What is the link between a 15th Century explorer, suspension bridges, hot air balloons, supersonic flight, Oscar statuettes, sherry, the slave trade, famous ships, Baldrick, pirates, Tarmac and Cary Grant?
The answer is that the innovative, cosmopolitan and diverse city of Bristol has been home to them all (more on that at the end). And while it’s not the first natural stop on the tourist trail, if you’re looking for a new and different destination for a city break, you might be surprised at what Bristol has to offer.
Overview ********** Bristol is one of those cities that offer something for everyone. It has spectacular scenery (both urban and rural), history, wonderful architecture, and dozens of places of interest to visit, including galleries and museums and a stunning cathedral. Bristol also boasts several vast cinema and entertainment complexes, theatres, an ice rink, concert halls, comedy clubs, a world-class zoo, countless clubs, bars and restaurants, hotels to suit all pockets, markets and shopping of all descriptions.
Getting There ****************
By Air Bristol’s recently expanded and revamped International Airport handles both domestic internal and international traffic to and from a variety of European destinations, including Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Italy. Scheduled flights are available daily to 27 UK and European destinations, including Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Prague. The airport is at Lulsgate, eight miles south of the city centre, and can be reached by bus or taxi (a taxi will set you back around £10 or £12)
By Train Two railway stations serve the city of Bristol. The beautiful and historic Bristol Temple Meads (designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel) is in the heart of the City centre, just a couple of minutes walk from the Broadmead shopping district. The brand new modern Bristol Parkway station at Filton on the Northern outskirts of the city is about seven miles from the city centre, which can be reached by a connecting train, bus or a taxi at a cost of about £10.
By Road Bristol is easily reached through the motorway network, via the M4 and M5 motorways and the M32 stretching from the Northern outskirts to the city centre. Two bridges across the River Severn allow easy access from South Wales. Bristol is also served by the National Express Coach network, with services terminating at the city centre bus depot.
Getting Around ******************
On Foot Central Bristol is reasonably compact but quite hilly in places. A number of walking tours are available taking in the highlights of the city centre and the main tourist attractions.
By Bus Local small “city dart” buses run by First Bus are plentiful, frequent and reasonably priced in the city centre areas. All-day tickets are available on all buses, allowing unlimited travel within various zones of the city for a couple of pounds, depending on how far afield you wish to travel. I often buy the week long city centre bus pass because it only costs £9.50 and allows six journeys per day
– a potential 42 bus journeys for £9.50 is quite a bargain I think.
For visitors, the 8 and 9 bus services will be invaluable, providing links between the shopping areas of Broadmead and Clifton and tourist attractions like the Harbour, the Zoo and the Museum.
A night bus service also runs in the central city areas and, hourly to the suburbs. Details and timetables are available from Bristol Tourist Information Centre, Harbourside, Bristol (telephone 0117 9260767). However, taxis are plentiful in the city centre at night, especially at weekends.
By Car
Like all major cities, Bristol has its traffic issues. The roads are busy, one-way systems are not easy to navigate, parking is expensive and plans are in the pipeline to levy tolls on those bringing cars into the city centre, although this hasn’t happened yet. Public transport is reasonable, if not perfect, so it could be wise leave the car behind and use buses and trains if you wish to stay in the city centre. You could also stay in the cheaper hotel chains on the outskirts and make use of park and ride schemes situated on the Northern and Southern edges of the city.
By train Bristol is served by a small local rail network linking the suburbs with the city centre. There are also rail services between Bristol and the nearby historic spa city of Bath.
By Boat The river has always been the life-blood of the city of Bristol, reaching right up into the harbour at the city centre. In recent years, large stretches of the riverside have seen massive investment, with exciting new leisure facilities and accommodation springing up. A walk along the river is an essential part of a visit to Bristol, taking in cosmopolitan riverside cafes and restaurants, art galleries, the @ Bristol hands-on science museum, the Watershed media centre with its arthouse cinema and exhibition centre, and masses of other attractions. It’s one of my favourite places and spending time there makes me really proud of my city, and the improvements that are being made to make the riverside more accessible.
The Bristol Ferryboat Company offers a variety of river tours, as well as providing a simple and relaxing way to get around the city. A trip on the ferry ending at The Buttery, an outdoor café on the bank of the river that serves the most divine bacon sandwiches on thick doorsteps of bread dripping with butter and hot strong mugs of tea, is a favourite weekend activity for my daughter and me.
Accommodation ****************
Bristol has a wide range of accommodation to suit most pockets. Many of the large hotel chains such as Ramada, Marriott and Holiday Inn have Bristol city centre locations, priced at between £40 and £200 per night, although it is well worth checking discount websites like www.laterooms.com for bargains.
Jurys Hotel in Prince Street, less than a mile from the city centre, overlooks the beautiful harbour and offers special weekend breaks starting at £58 for a family of four sharing a room, including continental breakfast.
Serviced apartments are also available for more independent travellers, although I’ve never used them.
But if you really want to pamper yourself though, try the beautiful 4 star Bristol Marriott Hotel, which stands right in the city centre. It is an elegant hotel and offers gourmet weekend breaks from £89 per person per night and luxury suites including fine dining from £220 per person per night. The hotel was originally built in the 1800s but since it's recent restoration has become a favourite place of mine for dinner with friends in its beautiful restaurants when you really want to impress.
Shopping *********
Broadmead Broadmead is Bristol’s main city centre shopping area, and boasting over 400 shops, pubs, restaurants and a cinema, it is the largest shopping centre in the West of England.
Just five minutes or so on foot from Temple Meads Railway Station and the city centre, much of Broadmead is pedestrianised. It also contains The Galleries, a large covered mall on three floors, which is home to most of the usual chains (Boots, WH Smith, Waterstones, Woolworth, Argos, Virgin, TK-Maxx) plus a wide range of smaller stores including Lush, The Bear Factory, Clare’s Accessories and a variety of designer clothing stores. Make sure to wear comfortable walking shoes!
Corn Street In Corn Street you will find St Nicholas Market, in the former Corn Exchange building. The market is permanent - and indoors - so you don't have to get wet whilst you shop. Some of the deli foods are exceptional and there is a wonderful (and very popular) vegetarian café and a super second-hand bookstall which sells pretty much any book you could want for half the cover price.
Christmas Steps Just around the corner from Corn Street, Christmas Steps is a tiny pedestrian shopping street set upon a steep, narrow hill. It offers couture clothing, handmade shoes and musical instruments, and for years was the home of a joke shop visited at one time or other by almost every child in the greater Bristol area – including me. I still don’t know if my Dad’s forgiven me for the black face soap incident!
The West End Bristol’s “West End”, consisting of Park Street, Whiteladies Road and Clifton Village, is home to upmarket shops selling designer clothes, art and crafts, antiques and jewellery. Beware though, driving and parking here is a bit of a nightmare, even for a local who knows their way around the one way systems. I would advise taking the bus or a taxi if you want to shop here.
The Mall, Cribbs Causeway On the Northern outskirts of the city, right next to the motorway, The Mall is a new and bright two level centre with around 130 top name stores and 15 cafes and restaurants. The Mall also offers thousands of free car parking spaces and a children’s creche. It is home to huge John Lewis and Marks and Spencer stores, as well as other big High Street shopping names and smaller designer boutiques. It’s food court is busy but has an excellent range of different tastes from sandwiches and fresh bakes to traditional English fish and chips, Chinese and the ubiquitous burgers. There’s also a nice quiet Pizza Hut restaurant on the upper level if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the food court and shops.
The wider Cribbs Causeway shopping area has an Argos superstore, Comet, Currys, PC World, ToysRUs and an enormous Asda/Walmart store. This is somewhere you will need a car to get around really. Cribbs Causeway is about a half-hour drive from the city centre. Buses are available but the journey will take about an hour.
Tourist Attractions *****************
Bristol has a vast array of tourist sites and I only have time to really skim the surface and tell you about some of the best, centrally placed attractions.
@ Bristol A new hands-on science and technology, nature and arts museum based at the harbour-side in the city centre. The main attractions are “Explore”, the hands-on science and technology bit, “wildwalk”, an interactive nature tour, and the “Imax Theatre”. It isn’t a cheap day out but it is a full one and a combined ticket for all three attractions costs £16.50 for adults, £ 9.05 for children, £13.45 for concessions and £52.00 for a family ticket. You can pay for any of the attractions separately. This is one of my daughter’s favourite places to go and is a fun learning experience. I love to see her run around excitedly playing with all the exhibits, and having no one tell her “you can’t touch that”. It’s great.
Bristol Zoo Gardens, Clifton Down Bristol’s zoo is at the forefront of many cutting-edge conservation and breeding projects. One of the latest attractions is the seal and penguin coast, which includes a glass tunnel where visitors can walk and see the aquatic animals swim around them. The Zoo’s gardens are spectacular in the summer months. The zoo is about three miles from the city centre and can be reached by a 15 minute bus ride on the number 8 or 9 city centre bus. Entrance costs £8.60 for adults, £5.00 for children and £7.70 for concessions. The zoo has a restaurant but it can be pricey and we often take a picnic and a blanket with us and have lunch on one of the beautiful lawns in the central garden area. Beware of the pigeons – they will fight for your sandwiches!
Clifton Suspension Bridge and Visitor Centre Just around the corner from the zoo is the beautiful and world famous Victorian Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Visitors are able to stroll across the historic bridge, which has become a symbol of Bristol, and take in spectacular views of Clifton Village and the stunning Avon Gorge. You might try afternoon tea at the roof garden of the Avon Gorge Hotel, which provides excellent views of the gorge and the bridge. I particularly love to see the bridge at night when it is beautifully illuminated, or during civic celebrations, when it is often used as the centrepiece for spectacular firework displays.
The SS Great Britain and The Matthew Bristol is known for its grand Maritme heritage and two very famous ships have made their final home in the city. The SS Great Britain, the world’s first great ocean liner is on permanent display at the Great Western Dock, Gas Ferry Road. The Matthew, the historic wooden ship which took explorer John Cabot to the New World, is also now docked in Bristol, and these two attractions, along with Bristol’s Maritime Heritage Museum can all be viewed on one ticket. These two ships come into their own in August when Bristol has its wonderful Harbour Festival, when we celebrate the river and all things nautical.
Museums Bristol’s City Museum and Art Gallery stands at the top of Park Street, just off the city centre. The architecture is stunning and the museum holds collections of Egyptian artefacts, china and glass, modern art, natural history and plays host to many travelling exhibitions. Entrance to the museum is free. The museum has a super café where you can rest your weary feet and have a drink, a snack or a light lunch. Try their home made soup with chunks of crusty bread – wonderful.
Red Lodge, in Park Row, minutes from the city centre, is Bristol’s only surviving Tudor lodge, boasting magnificent oak panelling and an Elizabethan knot garden.
The Georgian House, Great George Street, a few minutes walk from the city centre, is one of the most complete surviving 18th century town houses in the country, furnished to illustrate life above and below stairs. Don’t wear high heels though, they won’t let you in (they have to protect the original stone floors).
The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum Based at Temple Meads Railway Station, this is a brand new museum, covering the history of Britain's Imperial past and the modern day Commonwealth. Over 500 years of history are brought to life using state-of-the-art presentational techniques.
John Wesley’s Chapel, The New Room, The Horsefair John Wesley's Chapel, built in 1739, is the oldest Methodist building in the world. The chapel is now hidden by huge shops in the heart of Broadmead shopping centre – busy shoppers can spend peaceful time there now over a cup of tea. It has been kept exactly the way it was in the eighteenth century. Above the Chapel are the rooms where John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, lived. His hymn-writing brother Charles stayed here too.
Bristol Industrial Museum, Princes Wharf, City Docks The Industrial museum has displays of Bristol's transport, maritime and industrial heritage including aero engines, the port of Bristol, printing and packaging and vehicle building. Regular working activities by steam train, boats, cranes and vehicles and a new Slave Trade exhibition are among the attractions.
Guided bus tours with qualified guides aboard open top double decker buses are also available. The circular tour takes takes about an hour and passengers have the option to hop on and off the bus at stops which include the City Centre, @ Bristol, Bristol Zoo, the SS Great Britain, Broadmead, Temple Meads Station, the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum and others. Details of the bus tours are available by calling 01934 830050
Entertainment ************
Cinemas Bristol boats a central Odeon cinema in the middle of Broadmead shopping centre, plus an arthouse cinema at the Watershed in the city centre, and three out of town multiplex cinemas to the South, North and East of the city. The multiplexes also include bowling alleys and a variety of fast food eateries, pubs and restaurants.
Concerts Rock concerts are held regularly at the Colston Hall, just off the city centre. The premier venue for classical concerts is St Georges, Brandon Hill, which is famed for its remarkable acoustics.
Theatres The Hippodrome Theatre in the city centre plays host to touring productions from London’s West End, including some of the longest running shows, from Miss Saigon to Beauty and the Beast. It’s especially lovely in the Summer when the weather is fine, as they open up the roof so you can see the stars.
The Bristol Old Vic Theatre in King Street boasts one of the best theatre schools in the world, where many young actors learnt their craft, later to become household names of film and television - stars such as Patrick Stewart, Jeremy Irons, Patricia Routledge and Miranda Richardson. The Bristol Old Vic is the oldest working theatre in the country, opening on the 30th May 1766, producing all manner of entertainment from the classics to pantomime. When I go there I always feel rather proud of some of the big names who got their start in my city.
Eating and Drinking ******************
Bristol has a vast array of pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants in the City Centre, Broadmead and Clifton areas. As Bristol is a University town, the nightlife can be young and trendy. There’s also room for those who want a more sophisticated evening of theatre followed by a late meal. And for the jazz lover, try historic King Street with its old stone pubs and live jazz, perfect with a frosty pint on a Summer’s evening.
There’s a restaurant catering for pretty much every taste, from American to French, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Thai and Indian, plus the very best of British cuisine at the famous Harveys Restaurant (home of Harvey’s sherry), all within walking distance or a short taxi ride of the railway station and the city centre.
I’ve really just skimmed the surface of what Bristol has to offer the traveller. I’ve lived here all my life and I still haven’t tasted all of its flavours, and there are certainly plenty of them. Even the most jaded tourist should find something to occupy them in my beautiful and historic home city.
And my first paragraph? The 15th Century explorer was John Cabot, master of The Matthew, who journeyed to the New World and in whose honour a magnificent tower was built on a hill, offering wonderful panoramic views of the city.
The suspension bridges are the beautiful old Clifton Suspension Bridge, across Avon Gorge, and the two Severn River Crossings linking Bristol with South Wales.
Bristol is famous for its Summer Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, held at Ashton Court Estate on the Southern side of the city, and continuing the aeronautical theme, the world’s only supersonic aircraft, the beautiful Concorde was designed and built in Bristol.
Oscar statuettes refer to Nick Park’s wonderful Aardman Animations, based in Bristol and home of the award winning Wallace and Gromit animated adventures. Sherry refers to the famous fortified wine makers Harveys of Bristol (Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry), who are still based in Bristol, and of course, Bristol was one of the major destinations for slaves, tobacco and spices coming from the Americas and the Indies.
The famous ships are, of course, the SS Great Britain and the Matthew, and Baldrick from the Blackadder series, aka actor Tony Robinson, lives in Bristol.
Bristol’s link with pirates comes via the Llandoger Trow pub in King Street, which was a favourite watering hole of novellists Daniel Defoe and Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Louis Stevenson stayed at the inn to imbibe atmosphere for his novel "Treasure Island". And legend has it that a chance meeting between Defoe and Alexander Selkirk who had been discovered on an uninhabited island by a Bristol privateer, became the story of the timeless classic Robinson Crusoe'.
Tarmac refers to Bristol resident John McAdam, who invented the tarmacadam road surface in the 1800s, and of course, silver-tongued, silver-screen Hollywood icon Cary Grant was born in Bristol and a statue in his memory stands in the city centre.
Thanks for reading and I hope you find time to visit my beautiful city one day.
Brilliant review. I agree, Bristol is a fantastic city!
Critchyboy 07.03.2003 15:50
Excellent opinion, thank you so much. Have just moved from 'up north' to just outside Swindon so Bristol is in easy reach and it sounds like there is so much to discover! Going to the Hippodrome to see Miss Saigon this month and am very excited. Thanks again for a fantastic opinion and well, well worth the diamond. C :)
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Advantages: Really gives an insight into Bristol's Maritime Heritage. Gives children a chance to learn by seeing. Excellent in all aspects. Disadvantages: Don't try to compete with the locals during the rush hour home!
poet831 02.02.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bristol in General
Dec 21st, 2002
(Mar 8th, 2003)
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