Forget the festival, the best time to visit Edinburgh is during the festive period. MAXINE GORDON reports on how to have a Hogmanay to remember in Auld Reekie.
SLIPPING between the cobbled closes that cut through Edinburgh's old town like a snakes and ladders game, it's easy to feel lost in time.
These are the very same narrow passageways (ginnels or snickets in Yorkshire) that once carried Scotland's famous sons such as Robert Louis Stephenson, Adam Smith and Walter Scott through this atmospheric city. Today, they are likely to feature in a scene from an Ian Rankin crime novel.
We're based in Edinburgh's historic heart: at the foot of the Royal Mile, bang next to the Scottish Parliament and a few strides away from Holyrood Palace, the Queen's official residence in Edinburgh.
The view from our sixth-floor room at the Macdonald Hotel takes in the intriguing concrete and timber struts of the Parliament building (its colour so similar to an Edinburgh sky on a white-grey day) with the grass-green mound of Salisbury Crags in the Queen's Park behind.
Crichton's Close, next to the hotel, offers a short-cut straight up on to Canongate, the bottom part of the Royal Mile, whose upward trajectory leads visitors to the Castle and unmissable views across the city and over the Forth to Fife.
But why the rush? Canongate has its own magic; whether it be the fairytale charm of the turreted 16th-century Tollbooth that houses the People's Story, a museum telling the story of the ordinary people of Edinburgh; or Canongate Kirk, the 17th-century church and scene of the Royal wedding between the Queen's granddaughter, Zara Phillips, and Mike Tindall in 2011.
August is a favourite time to visit the city, when festival fever is in full swing and some 250,000 tourists flock to the capital.
But the festive period is arguably the best time to take in Edinburgh's northern highlights. The city has cultivated a second wave of festival frenzy, focused on Christmas and New Year. This stretches from St Andrews's Day at the end of November when the Christmas lights are switched on and runs through to Burns' Night at the end of January.
The city becomes a veritable winter wonderland, regardless of the weather forecast. A giant Norwegian spruce stands on the Mound, overlooking proceedings in Princes Street Gardens, where festive markets, an outdoor ice-rink and a giant ferris wheel are to be found.
This year, the fun will spread to the smart Georgian New Town and St Andrew's Square, a stop-off on the new Trams route and the location of Harvey Nichols and the designer boutiques of Multress Walk, including Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors and Burberry.
A second outdoor ice-rink is to be build around the towering Melville Monument in the centre of St Andrew's Square garden. Visitors can also stock up on local delicacies and gifts at the Scottish Market as well as have fairground fun on the carousel and helter skelter.
The Spiegeltent will be hosting events, including a nightly session with Pub Landlord himself, Al Murray, and special guests from December 29 to 31.
Anyone planning to join the 80,000 or so revellers in the city centre for Edinburgh's Hogmanay street party would be advised to book ahead for tickets.
There are a variety of events taking part, from a concert in the gardens headlined by Lily Allen to a ceilidh on the Mound. Where ever you end up, make sure you have a view on to the Castle at midnight for one of the best fireworks displays in the world. And check you know the words to Auld Lang Syne – because everyone will be singing it come the bells.
And you'd better get your skates on too, if you are looking for a room over the holiday period. It would certainly be worth checking if there was room at the "inn" where we stayed on a recent visit.
The Macdonald Holyrood is a four-star hotel where the emphasis is on good, old-fashioned Scottish hospitality. Nothing was too much trouble for the staff, whether it was printing out a flight boarding pass, booking taxis, and rustling up some extra herbal teabags for use back in the room. And what a room: a giant bed, fittingly suitable for a Queen, with luxurious, crisp, white linens and quilted, claret-red bed throws.
As if we weren't relaxed enough, a session in the hotel spa finished us off. I opted for a full body massage featuring hot stones. This is intensely therapeutic, the heat and pressure from the stones giving tired and aching muscles a double dose of relief.
We ate in the restaurant, Rocca, and cooed over the tempting menu, settling for a satisfying succession of scallops with black pudding, followed by seabass with seafood and a rich, cream sauce.
We tried the steak too, and decided the Jenga-sized chips were worth coming back for alone.
Fact file
Maxine stayed at the Macdonald Holyrood Hotel. The Macdonald Holyrood Hotel is offering a three-night Hogmanay Break, (stay from December 30 2014 to January 1 2015) including a full Scottish breakfast and a three-course dinner in the restaurant each evening, from £180 per room per night. For full details visit: macdonaldhotels.co.uk or tel: 0844 879 9028.
Find out more about festive events in Edinburgh at:
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here