Kick Ass Grassmarket

Kick Ass Grassmarket sits at 2 West Port, the corner where the Grassmarket meets the road up to Edinburgh Castle. If you stand outside the front door and turn 360°, you can see Maggie Dickson's pub, the Last Drop, the steps up to the Castle Esplanade, and the path to Cowgate. Every pub crawl in Edinburgh either starts here or walks past. It's the loudest, most social, and most unapologetically party-focused hostel in the city.

The building holds roughly 220 beds across five floors — 4, 6, 8 and 12-bed mixed dorms, plus female-only dorms and a handful of twin privates. Bunks are steel-frame, each with a reading light, under-bunk locker, and USB socket. The 12-bed dorms on the top floor are cheapest but the most chaotic (expect 3 am check-ins from the bar); the 4-bed dorms on floor 2 are the quiet pick.

The in-house bar is the social engine. Happy hour runs 5 to 8 pm with £3 shots, £4 pints and free pool. Monday is karaoke night, Wednesday is pub quiz with a keg prize, Friday and Saturday the Original Edinburgh Pub Crawl meets here at 9 pm and the in-house bar doubles as the after-hours stop when the crawl returns around 1 am. It is genuinely loud until 2 am on weekends — if you want to sleep before midnight, book somewhere else.

Free breakfast is included: toast, cereal, porridge, tea, coffee, served 7 to 10. The shared kitchen is basic (three hobs, one oven) and is more for sandwiches than full cooking — this hostel's social culture is at the bar, not the kitchen. Reviewers call out the reception team as the best in Edinburgh for matching solo travellers up — they'll introduce you to people at the bar on quiet nights.

Caveats: bathroom queue at 9 am, loud weekends, 18+ enforced, and the Grassmarket cobble noise on Fridays and Saturdays until 2 am. This is an accept-it-or-skip-it situation — don't book Kick Ass and then complain the bar is loud.