Visiting Edinburgh
If you google “Visit Edinburgh” you will get far more than you need. However the Edinburgh section of Visit Scotland website is pretty good, and Visit Scotland in general is good if you are planning a Scootish holiday before or after the meeting. The Edinburgh section of Lonely Planet is also reliable, and Lonely Planet has a really nice phone app.
If you don’t want to wear out shoe leather or spend all your money on taxis, Edinburgh has a good bus system. The web page is here but what you really want to do is download the Transport for Edinburgh phone app. It knows the time to the next bus from nearby bus stops, and is pretty accurate. There is a fixed exact fare per ride of £1.70, but also day tickets, and you can load multiple tickets onto your phone, as explained here
The buses that stop at the foot of Blackford Hill are 24, 38 and 41. (Nothing goes to the stop of the hill unfortunately!) The 41 is very handy for going into town and is every 15 minutes.
Festival Links
Of course we are here to do science, but you might just want some fun. The volume of fun in Edinburgh in August is somewhat overwhelming, so to help you out, here are some key links:
Edinburgh International Festival (a.k.a. ``the Festival proper’’)
Some handy links and generally good information
13 Things to know before you go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
The biggest mistakes that tourists make during the Edinburgh Festivals
Eight things to do at Edinburgh Fringe Festival apart from seeing a show