{"id":127770,"date":"2025-05-24T10:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T10:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/127770\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T10:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T10:37:10","slug":"escape-the-crowds-and-take-a-dip-in-basement-pool-of-edinburghs-apex-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/127770\/","title":{"rendered":"Escape the crowds and take a dip in basement pool of Edinburgh’s Apex Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

ONE of the most important things on any city break is location, location, location.<\/p>\n

And Edinburgh\u2019s Apex Hotel couldn\u2019t be better placed \u2014 smack bang in the middle of Auld Reekie\u2019s buzzing centre.<\/p>\n

\"Indoor<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

The basement pool offers a livening dip in the morning.\"Steam<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

The steam room lets you sweat it out.\"Interior<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Bartenders knock up fantastic fresh cocktails in Bar 1819.<\/p>\n

My wife Emma, and I arrived on Sunday afternoon by train and it was only a matter of crossing the road and walking a few hundred paces before we arrived at our city sanctuary on Waterloo Place.<\/p>\n

The hotel sits in the shadow of Calton Hill, at the top of Princes Street and Leith Walk.<\/p>\n

And even late on the Sabbath, this part of the town was still thronging, as open top bus tours loaded and unloaded tourists, with people streaming round every corner.<\/p>\n

Once you step through the doors of the Apex, though, all the noise and bustle on the street quickly dissolves.<\/p>\n

We were taken up to our room on the ninth floor \u2014 where we could see all the way down to Leith and the River Forth and beyond to Fife<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The room was well kitted out, modern, clean with touches of luxury \u2014 perfect for a quick break. There was even a special Apex branded rubber duck with a note instructing us to take it home. We\u2019d be quackers not to! <\/p>\n

Making the most of our night of freedom from the kids, we wandered down Rose Street where the bars and restaurants were busy with punters enjoying the sunshine.<\/p>\n

We stopped off at one \u00a0for a couple of pre-dinner drinks and some bar snacks, before slowly meandering past the shops on the splendour of George Street.<\/p>\n

Then it was back to base as we were booked in for dinner at \u00a0the hotel\u2019s Liberte Brasserie.<\/p>\n

The wine list was stacked with a good selection of bottles right up to a very pricey variety of Pomerol, which David Beckham<\/a> was seen clutching at his 50th birthday a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Our lovely waitress recommended a lesser-known Dolcetto d\u2019Alba from her home region of Piedmont in northern Italy. Emma and I were happy to take her up on the suggestion and were really glad we did.<\/p>\n

Once the wine was flowing, we kicked off the meal with some bread and olives before getting stuck into the main event.<\/p>\n

I started off with a beautiful burrata, drizzled in single malt honey, while Emma had the Balvenie smoked salmon finished with a lemony creme fraiche and herring roe.<\/p>\n

Both were perfectly portioned and packed with flavour.<\/p>\n

Emma kept the fish theme going for the mains, opting for a pan-fried cod fillet with sea veg, mussels and brown butter.<\/p>\n

I went for the sirloin steak, cooked rare, with a peppercorn sauce.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big steak lover and not shy about sending one back if it\u2019s overdone. But this was genuinely one of the best steaks I\u2019ve ever tasted and was cooked to perfection. I made sure to send my praises to the chef. He absolutely nailed it.<\/p>\n

For dessert, Emma had the sticky toffee pudding, while I plumped for the pistachio creme brulee, which was nothing short of spectacular.
The portion was huge, so my wife quickly helped herself to spoonfuls of mine too.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, we shuffled next door to the very cool Bar 1819 for a well-earned seat on a plush velvet couch and a few cocktails.<\/p>\n

Emma loved the elderflower-based Hugo Spritz while I knocked back a few Regent Terrace Sours, which combined whisky<\/a> and absinthe.
After that we hit the town for a few more at a piano bar a few blocks away where we were treated to multiple Billy Joel hits from the resident piano man.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise then that we slept in and missed breakfast. But the menu had all the classics including smoked kippers and eggs Benedict.<\/p>\n

Thankfully we hadn\u2019t missed out on the pool in the basement, situated next to the inhouse Yu Spa.<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

The bedrooms are modern with little touches of luxury.\"Interior<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

The food in restaurant Liberte is knock-out good.Credit: <\/p>\n

We took full advantage of the steam room and sauna, before getting a few lengths in the sun-dappled pool.<\/p>\n

Read more on the Scottish Sun<\/p>\n

When it was time to head home, we found out there was a secret back exit that took us straight to Waverley underneath Princes Street \u2014 making our escape even easier.<\/p>\n

The Apex\u2019s location is truly fantastic, but it has far more going for it than that.<\/p>\n

GO: Apex Waterloo Place, Edinburgh<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romantic Retreat<\/p>\n

Enjoy a \u2018Romantic Retreat\u2019 package at The Apex Waterloo Place in Edinburgh or Glasgow, Dundee, Bath or London from \u00a3265 a night, two sharing, including a \u00a0bottle of Prosecco, chocolates, in room rose petals and late check out. Book at\u00a0apexhotels.co.uk<\/a>\u00a0or call 0800 049 8000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ONE of the most important things on any city break is location, location, location. And Edinburgh\u2019s Apex Hotel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,786,4884,712,1014,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-127770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-food-and-drink","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-travel-advice","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}