Apex International Hotel

A few things to share some positive and some negatives. Positive first? Breakfast is good but strangely our last day they didn’t have the hot buffet selections. Location is good you can see Edinburgh castle from some of the rooms. Neutrals. Was clean enough where it matters but it’s like most hotels whatever the mid to upper mid we are willing to pay. I mean even in Japan the land of sanitation obsessed has good and bad aspects of cleaning. Maybe the $1000 a night rooms are spotless but I haven’t been so I can’t tell. Negatives. Hot in the summer. For some reason the corridor of the hotel is like a sauna. The rooms are also hot but will cool down as the outside temp drops. However, this means keeping the windows open. If you are facing the castle, that is a nightmare for light sleepers. Sounds of late night youths being youths. Cars with exhaust mods, cars, and the trash removal, especially the bottles clinking and clanking as they get dumped. There are a few bars right cross the open space so you can image. And for some reason even though it gets hot they haven’t switched to energy efficient lighting. From the afternoon into evenings you can choose lights on and making the room warmer. Or lights off to let it cool faster. If you come from a colder climate or where you are used to having AC you’ll find this heat pretty distressing. We are talking the small fan they provide on, in shorts and t-shirt, no blankets and that’s still bit hot to sleep till maybe 11pm. And then potentially waking up middle of night as the temp drops outside to 12c or so. With global warming this hotel is one I would hesitate to book for warm months. Winter it is likely ok. Beyond heat the washroom shower gets the floor wet. The pivoting glass shower partition over the tub didn’t seal well with the tub so shower water will drip outside. For some reason shower that makes the out wet is not unusual in Europe. Saving grace is the open window for heat and the heat means it dries overnight.

Thoroughly enjoyed our stay, it was sadly only one night as there for concert at castle, very comfortable bed had the best sleep and had left both my windows open and great disturbance from outside, placement of hotel perfect for the castle, just beware quite steep hills around grassmarket area I found out how unfit I was haha, hotel staff couldnt be nicer, loved the young boy on door duty he was so eager to help with cases up or down few steps as you enter which we where very happy for (were old and unfit) nice little courtyard out back to sit. We did wish we'd had longer stay to take advantage of pool and sauna. If im going back to Edinburgh will definitely be staying there again.

We're glad we chose this hotel. The location was super with a great view of Edinburgh Castle directly across the street. The location puts you within walking distance of the Royal Mile. We had a top floor room with what seemed like a 15' x 15' balcony for enjoying the castle view. We dined in and had breakfast as well. Very good food and great selections. Breakfast was a large buffet and very enjoyable. Parking was on site and, though they say it is subject to availability, we had no issues. The staff was excellent.