As a Level 6+ Google Local Guide, I love sharing the little details that help people feel at home in a place. This week, my recent contributions include new reviews and photos around Edinburgh, plus a taste of Murano. A roast wrap in Lasswade, and a gallery stop in town At The Paper Mill in Lasswade, I loved the roast beef Yorkshire pudding wrap, a memorable brunch choice for anyone exploring beyond the city centre. In Edinburgh, Cafe Portrait made a welcoming stop before a v

A sign in an Edinburgh shop window set this Halloween apart: a newly registered tartan honouring the thousands persecuted under Scotland's Witchcraft Act. The women behind the campaign, the threads that carry the story, and where to spend your witching hour.

America's regulators quietly unwound airline passenger protections this year — but the flight to Edinburgh is governed by some of the strongest traveller rights in the world, and they are getting stronger. What every guest should know before they fly.

A festive reading of The Snowman and The Grinch in a 400-year-old Royal Mile tenement, the authors behind those stories, Scottish Ballet's Cinders! at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Zoo's fabulous Christmas lights, and the reading traditions worth starting at home — a storybook Christmas in Edinburgh.

As a Level 6 Local Guide, I’m always glad to share the places and small details that help people feel at home in a destination. My latest Google Maps contributions include two new Edinburgh-area reviews and fresh photos from familiar local favourites. A roast wrap at The Paper Mill At The Paper Mill in Lasswade, I loved the roast beef Yorkshire pudding wrap. It’s the kind of satisfying, memorable lunch worth knowing about when you’re exploring beyond central Edinburgh, and a

From Castle Howard friezes to dado rails, the Dome's plasterwork and Timorous Beasties — how Edinburgh's design past and present keep a host's flat feeling new. Plus a coming-soon announcement.

The Bank of England's new banknotes will feature a barn owl, a bumblebee, a hedgehog and, to the fury of some and the delight of others, an Atlantic puffin. The story of the divisive redesign, the Scottish banknote joke that never dies, our puffin colony on the Forth, and why hosts should file the whole thing away as first-class guest conversation.

Exploring Lasswade

A Dutch champion carried her own water to Carrbridge and took the Golden Spurtle — porridge tales from the Highlands, plus the best bowl I've ever eaten.

Eviction notices have landed at St Margaret's House, and around 150 artists are hunting for new homes — kitchen tables, waiting lists, and my not-so-crazy idea: buying up the old churches the Church of Scotland is selling.

Glasgow's Duke has worn a traffic cone since the 1980s, Edinburgh's students crown monuments 45 metres up, and David Hume's toe has been rubbed gold by exam-hopefuls. A love letter to Scotland's most public running joke.

Open since 1826, the Café Royal is marking 200 years with historical tasting menus, an anniversary lager and a charity whisky glass. Stained glass windows that starred in Chariots of Fire, a seafood tower, and a room so small you must book ahead — here's why it belongs on every guest's list.

Tesco Marketplace is selling an ultra-collectible Macallan Robert Burns Semiquincentenary — 250 bottles, two casks numbered 1759, a numbered Burns poem — for £8,799.95. Plus: the summer the Burns Monument filled with Auld Lang Syne in 27 languages, and a Burns nod that won't need a remortgage.

A sold-out fungi forage, a year-round foraging school, a Michelin-starred kitchen and a wine bar with a wild cider pop-up — how foraging became the root system under Edinburgh's whole food culture.

Four brand-new Edinburgh bars are pouring right now — and four more open before Christmas, from a George Street pub with duelling pianos to the return of a beloved Leith local. Here's the host's cheat sheet, with opening dates.

The Abbeyhill Colonies opened their doors for the Colony of Artists festival — here's who I met, what they make, and why each one belongs on your Christmas list this year.

Henderson Art Shop in Stockbridge is collecting photographs, paintings and drawings of the neighbourhood for its 2027 calendar. Entries close 8 October — here's how yours gets in.

The Times' chief art critic named Jupiter Artland one of the nine best museums and galleries in the UK. Here's why it belongs in your guest guidebook — especially this autumn.

The Monarch of the Glen has been Scotland's interior icon for 175 years. Here's how Airbnb hosts can decorate with stags — cushions, bottle stoppers, ice buckets, even a glowing wall light — without turning their listing into a hunting lodge.

A new batch of Google Maps reviews and photos — from The Paper Mill and Cafe Portrait to The Pear Tree — offers useful reminders for Airbnb hosts about detail, welcome and local knowledge.