I’ve been living in Edinburgh for nearly two months now and I still feel as amazed by the city as I was in week 1. There are simply so many things to do, to see and to taste here that it felt very overwhelming at first because I had no idea how to experience everything, without spending too much money. Thankfully, along the way I discovered that Edinburgh (and really even Scotland generally!) has so many discounts available. You just have to know about them.
I would say the first thing to do when arriving here, is applying for a Young Scott Card. If you are under 22 years old and staying in Edinburgh for more than six months, it will allow you to take all buses in Edinburgh and in Scotland for free! This means you can easily move around Edinburgh, with access to the airport shuttle bus and the tramways included, but you can also explore other cities and towns in Scotland for free! This makes day trips so accessible and easy to organize: just check the bus time schedule, hop on the bus and you’re there!
Another incredible discount is the one at the Festival Theatre : if you’re under 25 you can get 10£ tickets on the day of the show. I’ve been to a musical and a ballet, and both were incredible shows in a really nice imperial-style theatre. And for all Hamilton fans, it will be playing at the Festival Theatre next spring! (2024). To get these tickets, you simply have to come to the Theatre on the day of the show (usually around midday) and ask if there are any seats left. They won’t necessarily always be the best seats, but it really depends and I actually got a middle seat in the dress circle last time with a perfect view of the stage!
There are so many other discounts everywhere that I’ve yet to discover, but I would definitely encourage visiting students to take advantage of them as it makes life a lot easier, especially since Edinburgh is a little bit more of an expensive city compared to other European cities (maybe except London or Paris). To just mention a couple more: for clothing, I would recommend taking full advantage of charity shops (which also have discounted prices for students) but also the Vinted app; and for grocery shopping, Lidl is great (you can download the app and get a free bakery item when you spend 50£) and download the TooGoodToGo app so you can buy restaurants’, coffee shops’ and supermarkets’ leftovers at a discounted rate.
– by Daria
Study Abroad Blog 
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