The location is great! Near the middle of the Royal Mile. It was an easy walk to everything -- restaurants, small grocery store across the street, bus stops, train station, Princes Street.
It is such a unique find -- stylish, very spacious, and a great mix of old and new.
We are glad that we had read about others' problems with the walk up the spiral stairs. Because of that, we knew what we were getting into (Yes, it truly is difficult to carry larger suitcases up the several flights). In order to enjoy the 2-story apartment at the top of the building, the stairs are a cool necessity.
So much space in this place! Kitchen, master bedroom have an insane amount of room. The apartment is not only at the top of the building, but it also has windows out both the front and the back of the building. Great views of the hills and of the city.
Our two young-teenaged boys enjoyed each having their own bedrooms. The wi-fi worked well, as did Netflix on the television. Our boys enjoyed winding down each night with a couple episodes on Netflix.
We were in Edinburgh during a cold streak. Daytime temps were in the 40s and 50s at the highest. We needed to manually turn on the radiators in the bedrooms; but those things can make your rooms very hot in no time at all, so we suggest limiting the setting and limiting the time you use them. We found it best to make the room warm before bed, then turning it to lowest setting for the remainder of the night. No need to keep it on during day (we were always out anyway).
Our travel tip (and we always did it in this apartment): In order to not take any cold showers, kids shower at night and adults shower in the morning.
We never heard any neighbors. It's a very quiet building.