Where to Stay in Bruntsfield, Morningside & the Southside: Hotels & Guesthouses (2026)

Best for the Links, the Meadows and a proper hotel with parking. Bruntsfield and the Tollcross edge. Bruntsfield Place runs along the top of Bruntsfield Links, the old golfing green that becomes the Meadows across Melville Drive, and the shops, bakeries and pubs on it are the reason people fall for the neighbourhood (the Bruntsfield and Morningside guide walks you along it). Sleep here and you're 15 to 21 minutes on foot from the Meadows, 21 to 27 from the university, 28 to 35 from the Royal Mile, and the 11, 15, 16, 23 and 45 buses run along Bruntsfield Place into the centre in 20 to 25 minutes. The trade-off is choice: one hotel on the Links, and then a row of guesthouses on Gilmore Place and Leamington Terrace on the Tollcross side, all of them Victorian houses with stairs and no lift, most asking for two nights. Two more on that row are worth knowing if my picks are full: Averon Guest House at 44 Gilmore Place has 14 free parking spaces, room for a campervan and a free live folk set most evenings, but shared bathrooms in some rooms and a breakfast reviewers call basic, and Menzies Guest House at 33 Leamington Terrace is the cheap-and-cheerful option with a very steep stair and some shared shower rooms; neither publishes a rate, so you price them in their booking engines.

JA The Bruntsfield is the only real hotel in Bruntsfield and my first pick for anyone who wants a lift, a car park and a bar downstairs rather than a chat with a landlady. It's the old Bruntsfield Hotel on the Links, a run of townhouses at 69 to 74 Bruntsfield Place, and it has changed hands. It left Best Western and now belongs to JA Resorts and Hotels, the Dubai group that also owns Mar Hall outside Glasgow; the site still has a few Best Western links in its corners, but the brand on the door is JA The Bruntsfield. The Neighbourhood, its kitchen, bar and heated garden booths, does breakfast from 7am and is the sort of place the street uses as a local. From the door it's 15 minutes to the Meadows at Middle Meadow Walk, 21 to George Square, 28 to the Tron and 30 to Waverley, and the bus stop is outside. It holds 4.2 on Google from more than a thousand reviews, which is the profile of a big, busy, well-run hotel rather than a boutique one.

For 10 November a Standard Double, about 18 square metres, was £140.40 room only, prepaid, or £156 flexible; add breakfast and it's £162 prepaid or £180 flexible, and every rate already includes VAT and the visitor levy. Parking is the draw for drivers: 26 spaces at £12.50 a night, first come, first served, with EV chargers. There's a lift, ground-floor bedrooms and two adapted rooms, children are welcome with free cots and interconnecting rooms, and dogs are £25 a stay. The honest catches: it's a chain-run hotel, so rooms are comfortable rather than characterful and reviewers mention a warm room or two in summer, and on Monday and Tuesday evenings the restaurant runs as a bar only, so plan dinner on Bruntsfield Place those nights. Ask for a room facing the Links.

Castle Park Guest House is the guesthouse I'd book on the Gilmore Place row, and its reviews are all about the welcome: a seven-room Victorian house at number 75, run by Ian and David, who used to run a boutique hotel in Sitges and cook breakfast to order with homemade bread in the front room from 8am. It's 16 minutes to the Meadows, 22 to George Square and 28 to the Tron, and the 10 and 27 buses stop at Leamington Terrace on the corner and run to Tollcross and the Old Town. It holds 4.8 on Google from more than 200 reviews, and the thing people keep writing about is the welcome.

The calendar is the thing to plan around. Every November date carried a two-night minimum, and the house was blocked out from 2 to 16 November 2026 entirely, so the price here is for the following Tuesday: £150 a night room rate for a Standard Double with a 135cm bed on the first floor, with breakfast added as a separate line once you choose the room (a change since the levy arrived), and a Deluxe Double or Twin with a super-king at £165 to £170. You pay on arrival and can cancel free until seven days before. There is no lift and no ground-floor room; everything is up one or two flights of a single staircase, and the two single rooms have their bathrooms across the landing. No parking either, though the house has a reduced daily rate at an underground car park eight minutes away. Check-in is 3pm to 7pm, so tell them your arrival time. Ask for the Mackenzie Room, the biggest.

Albyn Townhouse is the prettiest house in Bruntsfield and the one with the most rules, so read the second paragraph before you fall for the first. It's a former church manse in a quiet cul-de-sac off the Bruntsfield Place shops, eight big rooms decorated with real care by Lydie, the owner, and it holds 4.9 on Google from more than 200 reviews, almost all of them about the rooms and the host. It's 21 minutes to the Meadows, 27 to George Square and 35 to the Tron, with the 11, 15, 16, 23 and 45 at the end of the street. For 10 November it sold two nights only, with a King En-Suite at £149 a night (£298 for Tuesday to Thursday), room only; the Large Superior King with a sofa is £159 and the room I'd take.

Now the rules, which are the honest trade-off. It's adults only. There are no pets of any kind, and the site says that includes guide and assistance dogs, because of the owner's diagnosed allergy, with no exceptions. There's no cooked breakfast; a £10 croissant basket with two hot drinks is the only option, and the host points you to Café Grande for a discount instead. You pay in full by bank transfer 30 days before you arrive, there's no card machine so extras are cash, check-in is a key box from 2pm with the host in person only on weekday evenings, and check-out is a firm 10am. Parking is £10 a night in cash, booked ahead. Rooms are 25 or 48 steps up with no lift. If you're a couple who'll eat out, arrive on time and want a beautiful room in a quiet street, none of that will bother you; if you want a hotel, book the Bruntsfield.

Best for a quiet, villagey stay with a famous pub next door. Morningside. Keep walking south past Holy Corner and Bruntsfield turns into Morningside: a long high street of delis, charity shops and the Dominion cinema, with Blackford Hill and the Hermitage of Braid at the far end. It's the calmest of these neighbourhoods and the furthest out, and the honest truth for a hotel search is that Morningside proper has exactly one hotel. The guesthouses on Granville Terrace on the Merchiston side are either taking long lets only or not bookable online, so if The Lane is full, go back up the hill to Bruntsfield. Buses are the answer to the distance: the 5, 11, 15, 16 and 23 run the length of Morningside Road and reach Princes Street in 25 to 30 minutes door to door.

The Lane Hotel is that one hotel, and a lovely one: eleven rooms across two Victorian villas on Canaan Lane, tucked behind the Canny Man's, the family's own pub on Morningside Road, which is also where you check in and where 250 whiskies and the open sandwiches wait for you afterwards. Rooms are big for the price. For 10 November a Deluxe double or twin of 22 square metres was £144 room only, non-refundable, or £160 flexible, and £195 with breakfast; the Luxury room with a bath is £169 and the 35 square metre Premier with a freestanding tub and city view £176, and stays of two nights or more get 10% off. It holds 4.8 on Google from 170 reviews, and the reviews are about the size of the rooms, the quiet and the pub.

The trade-off is the map. From the door it's 33 minutes to the Meadows, 39 to George Square and 47 to the Tron, so you're bus-dependent, and the small private car park next door is first come, first served and can't be reserved. The website publishes no check-in times, no children or pets policy and no lift or step-free claim, so ask when you book, and one reviewer found the walk-in shower flooded the bathroom floor. For a couple who want to sleep somewhere quiet, eat well downstairs and take the 11 into town, it's my Morningside answer.

Best for the university, and the closest of these to the Royal Mile. The Southside. The streets between George Square and the Pleasance are where the university lives, and they're the only part of the Southside that counts as central: the Tron is eight or nine minutes away, Waverley 13 or 14, and the Meadows 10 or 11. Two proper hotels sit here, one owned by the surgeons and one by the university, and both take a single night. The closest guesthouse to the campus is Southside Guest House at 8 Newington Road, an 1867 townhouse eight rooms deep that's 11 minutes from George Square and 12 from the Meadows; for 10 November a 15 square metre standard double was £138, advance purchase, and the website says breakfast is included, though confirm it on the rate you pick. Its rules are strict for a guesthouse: check-in is 2pm to 6pm only and you must give your arrival time a week ahead, there's no lift, children must be over 8, and weekends usually carry a two-night minimum. Ten minutes west, in the Grange, Tantallon Place B&B is a two-room house run by a retired couple with breakfast included and a gated drive for two cars, at £180 to £200 a room with the levy added on top; it's booked by phone or email only and the website hasn't been updated in years, so call first.

Ten Hill Place Hotel is the Southside's big hotel and the one I'd book for a graduation, a conference at the university or anyone who wants a full-service four-star a few minutes from the Old Town without Old Town prices. It's owned by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, sits behind Surgeons' Hall on Nicolson Street, and the College says the profits go back into training surgeons. There are 129 rooms, four lifts, seven wheelchair-accessible wet-room bedrooms, a gym, a restaurant open noon to 9:30pm and 24-hour room service. From the door it's 6 minutes to George Square, 8 to the Tron, 11 to the Meadows and 13 to Waverley, with the 3, 5, 7, 8, 14, 30, 31 and 33 on Nicolson Street at the corner. It holds 4.6 on Google from more than 1,700 reviews, and the staff get most of the credit.

For 10 November a Classic Double was £134.10 room only, non-refundable, £149 flexible, or £174.10 and £189 with breakfast; unlike most hotels here, the 5% visitor levy is added as a separate line at checkout, so allow about £7 more, and breakfast bought separately is £17.50 (children up to 10 eat free). The honest catches come from the size. The Classic rooms vary a lot, and the top-floor ones have sloping ceilings and look onto the buildings next door, so ask for a Skyline Junior Suite if the view matters. Children can only be booked into Superior rooms, and only one child per room. Parking exists but there are very few spaces at £25 a night, with the NCP on Holyrood Road as the fallback. Book direct for the £10 a night food and drink credit.

KM Hotel is the University of Edinburgh's own hotel, a three-star in the Kenneth Mackenzie building on Richmond Place, a minute from Ten Hill Place and the same 6 minutes from George Square. It's the value bed for a campus visit: for 10 November a Double Ensuite was £130.50 room only, non-refundable, £145 flexible, or £153.90 to £171 with a buffet breakfast in the Circa room, and the University says its rates include the visitor levy. Guests get free use of the Pleasance gym and sauna, dogs are welcome for a charge, and the front desk is staffed around the clock. It's 10 minutes to the Meadows, 9 to the Tron and 14 to Waverley, and the 14 and 35 stop a minute away on West Richmond Street.

Read the room description before you book, because the hotel is honest about it: the doubles are 13.6 square metres, described as compact, and every bedroom is reached by stairs with no lift. It rates 4.1 on Google, lower than the others here, and the reviews split between people who found a spotless, clever little room and people who found a small one. There's no restaurant or bar of its own, no parking (a discounted NCP at Viewcraig Gardens is five to seven minutes away), rooms take two adults at most, and it's cashless. Families and anyone who wants space should book a Superior Open Plan studio at KM Apartments next door instead, the University's 33 serviced apartments, from £155 on the autumn package with breakfast. For a solo traveller or a couple on university business, the KM is a sensible bed.

The Scott is the University's country house: the former Salisbury Green Hotel on the Pollock Halls estate at the foot of Arthur's Seat, built in the 1750s for the merchant Alexander Scott, given its baronial turrets by John Lessels for the publisher William Nelson, and gifted to the University by Sir Donald Pollock in the 1940s. It relaunched on its own website in 2026 with Bonnar's, the restaurant under the house's 18th-century ceiling fresco by Thomas Bonnar, the Gallery Bar, and, rare this close to the city, free parking with EV chargers. It's 20 minutes to George Square, 21 to the Meadows, 27 to the Tron and 30 to Waverley, the 30 and 33 from Princes Street stop at the Commonwealth Pool by the gate, and the summit of Arthur's Seat is about half an hour's walk from the door (the Arthur's Seat guide has the routes). It rates 4.4 on Google across more than 700 reviews.

For 10 November a Cosy Double, 19 to 25 square metres, was £175.50 room only, non-refundable, £195 flexible, or £206.10 to £229 with breakfast (£20 a person otherwise); a Classic is from £193.50, a Deluxe £229.50 and a Signature £265.50, and booking direct gets a £30 food and drink credit. The catches: no lift (ask for a ground-floor room), the Cosy and Petite doubles are small and can't take a cot, Bonnar's only serves dinner Tuesday to Saturday with last orders at 8:30pm, and a couple of reviewers disliked the music and scent in the public rooms. Two more University options share the estate. The Scholar next door, the former Masson House, is the modern block, freshly refurbished with the Abacus brasserie, free parking and a Deluxe Double from £193.50 on the same night. And Pollock Halls' own student rooms are let to visitors as Summer Stays, but only from the end of May to early September: Chancellors Court and Holland House are en-suite, The Residences share bathrooms, breakfast is a buffet in the halls' 650-seat canteen, and no rate is published, so you check the summer calendar or email the reservations desk. Outside those months they don't exist.

Best for a cooked breakfast, a landlady and free or cheap parking. Newington, Mayfield and Dalkeith Road. South of the university the A701 becomes Newington Road, Minto Street and Mayfield Gardens, a mile of Victorian villas set back behind hedges, and this is the guesthouse belt proper: every third house has a sign. To the east, Dalkeith Road runs along the foot of Arthur's Seat past the Commonwealth Pool. You're 17 to 25 minutes from the Meadows and 24 to 32 from the Tron, and the buses are the strongest suit of this side: the 3, 7, 8, 29, 31, 37, 47 and 49 on Minto Street and Mayfield Gardens, the 2, 14, 30 and 33 on Dalkeith Road, all about 20 minutes to South Bridge. Three names to know beyond the cards: Barony House at 20 Mayfield Gardens, whose site lists an AA five-star rating, a breakfast award and free parking, had only weekends open from October to December in its calendar (from £259 a night with a two-night minimum, no under-10s), and its homepage carries a line saying the house is for sale, so check before you plan around it; Glenalmond House next door to 23 Mayfield has nine rooms with breakfast and one free parking space per room from about £165 in low season, and four ground-floor bedrooms, two with grab rails, which makes it the pick if stairs are a problem; and Kildonan Lodge on Craigmillar Park, further out with free parking and a fireside lounge, had a top-floor Petite Double at £279 for 10 November, and its recent Google reviews are mixed, so I'd look elsewhere.

Hotel Ceilidh-Donia is the value pick in Newington and my first choice on this side of town for anyone who wants breakfast included, a bar downstairs and a single night. It's a 17-room hotel on Marchhall Crescent, a quiet residential curve off Dalkeith Road, run by Kevin and a team the reviews name one by one, and it holds 4.8 on Google from more than 500 reviews. For 10 November a Standard Double was £132 with breakfast included, non-refundable, or £136 flexible with free cancellation until three days before and payment on arrival, and the payment page added nothing on top. It's 24 minutes to George Square, 25 to the Meadows and 32 to the Tron; the 14, 30 and 33 from North Bridge drop you at Marchhall Place, the first stop past the Commonwealth Pool, and Holyrood Park is a few minutes' walk up Dalkeith Road.

The trade-offs are the stairs and the distance. There's no lift and 15 of the 17 rooms are up one or two flights; the two ground-floor rooms go to whoever asks first when booking, and the one just inside the front door hears every arrival, so ask for an upstairs room at the back if you're a light sleeper. There's no car park, only the street, and no pets. It's a bus ride rather than a walk to the Mile, which is the price of £132 with breakfast in Edinburgh. Check-in runs 2pm to 10pm.

23 Mayfield is the special-occasion guesthouse of the Southside, the one I'd book for a couple who want the full Victorian breakfast-room treatment: a detached three-storey villa on Mayfield Gardens with mahogany-panelled Tudor rooms, four-posters, a candlelit breakfast room where Ross, an ex-QE2 chef, cooks to order (porridge steamed for two hours, Campbells haggis, Stornoway black pudding, bread from Breadwinner), a club-room lounge and a walled garden where they grow the herbs. It holds 5.0 on Google from 217 reviews, and every one of them is about Ross and Kathleen. It's 24 minutes to George Square, 25 to the Meadows and 31 to the Tron, with the 3, 7, 8, 29, 31, 37, 47 and 49 outside.

It comes with a calendar and a rulebook. Every room carried a two-night minimum that week, so the price is £219 a night for a Deluxe Tudor with the full Scottish breakfast and the levy included, £438 for Tuesday to Thursday, or £235 for a Grand room; you pay on arrival, but the card is charged in full if you cancel inside 40 days. Children must be over 7, there are no pets, check-in is 4pm with a last walk-in of 6:30pm (later arrivals get self check-in if you send your time the day before), check-out is 10am, and there's no lift in a three-storey house. In its favour, direct bookings get free secure parking outside the low emission zone. Ask for the Grand Tudor on its own top-floor landing for the Arthur's Seat view.

Sherwood Guest House is the Minto Street pick, a six-room Georgian townhouse at number 42 run by Vivienne, and closer to town than the Mayfield houses: 16 minutes to George Square, 17 to the Meadows, 24 to the Tron, with the 3, 7, 8, 29, 31, 37 and 49 stopping outside. It holds 4.8 on Google from just under a hundred reviews, and the location and the host are what people write about. The rooms have a fridge, a microwave, a safe and a welcome tray, which makes it unusually practical for a guesthouse.

Price it before you set your heart on it. The booking engine has no November rates loaded yet, so the figure here is the published from-rate: en-suite doubles (rooms 3, 4 and 6) from £150 a night with a continental breakfast, the twin with its private bathroom next door from £130, a two-night minimum every night through December, and an offer from 1 November to 18 December that gives you the third consecutive night free. The trade-offs are size and the clock: the doubles are about 10 square metres, breakfast is continental only, check-in runs 1:30pm to 7pm, check-out is 10am, and the handful of free parking spaces won't stretch to every room, with street parking about £12 a day. Rooms 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are en-suite; skip Room 2 unless you're fine with a bathroom next door.

The Gifford Hotel is the cheapest real bed in Newington and the one I'd point a self-sufficient couple or solo traveller to: eleven refurbished Victorian rooms at 103 Dalkeith Road, some looking straight at Arthur's Seat, at £100 room only on 10 November for a Deluxe King of 18 square metres, non-refundable, or £113.70 flexible with free cancellation up to three days before; the 25 square metre Premium King is £111.75. It used to be Gifford House and now runs as a fully self-service hotel: a door code and a card printer let you in from 3pm, there's a welcome tray, a stocked mini fridge and a snack machine, towels change every other day, and support is a WhatsApp number from 7am to 9pm. It holds 4.7 on Google from 110 reviews. It's 23 minutes to George Square, 24 to the Meadows and 30 to the Tron, with the 2, 14, 30 and 33 outside.

The trade-off is exactly what self-service means: nobody is on site. When the code arrives and the card printer works, reviewers love it; when they don't, you're on WhatsApp on the doorstep, and one guest climbed four flights to remake a key. There's no breakfast, no lift over three floors, no guests under 8, and parking is free on-street behind the building only if a space and the permit rules allow. Ask for Room 3 with the terrace facing Arthur's Seat, and use the earplugs they leave out if you get the front.

94DR is the Southside's whole-house option and the place I'd send a family gathering or a group of friends who want to stay together: a Victorian townhouse on Dalkeith Road that Paul, a chef, and John have turned into six en-suite bedrooms sleeping 12, with a chef's kitchen, an orangery that seats all of you, a drawing room with an open fire, a library bar, a media room, a walled garden with a pizza oven and a fire pit, and a summerhouse gym. You take the whole house or nothing; the days of booking a single room here are over. It holds 4.9 on Google from 69 reviews, most of them from groups who found the kitchen stocked and a hamper on the table. Holyrood Park is a few minutes up Dalkeith Road, the 2, 14, 30 and 33 stop by the Commonwealth Pool, and it's 21 minutes to George Square, 22 to the Meadows and 29 to the Tron.

The number to know is the whole-house rate. For 10 to 13 November it was £1,218 a night with a three-night minimum, £3,654 for Tuesday to Friday, the same for two guests or twelve, and the site's own band is £900 to £1,500 a night with the levy included; split twelve ways that's about £100 a head a night; split two ways it makes no sense at all. It's self-catering, so breakfast is either your own or a breakfast chef booked at a price on application, and there's a 25% deposit with the balance due 30 days out and no refund unless they re-let the dates. Three free parking spaces, cots and highchairs on request, pets only by arrangement, and non-family groups at the owners' discretion. Give Bowmore, the master with the roll-top bath and the Arthur's Seat bay window, to whoever booked it.