Edinburgh is a popular enough place to visit any time of the year, but for most of the month of August the city is transformed into one gigantic open-air arts festival. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe – lovingly known simply as “The Fringe” – is the biggest arts festival anywhere, and rather than being just a fancy festival with art or theatre exhibits behind closed doors, The Fringe spills out into the streets of Edinburgh, so that everywhere you look there’s performance art going on. It’s a feast for the senses.
Because the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh is so popular, however, it can make planning a trip to Edinburgh in August quite complicated – not to mention expensive. Hotels and hostels book up well in advance, for instance, and even if you’re on the ball and book ahead of time you’re going to notice the room rates are higher than normal. But perhaps the biggest expense of your trip to Edinburgh – especially if you’re traveling from far away – is going to be your airfare. Not only is the Festival Fringe a big draw for thousands of people, it also falls right in the midst of the peak tourist season in Europe. That’s two counts against anyone who’s a budget traveler.
Still, there are ways to find Edinburgh Festival Fringe travel deals, and we’ve talked about some of them in a series of articles this past week. You’ll find links to those articles below – including what airports to fly into if you’re coming to Edinburgh from overseas, and how to find cheap airfare no matter which airport you’re flying into.
No matter where you’re coming from to go to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, you have one thing in common with everyone else who will be there – you need to figure out how to get to Edinburgh from where you are. If you’re coming from overseas, that could mean flying to Edinburgh Airport and getting a shuttle into the city. If you’re coming from England or Scotland, that could mean taking a train or coach to Edinburgh.
Anyone who’s traveling to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from far away will no doubt immediately search for flights to Edinburgh, assuming flying into the city named in the festival title is your best and only option. It may be the most convenient airport to fly into, but it’s definitely not the only choice you have – and when you’re hunting for the cheapest airfare you can find, having more choices is always a good thing.
Edinburgh is probably the most popular place to visit in Scotland at any time of the year, but during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe the city explodes with hundreds of thousands of people who flood in from all over the world to take place in the biggest arts festival on earth.
Ah Scotland. The land where golf was invented, kilts are an acceptable fashion statement and where 13% of the population has red hair, the highest percentage of any country in the world. It is also home to the oldest national flag still in existence, a place where it is illegal to be in possession of cow while under the influence of drink, and a land where if someone comes to your house to ask to use your bathroom, you must by law allow them to enter.