Once said to be the most crowded city in the world, Edinburgh also has been long praised as one of Europe’s most beautiful capitals. August is perhaps the best time to visit, when the city becomes home to the globe’s largest and most popular arts festivals. Both the Edinburgh International Festival and its less formal Fringe counterpart were founded in 1947 and essentially take over the city for three weeks, with thousands of art, film, music and theatre exhibitions and performances. All that plus Scotland’s legendary penchant for deep-frying anything and everything? Win-win.
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| Photos: Guy Fawkes/Stockphoto; Macduff Everton/Corbis; Marc Millar; Nick Dryhurst PCL/SuperStock/Cor; Alamy
