I just got back from doing some coaching in Edinburgh – two days with the student and four days there with my girlfriend – and want to give you my review of the city.
If you’re interested in Daygame coaching then send me a message (link here). I’m available at short notice in London but can travel to other cities in the UK if you’d like me to coach you closer to home. One benefit of this is that any leads you collect you can actually pursue and you’ll learn how to Daygame in your own area.
Note 1: we were there in November but were lucky with the weather. It was 13-15 degrees and sunny for the two days coaching but Scotland is notoriously rainy and you might encounter worse conditions (naturally it would be better in the spring and summer).
Note 2: I’m repeating myself from the Manchester Daygame Review (link here) but I want to highlight again that if you live in a smaller city you should do 15 sets a week over three sessions and that you’ll have to work harder to analyse and improve yourself. If you can afford to do so then take regular trips to other locations so you can get extra volume in, which in this case would be Glasgow which only is a short train ride away.
Layout
I was pleasantly surprised with the size and scope of the Edinburgh Daygame route.
Starting with the uppermost black line we have Princes Street: this is like the Oxford Street of Edinburgh. Princes Street is heavily beholden to weather conditions due to the gardens directly south of it: if it is sunny then you will get the full force of it and it’s lovely to see the castle up on the hill, but, if it’s rainy, you will be absolutely blasted with water.
At the very end of Princes Street is St James’ Quarter (1) – a three story mall in an almost vaginal shape – where you could take cover if it was raining. I would recommend going in even if it was sunny, though, because it has all the typical shops which attract most Daygamers’ target market.
Heading south from St James’ you have the North Bridge where the pavement is probably too narrow to Daygame on (and one side of which is currently being refurbished) and Waverley Train Station (4). I include this as a recommendation just because the volume here is pretty high. I don’t personally like narrow pavements because it doesn’t give much space to approach and I don’t like train stations because people are usually either rushing home or rushing for a train. Nonetheless, they’re worth checking out.
The last line is the Royal Mile which goes from Edinburgh Castle all the way down the hill to Holyrood Palace, though it’s not really worth going all that way and you can stop at the South Bridge. This is where you’ll find your tourists and would be a great place to fish during the summer.
Last up is Grassmarket (2) and the University of Edinburgh buildings (3). The volume in these areas was not very high but is worth checking out anyway.
Timings
In terms of the time of year: while we were lucky with the weather, you are bound to find nicer conditions and (even) more tourists during the spring and summer. There is a comedy festival that goes on each year in the city – the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – but my guess is that it will be another case of fool’s gold. But I don’t really expect any of you to take a Scotch Jaunt when you could travel to eastern Europe for less money and higher quality; this review is more for guys who live in Scotland, want to learn Daygame and want to know whether Edinburgh is a decent place for that.
In terms of the best times of day to Daygame and where: we went to the Royal Mile and surrounding areas during the day to catch as many tourists as possible. Then we would move over to Princes Street and St James’ Quarter in the afternoon to catch the evening rush. A big part of this was due to the sunset being around 4.30pm and the castle closing at 5pm.
One last note on this topic: I was there with the student on Thursday and Friday and so naturally we saw way more people out and about on the Royal Mile compared to when I was walking around with my girlfriend on the Monday and Tuesday. Therefore, I think if you were living there then you would be purely on Princes Street and the surrounding areas Sunday through Wednesday with some forays out to the university area. Then maybe as you head into the longer summer days you could go back to the Royal Mile (that said with a 9-5 in mind).
Quality
I thought the quality in Edinburgh was decent. As I said above, you wouldn’t take a trip here, but if you lived here you’ll do fine. There are more than enough girls to get your 15 a week in.
There are also lots of tourists who head there from all over the world, but in particular we noticed a lot of Asians and Americans. And when it came to students we noticed a LOT of Asians. So I guess that if you have yellow fever this might actually be a place to take a trip to…
Overall
My lasting thoughts on Edinburgh is that you could do a lot worse. It’s got a lot of Daygameable areas and there are a tonne of students and tourists. It is certainly a place that a guy could learn to Daygame.
The tourists and scale of the area mean that I would rate Edinburgh above Manchester. Plus, it’s just a very nice city to look at. The city is filled with Georgian and Victorian architecture and the historical monuments and the castle give it a gothic feel.
Yours unfaithfully,
Thomas Crown
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Thomas Crown PUA 