short break in the Scottish capital<\/a> is always a good idea. This stunning city is dramatic in every sense \u2013 the imposing castle casts its shadow and presence over the city, the streets slope suddenly upwards and back down, and the rich theatrical heritage is apparent in venerable institutions such as the Edinburgh Playhouse, the UK\u2019s largest theatre.<\/p>\nA weekend break in Edinburgh should be built around taking advantage of its fabulous nightlife \u2013 and its sophisticated daylife, too. August or no, do try a play or a comedy performance. The Festival Theatre is a fabulous venue for prestigious ballet or opera year-round, while the Church Theatre, or \u2018Churchy\u2019, is the place to catch something a little more Fringe. Had your fill of the stage? The Royal Botanic Gardens are officially a centre for scientific plant life research, but double up as one of Edinburgh\u2019s loveliest parks. Should the weather suit, it\u2019s also just a short car journey to the nearest beach \u2013 a fabulous sandy bay called Cramond. Come on in \u2013 the water\u2019s, well, admittedly freezing!<\/p>\n
Go Nessie-hunting in Inverness<\/h5>\n
This compact city is perched near the sea in the north of Scotland, so expect the unexpected when it comes to the elements. But outdoorsy types will love being exposed to the River Ness and the stunning surrounding countryside of the Highlands. Take a drive to Loch Ness to see if you can spot Scotland\u2019s most famous resident. Should Nessie somehow fail to show, however, you can content yourself with views of the largest freshwater lake in the UK \u2013 with more water than all the other lakes in England and Wales put together! But that\u2019s not the only liquid to be found \u2013 this is whisky country, let us not forget. Glen Ord and Tomatin distilleries are both close by and love nothing more than showing off their methods and wares to those on a short Scottish break with a craving for a wee dram of the good stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wild and majestic countryside combines with sophisticated cities to make Scotland the dream destination for an invigorating weekend break.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1361],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelodge.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Edinburgh](\"https:\/\/travelodgeblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/SCT007-RAW.jpg\")
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