Budget single accommodation at Edinburgh First
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If you are looking for a reasonably priced single room Edinburgh First offers accommodation in the University of Edinburgh student halls of residence during holiday periods. Room are available during the Easter holiday and over the Summer rooms are available from the end of May to the beginning of September. I have stayed here several times in the last couple of years in the budget single rooms.
In 2008 a single room with shared bathroom costs from £29 to £40 a night. The rooms are a reasonable size, with a sink and tea and coffee making facilities and access to a communal pantry with a fridge and microwave. There is free on site car parking.
The accommodation sits in very attractive landscaped gardens close to Holyrood Park and Arthurs seat. You can walk into the city centre in less than half an hour. Breakfast, available from 7.30 - 10.00, is self service in a large dining hall with a wide choice of food including full cooked breakfast, cereals, yoghurt, fresh fruit and fruit juice. You can also eat lunch, approx £7 or dinner, approx £10 in the self service restuarant. There is a choice of hot main dishes, a salad bar, various starters and desserts and the price included a soft drink and tea or coffee. I think it’s good value for a tasty selection of food.
There are also ensuite rooms available which cost between £39 - £54 for a single and from £53 to £84 for a twin.
May 18th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
You can find similar rooms in Aberdeen city, but the quality and room do vary considerably from one another. The halls you can use is about 2.5 miles from the city centre, on a well served commuter bus route and close to the River Don and the beach.
May 18th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
I think that accommodation at student halls can be a good option. It can be hard to find sensibly priced single rooms, they are sometimes almost the same price as a double or tiwn.
June 15th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I stayed at Edinburgh first in the budget single rooms 13 - 15 June 2007 and was as satisfied as ever by the value for money, the fact the breakfast is available over a 2 and a half hour period, the lovely gardens and the size of the single room.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I have stayed here for four Festivals now. The rooms are particularly good value during the Festival, when the only alternatives that aren’t booked up months in advance are either astonishingly expensive, or backpacker hostel dorms (which are great if you like spending the Festival at very close quarters with late-partying and kebab-eating Aussies and Kiwis - breathing a lethal mix of discarded trainers and internally-processsed kebabs all night, and a gush of twenty assorted deoderant spays every morning).
Its not exactly central, but its not a bad location. It’s next to the Commonwaelth Pool - only a 15 minute stroll to the Pleasance (one of the main Festival mega-venues) and a further 10 minutes to the Canongate (Royal Mile). An alternative 20 minute walk is across the green “Meadows”, to the lively Southside (student area with several other major festival venues), and a further ten minutes to the High Street (Royal Mile), the heart of the Festival. There are loads of buses back from the North Bridge (Waverly station), which take up to twenty minutes if the roads are busy.
The accommodation is simple and comfortable, and includes a very good “eat all you want” hot breakfast (plenty of fruit and stuff too). It is set in nice green surroundings almost in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat. The atmosphere is bustly without being rowdy (loads of US high school kids, here to put on Festival shows, and seemingly dozens of kilted pipe bands from all over the world !).
If you want luxury, go somewhere else - but for reasonably priced comfort in a nice atmosphere, this is the place. The ensuite twins and singles are good value - but if you don’t mind sharing your shower and loo, the non-ensuite singles must be the cheapest rooms at the Festival (especially for drivers, considering the free parking).
Rooms are in many different blocks, there is no reception to walk through, and you keep you own key - so coming and going is easy.
The long breakfast period is a definite bonus, suiting larks and owls equally. But there are lots of owls (many of them US teenagers who are astonished to find they are old enough to drink legally in the UK!) so leave it too late and there will be a big queue.
Nice place, pretty good location, nice atmosphere, good value.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Thanks for your detailed review of the accommodation at Edinburgh First. I agree with you totally, it’s a great place to stay I just wish it were available all year round. I stayed in a room in a flat at the Hillhead halls of residence in Aberdeen in August and the room was not nearly so fresh, clean and well equipped as the rooms at Edinburgh First.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 am
i like the views from what we can see in Edinburgh guest houses. They are simple great with al;l natural flowpers seen from your room
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Yes Edinburgh is a really beautiful city with a lot of open space and wonderful views.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
[...] Breakfasts where 2 or more rooms share a bathroom and that can be awful. Whereas somewhere like Edinburgh First, university halls of residence used as visitor accommodation over the Summer, has four bathrooms on [...]