Born and bred in Edinburgh and having travelled the world extensively makes you appreciate what is best about this city as a tourist destination.

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and is unique within the British Isles in many ways. For most people, its uniqueness is the stunning castle, over 1,000 years old adorning a large rock bang in the city centre. For some, it’s the old streets, like rabbit warrens, just right for exploring in complete safety. For many, it is the grandeur of the Georgian architecture and stunning New Town area set at the foot of Edinburgh Castle. However if you have been to Edinburgh before, you have probably seen all these things.

Edinburgh is a small city by city standards (just under 500,000 people) but at any one time, it probably hosts almost twice that population with visitors and tourists. This means that the infrastructure all the year round is geared for more people than actually stay here. Restaurants are therefore very varied and have to be good as the locals use them too.

Bars are exciting and modern catering for a sophisticated nightlife but there are also traditional back street bars steeped in history. More importantly, there is no “closed” season so the city is bustling and vibrant in November as well at the height of the tourist season in August. Everything is always open for business so if you are on holiday for a longer period or just taking a weekend break, you will never be short of things to do.

The gay scene in Edinburgh is also quite active and snugly fits into the normal tourist scene. The scene is relaxed and can be early evening or late nights depending on your mood. There is a very well structured on-line support for visitors as well as a number of free magazines to help guide you.

The scene, like the city itself, is mainly in the same area so quite easy to walk around and, more importantly, safe to walk around and there are a number of bars and clubs (and even a couple of saunas, gay sex shop and a drop-in café) all within a small area.

An article about Edinburgh would be incomplete without mentioning the Edinburgh Festivals. I say “Festivals” because it all kicks off sometime in July with the Book Festival, then the Jazz Festival rolling into the Edinburgh Fridge Festival around the first week in August when every bar, theatre, hall, tent and room become “theatres,” and where some of the best talent in comedy, theatre, variety and drama come to hone their talents. At the same time as the Fringe, is the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an amazing event of music and heritage which takes place on the esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle under floodlights and is absolutely unique.

There is nothing on Earth like it. The Edinburgh International Festival starts one week later with a feast of opera, ballet and drama for the more cultured amongst us. There is the Edinburgh International Film and Television Festival and even Children’s Festival all happening at once. The streets are awash with entertainers and music 24 hours a day.

One thing Edinburgh is not known for is its location. Many visitors stay in Edinburgh for two to three days then move on by car, train or bus to Inverness or the Western Islands. Certainly if you want to explore much further afield such as the Island of Skye, the general Inverness area and the Highlands, then moving on is a good idea.

However those with limited time in Scotland may find that staying in Edinburgh and either driving or using the many day coach tours is a lot more relaxing than packing bags every night. The Edinburgh area is perfect for visiting St Andrews (the home of golf), the South East coastline with it’s cute villages, golf courses, aircraft museum (with its own Concorde) and motor museum, the Border country with its wonderful tweed fabrics and woollen mills, distillery, abbeys and castles or even taking a trip to Loch Lomond, Stirling Castle, The Wallace Monument and the Bannockburn Museum.

Even Inverness and Loch Ness are reachable on day trip as is Glasgow with its Victorian history and museums plus fabulous shopping.

Edinburgh itself has one of the best Zoos in the U.K., the Queen’s ex-yacht, The Royal Yacht Britannia, Holyroodhouse (the Queen’s official Scottish residence), the Scottish Parliament (one of the quirkiest buildings in the country), Rosslyn Chapel (reputed to be the resting place of the Holy Grail), fabulous art galleries and museums (most free) and some wonderful walking tours exploring the darker side of Edinburgh’s past. Less well known is the coastline with some beaches and walks and the beautiful little town of South Queensferry underneath the Forth Bridges as they span the river estuary.

It is said that all the residents of this fine city are automatic tourist guides. We are so used to being asked for advice that we take it in our stride. This makes our city a safe place to be and explore with no need to keep looking over your shoulder, even late at night.

Everyone should see this wonderful and beautiful city at least once in their life. Whether you are culture fans, bar flies, love beautiful architecture and scenery or want to be entertained, we have something for everyone.

Getting to Edinburgh is easy with frequent flights from most European cities and both New York airports plus Toronto. There are numerous flights from all London airports each day (just over one hour flying time) and the express train from London takes around four hours and thirty minutes.

Kew House and Apartments have been operated by Ian Hamilton and Alan Gray for 16 years. This guest accommodation offers 6 bedrooms and 2 daily serviced apartments all with guaranteed parking ( www.kewhouse.com ) and free internet access with wi-fi. Cooked breakfast at Kew House and Continental breakfast in Kew Apartments are also included in the rates. The location is one mile West of the main thoroughfare on the main route in from Edinburgh Airport but the walk is around 15 minutes or there is a bus every few minutes to the center of town. The gay area is around 1.5 miles away.

When we set up the business we decided that we should drive for individuality and style and to do that we became a mixed clientele accommodation catering for business and leisure couples and sometimes older families. We initially attracted gay/lesbian business by accident and realised that though there are a few 100% gay guest houses in Edinburgh with the odd exception, they were gay first them comfortable second. Kew House and Apartments are therefore gay-friendly and we are proud to have the AA Five Star, Highly Commended accolade for 2009 putting us in the top 10% of UK guest accommodations for service and comfort.

We hope to see you in 2009, the year of Scottish Homecoming, great excuse to come home for anyone with Scottish blood in them!! http://www.homecomingscotland.com/default.html