I’m from London originally, moved up here to Edinburgh 15 years ago. We kind of found Portobello by chance, if we hadn’t I don’t think I’d still be here. I am pretty ambivalent about Edinburgh itself, kind of feels like living in Disneyland for the festival laden bits of the year, the traffic is a joke for a city of this size and the roads are a permanently being dug up. But Porty is great. I can walk to the sea in 2 minutes, drive to a surfable beach in half an hour and it’s 45 minutes to the Tweed valley. Great community and none of the staid Edinburgh vibe. As a result it’s quite desirable now and on the local FB page there is a fair bit of grumbling about incomers and London types with money coming in and driving up house prices.
East Lothian is really lovely, especially at this time of year. But as others have said it’s not super convenient to get into the city. Gullane and North Berwick are nice but driving in from them gets tedious – windy coast road. Dunbar has much better access but the town is a bit meh.
Lots of really exceptional beaches in East Lothian. Proper world class.