Portobello is a quick bus ride away from downtown Edinburgh. A pleasant relief from the tackiness and the crowds. Loved the little cafes and restaurants, the little side streets, the Saturday market, etc. The beach is wide and long. It's a gem.

After some rainning days in Edimburg, we enjoyed a sunny day in the beach. The landscape is beautiful as well as the colour of the sea, it is so blue and clean. Very good atmosphere, plenty of restaurants and cafes. Only a ride from Edimburgo, worth to be visited

We stayed in Portobello for a week this year and overall I was fairly disappointed. The town itself seemed rather drab, and while the beach is undoubtedly lovely, there isn't really much else to do on the seafront. No tea shops. No gift shops. No fish and chip shops. There are some playgrounds but these are small and run down. There is a decent arcade and a few places to eat if you're looking for a meal, and there is also the Swim Centre which is excellent - the kids really enjoyed it here - but otherwise it really is just the beach. And sadly Portobello seems to have a serious dog poo problem - one of my children ended up with some on her shoe when walking down a side street, and when we visited the beach we saw dog poo on the sand more than once. North Berwick seemed much, much cleaner and quite frankly I wished we'd stayed there instead. Admittedly Portobello does have a good bus service into Edinburgh, and the house we stayed in was lovely, but I'm in no hurry to go back.