August is here and the Edinburgh Festival - a chaotic blend of theatre, comedy and general debauchery - is upon us. If you haven't booked anywhere to stay for the Festival yet, don't worry: we take a look at what's available, and discover that it is still possible - just about - to find somewhere to stay without having to resort to sleeping with a resident.
The Edinburgh tourist board runs an accommodation booking service from their information centre at 3, Princes Street (open from 9am to 8pm during August). They also have a desk at Edinburgh airport. Alison Rankin, head of leisure marketing with the tourist board, says "it's a risk just to turn up, but we usually find something". However, as the day goes on the chances of being placed within Edinburgh itself are increasingly unlikely, and visitors can find themselves ending the day with a journey to places as far afield as Stirling or even Perth. To stand a better chance of finding accommodation within the city itself, the tourist board also offers an advance booking service on 0131 473 3800, or have a look at the website, www.edinburgh.org, which has links directly to the establishments, where you can check on availability. Both services charge a booking fee: £1 for a group of more than five people and £3 for five people or less. Other useful sites are the Edinburgh accommodation pages on aboutScotland.com, which include a clickable map showing the location of all the hotels and bed and breakfasts which they endorse.
If you really can't find anywhere to stay in Edinburgh but still have your heart set on seeing the festival, there are plenty of places just a short train or bus ride out of the city where accommodation can be found. Perhaps the most obvious of these is Glasgow, a 50-minute journey away by train. Cheap day returns can be bought for £7.50. Look at the city's official website for a rundown of what Glasgow has to offer in terms of accommodation. At the time of writing, the site was advertising a two-night short break special offer: book two consecutive nights in any of the participating hotels (all priced between £20 and £35 per night) to receive a three-course meal in selected restaurants for £15. The site also offers you a brief look at the history and culture of the city: Glasgow was a European city of Architecture and Design in 1999 and the only danger is that, once there, the lure of the leafy parks and wide tenement streets will dissuade you from making the journey into Edinburgh at all.
If you're looking for somewhere quieter - and closer to Edinburgh - there are several small towns and villages in the Lothians that provide good bases for festival-goers. Perhaps the most picturesque is North Berwick, a coastal village at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, 20 minutes or so out of Edinburgh. It's a year-round golfing destination, and therefore has a number of good, reasonably priced hotels as well as the usual array of bed and breakfasts, in the way of accommodation. Also to the east of Edinburgh is Aberlady, where the hotels are so sumptuous (check out Ballencrief Castle, or the Inveresk House bed and breakfast) that it seems a shame to use them as nothing more than a stopover for Edinburgh, (not to mention the fact that you'd be flouting the long-standing Festival tradition of roughing it). However, if your want to sweeten your sojourn in Scotland with a little luxury, then this is the place to find it.
Head west of Edinburgh into Midlothian for a wider range of places to stay. At the upper end of the price bracket, the village of Bonnyrigg is home to the Dalhousie Castle Hotel, as well as a number of bed and breakfasts. The family-run County Hotel in the historic town of Dalkeith is said to be Midlothian's most popular hotel, and is again just 15 minutes from Edinburgh. The slightly larger town of Penicuik, about 30 minutes from Edinburgh, has a number of hotels and bed and breakfasts, including the Leadburn Inn, which dates from 1777 and is one of the oldest inns in Scotland. Rooms are from £25 a night, and there is an hourly bus service to Edinburgh city centre.
If you're really stuck, pitch a tent or hire a caravan. Camp and caravan sites in the area are listed on the Campingcar.co.uk site: certainly an option when you consider the expense of watching three or four shows a day at £10 a pop.
And for the hard core, how about the no accommodation option? If you're travelling from London, you could get a sleeper there and back (fares from £89 return with a berth; £35 seat only, with advance booking). Check Scotrail's Caledonian Sleepers site for more info. With the licensing laws in Scotland somewhat more flexible than south of the border, it's perfectly possible to spend the whole of any intervening nights comfortably ensconced in the corner of various pubs.
Getting there
By air: Frequent, regular flights from UK and international airports. Edinburgh airport is a short bus- or taxi-ride away from the city centre. Car hire is available at the airport.
By rail: The east coast GNER line is the fastest inter-city railway in the UK, and links Edinburgh with London and Europe. ScotRail, Railtrack and west coast lines link the city with northern and western Britain.
By coach: The coach station is in the city centre, and services run to the rest of Britain and beyond.
By car.
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Festival links
www.edinburghfestivals.com
The official guide to all of Edinburgh's festivals, from jazz, to books.
www.edfringe.com
The fringe festival programme online, with a ticket-buying facility.
theOracle.co.uk
The city's guide to what's on, where and when, both during the month of the festival and the rest of the year.
www.thescotsman.co.uk
First with all the reviews. Essential for the casual festival-goer who wants to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
