Where to Stay in Edinburgh's New Town: The 18 Best Hotels (2026)

Best for arriving by train and waking up to the Castle. Princes Street and the Waverley end. The south edge of the New Town is one long street with the Gardens and the Castle on one side and the hotels on the other, and Waverley station tucked in at its east end. Sleep here and you can walk off a train and into your room in minutes, and the front rooms have the view the city is famous for. The trade-off is that Princes Street is the main bus and tram artery, so those same front rooms hear the traffic, and the cheapest rooms in every hotel along here face the back. Two older names sit along this stretch worth knowing about: the Old Waverley opposite the Scott Monument is a listed Victorian hotel with 27 steps up to reception before the lift starts, which its own website warns about, and the former Mercure at number 53 now trades as the Mount Royal by The Unlimited Collection.

The Balmoral is the one to book when the trip is the occasion. Rocco Forte's clock-tower landmark has stood over the east end of Princes Street since 1902, and it sits directly on top of Waverley: three minutes to the station entrance, nine to the Royal Mile at St Giles'. Inside you get Number One, the four-rosette restaurant, the 500-bottle Scotch bar, a Palm Court for afternoon tea and an Irene Forte spa with an indoor lap pool. It holds 4.7 on Google across more than 3,300 reviews, and the location is the thing reviewers mention most.

It's expensive even off-season. The flexible rate for a Classic room on a Tuesday in November was £788 room only, and that Classic is 19 square metres with a courtyard rather than a city view. Add the discretionary 5% service charge the hotel applies at checkout and the corner it sits on, one of the busiest on Princes Street, and you can see where the money goes: the building, the address and the service. If you're paying this much, pay a little more for a Deluxe Castle View room; the entry rooms don't show you the reason you came.

100 Princes Street is my pick for a special stay that doesn't feel like a big hotel. Red Carnation opened it in spring 2024 inside the listed former Royal Overseas League building, next to the National Gallery and straight across from the Castle rock. There are only 29 rooms, a hand-painted explorers' mural climbing five storeys of staircase, and one restaurant, The Wallace, where you also check in. It's ten minutes to Waverley and twelve to the Royal Mile. It's currently 4.9 on Google from 104 reviews, which is a small sample; the tone of those reviews is a townhouse where the staff know your name.

Two honest notes. There's no spa, pool or gym in the building (the hotel can arrange access to a partner gym), and the bill carries a discretionary £20-a-night service charge plus £80 a night if you want valet parking. On the November test date an Executive Double with a direct Castle view was £441 prepaid, and cheaper than the viewless Executive King, so book the view category outright. The building is listed and the hotel says so plainly about access: platform lifts bridge the front steps and the internal steps to the lifts, and two rooms are fitted out for wheelchair users.

Hotel Indigo Princes Street is the mid-price room with the best view-for-money at the station end. A 64-room Victorian building at number 20, it looks straight across the Gardens to the Castle and the Old Town skyline from its front rooms, and it's four minutes to Waverley and eight to the Royal Mile. Downstairs is Twenty Princes Street, a 100-seat restaurant with a Josper grill, and the Juniper cocktail bar with window booths over the street. A Queen Standard was £199 non-refundable for the November night, £179 with IHG's free membership, and breakfast adds £20.

The catch is the address: this is Princes Street at the tram-and-bus end, so a street-facing room trades quiet for the skyline. One reviewer put it exactly: loud by day, no trouble at night. Standard rooms start around 16 square metres, there's no on-site parking, and the booking engine calls the front rooms 'City View' rather than 'Castle View', so that's the category to pick. For a first visit on a sensible budget with the station in sight, I'd book it before anything else on this street.

Motel One Edinburgh-Princes is the budget bed I'd send most people to in the New Town. It sits at 10 to 15 Princes Street directly opposite the Balmoral, with the Waverley Steps entrance across the road, so it's six minutes to the Waverley Bridge entrance and nine to the Royal Mile. The design is the chain's usual sharp, dark-and-turquoise look, and the One Lounge bar on the second floor has booths looking straight down Princes Street. A room was £140 for the November night, £126 as a free beOne member, and unlike most cheap New Town rooms it's cancellable until 6pm on the day you arrive.

Every room is the same 16-square-metre box, breakfast is a £29 add-on and there's no restaurant. Front rooms face the traffic. Google reviews from early summer 2026 mention paint smells and corridor sheeting while the public areas were being redone; the hotel page now carries a redesign badge, but ask whether any work is ongoing for your dates. Pay the £23 for 'The One with a view', which is the only category that promises the view. Don't confuse it with Motel One Edinburgh-Royal on Market Street, which is the Old Town sister.

Premier Inn Princes Street is the cheapest room in the New Town with a real Castle view, and that's the whole reason to book it. It's at the west end of the street at 121 to 123, across from the Gardens and the Castle rock, so it's further from the trains (14 minutes to Waverley) but still 15 to the Royal Mile, with Rose Street's restaurants in the lane behind. A standard double was £128 non-refundable for the November night; the 'Standard room with a castle view' is its own category from £144 and the Premier Plus rooms with the view from £148. Up to two children eat breakfast free with an adult.

Read the hotel's own small print. It says some rooms have no windows, and that even the castle-view category is sold subject to availability with specific views allocated at check-in, so book that category and treat the view as likely rather than promised. Front rooms get bus and tram noise all night, and a September 2026 review on the hotel's own page says exactly that. Parking is off-site at the Castle Terrace NCP, ten minutes away. As a bed with a view for the price, though, nothing else here comes close.

Best for couples, eating and drinking, and a weekend on foot. George Street and the squares. This is the New Town most people picture: the wide Georgian spine of George Street between St Andrew Square and Charlotte Square, with Rose Street's pubs in the lane behind and Queen Street a block north. It has the city's best cluster of restaurants and cocktail bars within a few hundred metres, the streets are flat, and the Royal Mile is 9 to 21 minutes' walk depending on the hotel. The trade-off is that it's a going-out district: George Street and Rose Street are loud on Friday and Saturday nights, and several of the hotels here sit above their own bars. Light sleepers should ask for a room at the back or on a high floor. If you're picking between the two squares, St Andrew Square is the station end and Charlotte Square is the quieter West End edge.

Gleneagles Townhouse is the room I'd book for a big-night-out weekend if money were no object. Gleneagles' first city outpost fills a Georgian former bank on St Andrew Square with 33 bedrooms, The Spence all-day restaurant, and the members' club spaces hotel guests get the keys to: the Lamplighters rooftop bar (over-18s, members and residents only) and The Strong Rooms gym and wellness studios in the vault, with cryotherapy, an infrared sauna and 60-odd classes included. It's six minutes to Waverley and nine to the Royal Mile. On Google it's 4.5 from nearly 400 reviews.

It's priced like Gleneagles: £520 for a Nook bedroom with breakfast for the November night, plus a discretionary 5% service charge on the room. The Nooks are rear-facing with no view and some have no bath, every room is capped at two people with no extra beds, there's no pool, and there's no on-site parking or valet. One four-star reviewer's line rings true: the rooms are small but nicely decorated, and The Spence is worth a visit on its own. Ask for a Town or Master bedroom to get the square in your window.

The Edinburgh Grand is the pick for a longer stay or anyone who wants a kitchen without giving up hotel service. It's the old National Bank of Scotland headquarters on St Andrew Square, next door to Gleneagles Townhouse, and since 2025 it's been a Marriott Luxury Collection hotel rather than an independent aparthotel. The 50 studios and one- and two-bedroom suites still come with kitchens and dining tables, The Register Club does breakfast and afternoon tea, and Hawksmoor's steak room is downstairs. Five minutes to Waverley, nine to the Royal Mile.

Two things to weigh. There's no pool and the spa is treatment rooms only; parking is off-site at St James Quarter half a mile away; and the entry Open Plan studio was £379 prepaid for the November night, £446 flexible, which buys a lot of hotel elsewhere in the New Town. Since the rebrand a few Marriott reviews grumble about service and breakfast, and the entry studios are the internal ones, so ask for a City View studio, or one of the Loft or Directors suites at the top of the range. For a week with a family or a work trip that runs long, it's the most comfortable base in the grid.

InterContinental Edinburgh The George is the classic George Street grand hotel, and the classic way to sleep on the street itself. It's 239 rooms in a row of 18th-century townhouses between Hanover Street and St Andrew Square that has been a hotel since 1860 and The George since 1880, with a Les Clefs d'Or concierge, Le Petit Beefbar on the ground floor and the Burr & Co café for coffee. Nine minutes to Waverley, twelve to the Royal Mile, and the reviewers' refrain across 2,200-plus Google ratings is that everything is walkable from the front door.

The value only holds if you don't book the cheapest room. The Cosy category was £207 non-refundable for the November night (£186 with IHG's free membership), but the hotel's own description calls them entry-level rooms ideal for solo trips, and the engine lists them from 12 square metres. A King Premium from £237 is the real starting point for two. There's no pool, no spa and no parking, though on-street parking outside is free overnight from Monday to Saturday. Ask for the townhouse wing if you want the 18th-century rooms.

Kimpton Charlotte Square is where I'd put a family or a couple who want a pool and a quiet square, and it's the last stop before the New Town becomes the West End. Seven Georgian townhouses on the north side of Charlotte Square hold 199 rooms, the Levantine restaurant BABA, a garden restaurant, and a full spa with a 12-metre heated indoor pool (with children's hours) and a gym. There's a free hosted wine hour in BABA bar from 5 to 6pm every evening, and dogs up to 35kg are welcome (there's no sitting on site, but the hotel can arrange it). It rates 4.6 on Google from about 1,900 reviews, and the word that keeps coming up is quiet.

The price of that quiet is distance: 17 minutes to Waverley and 19 to the Royal Mile, one of the longest walks in the New Town, and the hotel itself describes the address as the edge of the New Town. The Essential rooms start at 13 square metres, which is tight for two people and luggage, so book a bigger Premium room or, with kids, the 43-square-metre Double Double Premium that sleeps five. An Essential was £241 non-refundable for the November night; valet parking is £45 a day and there's only a little of it. BABA bar runs to midnight midweek and 1am at weekends, so ask for a room away from it.

Tigerlily is the George Street boutique for people who came to go out. It's 33 rooms in a Georgian townhouse at number 125 above one of the New Town's busiest cocktail bars and restaurants, with Georgian mini-suites that have real fireplaces and freestanding baths, Black Rooms with a working fireplace, and the whole thing dressed in mirrors, glitter and glass. A Classic double was £166 advance purchase for the November night, £195 flexible, and bed-and-breakfast rates run about £31 more. It's 16 minutes to Waverley and 18 to the Royal Mile, and 4.4 on Google from nearly 3,000 reviews, most of them about the bar and brunch as much as the beds.

This is the noisiest bed in the New Town by design. The hotel's own bar promises 'high-energy late nights', and the basement below it, once Lulu and now trading as Coco, is a late-night bar open until 3am at weekends. There's no car park. If you're a light sleeper, either don't book it or ask for the Black Room Suite at the top of the building. If you're the one making the noise, it's perfect.

Eden Locke is the George Street answer for anyone who'd rather have a kitchen than a concierge. It's next door to Tigerlily at number 127, behind a matching Georgian front, with 72 studios and suites that each have a proper kitchen, a lounge area and the brand's pale, plant-heavy design, plus a coworking space and Mayvn, the ground-floor café and wine bar, open 8am to 8pm. An Open Plan Suite of about 28 square metres was £158 non-refundable for the November night, with no minimum stay, and one dog under 30kg is welcome for a one-off £40. Reviewers rate it 4.6 on Google and keep mentioning the kitchenette and the café.

It's self-catering by design, so know what you're not getting: no restaurant, no hotel breakfast (Mayvn does coffee, pastries and bagels from 8am), no gym in the building (the site points you to a club on Queen Street), and housekeeping is weekly rather than daily. It's also 16 minutes to Waverley and 18 to the Royal Mile, the same walk as Tigerlily. Parking is £30 a night, pre-booked. Ask for an Eden Suite facing George Street; the Family Studio is on the lower ground floor.

ibis Styles St Andrew Square is the cheerful budget option at the station end of George Street, and the only cheap room here where breakfast is in the price. It's a former bank on the square, converted in 2014, with tartan-and-colour décor, the Bonnie & Whistle brasserie and bar downstairs, and the tram stop and bus station a minute away. A Queen room was £158 non-refundable for the November night with the unlimited continental breakfast included, £142 as a free ALL member. Eight minutes to Waverley, eleven to the Royal Mile, and 4.5 on Google from 2,150 reviews.

The bank conversion is the catch: the hotel's own reply to a September 2026 review says rooms 'come in a variety of shapes and sizes, some more compact than others within the same category', and guests mention small showers and a small lift. Breakfast is continental, not cooked. Parking is ten minutes away. The hotel tells you to ask about its balcony rooms for the view, and it's right: 'The Works' and the Junior Suite are worth the extra for a night or two over the square.

YOTEL Edinburgh is the cheapest bed of the George Street group and the most divisive. It fills Erskine House on Queen Street with compact 16-square-metre cabins, self-service check-in screens, a 24-hour gym, the Revolve lounge and bar facing the street, and Imaginex, a two-storey 360-degree projection room downstairs from the guest floors. A Queen cabin was £136 advance purchase for the November night, £157 flexible, and the launch rate through Hilton, which now handles its bookings, was £126 with a free Hilton Honors account. It's 4.0 on Google from nearly 2,500 reviews.

The reason it's cheap is the reason some people won't like it. The cabins are small, the hotel's own site flags 'some windowless rooms' in the cheapest Queen and Premium Twin categories, reception is a kiosk, there's no room service and no pets. Queen Street is also the north edge of the grid, so it's 19 minutes to Waverley and 21 to the Royal Mile; a reviewer's line that it's 'about 20 mins walk from alot of Edinburgh' is fair. Pay the few pounds more for a Premium Queen or King and you at least get a window.

Best for show nights at the Playhouse, the trams and rooftop views. The east end: Playhouse, St James Quarter and Calton Hill. The New Town's east end is where the Georgian grid meets Leith Walk, and it's changed more than anywhere in the centre over the last few years. St James Quarter's shops and the W hotel now fill the block behind the Balmoral, the Picardy Place tram stop sits at the top of Leith Walk with the airport tram, the Edinburgh Playhouse is on Greenside Place, and Calton Hill rises straight behind it with the classic free view over the city. Stay here for a show, for an easy airport run, or for the terraces on the hill. The trade-offs: it's a busy junction at the top of Leith Walk, the Royal Mile is 12 to 23 minutes rather than 8 or 9, and the townhouse hotels on the hill's terraces, 24 Royal Terrace among them, have no lifts.

W Edinburgh is the east end's statement hotel and the one with the rooftop. It's a W of 244 rooms including 45 suites across three buildings at St James Quarter: two new blocks including the bronze 'ribbon', plus a Georgian townhouse wing on James Craig Walk dating from 1775, with the W Deck rooftop bar looking across to Calton Hill and the Castle, SUSHISAMBA as the headline restaurant, Joao's Place for cocktails and an AWAY Spa with five treatment rooms and a 24-hour gym. Seven minutes to Waverley, twelve to the Royal Mile, five to the Playhouse. It's 4.4 on Google from 800 reviews, and the roof deck gets the praise.

It's a lifestyle hotel inside a shopping centre, and it sounds like one: the hotel's own copy promises DJs setting the tempo in the lounge, and the W Deck is described as seasonal, so don't bank on it in November. There's no pool. A Deluxe king was £287 prepaid for the November night with a free Bonvoy account, £338 flexible, which is a lot for an off-peak Tuesday. Parking is on site but run by St James Quarter at £25 a day, £40 valet, and pets aren't allowed. Ask for a Superior with Castle View or a balcony.

The Glasshouse is the hotel I'd book for a Playhouse night, because it's on the same block. You enter through the preserved 1846 facade of Lady Glenorchy's Church on Greenside Place, steps from the theatre and the Picardy Place tram stop, into a modern hotel whose two-acre rooftop garden sits inside the old church walls with Calton Hill views. A selection of rooms open straight onto it. The Snug bar has 200-plus whiskies and an open fire, The Brasserie does breakfast looking at the hill, and a Signature king was £205 prepaid for the November night with a free Bonvoy account, £257 flexible or with a full Scottish breakfast. Eleven minutes to Waverley, seventeen to the Royal Mile.

There's no gym, pool or spa in the building; guests get preferential rates at the Nuffield club in the Omni Centre next door, but only elite-status Bonvoy members get it free. There's no hotel parking (the Q-Park Omni is in the low emission zone, with a 50% guest code) and no pets. Reviews split on the rooms: some find them beautiful with heated bathroom floors, others call the property tired and overdue a refurbishment, and one reviewer notes the 'terrace suites' are big rooms rather than true suites. Ask for a Calton Hill Room with garden access or a Greenside Terrace Room with its own terrace, and you'll be on the right side of that split.

Apex Waterloo Place is the east end's sensible all-rounder, and the cheapest pool in the New Town. It's a Georgian block on Waterloo Place, the eastward continuation of Princes Street past Register House, so it's nine minutes to Waverley, thirteen to the Royal Mile and seven to the Playhouse, with Calton Hill's steps directly behind. Downstairs is Yu Spa with a heated indoor pool, sauna, steam room and Technogym gym; the Liberté brasserie and Bar 1819 handle food and drink. A City double was £198 advance saver for the November night, £171 as a free Apex Insider, and a family room with a sofa bed from £248. It's 4.4 on Google from more than 2,100 reviews.

The City rooms are 19 square metres and carry no view, so buy space rather than a view: a Deluxe at 31 square metres has a bath and a walk-in shower. One reviewer notes that reception is on the fifth floor and some 'fourth floor' rooms sit below it, facing the back and dark; ask for a front-facing room on a high floor. There's no parking at all. Scottish Water is digging up the westbound side of Waterloo Place from September until late November 2026, so a taxi drop-off may be diverted through the autumn. Recent reviews are mixed on beds and service, so this is a solid mid-range choice rather than a love-at-first-sight one.

Courtyard by Marriott Edinburgh is the value pick for the Playhouse: it's in the Georgian terrace at Baxter's Place, at the head of Leith Walk, and the theatre is a one-minute walk across the junction. It has the 1802 Grill and a heated, covered terrace bar, a free 24-hour gym, lifts and accessible rooms, and one reviewer was told only the sixth and seventh floors get a view; another describes Calton Hill from a deluxe twin. A guest room was £147 prepaid for the November night with a free Bonvoy account, £163 flexible, which makes it the cheapest of these this close to the theatre. Thirteen minutes to Waverley, eighteen to the Royal Mile, and 4.3 on Google from more than 1,900 reviews.

It's a business-brand Courtyard, so expect competent rather than charming: breakfast is never included (the hotel's own FAQ says so), there's no spa or pool, pets are refused, and lower rear rooms look at the bins, so ask for the sixth or seventh floor or the Superior king with the only balcony. Parking is off-site at the Q-Park Omni with a 45% guest code. If even this is too much for a one-night show trip, the Holiday Inn Express on Picardy Place directly opposite the Playhouse is the plainer fallback: £127 with hot breakfast for the same November night, £114 as an IHG member.

24 Royal Terrace is my quiet pick, and on Google it holds 4.8 from 323 reviews, second only to 100 Princes Street's 4.9 and on three times the sample. It's a family-run, art-filled Georgian townhouse of 14 rooms on Royal Terrace, the grand crescent on the north flank of Calton Hill, with a private back garden, a cocktail bar and Towser's whisky lounge, where guided 90-minute tastings run. Some rooms have roll-top baths in the bedroom under Murano chandeliers. A Double was £161 pay-now for the November night, £179 flexible, room only, with breakfast added at booking. It's eight minutes to the Playhouse and, being on the far side of the hill, 18 to Waverley and 23 to the Royal Mile.

There is no lift, and the hotel says so on its own site: every bedroom is up the stairs of a listed townhouse, with the Doubles on the first to third floors, so it's not for anyone who struggles with steps or a heavy case. That, and the distance, are the whole trade-off; the residential street is silent at night, which is exactly what you're buying. Ask for a Superior Double on the second floor for the bath, or a Large Double on the third for the bay window over the terrace.