If you haven’t been to Edinburgh, go now, this very instant. If you’ve had the persisting nag of thinking that Britain just isn’t delightful enough given how crowded and expensive it is, this is part of the answer. If you’ve been puzzling what British cities were like before the ravages of war bombing and post-war planning and construction chewed over them, this is part of the answer. If you’re wondering whether any British city can balance the charm of smallness with the sense of being at the centre of things, here it is.

You can stand on a hill and breath in the fresh air, stirring architecture, volcanic topography and sense of dynamism in Edinburgh as in no other city. And, despite being a hub for a government, the world's largest arts festival, a separate legal system and one of the UK's most important financial centres, it's still cheap. You can rent a room (with great views and soaring ceilings in a desirable part of town from which you can walk to the centre) for £250 a month; you can dine out excellently for £10 a head; you can get to the (long, sandy, beautiful) beach for £4 return; a day's travel on the (locally-owned, well-run) bus network costs £2.50.

Yet it’s not perfection, not quite. There’s the weather, which is an average of four degrees down on London. That’s not much; it’s more the fact that you can never trust summer to arrive and stay – it’s a tempestuous, flighty lover who will listen to no remonstrances about providing some balance to the bitter wind of winter. But when the summer is good, the delight is double.

The road surfaces are dreadful, but there is a highly ambitious heavy and light rail construction programme in hand. The nightlife outside of the festivals isn’t as good as Glasgow, but you can stay in the (smoke-free) pub until 1 in the morning and the music scene is jumping. And you can be in Glasgow in the time it takes to cross London. There is a nagging parochial quality to the Parliamentary debate and governmental action, though Holyrood's construction costs look very reasonable when compared with the Dome.

Someone recently commented in the Scottish Parliament that Edinburgh watched as the world visited it every August for the festival, and then watched as they all left again. Retention of talent is one of Scotland's biggest problems - its population is shrinking still - although it is making some efforts in a UK that seems to be happy to be ever more London-centric.

But one visit to Edinburgh might change your thoughts, especially in the age of broadband.