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trying to make the decision between flying up (which will require a 45min lift to east mids airport then bus/train/whatever afterwards) and driving up, for a three day whizz round the festival. Monday 23rd into Weds 25th. Meeting up with mates who have a few beds in a hostel sorted.

The flying stuff is all sorted, but not many arguments laid down on the driving side. Wouldn't mind the opportunity to see the countriside oop north out the window (and detour across onto hardknott for a challenge ) but parking and petrol are problems. I know i can make it in only as much petrol as the flight plus sundries will be, just by spending a couple more hours than that would be.... anyone know of good spots to park around the town? Lacking in expensive charges, traffic wardens, and scallies?

Indeed anyone need a lift there on monday, back on weds, or both? I'll even skip the cumbrian excursion if it means the petrol becomes half / one-third / quarter priced

As far as I'm aware Edinburgh is a very hard place to find a parking spot, But someone from the area might be able to help more, my experiances are only from working there.

Watch out for the speed cameras as well theres loads of them

i wont be speeding, trying to save fuel

unless of course theres an arse violating traffic jam further down the m6...... midday......

mind you ive found next to zilch info on the web - the best i could do was find info on a couple of deeply central car parks (i'd rather park a mile away and walk for 15 minutes - going to be doing a lot of it over the other 48 hours anyway) where it's £13 for a 24 hour ticket

then again --- if i fly, its gonna be from east mids, meaning a 150 mile total trip for whoever taxi's me, and the bus to/from edbro airport is a further fiver each way... hmmm.

plane: £51 return..... 3 hours each way including check-in etc.. plus someone else's fuel for 150 miles at 70-80 and a tenner for the bus.

car: £36 (behind the trucks) return, 6 hours each way........ up to £70 return of about 3.5 hours each leg on full throttle. Plus parking charges in either case. Hmm.

course if anyone does fancy a lift, their half of the petrol pays the parking *sweet*


may just take the easy route and sponge a lift to the airport tho & try to get out of paying for it but thats a bit evil

why u going to Edinburgh

i am going up there on thursday 26th for the tattoo hope its good and i want to go to mary kings close any one been to it

Tahrey1043 wrote: for a three day whizz round the festival. Monday 23rd into Weds 25th. Meeting up with mates who have a few beds in a hostel sorted.

looks like i may be flying (whee! been a while*) because mother dear has very kindly offered, without me asking, to drive me to EMA free of charge - or pay my parking (not petrol ) if i have to make my own way there... depending on what her plans are come sunday night.

be nicer to know now of course, because money spend on airport parking (="ouch") could be just as easily spent in on parking up in the scots capital.. i basically have to either book or not book the flight within the next few hours (as show tickets, hostel bed etc are already paid for).
oh well, gift horses, mouths, etc.

* none of the benefits except speed and the general fun of being aloft though... no munchies or movie (easyjet, and only an hour 15m), hostesses will probably be dogs... plus its an incredibly fuel inefficient way of gadding about


with an eye towards any future excursions though, i wonder if there are any websites dedicated to organising car-shares (if i had five in the polo, that'd be no more than a tenner each return at a reasonable pace, even with a roofrack on for bags... beating even national express on price by far (the coach being an 8 to 11 hour journey time!) and also the trains on speed, just).... if not, maybe a new forum section in the offing?

edinburgh is always congested and theres tons of 1 way roads, even if u can see the place round the corner, ull have to drive like 10mins to get round there (avoiding bus lanes/gates)

parking is actually ok, theres plenty of car parks avaliable.

yeah - but how much if i plan on leaving the car there like 5pm monday to 7pm wednesday?

im from edinburgh mate the roads really aint that bad up here but avoid the centre of town during the festival as it really is murder in the way of car parks most of the places round town charge by every 2 hours or close to that so could be bit pricy to leave the car in one of them you may be lucky and find a nice secluded spot but yoru best bet would be to park just outside town and bus it into the centre


hope that helps a bit any more questions drop me a pm im happy 2 help

cheers mate...... went up by BMI Baby jet in the end, think it was probably the best idea even though it was delayed by more than an hour in each direction (one being a lightning strike on the plane (!) the other being ripples in the pond from BA). get a 3/4 hour lift to the airport, sit around for a while with a pint, get on a plane, get a book and bag of sweets out, land an hour later, hop a bus, and bang.... before you know it, you're at the corner of waverly and princes street. sorted. and the same in reverse getting back.

rather than getting in the car, getting out of birmingham on the m6 (or toll road, a38/a5 right now might be better..), getting through the ellesmere-liverpool-manchester-blackpool traffic hellhole, slogging over the cumbria/yorkshire hills, changing direction in the glasgow inner suburbs, and then dealing with the giant mess that the m8/a8 appears to be at the moment.... and finding somewhere to park up that itself didnt involve a bus ride to get to/from the hostel.
(it took the bus itself 25 minutes to get from the airport to the middle of the city because of the traffic and works, without very many (brief) stops... about a 15mph average speed, and the thing took off like a rocket too)

wandering around the town on foot was an eye opener - very few parked cars, all of them on meters of some kind, and very few "ordinary" vehicles - all of them were either brand new (and few of the small polo-corsa class), expensive/prestigious, or both. similar with the traffic that was about, apart from a few golfs and maybe three polos (2 mk3, 1 brand new) that were obviously passing through...... and a plague of buses and taxis! might just have been extra stuff laid on for the festy, but public transport seems so much better sorted than in birmingham.

nice place you got there too.... everywhere's big... but somehow not as evil/threatening as my home conurbation, even for the displaced lone (or trio) traveller(s). possibly because it feels like one giant theme park just from the design and layout of the buildings
(brum just feels like it's going to fold in and eat you)

cheers