About
The Scottish Ruby Conference rebrands the successful Scotland on Rails conference. It is the same team organising the same event that ran in 2008 and 2009, but with a more accurate name and an exciting new venue: The Royal College of Physicians in the centre of Edinburgh.
Videos of the 2009 Scotland on Rails presentations are still available here
Hotel Information
We don’t have a recommended hotel, but we do recommend LateRooms.com. You can search by Postcode and date.
The venue is right in the city centre, so will be convenient for most hotels.
Google Group
Attendees and speakers from 2008, 2009 and 2010 are all on the conference google group / mailing list. This is a great place to arrange meetups, as well as ask advice about accomodation and travel from people who’ve been before.
The organisers are on the list as well, so if we can help, let us know. If it;s something you’d rather not talk about on the public list, you can mail us at conference at scottishrubyconference.com
Collaborative Conference Map
You’ll want to hit the ground running when you get to Edinburgh. We have a map collaboratively created by conference attendees last year. Jim Remsik has updated it to remove 2009 specific locations and/or attendee specific
entries.
2010 Scottish Ruby Conference Map
This is an editable Google map and you are encouraged to participate and
make this map as relevant as possible. Last year’s attendees noted where
they stayed by putting their name and twitter alias in the description of
the marker.
If locals know of specific changes, places gone out of business, or
construction please help out and make a note of it on the map.
Travel Information
Wherever you’re coming from, however you choose to travel, getting to Edinburgh is easy. Whether you choose to take a train, plane, car, coach or boat to the city, Scotland’s capital is within your reach.
By Plane
Edinburgh International Airport is 12km (8 miles) west of the city centre and is easy to reach thanks to an excellent – and regular – Airlink Coach service and good taxi services. It takes about 20 minutes to get from the city centre to the airport – but do remember to allow yourself a little extra time during the rush hour, just in case!
More information can be found on the Edinburgh Airport website.
By Bus
If you’re on a budget then buses are a great travel option. Edinburgh is well placed on the Scottish motorway network, so getting here by bus or coach could be quicker than you might think. There are regular coach services to Edinburgh from all major UK cities. The links below can provide more information.
By Train
Edinburgh is also easy to reach by train, in fact, the Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) line is the fastest intercity railway in the UK, with a journey time of just 4 hours between Edinburgh (Waverley) and London (Kings Cross). ScotRail operate an overnight service, the Caledonian Sleeper, between London (Euston) and Edinburgh 6 nights a week.
Edinburgh has great rail links to other major cities too – York, Newcastle, Inverness and Aberdeen are all about 2 hours away by train, and Glasgow is just 50 minutes away on the First ScotRail shuttle service which leaves Waverley every 15 minutes.
For all your timetables and fares UK wide:
National Rail Enquiries – contact number 08457 48 49 50
By Car
Because Edinburgh is located at the heart of the Scottish motorway network, it can be surprisingly quick and easy to get here by car. If you’re travelling from the north of Scotland, for example, Edinburgh is only 3 hours from Inverness and just over 2 hours from Aberdeen.
Journey times from England are just as good; you can get here from Birmingham in about 5 hours, from Manchester and York in about 4 hours, and the city is just 2 hours from Newcastle.
Parking isn’t great in Edinburgh, though, so ask your Hotel about where you can park.
By Ferry
It’s easy to get to Edinburgh by sea. An overnight Superfast ferry service operates between Zeebrugge and Rosyth every day, with a crossing time of 17.5 hours. Rosyth is about half an hour’s drive from Edinburgh, so getting to the city is plain sailing. You can also reach Edinburgh easily by road from the continental ferry ports of Newcastle and Hull in England, and the ports of Stranraer and Cairnryan in Soutwest Scotland, which run numerous daily services to and from Ireland.
