our goal is to take a knife and stab that little voice in your head. Repeatedly. The one that's endlessly chatting about closing times and fretting over what to do next. We want it good and dead so you can meander down cobblestones, scrabble up hillsides, and relax at streetside cafés, secure in the knowledge that the little

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stuff is taken care of. We want to deal with as much of that vacation itinerization for you as possible.

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What this guide isn'to a massive, comprehensive tome, an encyclopedia of your

destination that is as inaccessible and charmless as it is toaster-oven bulky.

What this guide iso brief and to the pointo a culling of what we think are the most essential

characteristics of the destination- the places, people, and events that make it what it is.

o a quick-access reference that gives you structure for your day but the flexibility to mix things up.

o a guide to travel that is realistic about the time it takes to do things

You should use this guide ifo you are spending a week or less at the destination,o you want to avoid feeling pushed, pulled, rushed, and

stressed out,o you want to see and experience the things that make the

destination what it is,o you can't or don't want to research and plan your own

itineraries.

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How to use this guideIt's all about Wandering

In this guide, we offer daily itineraries called Wanders. Each Wander is a series of locations or activities meant to take you through a full day of vacation exploration.The main things to understand about Wanders are

o They are self-contained.You can do any Wander on any day. You aren't required to do Wander 2 immediately after Wander 1.

o They are flexible.Not into museums? Is it raining too hard for a walk along the stream? Restaurant under reconstruction? Not to worry, each stop on your way is linked to multiple alternatives you can switch to with the flip of a page. There are always alternatives.

o They are designed to be done comfortably.We are mindful of the golden rule of travel: things happen that you can't plan for. Delay, interruption, wandering and sidetracking are a part of vacations too. We make sure there's ample time to enjoy your Wanders, not burn through them in hurry and worry.

We break a Wander into seven distinct segments based on time of day. Each segment involves a specific location and is either a Food Interlude or a Plot Point (sorry, it's the poet in us). It's pretty straightforward:

Breakfast - Morning - Lunch - Afternoon - Supper - Evening - After Hours

Segment descriptions are designed to be easily accessible and quickly digestible, so you can find out what you need to know

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without having your nose stuck in a guidebook all day. Food Interludes and Plot Points differ slightly in layout and information content, as you'll see below and on the following page.

Sample Food Interlude

£5

Foodies at Holyrood breakfas67 Holyrood Road+44 131 652 www.foodiesatholyrood.com

J T E

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MTWTF

S 10AM 6PM

10AM 6PM

7:30AM 6PM

7:30AM 6PM

7:30AM 6PM

7:30AM 6PM

7:30AM 6PM

food is high quality and locally sourced generous portions excellent cuppa morning atmosphere is typically quiet and pleasant

sandwich wrap soupcake

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