When you go to Edinburgh which is home to VisitScotland’s Best Attraction you go and visit it right?!
Of course! So that’s exactly what we did when we went up to Edinburgh in April, we headed slightly out of town to the Royal Yacht Britannia. I didn’t really know what to expect from the yacht but I did think it would be rather plush and I’d learn a lot about our Royal Family on boards.
So what is the Royal Yacht Britannia?
The Yacht was home to Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family for over 40 years, sailing over an incredible 1,000,000 miles around the world. It now lives next to Edinburgh’s Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre, and whilst you’re there you can follow in the footsteps of Royalty to discover the heart and soul of this most special of Royal residences.
Before stepping on board, you get to see the 11ft LEGO replica that is so awesome and you can read plenty of information to get you briefed on the history of the Yacht. You then grab your audio guide and get on board.
The first port of call, excuse the terrible pun, is the control room where the yacht’s course would have been tracked. I didn’t expect it to be so colourful, so neat and tidy and quite so funky looking! Your audio tour starts here and you follow the numbers all around the yacht to take in all the info you can.
You know I’m going to find something shiny enough to take photos of myself in too! I just enjoyed how the blue interior was on par with my hair!
I’m not going to go into all of the history of the yacht as I hate to ruin things for people who want to visit as it’s so much nicer to learn things first hand. But we did love swanning around on the Verandah Deck in the sunshine as we were so lucky with our weather. One thing I did learn that I want to share is that the Queen actually had a portable swimming pool that would go out on the deck which gave me the giggles thinking of the Queen swimming for some reason!
The Yacht has so many hands-on activities which we, of course, got involved with. We wore hats, pulled pints and spotted Corgi’s all around the boat. I mean the Corgi’s were there for the kids but we had great fun with it!
It was really interesting to see how the Royal Family lived when on the Yacht, who honeymooned on there and how the staff lived too. There are so many rooms and items to see such as the Fabulous State Apartments and Royal Bedrooms, the relaxing Sun Lounge complete with hidden cupboards, the stunning Royal Deck Tea Room where you can take a pit stop for lunch or a pot of tea, life below decks in the Sick Bay and the Laundry seeing how the yacht was kept ticking over and the staff so smart, sample some of the home-made fudge in the NAAFI sweet shop which was so bloody tasty, view the onboard Rolls-Royce Phantom V that used to travel on Britannia and the Royal Family would use to be transported when abroad, the Gleaming Engine Room that is so mesmerising and the Royal Racing Yacht Bloodhound that would accompany the Yacht to the Western Isles when the Royal Family had their one true family holiday every year!
We spent a great few hours wander, learning and taking in the stunning decor of the Royal Yacht Britannia and would highly recommend to anyone visiting Edinburgh.
I'm Squibb Vicious, better known as Haydy!
Happiest with a craft beer in hand, eating til my heart is content or exploring somewhere new.
Here you can read about my adventures!