Parking in Edinburgh

Where will you be staying? There might be parking at the hotel or somewhere the hotel can recommend. In the centre most of the on street parking is resident permits only enforced by parking attendants who can smell fear. The parking at the shopping centres is free to a point and there are parking contractors who will ticket. Although there are legal issues in the UK over these tickets, the hire car company will not bother with appealing, and just pass on the fine to you.

Once I had a car when I stayed in Edinburgh. I was staying near the Royal Botanic Gardens. The hotel told me about a place where I could park on the street that wasn't too far away. But MC is right, it wasn't easy. That's one of the reason's that I usually recommend that people visit Edinburgh at the beginning or end of their trip and try to do all driving before or after their stay.

I would second the recommendation to contact your B&B or hotel.

Pam

I agree with the other travelers that you should check if your hotel has parking or has recommendations on where to park your car. It can be annoying to have a car in Edinburgh so if you can't find an easy option for parking your idea of dropping it off and picking up another one might be the best option.

As others have said, it depends where you are staying. If you are staying near the Holyrood end of the Royal Mile, there is parking here: http://www.ukcarparks.info/st-johns-hill-car-park-edinburgh#sthash.m5SOveHS.rFBqCcRW.dpbs We stayed a block away at a hotel with limited parking and this was our fall-back if the hotel lot was full. It's convenient to the Royal Mile, but it's obviously not free.

Letter from Glasgow ; You really don't want to deal with a car in any city ( except Wells , perhaps ) and certainly a major one ; ie London , Glasgow , Edinburgh - especially during the festival and tattoo . Pam's suggestion is your first line of attack ( or defense , your choice ) , but depending on where you are headed on those day trips , rail or even bus ( I hate buses in general , but love rail ) would likely be a better plan .