The latest, tentative steps towards lifting Scotland’s once onerous Covid restrictions gave Eddie and Paula Whitefield the freedom to do something they had avoided for nearly 18 months. They took a holiday away from home. The Whitefields, from Dumfries in south-west Scotland, like their holidays. In a normal year, they head abroad on cruises to Spain, Turkey or the US. But not now. Their first holiday away from home since the start of the pandemic is this short break in Edinburgh, sipping ice-cold drinks outside the Contini restaurant on George Street in the city centre. “We’ve only come away because of the restrictions easing,” said Eddie, a council business manager. “We’ve had both our injections.” “We’re not getting any younger, so we have to start living again,” said Donna Irving, his sister-in-law, with heavy irony as she sat across the table. Donna and her husband Andrew were on holiday with the Whitefields – Donna and Paula are sisters – and said the Covid crisis has changed their holiday habits. They are too nervous about the risks of being stranded or ill overseas. “We don’t feel comfortable doing that any time soon,” said Donna. Staying closer to home remains the safest option, helping to partly make up for some of the missing foreign tourists that normally arrive in their millions. “We want to spend more money in Scotland,” said Eddie. Scotland’s Covid rules shifted down to their lowest level on Monday, level 0, but in a modified form which means the country is still living – unlike England – with fixed limits on the numbers who can mingle, visit indoors and socialise. With face coverings in shops and on public transport still mandatory in Scotland, groups of 10 people from different household can now meet in restaurants; up to eight from four households can meet in private homes; and up to 15 people from 15 households can meet outdoors. In restaurants and cafes, bookings are no longer needed. But these relaxations have only had a modest impact on George Street’s restaurants, cafes and bars, normally a hub of the city’s once-booming hospitality trade. Restaurateurs suspect it will take reluctant local diners a few days before they head back out in large numbers. International travel restrictions have decimated the city’s tourist numbers, leaving Edinburgh’s streets eerily quiet. The latest heatwave has added to the exodus of the city’s residents to beaches and parks, or longer holidays away from home, leaving many cafes even quieter. Carina Contini, the restaurant’s owner, said the biggest difference in Monday’s new rules was allowing four people from different households to meet for a meal or drink, both in the restaurant and her pavement cafe on the street outside. “So if you’re eating with your colleagues or meeting three girlfriends for coffee or drinks, that’s the massive shift,” she said. Contini feels that customers began relaxing last week, and started bending the rules on limited household mixing in advance of the restrictions being lifted. But the impact of the overall changes had been slight: there were still heavy restrictions on large groups above 10 being allowed to meet, which hit business with her corporate clients. That is growing anticipation for 9 August, which Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has identified as the target date for taking away all the present restrictions, including current rules requiring 1-metre distancing in bars and venues. Contini worries there are other barriers to a full resumption of normal life: Scotland has so far had low vaccination levels among younger people, with 31% of 18- to 29-year-olds still not vaccinated, which means restaurants can quickly lose staff who have to self-isolate. The Scottish government’s target of vaccinating all adults by 19 July has been missed: nearly half a million Scots have yet to have their first jab. And the continuing pressure for contacts of suspected Covid cases to self-isolate also has an impact.