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Shopping in Edinburgh gets better and better. The location and views from Princes St have always made it a very special shopping street. There aren’t many shopping streets in the world that are so confident of their location that they only put shops on one side, leaving the other side to host the magnificent views across the gardens to Edinburgh Castle and the Mound. Princes St is the place to go for your favourite High St names like Marks and Spencer, Gap, & Boots.

City Centre

Christmas Tree at Jenners

Jenners was the shop to go to in Edinburgh – and it’s still there (even if it is owned by House of Fraser these days) in it’s wonderful, if somewhat idiosyncratic, building.  At Christmas do go and see the tree.

Jenners has a bit more competition these days from the luxury shops around the Multrees Walk area – headed by Harvey Nicks and supported by Louis Viutton, Mulberry, Links, Calvin Klien and lots more. To the more prosaic John Lewis is at the other end of Multrees Walk and Debenhams is on Princes St.

At times it has felt like the Royal Mile was host to rather too much “tartan tat”. Nowadays there are some really interesting shops and cafés along here. You can get some lovely Cashmere and tweed designer outfits as well as full highland regalia, “jimmy hats” and horrifying medieval weaponry! There’s rather special whiskey available here as well.

Shopping Centres

Like most cities today, Edinburgh has several shopping centres. In the city centre is St James Mall. The flagship shop here is John Lewis and there is a covered walkway over to the car park for the Omni centre with the multi-screen cinema, fitness centre, clubs and restaurants.

A little further out of town are Cameron Toll and Ocean Terminal. Ocean Terminal is especially convenient if you are planning to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia which is based there. Some of the café’s and restaurants have excellent views of Britannia and over the Forth to the Kingdom of Fife. Another big plus is free parking!

Food

Edinburgh has some wonderful food shops. A leading light in this community is the Italian delicatessen Valvonna and Crolla. Another local favourite deli is Herbies who have outlets in Stockbridge and the West End.

Real Foods provides organic natural foods in the foody enclave of Broughton St. Another resident of this area is Crombies, the sausage shop – you can top up on your haggis here as well!

For really fresh food direct from the farms head for Castle Terrace on Saturday morning to go to the award winning Farmers’ market.

Arts & Antiques

There are many art galleries in Edinburgh with a concentration being down Dundas St where galleries such as Bourne Fine Art, The Scottish Gallery and Colours Gallery are located.

A good range of second-hand and antique art, jewellery and books are found around the New Town, St Stephen Street, Northwest Circus Place, Thistle Street, Broughton Street, Victoria St and the Grassmarket.

Charity Shops

Edinburgh’s charity shops are reputed to bring in people from far and wide. The well heeled citizens of Edinburgh are generous to a fault when it comes to giving their cast offs to the local charity shop. Have fun rummaging around – you’ll find a good range of such shops in Stockbridge, Morningside and throughout the city.