Edinburgh may be a showpiece for comedy, theatre and arts, but considering its the capital of Scotland, there's a good deal more to get stuck into while your here. We asked our resident champagne-quaffing, pint-downing, golf-playing Fringe stalwart Fiona Kerr to outline her top ten tips for festival fun and frolics:

Climb Arthur’s Seat and watch the sunrise (and if you have been taking advantage of the 24hr drinking remember – the back route is a nice gentle incline, try and go up the front and you might be calling mountain rescue).

Drink 24hrs – with the extended opening hours to 5am during the festival it makes this inebriated task much simpler – come 5am take a slow stagger to Penny Black’s (behind Burger King on Princes St, which opens at 6am)

The old 5am drinking den on Leith Walk is no longer serving at the crack of dawn - however The Scotman Lounge on Cockburn St also opens at 6am.

Make a rickshaw driver take you from Assembly Rooms on George St to the Pleasance Dome at Bistro Sq – up the steep Mound. Rope in your heaviest friend and watch them sweat; sometimes comedy is cruel.

Take a ghost tour in the Old Town’s warren of underground vaults (www.auldreekietours.com), and then be convinced to go see your drama student guide’s play in somebody’s kitchen.

Play a round of golf – Bruntsfield Links is Britain’s oldest short hole golf course. Hire a pitcher and putter from Ye Old Golf Tavern and then go back there for your 19th hole www.thegolftavern.co.uk.

Take the Rose Street pub-crawl – running parallel behind Princes’ St, this pedestrianised street is pretty much end-to-end pubs, ideal for having a pint or 20 in between shows.

See the sea: take the bus down to Portobello, Edinburgh’s “beach resort”. Cool.

Eat bagels with elephants. No we don’t mean a trip to Edinburgh Zoo, pick from an array of fillings and flavours at Elephant & Bagels on Marshall St. Or pop in for a coffee at its sister outlet The Elephant House on George V Bridge and see the view of the castle that inspired JK Rowling to conjure up Harry Potter here: elephanthouse.biz

Buy something tartan on the Royal Mile (preferable an CU Jimmy Hat complete with ginger wig), wear it constantly for the duration of your stay and look like a complete twa-uhum-tourist.

Head down Cockburn Street (and no its pronounced Co-burn) and hang out with the Goths and a spattering of good independent records shops (Avalanche, Fopp and Underground Solu’shn).

Fiona Kerr