Edinburgh car parking?

B0bbyEwing

Hopefully someone reading this has some first hand info.

After the fantastic news about the rail strikes this morning we're considering the possibility of driving to Edinburgh rather than cancelling the holiday.

We're due to stay at one of the Premier Inn's which back on to the Royal Mile.

We've been before but never paid attention to any parking as we've always caught the train. From memory there's no parking at the Premier Inn itself. 

What I don't want is to contact somewhere & they say yeah we have parking - but it's like 3 spaces which all get occupied by staff anyway at like 5am.

So as I say, I'm hoping someone reading this can advise on the best place to park (& hopefully info on the charges too). Will be a case of going up Monday coming back Wednesday. 

Ath_Wat

I'm afraid all I can offer is that the three words in your title are normally followed by "...is an absolute nightmare".

You may be able to prebook one of the NCP car parks but it won't be particularly close and it won't be particularly cheap.  NCP Holyrood road is about 10 minutes walk from the  middle of the Royal Mile and would be about £50 - £70 for Monday to Wednesday if you went next week depending on arrival times and departure times.  I can't speak for its security.

B0bbyEwing

@Ath_Wat found a multi storey just round the corner - Edinburgh Waverly Station Car Park. 

Not sure how many spaces there are but I plan on getting there relatively early. Somewhere in the 7am-8am window. Hopefully nearer 7am than 8am.

It's going to mean a 4am set off time but I'd rather that than go later, deal with considerably worse traffic & almost certain parking problems.

£22 for 24hrs but it is what it is. The other option is cancel the break.

I just hope 7am-8am works.

superstylin

It might be worth asking the hotel. Whenever we've stayed (and we go almost every year at Christmas) we end up in an NCP but the hotels have provided a discount. 

Ath_Wat

Personally I would prebook for peace of mind. If you can't prebook the Waverly Station one, the one I mentioned above is about the same distance from the Royal Mile in the other direction.

superstylin

Just park.com is useful. You can enter arrival and departure times and it shows cost. Also advises how many spaces there are in total and whether parking can be reserved. 

martindow

Would it be feasible to park somewhere cheaper or even free out of the city centre and travel in by bus or tram? 

B0bbyEwing

Regards prebooking - I saw on one site but it mentioned seasonal. I don't want seasonal, I want a couple of days. My other concern is people just doing whatever the hell they want. You pre-book a space but someone gets there first, tough luck kind of thing, I was here first they tell you.

Maybe it doesn't & can't happen, I don't know, I've never experienced these things before.

superstylin - they only tell me they don't do parking & just suggested nearby parking that's all. This is Premier Inn. We tend to go every Xmas too so maybe we'll bump in to each other? lol.

Regards start & leaving time - Really not sure. I can have a rough idea as I said but there's 3:00-3:30hrs between here & there, a lot can happen. I suppose I'd rather say early & get there a little later than get there early for later & face the situation of - no can do, you're earlier than you said.

martindow - of course it's possible to do that. We did that our first time going there. Stopped a little bit out at the Murrayfield Hotel. It became a bit of a nuisance though, even with buses. We prefer to stop more central now & for easiness we'd prefer not to have to park too far out. 

Bit more searching revealed Omni car park has more spaces than the train station one. I'm going to look in to this pre-booking thing. Like you say, it's peace of mind. I just worry that we'll get there & be like we paid for a space....and there isn't one. What gives?

Ath_Wat

B0bbyEwing said:

Regards prebooking - I saw on one site but it mentioned seasonal. I don't want seasonal, I want a couple of days. My other concern is people just doing whatever the hell they want. You pre-book a space but someone gets there first, tough luck kind of thing, I was here first they tell you.

Maybe it doesn't & can't happen, I don't know, I've never experienced these things before.

superstylin - they only tell me they don't do parking & just suggested nearby parking that's all. This is Premier Inn. We tend to go every Xmas too so maybe we'll bump in to each other? lol.

Regards start & leaving time - Really not sure. I can have a rough idea as I said but there's 3:00-3:30hrs between here & there, a lot can happen. I suppose I'd rather say early & get there a little later than get there early for later & face the situation of - no can do, you're earlier than you said.

martindow - of course it's possible to do that. We did that our first time going there. Stopped a little bit out at the Murrayfield Hotel. It became a bit of a nuisance though, even with buses. We prefer to stop more central now & for easiness we'd prefer not to have to park too far out. 

Bit more searching revealed Omni car park has more spaces than the train station one. I'm going to look in to this pre-booking thing. Like you say, it's peace of mind. I just worry that we'll get there & be like we paid for a space....and there isn't one. What gives?

https://www.ncp.co.uk/find-a-car-park/car-parks/edinburgh-st-johns-hill/

NCP allows pre booking for specific times.  I don't know if they assign you a particular space.  If there's a problem I assume you call them.

superstylin

We parked at the omniQ on Greenside last year at Christmas, not arriving there until 11am and there were hundreds of spaces left. We only had to walk to the Motel One on Princes St though. Still any walk through Edinburgh is a nice walk! 

B0bbyEwing

superstylin said:

Still any walk through Edinburgh is a nice walk! 

You're not wrong. We travel virtually everywhere by walking so we're not against having to walk. Going to Edinburgh is when I set my personal record of 45k steps in 1 day lol. We'll regularly walk 10 miles+ each day we're in Edinburgh no problem.

About the only time we don't walk is if we're going to the zoo - then we get the bus as it's dirt cheap. For literally everything else we walk.

Have you done any of the light up places? We booked for the zoo last year & it was quite good. We were only going to do 1 of them, the zoo being it, but I thought the botanical gardens might be good once we'd seen the zoo & they were amazing. Thoroughly recommend it but then it depends what you like/don't like so it may or may not suit you.

Where do you stay when you go? Always Motel One or have you been elsewhere? As I say, first time we stopped at Murrayfield Hotel but decided this was a bit far out. We then stayed at Jury's Inn for a few years before finding Premier Inn down the road was cheaper. We stayed in the Premier Inn Hub one time but I'll not be doing that again. We paid extra for a larger room so I'd hate to see what a small room would be like. I'd seen on the reviews complaints of how warm the rooms got. We went later in the year so didn't think it'd be too bad - how wrong was I. It was flipping warm!! Not a good nights sleep.