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Hotel review : The George Edinburgh

Written on December 30, 2011 at 9:09 pm, by

Despite my love of chain hotels I wanted to do another review of an independent hotel here on the blog, because in spite of what some say they do have more charm. For this review I have chosen The George Hotel which as you can guess is located on George street in the very centre of Edinburgh, and it’s a 4 star hotel rated by Visit Scotland which is a great.


Putting a price on this hotel was actually quite difficult, for example if you’re booking for this January a twin room can be anywhere between £70 and £150 just depending on the day. It’s great they are putting on all these special offers but it does make it quite difficult to plan a cheap holiday. So at £150 per night the George couldn’t be classified as one of the cheapest hotels around Edinburgh. At the same time though it goes to show how much money you can save if you’re prepared to arrange your trip around the hotel and not the other way around.


The hotel itself is massive with around 250 rooms and it’s a grade 2 listing building built in the 18th century so there’s plenty of history you’re buying into here. As mentioned this is a city centre residence so you have easy access to attractions like the castle and Princes Street Gardens. This hotel is also quite famous for weddings as they have a banquet hall with room for 300 people at a time, one look at the architecture and it’s easy to tell why so many wedding photos are from here.


If you need wheelchair access this hotel is ideal as they have ground floor rooms and ramps throughout. Apart from that I’m not sure what more I can say about this grand old hotel in the heart of Edinburgh, in-fact if a picture tells a thousand words you may just want to look at some of the photos they have on their site, this place looks amazing inside and out. The main problem for most people will probably still be price because as mentioned the rates they have seem to vary so much. Still if you can book at the right time it’s possible to stay in one of the finest 4 star hotels in Scotland for a fraction of the usual price. Let me know if you find a deal that works for you! Until next time…

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Hotel review : The Ben Doran Edinburgh

Written on December 29, 2011 at 9:12 pm, by

It’s time for another hotel review here at DiscountEdinburgh as I think quite a lot of people liked my last one based on the feedback. The hotel I’m going to review this time is the Ben Doran on Mayfield Gardens, which is surprising to me as I never thought I would be reviewing a 4 star hotel on this blog as we are all about cheap hotels. However there are some great special offers on this hotel at the moment as you can get a single for £52 and a double for £68 in January which for a 4 star hotel of this quality is amazing.

I should also mention the location at this point as it too is pretty much ideal. It’s not in the exact centre of Edinburgh but it’s only about a mile away which keeps it within walking distance (for most people). Your also quite close to some of the main attractions like Edinburgh castle and the Scottish museum, to me being close by just adds to the whole experience and it allows you to get a real sense of the city.

I also need to mention at this point that this is not a big hotel by any standard as they only have 11 rooms, I think they mention on their site that their dining room only has room for 25 people! While the low number of rooms could result in disappointment when trying to book the overall “cosyness” of the hotel more than makes up for it. I’ve always thought that the large chain hotels often feel quite impersonal and often the only upside to them is cheaper rates. But recently I’ve been finding lots of smaller hotels in Edinburgh like the Ben Doran which are offering great deals.

As far as facilities go you have all the usual ones associated with a quality 4 star place plus a few extras, i.e. they have on site car parking which is great for the drivers out there. They also make “box lunches” on request which I thought was quite novel and cute!

So that about does it for this latest hotel review, I have a feeling I’m going to struggle to find a better deal than this in any future reviews. After all anything under £70 for a double room in a 4 star hotel anywhere is great value, but its especially good value for Edinburgh as Scotland’s capital is always busy. Anyway I hope to be back soon with another review so stay tuned.

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Hotel review : Jurrys Inn Edinburgh

Written on December 28, 2011 at 1:51 pm, by

So I’ve decided that a great way to get this blog up and running would be a hotel review, after all isn’t that what most people are using the internet for these days? It’s always difficult to know what type of hotel to review though as there’s such a wide variety to choose from in Edinburgh, but as I mentioned in my last post I’m going to try and focus this blog around city centre Edinburgh hotels as I believe that staying in the centre is the only way to get the proper Scottish experience.

So the hotel in question for the review is Jurrys Inn on Jeffrey Street which is a 3 star visit Scotland rated hotel. I know some travellers are not overly keen on chain hotels and feel they may be a little impersonal but I’ve always been a fan. For a start they always seem to be a lot cheaper similar accommodation around the city which is a major factor for the budget traveller in Scotland. At the time of writing a standard double room is £65 during the week and around £100 per night at the weekend, for me this is great value for the location.

As you can probably guess one of the main benefits of this hotel is that it’s so close to many of the main attractions like the Royal mile, Princes Street and Edinburgh castle. It’s important to factor in the money that you’re saving with a hotel like this by way of reduced travel costs. I’ll be honest here and state that the less I have to deal with taxi drivers in a foreign country the better my wallet usually feels!

The hotel itself doesn’t actually list too many “extra facilities” on their site which I suppose makes sense since they are going after the cheaper end of the accommodation market, but don’t let that put you off, this is a quality hotel. I mean unless you really need an onsite gym or car parking what’s the point in specifying it? I mean while extra facilities are often labelled as free you can bet they’ve been added into the final room rate somewhere along the line. For me it’s all about getting the best discount while making sure I have a comfortable and relaxing stay, and at under £70 per night Jurrys seems to tick both boxes.

So that’s about it for this first hotel review here on DiscountEdinburgh, hopefully it’s given you a little insight into what kind of accommodation is available here in Scotland’s capital city. Stop by soon when I hope to have more hotel reviews and general travel advice for you.

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Welcome to the blog

Written on December 27, 2011 at 10:42 pm, by

Hello and welcome to my new blog here at DiscountEdinburgh which as you may have guessed is all about finding cheap hotels in Edinburgh. Over the next few weeks I plan on building the site up with lots of tips for anyone travelling on a budget and I also plan on reviewing suitable hotels in the city.

One problem all travel blogs face is how to appeal to a wide range people who are often looking for very specific info. Also because this blog is focused around “discount” travel I have to keep in mind that what one traveller may find cheap could be an extortionate amount to another, it’s not an easy balancing act.

I have decided though which particular area I want to focus on and that’s the city centre hotels of Edinburgh. I’m a firm believer that you never really get to know a city until you stay right in the centre of it, and Edinburgh is somewhere that really proves the point. Another factor that comes into play with city centre hotels is price since they do usually cost more than out of town accommodation. But what many people forget to factor in is the money saved on transport into the city every day, those costs can really mount up and can easily wipe out the amount saved on the hotel if you’re not careful.

I think the reviews section will also be a really important part of the site since it’s often a review that will push you in one direction or another. I know some people who just order the hotel search results by price and location and pick the top result but you’re really asking for trouble with this method.

Still I hope to work out exactly what I’m going to do with the blog very soon, so stay tuned.

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