Edinburgh on a budget - accommodation

Traveling can be expensive, especially if the place you are traveling to is a very touristy place. And Edinburgh is certainly one of those places. I am not sure how many people actually come over here every year but especially in summer you see more tourists than locals on some streets. Of course the local and not so local businesses have discovered that a lot of tourists still want to see and do things even, if they cost a wee bit more.

But what about people who want to see this amazing city but are not able or willing to spend a lot of money? Here is the first part of a little guide for people with a small budget:  

Accommodation


1. Don't come in August, don't come for New Years!
Edinburgh hosts a ton of festivals in August, the Fringe, the International Festival, the book Festival, the Comedy Festival and maybe a few more I don't remember and each of them last for several weeks. Hostels and hotels charge up to three times as much during the entire month of August, long distance transport and even some pubs charge more than they usually would.
New Years, or Hogmany as they call it here, sees one of the biggest street parties in the world and again, from accommodation to booze everything is just crazy expensive and there ten thousands of exremly drunk people on the streets. I always try to get out of the city actually.

2. Make sure there are no other events.
There is always something going on, not only in August. In July there is the Blues and Jazz Festival, in January-March we host a couple of Rugby matches and in June there is the Edinburgh Marathon. And whenever there is a big event like these you can bet, that the prices for accommodation will go up by a lot and it will be next to impossible to find a last minute bed. You can check on here what's going on.

3. Affordable accommodation.

 most important rule in hostels!

I think the best time to come to Edinburgh is between March and June. The chances that the weather is decent are quite good (pack a rain coat anyways!), you have a lot of daylight and it's not too busy yet, which means prices are low. No matter, if you are looking for a private room or just a bed in a hostel, Edinburgh has it all. There are at least 15 different hostels and a ton of cheap hotels and even more B&Bs and holiday apartments. It makes sense to compare prices on websites like http://www.hostelworld.com/ or http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ but it is often cheaper to book through the properties own website.

Beds in hostels are available from £10, and the cheapest hotels sometimes only charge £30 for a double room when it's off season. If you are traveling with more people it might be worth looking into renting an apartment, some are as cheap as £50 and can fit more than just 2 people (all these prices are  per night).
Of course there is also always the option to use https://www.couchsurfing.org/. If you haven't heard about it yet:
it's a huge network of people from all over the globe, it basically works like a car share website but for accommodation. You can rate each other, so it's quite easy to avoid the weirdos. And these people have often lived in the place you are going to and can tell and show you things, you might not experience other wise. And the best thing it's FREE!

No matter what type of accommodation you book, be aware that some areas will get really noisy especially at night. Pretty much everywhere in the Old Town as well as Rose and George Street are full of pubs and night clubs and at 3am when they close the party often continues on the streets. On The other hand accommodation in these areas can be cheaper because of that...