Edinburgh

Edinburgh lies at the heart of one of the UK’s most popular regions if our Connected Britain research is anything to go by. Edinburgh is also popular with tourists and consistently tops every ‘European cities to visit’ poll. Its residents also think pretty highly of it – 92% are satisfied with their quality of life there, according to a 2006 MORI poll – more than any other city in the country.

This is due in part, no doubt, to some of its best kept leisure time secrets. Camera Obscura allows visitors to view the city – and its people going about their business – via a cleverclogs system of mirrors and camera equipment, while Macsween of Edinburgh is the place to go for a fine Scottish haggis. The city’s medieval past and spooky credentials can be explored at Real Mary King’s Close and Ghost Fest, while for the discerning anthropologist, the Scottish Storytelling Centre provides an insight into all kinds of Scottish tradition and literature.

While Edinburgh is home to the UK’s second, and Europe’s sixth, largest financial sector and is the most prosperous UK city after London, our research also showed that it is flexible when it comes to working practices, with 45% of survey respondents being able to work away from the office some or all of the time. It’s clearly important to the workforce, as a further 24% of Edinburgh’s office workers also stated that they’d be willing to forfeit future career progression in order to work flexibly.