What's a good 3-day itinerary for Edinburgh?

Day 1 belongs to the Old Town. Start at Edinburgh Castle by 9:30am — gates open at 9:30 and the first hour is the least crowded you'll get. Tickets cost £19.50 (about $26); give yourself ninety minutes inside. The Mons Meg cannon and the view north over Princes Street Gardens are the real draws. The crown jewels room is small and gets packed fast. Walk the Royal Mile downhill afterwards, but skip the tartan shops — the stretch between the castle and St Giles' Cathedral is the most tourist-heavy part of the whole city. St Giles' itself is free and worth ten minutes for the Thistle Chapel alone. Head further downhill to the Grassmarket for lunch. The cobblestones are uneven, the wind funnels between the tenement walls, and the smell of coffee drifts out before you reach the square. Try Mum's Great Comfort Food for haggis, neeps, and tatties without the white-tablecloth ceremony — about £12. After lunch, Greyfriars Kirkyard is a five-minute walk uphill: mossy headstones, total quiet, and a view back toward the castle that most people miss because they're looking for the Bobby statue out front.

Day 2 crosses north into the New Town — which is not actually new; it's Georgian from the 1760s, and the wide stone streets feel nothing like the medieval tangle you walked yesterday. Start at the Scottish National Gallery on the Mound at 10am. Entry is free. The Raeburn and Ramsay rooms tend to be nearly empty on weekday mornings. Walk north along George Street — the breeze picks up here without the Old Town's buildings to block it — then cut west toward Dean Village. The fifteen-minute walk drops you from traffic noise into a riverside path where the loudest thing is the Water of Leith running over stones. Cross into Stockbridge for lunch at Scran & Scallie (game pie, around £18) or The Pantry if you want something lighter. The Royal Botanic Garden is twenty minutes north on foot, free to enter. The Victorian glasshouses cost £7.50 but on a grey day — and there will likely be a grey day — they're warm, humid, and smell of damp earth and tropical leaves. That warmth is worth the ticket price when Edinburgh's wind is cutting through your jacket.

Day 3 starts early. Aim for Arthur's Seat by 8am to beat the mid-morning crowds. The main path from the Holyrood end takes about 45 minutes and the summit sits at 251 metres. On a clear morning the Firth of Forth stretches north and the Pentland Hills roll south, but this being Edinburgh, there's a decent chance you'll climb through low cloud and see nothing from the top. Wear proper shoes — the volcanic rock near the summit gets slippery when wet, which it often is. Come back down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse by 10:30am (tickets £18, about $24). The ruined abbey attached to the palace is the better half: open roof, stone arches, jackdaws calling from the walls. After Holyrood, catch the 22 bus from the foot of the Royal Mile to Leith. The old port smells of malt vinegar and seawater now, not engine grease. The Shore is the street you want: Fishers Leith does proper cullen skink — smoked haddock, potato, cream — for around £9.

Bus back from Leith takes about twenty minutes. Finish at Calton Hill in the late afternoon — the climb is five minutes, not forty-five, and the view west toward the castle might be the best free vantage point in the city. For a last dinner, Wedgwood on the Canongate does Scottish seasonal cooking with real ambition (mains £25-30), or if the budget is tighter, Mosque Kitchen on Nicolson Square serves enormous curry plates for about £7. One thing to know about all three days: Edinburgh is steep. The Old Town sits on a volcanic ridge and nearly every route involves stairs or hills. Good shoes matter more here than in most European cities. That said, the compactness works in your favour — nothing on this itinerary is more than a twenty-minute bus ride apart, and most of it you can walk if your knees are willing. The weather will likely change three times a day. Bring a packable rain jacket.