Edinburgh neighborhoods

You might have to work hard to find an "unsafe" neighborhood in Edinburgh. As long as you apply a tiny bit of common sense, I think anyplace in Edinburgh would be quite safe. I would not worry about the safety of neighborhoods.

Your Rick Steves guidebook will have lots of good suggestions for places to stay.

I think a balcony will be hard to come by, but this place might suit. I have not stayed there myself but it is in a very good location.

Hart Street B&B To be honest without knowing your budget it is hard to advise.

B&B costs in Edinburgh can be as high and higher than hotels, so depending on budget it could be worth looking at hotels. Dates obviously also make a big difference to availability and price. I'd imagine that most good places for August (when the festival is on) will already be booked up.

Regards
Jacqui (Skyegirl)

Having lived in Edinburgh, I'm hard pressed to come up with any place to stay that has a balcony!
The weather precludes sitting out on one most of the time; and honestly I don't think I was ever in any building with them!
The centre of Edinburgh, where most visitors would want to stay to be near the historical area,
is very safe.
Just usual precautions about being aware of your surroundings in a strange city.

Maybe you don’t want to be ON the Royal Mile, although we’ve found it to be a great location, and maybe you want the “breakfast” part of a B&B, or other aspects, but we’ve found staying in a second-floor apartment on the R.M., with a view, to be ideal.

First trip to Edinburgh, we arrived, then just headed for a B&B recommended by Rick Steves, and knocked on the door. This was years and years ago. They were full up, but recommended another B&B 2 doors down, which was great. It took a bus ride to get to the R.M., though, a pretty long walk.

Second trip, we found the apartment with the unbeatable location, and very reasonably priced, too! Our third trip’s coming up this summer, and we wanted 5 nights, but only 4 were available at that apartment during our week. Turns out there’s another apartment just across the street, with nights available, so we’re staying in the same neighborhood, just across the street from last time. We’re fixing our own breakfast, but it’s a perfect spot.

Any chance you’d consider that, or is B&B and walkable non-negotiable?