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    Castle Rock Hostel

    4.4 (40 reviews)

    Castle Rock Hostel Photos

    Recommended Reviews - Castle Rock Hostel

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    Main stairs
    Deana Marie L.

    I stayed at the Castle Rock Hostel for five days. Castle Rock neighbors Edinburgh Castle and is close to the Royal Mile. It's within walking distance to many restaurants, bars, and shops. I took the tram from the airport to the Princes Street stop. It was about a 15-minute walk *uphill* to the hostel. The hostel has different themed lounges, a massive kitchen, and even a cinema! As a female solo traveler, I felt safe the entire time. The staff was super friendly. My all-female dorm was tiny, but it had a great view. I appreciated the free coffee and tea that was always available. It was a cool experience to stay in an actual castle, especially on a hostel budget! Overall, it was an incredible hostel experience! *For my Castle Rock Hostel Tour video, see my youtube page: https://youtu.be/JSzDoxBze10 *For more details, see my blog: https://hellohappyvegan.com/hostels/f/castle-rock-hostel

    Manuel E.

    Castle Rock Hostel has to be my most favorite hostel I have ever booked and stayed in! Not only is the building an old medieval structure in itself.. it is right outside of Edinburgh Castle! Wow. There is views upon views at this place. Each room window looks out into a beautiful skyline of Old Town. You can just sit by the window and look out and daydream for hours. Daydream of medieval wars and daily life with knights and peasants and markets and horses and cows and etc. My room was graced with an actual Archers window!!! Woah, like this small slit was used by archers to defend the town! It also provided the room with a pretty cool airy breeze. Check in was quick and simple and everyone is super easy to talk to and very informative. There is no lift, so the stairs will be your daily mode of getting up and down those floors! The general area is beautiful and very homey. You can choose between any of the 3 rooms, that all have different themes. i loved the general kitchen area that has seats and sofas, a large dining table made for a King, and also a nice pool table that travelers can conjugate around. This location is probably on the edge of Old Town, right besides Edinburgh Castle. You are walking distance away from everything that has any historical significance. You will never not be taking pictures. Edinburgh as a city, is probably one of the most beautiful and most Interesting cities I have ever been to. The best part of the day to site see is yeah, when the sun is out, however..... the city does not lose any of it's luster when it's dark. The Dark beautiful shadows on the buildings really turns this city into a different sort of feel. You start thinking of it's dark past of wars and supposedly ghosts and spirits that are around different areas. Castle Rock is definitely a go-to place if you're ever in Edinburgh for a couple of days!

    Jessica D.

    See my pictures for a full review (weird I know), but I made a review on trip advisor as well and it wouldn't let me copy/paste it!

    View from Currency Room
    Taryn S.

    I rate this place 5 stars because it is like staying in Medieval Times and its huge! There are fun metal knight statues and murals all over the place which give this place fun vibes. My room even had a direct view of the private school that inspired J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts. I met some really fun and interesting people staying here. Do the pub crawl and the beer pong tournament they hold in the common room if you stay here! You will meet lots of interesting people. Plenty of outlets for charging! Spotty wifi in the rooms but I made do by going into the common areas. Also, they were having a scary movie marathon in the movie theater when I was there which is a fun way to stay warm and dry if it decides to rain. Security is great here! They make everyone show a security card to the front desk to gain access. I also used their laundry service (clean & fold) which drops off on your bunk for only 4 pounds. I have seen other hostels charge a lot more for this service, so take advantage of this if you find yourself with dirty clothes! I also took advantage of their free luggage storage on the day I checked out before my late flight from Edinburgh airport. The staff is really friendly and accomodating and will answer any questions you may have.

    I took this from the door of the hostel...It's soooo close to the Castle!!
    Josy A.

    This hostel is brilliant! I have to admit, I was less than impressed by the idea of staying in a hostel when I visited Edinburgh...but our funds couldn't cover the pricey Edinburgh hotels, and this was our only option near where our meeting was being held. However, it was a hilarious place to stay and I'm glad we ended up here! The décor is really funny! We had to climb stairs past several suits of armour...and there is a creepy mannequin at the front door that looks a little like Russell Brand! Eep! There are quite a few Scottish flags, and endless corridors and halls to get lost in! Each room is a little different - we were in the 'Scottish drinks' room so each bed was named after some alcoholic beverage...our friends had a room that was covered with framed pictures of beautiful women (wearing less and less clothes as you wander further into the room!) All mad- but funny to explore. If you book early, you don't have to stay in huge dorm rooms...and we had enough of us to fill several of the small 3-4 person rooms. The beds were comfy and the views over Edinburgh were gorgeous (see my piccies...) I had some cereal for breakfast for the grand price of 70p - bargain!! However...the castle Rock loses a star because my shower, although it had fantastic water pressure...was only lukewarm. One of my friends mentioned how amazing the showers were, so maybe he used up all the hot water before I woke up!? The hairdryers didn't work either. *Cold Josy sob*

    Bunks and view of 14 bed room
    Karen Y.

    Convenient location, clean facilities, friendly staff, and lots of interesting people staying there. Highly recommend this hostel.

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    Review Highlights - Castle Rock Hostel

    The hostel is a five minute walk from Edinburgh Castle, I literally cried when I saw it for the first time.

    Mentioned in 8 reviews

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    The Grassmarket Hotel - Outside patio

    The Grassmarket Hotel

    4.0(32 reviews)
    0.1 miGrassmarket, Old Town
    ££

    This was the perfect hotel for a two night stay in Edinburgh. It's super centrally located and well…read morepriced. We were able to drop off our bags at 7 am and the room was ready by 12:30 pm. One of the major benefits for me is that they let you borrow a straightener from the front desk. My hair was so grateful!! The rooms are tiny but that's to be expected in Europe! The WiFi wasn't fantastic either but we really didn't need it much.

    This hotel is located in the Grassmarket area of Edinburg. It's just steps away from Old Town and…read morethe Royal Mile. Edinburg Castle is about a 15 minute walk. There is a restaurant in the hotel but there are a LOT of restaurants within walking distance. We had asked for a room with two beds thinking they would be single beds. (Our last experience with hotels in Europe was not a great one. We had a tiny room and a tiny bed,) When we got our room it was bigger than we expected. It had two beds-one was a king and the other a queen. What a nice surprise! There is no air conditioning in most hotels in Europe. With the windows open and a fan I was quite comfortable because the temp was around 60° the three nights we were there. The hubby who likes it much colder said it was bearable. The staff was friendly. The hotel was clean. I don't remember if breakfast is included in the price. There is a buffet breakfast or you can order off the menu. The last morning I ordered the smoked salmon, poached eggs, and sourdough toast off the hot menu. It was delicious. Had to have smoked salmon before I left Scotland...wish I would have ordered it sooner. Yummy. Would have given it 4 stars but with the lack of ac and having to climb several sets of stairs before you get to the elevator I'm giving it 3 stars. In all fairness, on occasion I did use the hotel ramp to get into or leave the hotel but that entailed walking through the rain. It did, however, lead you directly to the elevator.

    Photos
    The Grassmarket Hotel - Room

    Room

    The Grassmarket Hotel - Bathroom

    Bathroom

    The Grassmarket Hotel - Coffee and tea along with some "biscuits" aka cookies and some bottled water. Complimentary.

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    Coffee and tea along with some "biscuits" aka cookies and some bottled water. Complimentary.

    St Christopher's Edinburgh Hostel

    St Christopher's Edinburgh Hostel

    3.1(10 reviews)
    0.3 miOld Town, Royal Mile

    I stayed here for one night back in May 2017. I had booked 1 bed in a 4-bed mixed dorm for about…read more£30. I arrived in Edinburgh at around 8 in the morning and was able to leave my belongings in a locker for a small fee; the staff were nice and explained the locker process well. I left for the day and returned to the hostel in the evening. The hostel was conveniently located, not a long walk from the city center or the Waverley station. At check in, I was assigned bed #2 in my room. The dorm I was staying in was reasonably clean and I didn't notice anything remarkable about the bathroom. However, there was not a single outlet in view in the dorm (allegedly there was one behind one of the bunk beds, but in any case it was not accessible, according to the girl who found it), which was a huge inconvenience, as I tend to rely on my phone a great deal when I'm traveling. As a result, I wound up charging my phone in the common room, which had a good number of outlets. There was a sufficient amount of seating in the common area, as well as a microwave where some of the other customers were able to heat up food. However, there wasn't much atmosphere and my impression was that the common room was rather dark. When I returned, I noticed another person had put some of their belongings on my bed. I thought this was probably due to a misunderstanding, and moved the belongings onto the 1 remaining free bed in the room and went to sleep, thinking no more of it. A few hours later, a Chinese girl woke me up saying that I was in her bed; upon examination of both of our check-in cards, we found that we had both been assigned bed #2 in the same room. Since there was still 1 bed available in the dorm, we concluded that reception had simply written the wrong number on one of our cards, and the Chinese girl was happy to take the available bed #4. Again, I went to sleep, thinking no more of it. Around 3 in the morning, I awoke to the sound of a hostel employee telling the Chinese girl that she was in the wrong bed; it appeared that a 5th girl had checked in and was assigned bed #4 in our dorm, which now already had 4 people occupying it. The Chinese girl explained that she had been assigned bed #2 but that it was taken when she arrived, and an Australian girl in our room who had witnessed the whole thing explained to the hostel employee that both of us had erroneously been assigned the same bed. I had not yet rolled over so the hostel employee thought I was still asleep; he approached my bed and "awoke" me; the first words out of his mouth were that I had taken someone else's bed, and his tone was pretty accusatory. I was pretty angry that this was the first thing he said to me, as the Australian girl had already explained to him that it was an error on the hostel's part. Only after I showed him my check-in card did he accept that it was the hostel's fault. Thankfully, the hostel apparently has made allowances in case of an emergency and keeps an extra bed free at all times, so the 5th girl was still able to stay at the hostel. I'm sure other people have had perfectly acceptable experiences at this hostel, and I was impressed that they had an extra bed in case of emergencies. I also heard from a girl in the common room that her dorm had outlets. However, the fact that the specific dorm I was staying in had no outlets and the whole debacle over the beds really soured my experience and made me happy I wasn't staying longer than 1 night.

    I just looked the definition of Passable on the dictionary. This hostel is an example…read more It's definitely not bad. Yes, I would stay here again. The staff is nice, cheers to them, but it seems a tad overworked. Rooms are clean, it's ok, the minor defects and bumps are to be expected, this is an old building, old infrastructure (the lift is slooooow) The wifi works ok, the chill-room is a bit cavernous, the breakfast is what's expected from a hostel breakfast (I've had better breakfasts in hostels, but it wasn't free), and there are two pubs attached to it for your convenience! The location is excellent. Airlink from the airport takes you to the proverbial "stone's throw" of it.

    Photos
    St Christopher's Edinburgh Hostel - Lockers

    Lockers

    St Christopher's Edinburgh Hostel - This is just so weird to have in a hostel...

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    This is just so weird to have in a hostel...

    Castle Rock Hostel - hostels - Updated May 2026

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