Cambridge

A thousand-year-old university town on the River Cam, with King's College Chapel, Trinity College and punting along the Backs; Xu Zhimo's poem "Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again" has made it a poetic destination for Chinese travelers.

Cambridge lies about 80 km north of London, with the River Cam running through the west of the city. The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209 by scholars who left Oxford, and today has 31 colleges. King's, Trinity, St John's and others line the Cam, and the lawns and gardens running down to the river are known as "the Backs." Punting along the Backs is Cambridge's classic experience, and Xu Zhimo's poem "Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again" has made the city a poetic destination for Chinese travelers. The Old Town is compact, centered on King's Parade and Market Square, and the main colleges can be linked on foot; to the south are the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Botanic Garden, and upstream is the pastoral village of Grantchester.

Getting there: express trains from London King's Cross take about 50 minutes, and from Liverpool Street about 70–80 minutes; National Express coaches from Victoria Coach Station take about 2 hours. Cambridge railway station is about a 20–25 minute walk from the city center, or you can take a bus.

Visiting the colleges: King's, Trinity, St John's and others charge visitors admission, and booking on the official website is recommended. From late April to mid-June is exam season, when many colleges close or restrict visits; colleges also close temporarily for events, so be sure to check before you go. During term, Evensong in the evening is free to attend and a great way to experience college tradition. Please do not walk on the grass in the colleges. Prices from punting touts at the landing stages are not transparent, so buy tickets at the counters of established punting companies.

One day is enough for the colleges and punting; with 2 days you can add the museums, the Botanic Garden and afternoon tea in Grantchester. Cambridge can also be paired with Oxford as a "twin cities" trip; there is no direct train between them, so you usually transfer via London. May–Sep is the best time for punting; winter is cold but quiet.

Top sights

• King's College Chapel, Cambridge – The pinnacle of late Gothic architecture in England, with the world’s largest fan vault. The chapel’s choir is renowned around the world.
• River Cam Punting & Mathematical Bridge – Gliding along the River Cam in a flat-bottomed punt past the college gardens, under the Mathematical Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs, is Cam…
• Trinity College, Cambridge – The wealthiest and largest college in Cambridge, which has produced famous figures such as Newton and Byron as well as more than 30 Nobel P…
• St John's College, Cambridge – The second-largest college in Cambridge, straddling both banks of the River Cam. It features the Victorian Bridge of Sighs and the grand Go…
• Fitzwilliam Museum – Cambridge University's art and antiquities museum, free to enter. Its neoclassical building houses ancient Egyptian artifacts, European mas…
• Round Church, Cambridge – A Norman round church built around 1130, one of only four surviving medieval round churches in England and one of Cambridge's oldest buildi…
• Cambridge University Botanic Garden – A research botanic garden of about 16 hectares, with planning input from Henslow, Darwin's mentor. Its greenhouses, rock garden and arboret…
• Grantchester – A rural village upstream on the River Cam, reachable on foot across the meadows or by punt. Afternoon tea at The Orchard Tea Garden has bee…
• Great St Mary's Church – The official church of the University of Cambridge. Climbing the tower's 123 steps gives panoramic views of King's College Chapel and Marke…
• Corpus Clock – A golden, quirky clock on the outer wall of Corpus Christi College. Perched on top, the 'Chronophage' grasshopper nibbles away at time, and…
• The Eagle – In 1953, Crick and Watson announced here that they had discovered the 'secret of life,' the DNA double helix. The back room's ceiling is co…
• Cambridge Market Square – Cambridge's open-air market, operating in the city center since the Middle Ages. Daily stalls sell produce, second-hand books and street fo…
• Queens' College, Cambridge – A college founded by two queens in succession. Its Tudor red-brick Old Court, half-timbered gallery and the Mathematical Bridge spanning th…
• Magdalene College & Pepys Library – A college on the north bank of the Cam. The Pepys Library preserves, exactly as bequeathed, the 3,000 volumes of diarist Samuel Pepys and h…
• Kettle's Yard – The former home of collector Jim Ede, now a gallery where 20th-century art is displayed alongside pebbles and furniture, like visiting a fa…
• Castle Mound – A castle mound raised by the Normans in 1068, the highest point in central Cambridge. Visitors can climb it for free and look out over King…
• Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology – A free University of Cambridge museum. A 14-meter Haida totem pole rising through several floors and anthropological collections from aroun…
• Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences – One of Cambridge's oldest university museums, displaying dinosaur and marine reptile fossils and rocks collected by Darwin on the Beagle vo…
• Museum of Zoology, Cambridge – A 21-meter fin whale skeleton hangs in the glass entrance hall. The museum also houses beetles collected by Darwin and dodo bones, and admi…
• The Polar Museum – A free museum of the Scott Polar Research Institute, displaying the last letters from Robert Scott's Antarctic expedition, sledging equipme…
• IWM Duxford – Britain's largest aviation museum, set on a WWII fighter airfield, with around 200 aircraft on display, including Concorde, the SR-71 Black…
• Ely Cathedral – The 'Ship of the Fens,' Ely Cathedral, with its Norman nave and medieval timber octagonal lantern, is unrivalled. It is a 15-minute train r…
• Anglesey Abbey – A National Trust country estate famed across Britain for its winter garden and February snowdrops, with the working Lode Mill, which still…
• Wimpole Estate – The largest country house in Cambridgeshire, with a rare-breed home farm and extensive grounds. This National Trust estate suits families a…
• Audley End House and Gardens – A Jacobean mansion managed by English Heritage. Its restored Victorian servants' kitchens and stables, with live-in-style reenactments of d…
• Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial – Britain's only WWII American military cemetery, with fan-shaped rows of white crosses and a Wall of the Missing, honoring American forces w…

Where to eat

• Fitzbillies (Trumpington Street) – A century-old Cambridge bakery famous for its signature Chelsea buns, also serving brunch and afternoon tea.
• The Eagle – A historic pub linked to the discovery of DNA, serving classic British pub food, with WWII pilot signatures preserved o…
• Midsummer House – A two-Michelin-starred restaurant set on the edge of Midsummer Common, renowned for its creative tasting menus and repr…
• Fancetts – An independent French bistro on Mill Road, offering fixed-price menus for lunch and dinner, recommended by the Michelin…
• Fin Boys – A seafood restaurant and fishmonger at the end of Mill Road, featuring daily catches from British coastal day-boats wit…
• Noodles Plus+ – A popular, cozy Chinese eatery on Mill Road, known for its generous portions of handmade noodles and dumplings at affor…

Itineraries

• London, Windsor, Stonehenge and Cambridge in – Four days in central London, plus two day trips to Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath and Cambridge, staying in the city through…
• London Museums, Art and Cambridge in – The British Museum, National Gallery, V&A and Tate Modern, plus a day in Cambridge's university museums
• Cambridge, North Norfolk and the Broads in – Punt on the Cam, head north to the coast for seals and sandy beaches, then cross the Broads to Norwich.