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This world famous castle wears the nation’s history. Here you’ll find the Scottish Crown, Sword and Sceptre, and the legendary Stone of Destiny. The Royal Mile treads a straightish but diverting path from the Castle to Holyrood-house (see Edinburgh Castle) .

Scotland’s leading gallery includes masterpieces by the great Scottish artists, such as Raeburn and Ramsay, but is best known for its 15th- to 18th-century British and European paintings. In these collections, you’ll find works by Botticelli, Velazquez, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian and many more besides (see National Gallery of Scotland) .

Two adjoining museums in radically different styles and with very diverse contents. Yet together they present the nation’s most treasured historical artifacts. Worth visiting for the Lewis Chessmen alone, but don’t expect to escape in under four hours (see Royal Museum and Museum of Scotland) .

The New Town was the first daring adventure into planned architecture at a time of sordid living conditions for the masses. Begun in 1776, these beautifully proportioned buildings, set out in wide streets, crescents and squares, have lost none of their grandeur. The best place to start your walking tour is at the Georgian House, a restored mansion in Charlotte Square. Otherwise just wander wherever your eye is drawn.

Rising above the town, Calton Hill is crowned by a gathering of Classical buildings: the Pantheon-like National Monument for the dead of the Napoleonic Wars, the Nelson Monument, commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar and the Old City Observatory.

Every bit as exciting and illuminating for adults as it is for kids, Our Dynamic Earth takes you on a journey through time from the Big Bang to the present. Amid this rapid evolution, environmental concerns are brought to the fore (see Our Dynamic Earth) .

From 1953 to 1997 this was the Queen’s floating home, the honeymooning hotel of her children and Britain’s roving Royal court. Now you can wander the decks and cabins of this fabulous ship with an audio tour that tells of the life and times of Britannia.

Scotland’s premier garden with trees, shrubs and flowers from around the world. Everything from hothouse palm trees and gigantic lilies to dwarf cacti and orchids. Look out for special events, and the guided tours will feed a curiosity you may never have realized you had (see Royal Botanic Garden) .

This gallery only opened in 1960, but it has now amassed some 5,000 works post-1890. Here you can find the hand of such diverse figures as Picasso, Munch, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Pop-Art trio of Hamilton, Hockney and Tilson. Also check out the Dean Gallery opposite for contemporary shows (see Dean Gallery) .

You have to go to Antarctica to find a larger gathering of outdoor penguins. Here, in an underwater gallery, you can watch 150 cavort in the pool. The other highlights are the walkways over a re-creation of the African plains, where you can look down upon zebras, oryxes and ostriches (with a stunning, if rather mismatched, view of Edinburgh in the background), as well as marmosets and other miniature monkeys of the Magic Forest. But it’s the penguins that steal the show.