Princes Street, above Waverley station · Hotel
Edwardian railway hotel under the clock tower at the east end of Princes Street, with a spa, three restaurants and rooms overlooking the castle.
The Balmoral is the building most people picture when they picture Edinburgh's skyline apart from the castle: a granite pile of 1902 with a 58-metre clock tower at the junction of Princes Street and North Bridge. The clock is traditionally kept three minutes fast so that travellers do not miss trains from Waverley, which sits directly below. It is about as central as a hotel in Edinburgh can be.
Rooms and suites run to just under 190 in total, decorated in a restrained Scottish idiom with tweeds and muted tartans rather than anything heavy-handed. The best of them look south over the Old Town rooftops to the castle rock, and the corner suites in the tower are the ones regular guests ask for by number. Bathrooms are marble, service is formal without being stiff, and the soundproofing copes well with a genuinely busy street outside.
Facilities are extensive for a city-centre property. There is a spa with a 15-metre pool, sauna and steam room, a well-equipped gym, and three places to eat: a fine-dining restaurant, a brasserie, and the glass-roofed Palm Court for afternoon tea, which is something of an Edinburgh institution in itself. Scotch, the whisky bar, keeps several hundred bottles and has staff who can guide you through them properly.
It suits couples marking an occasion, business travellers who want to step off a train and be in their room within five minutes, and anyone attending the Festival who values being able to walk to almost every major venue. Families are accommodated but the atmosphere is grown-up. Rates climb steeply in August and around Hogmanay, and the best value tends to be found in January and February.