Using an eSIM in Edinburgh

What Edinburgh is like on a phone

Edinburgh is walked more than it is driven, both by people here for the castle and the Old Town frame, and by those using it as the base before heading north. In the summer festival weeks the city is far busier than usual and every schedule ends up being re-checked on a phone. Because the city is stacked in layers along a ridge, a strong signal on the main street can weaken the instant you turn down a close that drops below it.

When you land

Most people arrive at Edinburgh Airport (EDI), where a tram runs straight into the centre, while those coming up from London or York step off the train at Waverley, sunk in the valley in the middle of town. Switch the line on before you lift your bag off the belt: the tram stop and the taxi rank are on opposite sides of the building, and accommodation apps here tend to give an address as the name of a close that is not easy to find. The tram ride in holds service the whole way, but Waverley itself sits below street level and slows noticeably until you climb the steps to the top.

Where coverage changes

Princes Street and the open blocks of the New Town run smoothly, while in the Old Town — tall stone tenements pressing in on both sides of a lane — you can feel the signal thin as you go deeper. The vaulted cellars under South Bridge, now bars and ghost-tour rooms, have effectively nothing. The castle esplanade does well because it is high and exposed, and the climb up Arthur's Seat, above the city's roofline, keeps handing your phone between masts in different directions until the map app stutters.

What a day here costs in data

A normal day here runs about 700MB to 1.2GB, because the distances are short and the map goes on and off rather than staying open. What costs more than expected is looking up tour times and booking a table while you walk, plus uploading the view from Calton Hill, which people tend to shoot dozens of frames of at once. During the festival, when you are scrolling listings and buying last-minute tickets several times a day, allow another few hundred megabytes.

Districts travellers ask about

• The Royal Mile: The main street is fine end to end, but step into one of the narrow closes dropping away downhill and you lose a bar or two within a few paces.
• The New Town: The wide grid gives the steadiest connection in the city — a good place to clear work or push a big batch of photos before walking back up to the Old Town.
• Grassmarket and the bridges: The open square is fine, but the rooms burrowed into the stone arches under the bridges usually have nothing at all — download your tour ticket before you head down.
• Leith: The waterfront is open and well served, with the tram running down to it — easier for a long working session than finding a seat in the packed Old Town.

Day trips out of the city

• Stirling and the southern Highlands: The train to Stirling keeps service throughout, but once you push north towards the lochs and glens there are long stretches with nothing at all — download an offline map before you set off.
• St Andrews: The run along the Fife coast keeps service nearly all the way, apart from short stretches where the road cuts behind a rise; in town and along the links it is wide open and easy.
• Glencoe: This is the day the signal changes most, because the road runs deep into a glen walled by mountains on both sides for a long way — save your accommodation address and phone number to the device before leaving town.