Stayed at this place for three nights from the 26th March to 29th. Great location, directly opposite Edinburgh Waverly Station (Market Street exit), and 2 minutes from the Airlink service to the airport.

I arrived at around 1230h, 2.5 hours ahead of check in and was given my room key, even though it was not clean, just so I could drop off my bags. Booked a bed in a 6-bedded room for GBP14 a night, but was given the entire room for the entire stay. The rooms were not cleaned everyday, though the bins were emptied. I never had a problem with noise, though if you have a front facing room, you need to draw your curtains at night due to the floodlights from the train station. Sometimes you might be able to hear the announcements from the train station, but that is only late at night and not many at all, to be honest.

Continental breakfast is provided, and you are given a choice of cereal (Weetabix, Rice Krispies, Corn flakes) with choice of milk (whole, semi-skimmed), English tea or instant coffee, wholemeal or white bread with choice of spread (butter, jams of various flavours, nutella, peanut butter, Marmite). You can also buy a full scottish breakfast! Service during breakfast was not as friendly, but i guess the staff are just not morning people!

My only problem with the hostel was that there was no kitchen!! Which I didn't know until i arrived and paid and checked-in! I much prefer to cook rather than eat out, hence resorted to having heavier lunches and light dinners to keep to my budget. As residents of the hostel though, u get 10% off food and drink at the Belushi's Bar.

All in all, a nice place to stay, main attraction is the location; I was able to walk to anywhere (but then again, Edinburgh is great for walking!). Front-facing rooms have great views of the new town. But if I were to go there again, i would have to reconsider whether to stay at St. Christopher's or not, because of the lack of kitchen.

Thanks for the review. I had a St. Christopher's experience in London and it was great for the price.

It seems kitchens are not that common in major UK cities, at least for the urban locations.

I stayed at St Christophers Inn, Shepherd's Bush area of West London. The hostel was across the street from the tube station & next to a mall with a good size Safeway store. Although the hostel didn't have a kitchen, I was able to buy inexpensive snacks & had their salad bar a couple times for a few quid.

I only paid between 7 to 9 quid/night for a 6 or 8 bed room. I liked being very close to the tub station and it was in a decent part of town.

My sister used to work there when she spent 6 months in the UK. It's true that they're not morning people, they usually run the bar until late or hang out until the wee hours of the morning.

Thanks for the review. I want to plan a weekend trip to Edinburgh later this year and at least I have one place I could get started with.
I usually just need a shower and a bed since I am going to spend most of the day on the road anyways.

SQ319, would you recomment Edinburgh for a short trip?

Definitely!! Edinburgh is perfect for a short trip. I spent 4 days there, but I think you could get pretty much everything covered within 3 days or even less. I spent the last day re-visiting the places I've been to earlier because the weather earlier was crap (lots of rain), and I had fantastic weather (think blue skies, sun and all) for the last day.

This is my intinerary for my Edinburgh trip:
Day 1 - arrived at noon, checked in, went to Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle, walked to New Town (if the weather is good, you can walk through Princes Street Garden - thoroughly enjoyed the garden and the views from it).
Day 2 - visited Museum of Childhood, Royal Museum (general history) and Museum of Scotland (Scotland History), Grayfriars' Bobby (a statue juz opposite the museum, then to the National Gallery of Scotland, and then up Charlton Hill for Nelson's Memorial and National Monument
Day 3 - Visited Palace of Holyroodhouse, then Scottish National Potrait Gallery, and Chalotte Square
Day 4 - Revisited Charlton Hill, and Old Town to take photos in beautiful weather. (An alternative was to take a bus to the seaside harbour town of Leith, where the Royal Yatch Brittania is docked)

I would say that the must sees of Edinburgh, is Edinburgh Castle, Museum of Scotland, Charlton Hill, and Palace of Holyroodhouse. Edinburgh is made for walking. I did not use any other form of transport at all during my 4 days there, other than to and from the airport!

As for hostels, my other choice was Edinburgh Backpackers Hostel (http://www.hoppo.com/edinburgh/) on Cockburn Street. It has a kitchen, but no breakfast was offered. That was my original choice, but was full when I tried to book it, quite a feat, considering that it was low season!