Capital Guest House

This is an average hotel and is advertised as such. The owner is unusually friendly and will do his utmost to make you feel welcome. The hotel itself is in no way luxurious but you will have what you need. You get a small bar of soap and a small bottle of shampoo but no conditioner or lotion. You get a hospitality tray with a kettle, biscuits, instant coffee, and tea, and the staff does remember to replenish them. You can borrow an iron. We found the room a little dark for working. One of the rooms we were in comes with a private bathroom as opposed to an en-suite bathroom; that is to say, you are the only user but the bathroom itself is external to your room. The breakfast is plain. A table is laid out with four types of cereal, a jug of milk, a jug of orange juice, a coffee maker, and fruit. There are scones, toast, and rolls, and you get one kind of sliced cheese, one kind of cheese spread, and jams. There is cable-TV in the room and two wireless Wi-Fi networks. Both networks were okay for speed but sometimes stalled for a minute or two.

I stayed here for 5 nights during the peak festival season in August. The owner was incredibly nice and helpful, and genuinely wanted his guests to have a great visit to Edinburgh. Room was clean and cozy. The breakfast was a basic continental but plenty to get you up and energized for the first part of your day. Although the location is about a 20 minute walk from the city center, I appreciated the quiet neighborhood considering the city center was extremely loud and full of tourists at the time of my visit. Also, there are plenty of buses in the area (with stops either right across the street or a 3 minute walk around the block) which run every few minutes. I actually ended up taking the buses quite a bit as the 20 minute walk seemed like a lot after several hours of walking in the city center sightseeing/shopping/going on tours each day. But again, this was no problem as they ran so frequently and stopped so close to the house (This includes one of the buses that goes all the way to the airport!). Overall, I had a great stay and would absolutely return on any future trips to Edinburgh!

The lodging met my needs as I needed a safe and quiet place to stay while visiting the city with my family. The proprietor is extremely friendly, kind, and provided us with needed information to make our trip much easier.