Budget Backbackers

It's a hostel, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. The ratio of working bathrooms to beds was quite low, at least in our building. We were in a building of private suites, with 3 bedrooms around one bathroom. But that bathroom had the sink, toilet, and shower all in one room, so if someone was using one thing there, no one could use the others.

Also, there were very few working washers and dryers, and the dryers sucked. We really, really needed to do laundry by the time we got to Edinburgh and just resigned ourselves to waiting for the dryers all night long. We still ended up with damp clothes, but thankfully sunny weather the next day so we could hang the clothes in the room and everything dried out nicely, eventually.

The building itself was surprisingly quiet, but due to festival season there was a lot of street noise. Also, due to the terrible U.S.-sterling conversion rate at the time, it wasn't as "budget" as we would have liked it to be. But it is centrally located in the heart of the old city, so you can't beat the ease of getting around to the sights.

They supply linens for the beds, but no towels! We ended up using our pillowcases to pat ourselves dry, then supplement with my hair dryer. Not terrible, once you get the hang of it. At least the showers were hot. And we had a private room with a lock on the door so we could keep our stuff strewn about with no worries.

There's a bus that runs between the airport and Waverly train station. You can walk from the train station to the hostel.

Excerpted from my personal blog:
http://whereintheworld-stephanie.blogspot.com/2007/09/back-in-land-of-good-showers.html

A stones throw away from Edinburgh Castle,in the heart of Edinburgh's historic old town and next to the city's vibrant nightlife. This means your bed is only 2 minutes away from your last drink. and only 5-10 minutes walk from bus and train stations and the famous Haggis and Macbackpacker tour routes.
FREE CITY TOUR,which is big bonus, also we climbed with the helpful staff support on the hill called 'Arthur Seat.'
FREE Pub Crawl
I had a great time in this hostel. Design of this hostel is funky and funny, all these donkey pictures on the walls made me smile. Check what the donkey is doing on the 'chill out room's door! :D
That's a huge hostel, got lost many times, they have like dozens of kitchens and common areas. Very helpful and funny staff.