What’s up everyone, if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen our vlog, or the million Instagram posts, you might not know that we went to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. We were incredibly excited about this for a number of reasons. The main one is that Adelaide has the second biggest Fringe in the world after Edinburgh, and having grown up attending that our whole lives, we wanted to see how the OG Fringe compares.
Our trip to Edinburgh wouldn’t have been possible or nearly as smooth without Point A Hotels. The amazing team there hosted us for the weekend in one of their Comfy Twin with View rooms, and we couldn’t recommend it more. The location was super fantastic, we were able to walk everywhere we needed to go (it’s about 20 minutes walk from the Royal Mile/ Edinburgh Castle area) and there were loads of cafes and food spots nearby. The whole hotel was incredibly modern, clean and spacious, with fun features in the room like coloured mood lighting and touch-sensitive panels. The staff were also really lovely. We caught a red-eye from London, having to get up at 4am Saturday and arriving at the hotel at 8:30am to maximise the time we had in Edinburgh. The really friendly receptionist allowed us to check in a full 6 hours early at no extra cost or fuss, which you 100% is not the norm in the hotel industry and we really appreciated it.
After a quick nap, it was off to see what was happening in Edinburgh. Packing our new Forbes & Lewis backpacks with our camera equipment and plenty of water, we walked over to Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile. The cobblestone streets seemed to be filled with markets, street performers and roving shows wherever we looked, with masses of coloured posters plastered onto walls standing out against the old brick buildings.
Part of the Royal Mile had been closed off from traffic to turn it into a festival area, much like Rundle Street is in Adelaide. The whole space was filled with a sea of people, all jostling to look at stalls, grabbing flyers on shows or watching previews and activations on makeshift stages.
Later that evening we wandered over to George Square, one of the main hubs of the Edinburgh Fringe and home to Assembly Garden, Underbelly Garden and many more open-aired spots filled with food trucks, bars and venues. For any Adelaide folk, the best we can describe it is like The Garden of Unearthly Delights, but with 7 more of The Garden all located on the same block. Wandering through all these we were like kids in a candy shop, stopping to look at all the fun food places, interesting bars and performance spaces, lit by fairy lights and decorated with plenty of greenery.
Loads of alcohol companies get amongst the fun of the Fringe as well, one of those being Monkey Shoulder. We stopped past their giant cement mixer truck (filled with whisky, of course) for a silent disco combined with a whisky tasting.
The Edinburgh Fringe was just as magical for us as the Adelaide Fringe, and we’re so grateful we had the opportunity to head along. If you’re travelling to London, Edinburgh or Glasgow and you’re in need of accommodation, make sure you check out Point A Hotels. Perfect for those on a budget, their hotels are designed to give you an amazing place to rest and relax between all your holiday activities, while also being in convenient locations.
