If you’re going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year why not treat yourself to a stylish and accessible hotel? We hear so often about festival goers slumming it and sleeping on a friend’s sofa or even the floor, but we think people deserve better. As we reported last year, you spend enough time during the Fringe going through dingy back offices and kitchens. You may as well have a nice place to rest at night. Edinburgh has some superb boutique hotels to choose from and many of them are pretty good in terms of disabled access too. Why not take advantage of them?

The Hotel Missoni has one of the best disabled rooms we’ve ever come across. Even the wardrobe is at wheelchair height! The walk in shower has every grab rail you would ever need and there are two showers – one ceiling fixed and one hand held. Even the plug sockets are accessible by wheelchair. All this and no compromise on style.

The hotel itself is visually stunning and it’s in a great location, just off the Royal Mile. The decor is bold and bright, with daring splashes of colour amid black and white zig zags. They have many extra indulgences too with Nespresso machines, I-pod docks, LCD TV’s and free high speed internet. It’s very glamorous and needless to say it’s a five star hotel. The bar is particularly great fun and a lot celebs like to go there. It’s expensive but worth it.

Le Monde was voted the 8th trendiest hotel in the country on Tripadvisor. It’s very modern and chic. Its name comes from the fact that the different parts of the hotel are all given different cities of the world as themes and have been designed accordingly. It’s a fun idea, even if they have perhaps over-committed to it. The Shanghai Club, in the basement, is one of Edinburgh’s busiest nightspots. They also won Scottish Boutique Hotel of the Year Award in 2009, so you can see that Le Monde comes highly recommended.

They have one disabled room in the hotel. This consists of a toilet with hand rails and an emergency cord but there isn’t a walk in shower/wet room. Just a bath. We’re not particularly keen on hotel rooms that provide a bath as their disabled option because you still need to be able to get in and out of it, which isn’t that easy. But the room is accessible and has handrails in it and lift access to get there. They also have another disabled toilet by the bar and restaurant.

The only major problem is that there are five or six steps to get into the hotel. They told us that there is not another entrance either which could be a problem. If you can navigate that, then Le Monde is a very stylish and largely accessible boutique hotel.

The Bonham is part of The Town House collection of hotels which used to have a host of hotels in Edinburgh but now focuses solely on this one stylish hotel. It’s not quite as ‘out there’ as some of the other boutique locations in Edinburgh but it’s not without daring splashes of colour here and there. It’s a good spot for a rest in traditional luxury after a night on the Fringe.

They told us that they have one room with disabled access. It’s a Superior room on the second floor which is accessible by the lift. The room has hand rails and a walk in shower. The building is best accessed by the back entrance for anyone less physically able. They also have a disabled toilet on the ground floor. So it’s all pretty accessible.

The Witchery is the seriously high end option and in all honesty all of these hotels are pretty high end. It’s very luxurious with antique four poster beds, oak panelling and dark baroque designs. The Guardian said that “its overblown extravagance set the benchmark for hedonistic style – and today is an antidote to the bland, beige boredom of so many boutique hotels.” It’s a truly stylish hotel and the restaurant is one of the best in the country which merits a visit in its own right.

Bizarrely, even though they have a well equipped disabled room, they’ve put it on the top floor, with no lift up there. In fact, the only way up to the top floor is a spiral staircase. Where is the logic in that?! If you’re able to make it up the stairs, the room has a walk in shower and a disabled toilet. They just don’t seem to have thought through where to put disabled accessible room. It’s probably best to just visit the restaurant.

While The Witchery has an amazing restaurant but a badly thought out disabled room, The Glasshouse is pretty much the opposite. There’s no restaurant here at all but the disabled room is good and most importantly you can get to it! They have a lift, step free access, a wet room bathroom and a decent disabled toilet.

The Glasshouse is a five star hotel with a one-of-a-kind, two acre roof garden providing spectacular views of the city. It’s a pretty unique building too – a huge glass box attached to the facade of a 150-year-old church. Inside, the rooms are sleek and stylish and you even get a free glass of whisky with your stay.

Prestonfield is another hotel that goes all in on luxury and indulgence. Their website is full of positive reviews including one quote from The Independent which described it as “the most glamorous hotel in town” and another from The Sunday Times which said it’s “gloriously dissolute…more boudoir than B&B”. The last comment particularly stands out as explaining exactly the sort of place we are looking for – a different and special way to rest during the Fringe. It’s decadent, opulent and very stylish.

Opulence & an Accessible Room at Prestonfield House

The hotel has a luxury double disabled room with an en suite wet room and disabled toilet. Accessing the building shouldn’t be a problem since the entrance is step free and they have a lift inside. Prestonfield is luxurious and accessible – a pretty good combo.

The final accessible boutique hotel on our list is Tigerlily. It has disabled rooms on the fifth and sixth floor with an accessible shower and toilet. As they’re not on the ground floor there is a lift to get there. Not something ridiculous like a spiral staircase.

It’s one of the hotels with a more contemporary and chic feel to it despite being in a Grade-A listed Georgian building. Conde Naste Traveller has described Tigerlily as “one of the coolest 65 hotels in the world” and Times Traveller Magazine placed it in the top 100. Where exactly it ranks in the world’s best hotels is unclear but it is clear that it is somewhere in a very select list of brilliant hotels. It’s not gone down the traditional route favoured by many Edinburgh’s boutique hotels either. It’s more bright and funky with real sense of fun.

There are many stylish and accessible boutique hotels which would make ideal places to stay during the Fringe Festival. They’re not cheap but they are very cool. Why not treat yourself at Edinburgh 2013?

Blue Badge Style

We Re-Define Disability With Style

Prestonfield House, Edinburgh

Prestonfield House, Edinburgh

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