- The New Town is the best place to stay for most families: flat Georgian streets, quiet nights, and an easy walk from Waverley station.
- Old Town hills and cobbles are hard work with a pushchair. Bring a carrier, and use the Market Street lift then Jeffrey Street for the gentlest route out of Waverley.
- Edinburgh pupils go back on 12 August 2026 while English schools stay off until about 1 September, so early September is the quietest time when the weather is still decent, if your children are under school age.
- The Fringe runs 7 to 31 August 2026. Rooms sell out months ahead, so stay a few streets back from the Royal Mile.
- As of mid-July 2026, trams run Airport to West End only while Princes Street is closed after the Debenhams building fire. Check Edinburgh Trams before relying on the tram.
Four bedrooms sleeping up to ten right on the Royal Mile, with a hot tub the teenagers will claim.
En-suite family rooms in a five-star hostel at the top of Leith Walk, with a children’s play area.
The New Town is the best area to stay in Edinburgh with kids for most families: calm after dark, buggy-friendly Georgian pavements, and a 10-to-15-minute walk from Waverley with just one gentle rise up to George Street. First-timers with school-age children can happily stay in the Old Town instead, provided nobody is pushing a pram. With a baby or toddler, the quiet, flat streets of Canonmills, Stockbridge or Leith work better than either.
Ages change the answer more than anything else, so this guide is organised around them. It also covers the two things catching families out in 2026: the August festival crush, and a fire on Princes Street that has cut the tram line in half.
Which area of Edinburgh is best for families?
The New Town is the best all-round area for families: flat pavements, quiet nights and an easy walk to Waverley. The Old Town suits first-timers whose kids can walk all day: you're on the doorstep of the Castle and the closes, but you pay for it in hills. Babies do best in Canonmills, Stockbridge or Leith, and Newington is the budget option near the Meadows.
Parents on Mumsnet keep giving the same advice about this city: stay somewhere flat, around Princes Street and Queen Street, so you are not dragging luggage and a pushchair uphill every time you head home. The New Town pays off after dark too. Bedrooms on residential streets like Cumberland Street or Great King Street are properly quiet by nine, which matters more than a smart address when a toddler needs to sleep. Our guide to places to stay in the New Town covers the area in more depth.
Leith is where it feels like everyday Edinburgh rather than the tourist centre: flat, on the waterfront, with cafés along The Shore and the Royal Yacht Britannia at Ocean Terminal, around 20 to 30 minutes from the centre by bus. Stockbridge and Canonmills are leafier still, with the Royal Botanic Garden and Inverleith Park between them.
| Area | With a buggy | Getting to Waverley | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Town | Flat, wide pavements | 10 to 15 minutes, one gentle rise | Most families, especially with under-5s |
| Old Town | Hills, cobbles and stairs; use a carrier | Uphill, or the Market Street lift route | First-timers with school-age kids |
| Leith | Flat waterfront | 20 to 30 minutes by bus (tram suspended, July 2026) | Babies, longer stays, local feel |
| Stockbridge / Canonmills | Flat and leafy | 20 to 25 minutes on foot, or a short bus | Toddlers, garden and playpark days |
| Newington | Manageable, with one climb to the Mile | 10 to 15 minutes with a climb | Budget places to stay near the Meadows |
You'll find places to stay in every one of these areas on our Edinburgh page, from Royal Mile apartments to guest houses on the flatter northern side.
Is the Old Town too hilly for a pushchair?
Mostly, yes. The Old Town runs along a ridge, so every route off the Royal Mile is a slope, a stair or a cobbled close, and the pavements narrow exactly where the crowds thicken. You'll regret bringing the pushchair, while the New Town, half a mile away, is a flat Georgian grid. A baby carrier turns those same closes into the best part of the trip.
Luggage is the other trap. Waverley station sits in a valley, and the exits Google Maps suggests first send you up steep ramps or the Waverley Steps escalators, workable but awkward with a buggy and cases.
Take the station lift up to Market Street, then follow Jeffrey Street round to the Royal Mile. It is step-free the whole way, a steady gentle climb rather than a flat stroll, and it avoids both the escalators and the cobbled closes.
Photo: Daniel, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Where to stay in Edinburgh with kids: three picks by age
These are the three places we list in Edinburgh that we would actually book with children, matched to the ages they suit. The New Town itself is the gap in our list, because the one place we have there is adults only, so these three sit around it. Everything below comes straight from each property's own listing: how many it sleeps, kitchens, bathrooms and where it is.
- Old Town, bigger families with older kids: Clamshell Land, Royal Mile
- Babies and younger children: the family rooms at Edinburgh House Hotel, Pilrig Street
- Budget: the family rooms at Edinburgh Central Accommodation
The address cuts both ways here. The Mile is loud on summer nights, so Clamshell Land suits families whose kids have outgrown naps, and for them it is hard to beat: four bedrooms sleeping up to ten, a full kitchen with dishwasher and dining table, and the Castle, Camera Obscura and Holyroodhouse all within about 15 minutes on foot. The hot tub and sauna are a hit with teenagers, and something to supervise with younger ones.
With younger children, the family rooms at Edinburgh House Hotel are the easier trip. Two family categories sleep three or four people in one room, so nobody is split across floors, and there is a walled garden behind the building with a table and chairs on the grass. Pilrig Street runs west off Leith Walk between the New Town and the old port, about 24 minutes on foot from Waverley, with buses along the Leith Walk corridor into the centre all day. There is no lift and no cots, and nothing is served in the morning, so the day starts with the kettle in the room or a walk down to Leith Walk.
On a budget, the family rooms at Edinburgh Central Accommodation are our pick in the centre: en-suite triples, quads and family rooms in a VisitScotland five-star hostel at the top of Leith Walk, with a children's play area and a guest kitchen. The Picardy Place tram stop is three minutes away, though it is closed during the Princes Street tram suspension as of mid-July 2026, with Leith Walk buses covering the gap. The hostel books under-12s into private rooms, never dorms. There are no cots or extra beds though, so pack a travel cot for a baby, and expect it to be noisier than a hotel, in a cheerful way.
Beaverbank Place in Canonmills looks like a family bargain on the map, but it is an adults-only campus residence: guests must be 18 or over and they don't take children. And since none of the places above lists a cot, confirm one directly or bring your own.
Getting around Edinburgh with a buggy
Edinburgh with children is a tram-and-bus city, and both are genuinely workable with a pram. The tram from the airport reaches the West End in about 30 minutes, running every 7 minutes for most of the day and every 10 early and late, with the first departure from the airport at 06:30 and the last at 22:52. Buy a ticket before boarding, or tap on and tap off with a contactless card. Forget to tap off and you are charged the full airport fare.
Each tram carries a buggy space and six luggage racks, and Edinburgh Trams asks parents to use a smaller foldable buggy where possible. On Lothian buses an unfolded buggy can board when there is room, taking the buggy space first and the wheelchair space only if it is free, and wheelchair users always have priority.
One big thing to know as of mid-July 2026. A fire in the former Debenhams building on 9 July has closed Princes Street between South Charlotte Street and Frederick Street, and trams are running between the Airport and the West End only, with every stop from Princes Street to Newhaven shut. Tram tickets are being accepted on ScotRail between Edinburgh Gateway and Waverley, and on Lothian buses between the West End and Newhaven. The council expects the closure to last into August with no confirmed reopening date, so check the Edinburgh Trams service updates before building plans around the tram.
None of this stops a car-free trip: Lothian buses already cover every leg the tram has dropped. If you are arriving without a car, our guide to where to stay in Edinburgh without a car pairs each area with its transport links.
Things to do in Edinburgh with kids (and what changed for 2026)
The National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street is the city's best free family venue: open daily 10:00 to 17:00, with the Imagine gallery for under-8s and, until 14 September 2026, the ticketed Giants exhibition. Dynamic Earth at Holyrood and Camera Obscura at the top of the Royal Mile (open daily except Christmas Day) cover the other wet afternoons, and the free Museum of Childhood sits right on the Mile.
Photo: Maccoinnich (Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
At Edinburgh Zoo the giant pandas are long gone (they returned to China in December 2023) and Scotland's only sloth bears now live in their old enclosure, Cipísek since July 2025 and Rajath since that December. Fair warning from the zoo's own accessibility notes: the site is steep, so make it a carrier day rather than a buggy day.
Outdoors, the Royal Botanic Garden is free, 70 acres and pram-friendly, though its Victorian Palm Houses stay closed for restoration until late 2026. The rebuilt castle-themed playground in West Princes Street Gardens, back since summer 2024, sits directly under the Castle rock, and the East Meadows playpark adds a zip line for older kids. If you fancy a beach day, Portobello's sands are three miles east, a short ride on Lothian bus 26 or 45.
Photo: M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Geograph
New for late 2026: the King's Theatre in Tollcross reopens over the weekend of 1 and 2 August after its long redevelopment, and its pantomime returns from 28 November with The Adventures of Pinocchio, a ready-made centrepiece for a Christmas trip.
When to go: school holidays, the Fringe and the quiet times
May, June and early September are the best times to visit Edinburgh with children: the gardens are in leaf, the crowds are lighter, and rooms are far easier to book than in August. If your children are under school age, the first full week of September is the quietest time of all.
Edinburgh runs on two school calendars, and canny families play them against each other. City of Edinburgh pupils are off from late June and back at school on 12 August 2026, while most English schools break up around 20 July and return about 1 September. October splits the same way: Edinburgh children are off 12 to 19 October, England's take 26 to 30 October. Whichever side of the border you live on, the other side's term-time is your quiet week. Halloween falls on the Saturday right after that English week in 2026, and it is the loud exception, because Edinburgh makes more of the date than most British cities. Our guide to which Halloween events in Edinburgh work with children goes through the age limits and what a night on Calton Hill involves.
August is a different story. The Fringe runs 7 to 31 August 2026, alongside the International Festival and the Tattoo, and the middle stretch of the Royal Mile becomes a crowd you shuffle through rather than walk. It is still brilliant with kids if you plan for it: go early in the morning, filter shows by age on the Fringe app, and book a room months ahead somewhere calmer, like Canonmills or Leith, not on the Mile itself. The Christmas market and funfair fill East Princes Street Gardens from mid-November to early January.
That first week of September is the one to circle. The Fringe packs up on 31 August, every school in Britain is back within days, the gardens are still in leaf, and by nine in the morning you will have that castle playground more or less to yourselves.
Four bedrooms sleeping up to ten right on the Royal Mile, with a hot tub the teenagers will claim.
En-suite family rooms in a five-star hostel at the top of Leith Walk, with a children’s play area.
