Where to Stay in Leith: The Best Hotels by the Shore (2026)

The Shore. Best for the postcard, the restaurants and the ships. This is the Leith of the photographs: a cobbled quay, the old Signal Tower, restaurants down both banks of the river mouth, and its three hotels are the three I'd book first. You're inside the restaurant quarter, the tram stops at the Shore and Port of Leith are a few minutes away, and the Britannia is a ten to thirteen-minute walk. Nothing here is cheap by Leith standards, though, and two of the three are boats, which is either the whole point or a dealbreaker.

Fingal is my pick for a special night, in Leith or anywhere in Edinburgh. It's a former Northern Lighthouse Board ship, now owned by the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust and berthed permanently at Alexandra Dock, with 23 cabins named after Stevenson lighthouses, a grand sweeping staircase and the Lighthouse Restaurant and Bar on the top deck, which holds two AA Rosettes. The AA named it its Hotel of the Year for Scotland in 2023. A Classic Cabin is published from £264 a night off-peak and the duplex suites start at £462; the Skerryvore Suite with its own deck is £880. The Shore is an eight-minute walk, the Port of Leith tram stop two minutes, and the tram is 15 minutes to St Andrew Square, so call it 21 minutes door to door to Waverley. On foot it's 51 minutes and 3.4 km, which nobody does twice.

The honest trade-offs: it's a ship in a working dock, so the view from a porthole is cranes and water rather than the Shore, and there are no extra beds in any cabin, which makes it a couples' hotel by design (children up to 11 can share the bed, free under five and £50 a night from six; 12-to-15s are steered to a second interconnecting cabin). Dinner is the recurring grumble on price. Book the Classic Cabin, ask for one away from the ballroom on a Saturday, and enjoy the free car park at the bow, a rarity in this city.

Ocean Mist is the ship for people who want the romance of Fingal for a little less, right in the thick of the Shore. Built in 1919 for the Admiralty, it spent the century as a gentleman's motor yacht, passing between a Guinness, a duke and a whisky smuggler. It fetched up on the Shore in the early 1980s, did decades as restaurants and nightclubs, and was rescued by the Pedley family, who had earlier restored Fingal, in a £5 million refit. Since January 2022 it has been a 17-cabin hotel at number 14 on the Shore itself, so you step off the gangway into the restaurants. A continental breakfast is included, the Castle View Bar up top is a good place to start an evening, and the Shore tram stop is a five-minute walk. The 16 bus from Sandport Street is 19 minutes to Waverley Steps, about 21 minutes door to door; walking it is 47 minutes.

The ship publishes no from-rate. On the booking sites, a Tuesday in November 2026 had a double cabin at £193 before VAT and the levy, about £243 all in, and Kayak's January average is £138, so it usually undercuts Fingal, though not always by much. The trade-offs: cabins are cabins, compact with portholes and reached by stairs across four decks, so it's the wrong choice for anyone with mobility issues or big luggage, cabins take two people, the breakfast is continental only, and the quayside outside is lively until late on a Friday. No pets, and nothing said about parking. Ask for a water-side cabin.

Malmaison Edinburgh is the reliable middle option and the one I'd book for a first Leith stay if you'd rather have a proper hotel than a boat. This was the very first Malmaison, opened in 1994 in the old Leith Sailors' Home, a listed baronial stone pile of 1885 built to house shipwrecked seamen, right on the water at Tower Place. Inside it's 100 rooms and suites in the dark-and-moody Mal style, a Chez Mal brasserie and bar on the ground floor and, unusually for the Shore, a free car park of 40 to 50 spaces. Harbour-view rooms are given on request, so ask. The hotel's own site had a standard double for a November Tuesday at £169 prepaid, £188 flexible or £225 with breakfast, levy included; the same room averages £248 in August. The Shore tram stop is six minutes away and the hotel quotes 23 minutes to Waverley on the tram; the 16 bus from the Sandport Street stop on Commercial Street is 19 minutes, 22 door to door. Walking in is 49 minutes.

The trade-offs are those of a hotel that last had a full refit some years ago: rooms vary and the tired ones get noticed, the corridors are dim, there's a single lift for the whole building with the odd short flight of stairs, and breakfast is a stiff £23 for the hot buffet. It isn't the memorable stay the ships are, but it's the one where the check-in, the bed and the parking all just work, and dogs are welcome.

Leith Links. Best for value and a residential feel, five to fifteen minutes from the Shore. The Georgian and Victorian streets around Leith Links, the park where the first written rules of golf were drawn up in 1744, hold most of Leith's beds: two new townhouse hotels and a row of family-run guesthouses on Hermitage Place. It's quiet, flat, a short walk to the Shore in one direction and the Foot of the Walk tram stop in the other, and the 1 and 16 buses reach Waverley Steps in about 14 minutes. It's where I'd send anyone who wants to stay in Leith on a budget.

3 John's Place Townhouse is the newest hotel in Leith, opened in summer 2025 by the family-run Archibald Hotel Collection after a £1.2 million conversion of a Georgian townhouse facing the Links: 16 rooms, 11 of them suites, with keyless entry and the lights and heating run from your phone. It's marketed as adults-only and it has no staffed reception, which is the trade-off: reviews praise the beds and the location and grumble about nobody being on site when something goes wrong. Off-peak doubles average about £116 a night in January and £215 in August. The Shore tram stop is a five-minute walk and Foot of the Walk about six; the 16 bus from the Foot of the Walk is 14 minutes to Waverley Steps, 22 door to door, and on foot it's 42 minutes.

For a stylish, self-sufficient couple who like the idea of a hotel that runs itself, it's a smart pick. If you want someone to carry a bag or recommend a restaurant at 10pm, choose Malmaison.

The Townhouse, Leith is the family answer on the Links: a family-run aparthotel of eight individually designed suites on Links Gardens, each with a self-catering kitchen and sleeping three or four, opened in spring 2025. Guests rate it very highly (a perfect 5.0 on Google in September 2026, from a small sample of 56 reviews), and it takes families: cots for infants, children of all ages, though the lead guest must be 21. The Shore is an eight-minute walk. Quickest into town is the 1 bus from Summerfield Place, 14 minutes to Waverley Steps and 18 door to door; the 34 from Links Gardens outside the door takes 21. The site's promise of a 12-minute tram ride to Princes Street is only the tram leg from the Foot of the Walk. Walking in is 45 minutes.

Because you're booking a suite, not a room, the price looks steep for two: suites were listed from about £251 a night for late September 2026, with no breakfast. For a family of four with a kitchen, that's competitive with two hotel rooms. Book direct for the 20 percent code and the earlier check-in, park in the free spaces two minutes away rather than the metered street outside, and note there are no pets.

Sandaig Guest House is the cheapest bed on the Links off-peak and my budget pick for a couple or a solo traveller. It's a family-run guest house across two mid-terraced Victorian villas from around 1870 on East Hermitage Place, facing the Links, with en-suite shower rooms throughout bar one ground-floor king whose private bathroom is outside the door, plus family rooms with day beds. Kayak's January average is about £71 a night, rising to £210 in August. The Shore is a 14-minute walk, the 1 bus from Somerset Place is 13 minutes to Waverley Steps (14 door to door), and walking the whole way takes 43 minutes.

The trade-offs are the usual guesthouse ones: Victorian stairs and no lift, a check-in window of 2pm to 9pm, no pets, breakfast as a £10-a-head add-on rather than included, and not always someone at the desk, so phone ahead with your arrival time. Ask for the first-floor superior double if you want space. A few doors along at number 23, Crioch Guest House is a six-room alternative with strong reviews but no current rates online, so you'd have to ask.

Culane House Hotel is the guesthouse next door that includes breakfast, and I'd choose it over Sandaig if you'd rather not think about the morning. It's a ten-room guest house at 8-9 Hermitage Place with king deluxe doubles, family and triple rooms and, usefully for groups, two two-bedroom apartments at the rear with their own entrance. A self-service continental or cooked breakfast is in the price, parking on the street outside is free, and the site quotes 1.5 miles to the city centre with a bus from the door. In practice that means 13 minutes' walk to the Shore, 13 minutes on the 1 bus from Somerset Place to Waverley Steps (14 door to door), and 41 minutes on foot.

Rates aren't published as a from-price, so book direct through the site or by phone and compare against Sandaig for your dates. Expect a small, warm, slightly old-fashioned guest house rather than a design hotel: reviewers like the position between Leith Walk and the harbour and find the breakfast basic unless you go for the cooked option. No lift.

Ocean Terminal and Newhaven. Best for the Britannia, the tram, a car, and the lowest chain prices. West of the Shore the old docks turn into Ocean Terminal, the shopping centre where the Royal Yacht Britannia is moored, and beyond it the fishing harbour at Newhaven, where the tram terminates. This is Leith's chain-hotel corner: breakfast-included budget rooms, a Premier Inn on the harbour and serviced apartments with parking. You give up the Shore's charm for the tram outside the door, and the further west you go, the longer the walk back to dinner.

Holiday Inn Express Edinburgh - Leith Waterfront is the budget hotel I'd pick for a Britannia visit or an early flight: the Ocean Terminal tram stop is across the road, the airport is on the same line, and a buffet breakfast is included. It's a big limited-service IHG box on Ocean Drive with air-conditioned rooms, a bar in the lounge, connecting rooms for families and nine accessible rooms. A standard double with breakfast for a Tuesday in November was showing at £118 before VAT and the levy, so about £150 all in, and Kayak's January average of £65 makes it the cheapest room in Leith in the dead of winter, breakfast included. Ocean Terminal and the Britannia are seven minutes on foot, the Shore 15, and the tram is 19 minutes to St Andrew Square, roughly 25 door to door to Waverley. Walking in is 52 minutes.

The trade-offs: the breakfast room is chaotic at peak and the building reads tired, with corridor noise a common complaint, and parking is £11 a day with a code from reception. Dogs are welcome for £30 per dog per stay. It's a clean, well-connected bed, not a place you'll remember.

Premier Inn Edinburgh Leith Waterfront had the cheapest hotel rate in Leith on a dated November search and is the only place here where a budget room comes with a harbour view. It sits on Newhaven Place beside the fishing harbour, 85 rooms across standard and Premier Plus doubles, family rooms sleeping four, and rooms with a view over the water. On the hotel's own site a standard double for a November Tuesday was £80 non-refundable or £117 flexible, with breakfast from £10.99 and two under-16s eating free with an adult. The Newhaven tram terminus is an eight-minute walk and about 25 minutes to the city centre; the 11 bus from Windrush Drive is 27 minutes to the Scott Monument, 32 door to door. The Shore is a 29-minute walk, and Waverley is an hour on foot, so this is a tram-and-bus base.

Two things to know. The attached Brewers Fayre closed with the whole chain in September 2026, so check what has replaced it before you count on eating in, and the walls are thin, the recurring gripe in reviews. Air conditioning is only in the Premier Plus rooms. Pay the small premium for a view, pay £6 for parking at the touchscreen, and use the money you've saved on a taxi back from the Shore.

Ocean Serviced Apartments is the one I'd book for a family or a week-long stay with a car. It's a block of two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments with full kitchens and washer-dryers in the Western Harbour development at Newhaven, run since 2009, with free underground parking, a lift to every floor, self check-in and weekly housekeeping. Each sleeps four. Kayak's January average is about £102 a night for the whole apartment, £288 in August, and stays are usually two nights minimum; the site quotes on request. The 11 bus from Western Harbour Park is 29 minutes to the Scott Monument, 35 door to door, and the Newhaven tram is a 14-minute walk.

The trade-off is the address. Western Harbour is a modern residential development at the far end of Leith: the Shore is a 36-minute walk, Ocean Terminal 30, and there's no bar or reception downstairs. For a couple wanting Leith's restaurants on the doorstep it's the wrong pick. For parents who want a kitchen, a parking space and sea air, it's the best-value space in the district.