Some cities are best in the sun. Edinburgh and Dublin are best in the rain. A soft grey drizzle is when these two northern capitals make the most sense, when the cobbles shine, the pub windows glow amber, and a pint of something dark tastes exactly right. Four days is enough to feel both: two days in Scotland’s cliff-top capital, a short hop across the Irish Sea, and two more in the easy company of Dublin. Pack a good jacket, forget the umbrella the wind will only steal, and let the weather set the pace.
Both cities sit on the Pegasus map, so you can fly into one and out of the other and let Istanbul do the connecting in between. Book cheap flights to Edinburgh and begin in Scotland. Here is how to spend four rainy, cozy, thoroughly rewarding days across the two.
Day 1: Edinburgh’s Old Town in the Drizzle
Start high. Edinburgh Castle sits on a plug of ancient volcano above the city, and even under low cloud, or especially under low cloud, the view down the spine of the Old Town is unforgettable. From the castle gates the Royal Mile falls away toward Holyrood in a run of tall tenements, whisky shops and narrow closes. Duck into a few of those closes, the steep alleys with names like Advocate’s and Fleshmarket, where the medieval city still hides one story below the modern one. Real Mary King’s Close, a warren of streets sealed up beneath the City Chambers, is the eeriest and best of the underground tours.
By mid-afternoon the rain will have found you, which is your cue for the first pub. The Old Town is thick with them, from centuries-old howffs with open fires and low beams to snug backstreet bars. Order a dram, watch the street steam through the window, and let your socks dry. Dinner is haggis, neeps and tatties if you are brave, or a bowl of Cullen skink, the smoked haddock soup that was built for a night exactly like this.
Day 2: New Town, High Places and a Walk Through the Wizarding City
Edinburgh has two halves. The New Town, Georgian and orderly, is a grid of elegant crescents, independent shops and the national galleries, all a short walk downhill from the Old Town chaos. Give the morning to it: coffee in Stockbridge, a wander down to the storybook cottages of Dean Village on the Water of Leith, and the paintings of the Scottish National Gallery when a shower rolls through.
For the afternoon, weather permitting, climb Arthur’s Seat, the extinct volcano in Holyrood Park whose summit hands you the whole city, the Firth of Forth and, on a clear-ish day, the hills of Fife. If the cloud is down, swap it for Calton Hill, a ten-minute climb for almost the same view past the city’s odd little collection of monuments.
Following the Magic: Edinburgh’s Harry Potter Trail
Edinburgh is where Harry Potter was written, in cafes and flats across the city, and the place wears it well. Victoria Street, a curving cascade of colorful shopfronts, is widely said to have inspired a certain crooked wizarding shopping lane. The looming Gothic tombs of Greyfriars Kirkyard carry a few names any reader will recognize, and George Heriot’s School, glimpsed over the graveyard wall, has the four-tower, four-house look of a certain famous academy. With the new HBO series arriving on screens this Christmas, there has never been a better time to walk the real streets behind the story. We have given the wizarding trail its own companion guide, covering Edinburgh and the filming locations across Britain.
Hopping the Irish Sea: Edinburgh to Dublin
Two days in Scotland, then swap coasts. Dublin is barely an hour away across the Irish Sea, close enough that the two capitals make one easy trip. Pegasus serves both from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, so the tidy way to run it is to fly into Edinburgh and home from Dublin, with a short crossing linking the middle. Look up cheap flights to Dublin for the Irish half, and you can be trading Scottish granite for Georgian brick by lunchtime.
Day 3: Dublin’s Fair City in the Rain
Dublin is a walking city, and a little rain only softens it. Begin at Trinity College, where the Old Library’s Long Room is a cathedral of books and the Book of Kells, a 1,200-year-old illuminated gospel, sits in its dim case downstairs. From the college gates it is a short stroll to Grafton Street’s buskers, the Georgian doorways of Merrion Square, and the archaeology wing of the National Museum, home to bog bodies and Celtic gold and gloriously free to enter.
When the sky opens, and it will, this is Guinness country. The Guinness Storehouse tells the tale of the black stuff over seven floors and pours you a pint in a glass-walled bar with the whole city laid out below. Then it is on to Temple Bar, touristy and proud of it, or better, the quieter old pubs off the main drag where the pints come cheaper and the talk comes easier.
Day 4: Sea Air and Session Tunes
Give the last day to Dublin’s edges. A quick DART train north hugs the coast to Howth, a fishing village with a cliff walk, seals in the harbor and seafood straight off the boats, a perfect blustery half-day. South, the same line runs to genteel Dalkey and the bracing sea-swimming spot at the Forty Foot, if you are hardy. Back in town, spend the afternoon at Kilmainham Gaol, the prison where modern Ireland was forged, sobering and superbly told.
Save the evening for what Dublin does best. Find a pub with a traditional music session, no stage, no cover, just musicians in a corner trading reels and jigs over pints, and settle in. That is the true sound of the city, and the right note to end four days on.
Packing for Two Cities That Love a Downpour
Neither city is really cold, but both are wet and windy, so pack for damp rather than deep freeze. A proper waterproof jacket with a hood beats an umbrella, which the coastal wind will turn inside out within a block. Shoes that shrug off puddles matter more than anything fashionable. Layer up, because you will move between steaming pubs and gusty streets all day, and keep phones and cameras in something dry. The upside of all that grey is that the museums, the libraries and the pubs, the very best of both cities, are exactly where you want to be when it pours.
Getting There with Pegasus
Pegasus flies to both Edinburgh and Dublin through Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, which makes the fly-into-one, home-from-the-other plan simple to book. Check the Pegasus route map for the current schedule and your nearest connection. Two rainy cities mean a little extra gear, so glance at the baggage allowance page before you pack the boots and waterproofs, and you can pre-order a hot drink and a bite from the Pegasus Café’s pre-order menu up to 24 hours before you fly. And if your route runs through Istanbul, the city is 45 minutes from the airport and well worth a night, so cheap flight tickets to Türkiye can add a sunlit third city to the trip.
