If your European Christmas market plans have been thrown into disarray, then you might want to consider a trip closer to home – and just a train ride away, Edinburgh has all the ingredients for a traditional festive getaway.

With a Christmas market twinkling beneath the illuminated historic castle, an ice rink, a brand-new immersive whisky experience, cosy restaurants serving seasonal dishes, and luxury venues with Christmas-movie size trees in the lobby, Edinburgh is the best UK option for a festive city break by a royal mile.

Edinburgh summers are the stuff of legend – when the festival descends, it’s a frenzy of shows, street performers, packed-out pubs, and pop-ups in all corners of the city.

Fewer people though seem to know that as autumn turns to winter and snow dusts the roofs and spires of the city’s Gothic cathedrals and historic buildings, Edinburgh becomes like the setting of a nativity play.

Trains from London and many other UK cities arrive at Waverley Station, bang in the middle of Edinburgh’s medieval Old Town and neoclassical New Town. Though some roads are undeniably steep – steps up the old wynds towards the Old Town are particularly cumbersome – Edinburgh is a city that is easily explored on foot.

The city’s Royal Mile gets a lot of slack for its kilted pipers and shops selling clan and shortbread-style tourist tat. But while it may be wise to avoid the manic thoroughfare at certain times of the year, at Christmas it takes on a familiar charm. 

At one end is the historic Palace of Holyroodhouse, the 17th-century official Scottish residence for Her Majesty the Queen, with its pleasing symmetry of towers either side and views of Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat.

At the other end of the cobbled Royal Mile is the castle, perched high above the city like the perfect tree-topper.