We saw the pandas on our first visit.
We have East Midlands on our doorstep and as we can fly to Edinburgh in only 55 minutes it was the obvious way to get there. I think I was one of the only people to check in a big case, none of that travelling with hand luggage only nonsense for me. I say that, but a lot of the people were in suits and only carrying laptop bags, it is a very popular service for people travelling for the day on business.
Now, I am an anything for the easiest in life as well as when I travel, so although I had said I was going to try the bus, if I had found the taxi rank first I would have jumped in a cab. As it happened the first thing I saw was the office for the Airlink 100 bus and the bus was sat there waiting for us. What a great service it was as well. A few stops and we were right outside our hotel. The Holiday Inn, right next to Edinburgh Zoo. The only slight issue was that it’s on a hill and I had to drag my 23 kilos up it to get into the hotel and then up a couple of flights on stairs to the reception.
We got a great welcome and as IHG members I had requested an early check-in, our room was ready and waiting for us. We had a standard twin room which had everything you could need including comfy beds and free Wi-Fi.
The hotel serves food all day in the bar area and has a good selection on offer as well as Starbucks in the lounge area. We had a lovely lunch.
The hotel has leisure facilities which include a sauna, hot tub and swimming pool. We spent the afternoon chilling there before dinner in the restaurant.
After a really good night’s sleep it was time to head to the zoo. Connor was meeting Amie at 9am for his ‘Keeper for the Day’ experience. It took only around 3 minutes to walk from the hotel to the zoo entrance. Perfect. Connor had an amazing day with Amie and I got some great pictures.
At 4pm his experience was over, he had aching feet, but we really wanted to see the pandas. We had heard so many stories about people sitting there waiting for hours or making lots of trips and just never seeing them. Imagine our excitement when we got there and both pandas were in full view. One sat happily eating bamboo and the other lay sleeping close to the glass. We were so lucky, and it really was a great end to a brilliant day.
We were both feeling the effects of a full day on our feet, so room service was ordered for dinner. Again, the food was great and the tray supplement was only a couple of pounds.
The next day was another day in Edinburgh Zoo, this time seeing all the animals at our own pace. We started at the top and worked our way down. For anyone that doesn’t know, the zoo is on a hill, a BIG hill. I did think at one point we were mountain climbing. Ok maybe it’s not that bad but be warned it’s a fair walk. If you are less able or have wheelchair users, they do offer a mobility vehicle that will drive you to certain parts of the zoo. This can be arranged on arrival.
We saw lots of animals today that we hadn’t seen the day before and we spent the whole day just wandering, eating drinking, snacking and enjoying being here.
One of the things I was really impressed with was the recycling that’s done at the zoo. It really is done well, I even found myself taking pictures of the bins they use. As an obsessive recycler at home it did make me wonder why our local zoo doesn’t have them.
Back at the hotel, I messaged my local zoo with the photographs of the recycling bins before having an early night.
On our las t day we had an evening flight home, so I thought it only right that we at least see the castle, even if it was only from the street below. We left the hotel after breakfast making our way to the bus stop right outside. After a very short wait we were on the bus and on our way. We opted for the airlink 100 again, so in only 3 stops we were in the heart of Princes Street. We had a mooch around and took lots of pictures, but before I knew it Connor was ready for lunch and we went somewhere very Scottish. OK, I wish, but nope we ended up in McDonalds.
Edinburgh is a lovely city and we are already planning to come back next year and see more than just the zoo.