So impressed. I've never used a service like this before since you know, day and age of all…read moreinformation at our fingertips and all that, but I was after somebody to take over the responsibility and find me the best deal out there on my upcoming trip to Australia with a few added stopovers. So with an appointment booked my partner and I went in. Service was very friendly and Peta was super helpful. She was able to find us a few different options for flights within the price range I was after. There was nothing I could fault! The appointment lasted an hour, she was completely transparent about our options and certainly secured us a great deal. We booked the trip on the spot. Cannot reccomend highly enough, they're conveniently located on George street and really great for helping to sort more complex travel plans that some of us just cannot be bothered taking the steps to sort out.

Thomas Cook majorly get on my tits…read more I booked a holiday through this branch last summer and admittedly it was a good deal. However all this crap about charging you an extra 40 quid to ensure you sit next to each other on the plane and giving you a measly 15kg luggage allowance for a long haul holiday really ticks me off. Then this year I attempted to book another great deal through their website. Their website wouldn't allow the booking to be completed and kept displaying an error code. So I took a screen print and went down to this branch the next morning, just in time for the exact holiday to double in price. The travel agent told me there was no way that holiday was being sold at the price on the website, despite my screen print. So apparently in some magical way I had created a copy of the web page showing the holiday at a cheaper price. The girl pretty much accused me of being a liar and when I told her that it was against the law to display prices which the company has no intention of honouring she simply shrugged it off. No worries Thomas Cook, I won't bother using you again.

I must thank the staff of Thomas Cook; Alfie, Craig, and a huge thank you to Laura who went above…read moreand beyond to organise our trip to Rome. Such a warm and friendly welcoming bunch, would highly reccommend, the service is outstanding.

The Tourist Information Centre is your first port of call for...tourist information. This is the…read moreplace you come if you're new in town, Maybe you're lost, maybe you need to know how to get from A to B. If they don't know, they can at least point you in the right direction. Essentially the centre will tell you where streets are, which buses to get when to where, how to get to any of the cities tourist attractions. It also serves as a booking office for some of the cities tours and day excursions. They also provide office services, like printing and photocopying (not exactly sure why). You will also find a gift shop. Not surprising in Edinburgh for anything remotely related to tourism. Although this is actually not your usually tacky trash. Expect some tasteful thistle mugs and saltire stationery. I have to concur with the others though, this place can get crowded fast, and during the festival period don't expect to be able to get in the door after early morning.

Being quite lazy one afternoon I decided to enquire about bus times and routes in the Tourist…read moreInformation rather than checking the individual bus stop notices. Turned out to be a handy choice as I was swiftly provided with all the information I needed to set me off on my journey. One word of advice though, get there nice and early as there it can get excruciatingly congested with swathes of tourists - which I suppose is expected as it's every tourists instinctive information provider.

I've never really understood the need for a travel agent. My travel style is general to book cheap,…read moresnag an airbnb and wing it, so i've never really needed the promise of a 7 night tour to whatsit or a charming romantic country bed and breakfast get away. Until I decided that I too, would become one of the all inclusive junkies. I work a rather hectic job and as much as I love the bustle of vacationing in a new city, my travel style isn't really relaxing. Generally, I spend most of my vacation days at full tilt trying to see and eat as much as possible. But as I started looking at the upcoming year, I realized I might fancy sitting on a beach, eating buffet food, getting drinks brought to me and generally unplugging. It took 30 years but I finally understand the appeal of the "sit and do nothing" vacation. But the thing is, the "sit and do nothing" is much harder to find then the "book and explore willy nilly vacation". My go-to sites for flights suddenly became a huge, confusing wave of information when I wanted to book an all inclusive, lazy vacation. Jimmy Martin is right down the street from my house and I walk by it all the time, so I decided to take a sneak peek at their website first. It's a good website - clean, easy to navigate and has some pretty snazzy deals. It was enough to warrant a stop in for more information. My stop was quick, but the folks here were really helpful. I travel solo mostly, and all inclusives can be a pain in the butt to book for one person but they gave me some really useful tips/options, without making me feel like a leper for wanting to beach vacation solo. I was only in for a few minutes, but left with a few new places to consider and plans to return at a later date after snooping locations on their website to talk about booking something concrete. I'm not sure if a travel agent is going to be something that replaces my age old habit of internet surfing vacations, but in this particular instance, I think they may become my go-to for the rare lazy travel. If you seek a travel agent - they are very nice and worth chatting with/snooping online.

I found Bryton travel superb, they organised flights, transfer, hotel accommodation and internal…read moreflights when we travelled to Argentina and Brazil. Could not speak too highly of them

During a recent trip to Edinburgh, our flight came in super early and our AirBNB wouldn't allow us…read moreto check-in until later on in the afternoon. Rather than try to lug our huge luggage with us up the stairs and hills of the city, we decided to check our bags at the train station so that we were able to explore until we were able to get our apartment. In the morning, there can be a queue of people waiting to stow their belongings. Though the line looks like daunting, it tends to move pretty fast. To make the experience even more streamlined, make sure you take any valuables out of your luggage (laptops, phones, passports, etc.) and be sure that your luggage meets the weight criteria. Once there, they scan your things, give you a claim tag and you're off to whatever it is you want to do. They're pretty strict on the pick-up times, so be sure to give yourself a few extra minutes before so you don't get charged extra. Since we went back midday, there weren't any lines to retrieve our luggage and the process was super simple. The customer service peeps ranged from jolly to cranky - but I was just there to store my luggage, not make a lifetime friend, so I didn't care. I'd recommend, especially for a short period of time.

A very useful, if perhaps expensive, service. Follow the signs to "left luggage" and queue up to…read moreleave your heavy suitcases while you explore the city of Edinburgh unencumbered. They do call it "luggage" for a reason! Bags are run through an xray machine and I did see at least one person ahead of me who was asked to open their laptop for inspection. While their website mentions that the storage area is monitored by security cameras, who leaves a laptop!?! You pay when you pick up. At this time, £7 for the first bag for the first 24 hours. The service is quite firm and inflexible. There is a £15 penalty if you lose your ticket. If you drop off three bags, but only want to pick up one and leave the other two for a while longer, they can't deal with it. You have to claim (and pay for) all three and then re-deposit the other two. All in all, a secure and easy way to store your luggage while you visit the city. Check their website for other locations in airports and major train stations.

Once we got our ticket situation figured out and onboard it was easy going from there, from…read moreEdinburgh airport to city centre! The driver was helpful in letting us know which stop was ours too, ya know being unfamiliar and all. Great views along the way!

At first, we were looking for a taxi but didn't know where they were located. We came across the…read morebus service and decided to do that instead. It's about a 30 minute ride to the city center for £8.50. It was convenient, but it does get crowded.