Edinburgh Family Hotels with Game Rooms and Board Games
5 family-friendly hotels with game room in Edinburgh . Handpicked for families who want the best.
Edinburgh weather has a 50-50 chance of forcing you indoors on any given afternoon, and the city's compact centre means kids run out of patience before parents run out of museums. The right hotel softens both problems with billiards, board games, jigsaws or family lounges where 8-year-olds can build a Lego city while you nurse a flat white. The five hotels below all stock real games — not just a chess set in the lobby — and have either family rooms or apartments. Three are central, one sits in a country park, and one is a Georgian townhouse.
Edinburgh is a city of two halves: the medieval Old Town, with the Castle and the Royal Mile, and the Georgian New Town, all straight streets and shopping. With kids you spend more time on the grass — Holyrood Park, Princes Street Gardens, the Meadows. The festival in August fills the city; outside August it is calm and walkable. Trams and Lothian buses run kids under five free, and most museums are free entry too.
Why these Edinburgh hotels work for rainy-day families
Hotels with proper games space are rare in Edinburgh because most central buildings are listed Georgian or Victorian, with little spare room for an arcade. The five here have managed it differently: a country house with a billiards room, an apartment-hotel where each unit comes with a stocked games drawer, a Hapimag resort with shared common rooms, and two townhouses where reception keeps a games library kids can borrow.
For families the difference between a hotel with games and one without becomes obvious by day three. After the Castle, the National Museum and a long lunch, kids hit the wall around 4pm. Returning to a hotel where they can immediately set up a game with you, instead of staring at the iPad, salvages the evening and means parents actually get to sit down and talk for an hour before dinner.
Parent's take
Honestly, ask at check-in what games they have and ask them to pull out a couple to your room. Receptions sometimes hide the good stuff in a cupboard and you only learn about Risk on day four when it is too late. Bring travel-size games of your own as backup — Edinburgh weather can turn an afternoon plan into a hotel afternoon.
Our Top 5 Picks
Hotels in Edinburgh with game room, sorted by guest rating.
Prestonfield House
Edinburgh
Wonderful
200 reviews
Prestonfield House is a 17th-century country mansion in 20 acres of parkland, three miles from Edinburgh Castle. The 5-star has peacocks on the lawn, a billiards room with a full-size table, and family suites with bunk options. The Rhubarb restaurant has a children's menu and the free shuttle to the city centre runs every hour from 9am.
From
£220/night
Why families love Prestonfield House
We were braced for stuffy but it was the opposite — staff put the kids on the peacock-feeding rota the moment we checked in, and the billiards room let us play three rounds before dinner. The grounds are huge, our 7-year-old built a fort in the bushes off the rose garden, and the hotel lent us wellies when it started raining. The shuttle into town meant no parking stress and we could have a glass of wine at lunch.
Ocean Mist Leith
Edinburgh
Wonderful
200 reviews
Ocean Mist Leith offers serviced apartments with separate bedrooms, full kitchens and game drawers stocked with Monopoly, Cluedo and travel UNO. The 4-star is on Leith's Shore, a 20-minute tram ride from the centre, and the Royal Yacht Britannia is walkable. Apartments sleep four to six and check-in is until midnight.
From
£220/night
Why families love Ocean Mist Leith
Leith with kids surprised us — the Shore has flat traffic-free walks, ducks to feed, and three good casual restaurants in 200 metres. Our two-bedroom apartment had a proper kitchen, a corner with the games drawer set up like a child's office, and a sofa where we could collapse after a long day. The tram into town runs every five minutes and was simple to use even with a buggy.
Hapimag Resort Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Wonderful
200 reviews
Hapimag Resort Edinburgh sits in Bruntsfield, a leafy southern neighbourhood 15 minutes' walk from the Castle. Studios, one and two-bedroom apartments come with kitchens, washer-dryers and shared games and DVD libraries. The pool, gym and games corner are free for guests and the resort runs free family events on Saturdays.
From
£220/night
Why families love Hapimag Resort Edinburgh
Hapimag worked because we did not have to think. The two-bedroom apartment had everything we needed, the games corner downstairs had two new boards every week and a kettle for parents who wanted tea while watching, and Saturday's free family event was a treasure hunt around the park outside. We cooked twice and ate out four times — the supermarket is two minutes away.
Gleneagles Townhouse
Edinburgh
Wonderful
200 reviews
Gleneagles Townhouse is a 5-star city outpost of the famous Perthshire estate, set in a former bank building on St Andrew Square in the heart of the New Town. Family rooms sleep three or four, the rooftop has a glass-roofed lounge for board games on rainy afternoons, and reception lends classic games (Cluedo, Monopoly, chess) on request to your room.
From
£220/night
Why families love Gleneagles Townhouse
We expected stiff and got warm. The doorman waved at our 5-year-old like she owned the building, the rooftop had cushions and a games corner on the rainy day we needed it, and afternoon tea was the highlight of the week — proper sandwiches, a kids' tea with miniatures, and a chess set our 8-year-old made us play four times. The room was elegant but not precious; we did not have to whisper.
Melville Castle Hotel
Edinburgh
Excellent
200 reviews
Melville Castle Hotel is a Gothic mansion in 50 acres of parkland just outside the city, eight miles from Princes Street. The 4-star has a snooker room with full-size table, a games library on the first floor and family rooms with views over the river Esk. There is also a secret garden, walking trails and free parking.
From
£220/night
Why families love Melville Castle Hotel
The castle setting did most of the work — the kids decided they were on a Harry Potter set within an hour and refused to come inside. The snooker room was a hit on the rainy evening; staff lowered the table cushion and lent us the right cues for shorter arms. The walk down to the river was 15 minutes through woods and we saw a deer. The trade-off is the drive into town, about 25 minutes; we used the bus three times and it was fine.
💡Tips for choosing a game-friendly hotel in Edinburgh
- 1Pack a couple of card games. Even hotels with full games rooms have a 'sold out by Friday' problem on rainy weekends and travel UNO never goes out of style at 6pm in a wet Edinburgh.
- 2Ask reception to recommend games for your kids' ages. The good ones know which titles their guests have liked and will lend specific things — Carcassonne for tweens, Junior Monopoly for under-7s, jigsaws for everyone.
- 3Book a family room or two-bedroom apartment over a connecting room. Apartments in Hapimag and Ocean Mist Leith come with a kitchen and a kids' table, which doubles as your games table for the week.
- 4Eat early on rainy days. Edinburgh restaurants get crowded at 7pm and a kid who has played Catan for two hours wants to eat at 5.30pm, not wait. Most hotels will book you in to a 5.45pm slot.
- 5Save the evening Castle visit for one of the few clear days. Edinburgh skies clear in waves; if it is dry at 5pm, drop the games and head to the Castle Esplanade for sunset. Then come back to the games.
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