One Royal Edinburgh

The location Bang in the centre of Edinburgh's New Town, the first house on the World Heritage-listed 1823 Royal Circus: a grand Georgian crescent of four-storey stone mansions overlooking a private park. We like The fact it calls itself a b & b, but is more like a super-cool Soho House-style private members' club which you are invited to call home. Having been given your own key, you are able to help yourself to an espresso from the kitchen, to play pool in the games room, tinkle the piano in the drawing room or put your feet up on sumptuous sofas. Rooms are fairy-tale grand (pressed and hand-painted ceilings, 12ft windows and swooping staircases) but furnished in contemporary style, with Thirties French posters, Philippe Starck-designed chairs, Italian steel lights – and even a disco ball. Not so keen The bathroom for the family suite is not en suite – so a middle-of-the-night bathroom excursion requires fiddling with dressing gowns and keys. The rooms Five double rooms (including one family suite) are spacious, white and airy, with floor-to-ceiling windows lined with wafty sun-curtains. Furnishings are slick and contemporary: big super-comfortable Queen-sized beds made with Frette linen, downy pillows and an indulgent quilted silk throw, and capacious wardrobes. Most of the marble-and-wood bathrooms have both a bath and shower, thick white towels and L'Occitane toiletries. The best rooms are the front, park-facing ones. The other guests Mostly young, hip couples indulging in a sexy space to hang out in and feel cosseted, but not fussed over (David Walliams, Ewan McGregor and JK Rowling have all been guests; their thank-you notes now hang in the guest WC). The food and drink Breakfast is the only meal served: in the living room on low tables set with crisp white cloths and crockery. As well as offering fruit salad, juice and toast, hosts offer breakfast cooked to order; particularly recommended are the smoked kippers, free-range eggs with deep orange yolks from Summerhill farm in nearby Dalkeith, and toast with fruit-rich local preserves. The hotel does not have a licence, although guests are offered beers and wine from the fridge. The bottom line Double rooms costs from £138 and the two-room family suite from £258 a night, including breakfast.