JOIVY Cozy Apt near Edinburgh Castle

The location and decor once inside the property.

The amount of stairs to get up to the property wasn’t made clear. The stairwell stank of school toilets and it drifted into the apartment. It was aweful. The sink in the bathroom was ridiculously low and small.

The location is very central with a great view of the city, it’s very close to the castle, the royal mile and many good restaurants, it’s also possible to store your luggage in the hostel directly across the road if you arrive early as we did. Access to the building via an internet link sent in advance went smoothly and so did extracting the physical keys from the key box but you do get three different keys of which only one is needed for the front door to the apartment, the other two are a distraction, you’ll still need a mobile phone to get into the building each time. The kitchen is compact but has all the facilities you could need, plenty of plates, glasses etc and a dishwasher although be aware that the coffee machine takes proprietary, Tassimo, coffee pads/pods which we could not find in the supermarkets so we had no coffee. The beds, one double and two singles, are warm and comfortable and there are enough good quality towels and hot water; wifi is excellent. The apartment is warm and we only briefly used the heating which was effective.

The apartment is on the top floor with four flights of spiral stairs which may be difficult for some when suitcases are involved—it certainly was for me. The stairwell lighting seems to be on a timer and goes on in the evening but there are no other sources of light so it is dark all day. Nothing in the apartment was dirty but we did find an empty coke bottle and an empty condom packet under different pieces of furniture which didn’t give confidence.

We loved this place as felt like we had a taste of living in a Scottish home! Amazing views of the castle from bedrooms and living room, and also towards Greyfriars and countryside beyond. Lovely decor with Scottish touch, clean and nice bathroom and kitchen and comfortable beds. Perfect location for a tourist, as only a flight of stairs next door to the castle & top of Royal Mile or one min walk to further down royal mile. Just one flight of steps in the other direction to grassmarket, and only minutes & unexpectedly quick to princess st and station.

The stairs would be very hard if not fit or health problems & hard to get the suitcases up or pop out for a quick coffee.. but we’ll worth it once you’re up.