Hotel/airbnb

Old Town is best for its location close to most attractions. Just south of Old Town is Newington, where you’ll find more reasonably-priced accommodations.

As well as location you might want to let us know budget in £ and time of year. Personally I would not want to be staying in the Old Town during the Fringe in August as I'd find it too noisy. Also do you prefer a hotel or self catering?

We stayed here and really liked it: https://edinburgh-selfcateringcottage.co.uk

It's not the most central, though. It's a (double-decker) bus ride to the centre.

I stayed in New Town and really liked my stay there. I found it much less congested than Old Town, and it was a close walk to all the sights and the train station. Anything around St. Andrew's Square or a little bit north of there would work, I think. I stayed at the Premier Inn York Place, which was just a block or two north of St. Andrew's Square, and had a very nice stay there. It was a good budget option. The ibis Styles is another hotel with good recommendations that is right on St. Andrew's Square.

Are you looking to get just one room for the four of you, or are you looking to get two rooms? If your children are under 16, you can put them both in the Premier Inn in a family room with you, which basically means one large double bed for the adults and two roll-away or sofa beds. If that is not an option, I would suggest looking for an apartment for the 4 of you. It probably wouldn't be any more expensive and could be much less than booking two rooms in a hotel.

One method is to look on Booking.com for suggestions (or Airbnb, of course). But the advantage to using Booking.com is that it will give you both hotel and apartment options. Then when you find something you are interested in, I would go directly to the website of that particular hotel or apartment if possible and try to book direct. Usually you will get a cheaper rate there. Sometimes that is not possible though, so you can always book on Booking.com.

In May, we stayed in Old Town (on Flesh Market Close) and the noise was terrible until 4am every night. Bring earplugs!

Mardee put me on to the Ibis Styles St Andrew Square where I stayed in June. Not sure if it's the price point you wish and the rooms are small but I loved the location and walked everywhere from it. The breakfast buffet was really good. I just stayed in an Ibis Styles in Carcassonne and let me tell you this Edinburgh location was miles above in what it offered (including scrambled eggs and salmon!). The staff was also very nice and easy to deal with. As I was waiting for a taxi on my departure day, the overnight desk guy came over to be ready to open the locked door and started regaling me with tales of working the night shift in the hotel. VERY funny!

It's also located near some excellent restaurants - in fact I ate every dinner right there on the Square. This may be a sexist comment but if either of your teens is of the female variety, she might enjoy afternoon tea at Ivy on St Andrew Square. It's expensive but SO cool! Complete with a smoking element, hahaha!!

IF you choose this hotel, I do recommend you book directly thru the app. I originally booked on my laptop and somehow got onto a 3rd party booking site. I seriously thought I was on the Accor site and no, I did not google Accor. When I realized my charge had gone thru immediately (the hotel does not charge you for a refundable res until you check in) PLUS a 399GBP extra charge I emailed the hotel. They checked and said that charge is your "travel agent". I cancelled immediately, got my money back within 48 hours and then rebooked on my phone using the Accor app.

Unless your planning a longer stay. I would suggest 2 hotel rooms so you have access to 2 bathrooms. Finding an affordable 2 bedroom 2 bath Airbnb in Edinburgh will be more difficult.

Time of year and your budget will help with responses. We stayed in New Town on our last trip.

Having stayed in both Old Town and New Town, we'll never again stay in Old Town. One of the biggest reasons is that we've found most of the coolest stuff to do is outside of Old Town. Leith, Haymarket, Canonmills, Stockbridge and even Craigmillar have less-visited attractions that should be better appreciated.