The Best of Bristol
Bristol is one of the most popular cities in the U.K and has been named by the Times as one of the best places to live in 2022! There is an abundance of activities to participate in whether you’re staying just for one day or for even longer. Bristol offers something for everyone, including a fantastic night life, brilliant food options, lots of sport, plenty of festivals, art exhibitions/performances, museums, great places to visit such as the iconic Clifton Suspension bridge and fun activities for children. You can also walk around the city spotting the Banksy artwork or work from other graffiti artists or just enjoy a stroll around the harbour. Just go to Visit Bristol https://visitbristol.co.uk/ to see what’s on.
The first thing to note is that Bristol has great travel links. There are plenty of buses that travel through the centre as well as travelling through to the outskirts (if you decided to do activities a bit further afield!). Bristol Temple Meads railway station gives you great access to the centre of Bristol. Bristol is proud of being a green city and you can easily access a VOI - an easy and efficient scooter service to enable you to travel easily around the city. Uber and Bolt as well as other taxi services are available.
One of the best ways to get to know Bristol, and more specifically the Floating Harbour and Harbourside, is by boat. You can partake in themed cruises on the water, afternoon tea trips up the River Avon and wildlife spotting trips to the Avon Gorge with local experts. There are lots of Stag and Hen do activities such as escape room and flight club, a great filler whilst you enjoy your stay in Bristol!
The city celebrates multiple festivals such as Love Saves The Day and Tokyo World, if you’re into your dance and pop music. Bristol Harbour festival is a huge cultural festival that happens every July; this festival is great fun with bands, local dance performers, circus acts and activities on the water, as well as fantastic food options. Bristol balloon fiesta is another festival that brings everyone in the city together. Watching the balloons ascend is a sight to behold and the night glow is spectacular.
Bristol has over 650 pubs to choose from, whether you want to do a pub crawl down Gloucester Road or do an animal themed pub crawl through the centre, Bristol has this to offer. Some of the best pubs (in my opinion) are situated on King Street and Gloucester Road. The Old Duke is a fantastic pub which is on the extremely popular King street – the great thing about King street is that there is plenty of choice of places to drink! I would highly recommend exploring these areas in Bristol as there are lots of hidden gems especially around the Christmas Steps. There are some great bars and clubs around Bristol as well. Some of the most popular ones include: Bar 51, London Cocktail Club, Motion, Lakota, Dirty Martini, Aluna – the list goes on. These places host big events and a popular event is Bingo Lingo on a Friday night, it is a must if you are visiting the city for the weekend!
It is important to note that a lot of the pubs in and around Bristol do fantastic food – there are also lots of other establishments in which you can indulge. Here is my ultimate round up of some of the best places to eat in Bristol – these vary from expensive restaurants to great value-for-money takeaway food.
Kibou – This award-winning Japanese restaurant is situated in the heart of Clifton. The floral Japanese decor along with a fantastic drink and food menu means this place is extremely popular with residents and tourists visiting the city!
Little French – A cosy French inspired restaurant that’s placed in Westbury park. This restaurant serves lovely french inspired cuisine and has extensive wine list for those who enjoy a vino or two.
Pasture – A brand new steak house on Portwall Lane. This new restaurant celebrates fire-based cooking, picking some of the best meats from butchers in and around the South-West. The Sunday lunch is a favourite of mine, simply sensational!
San Carlo – One of the finest Italian restaurants in Bristol. This restaurant celebrates true Italian style cuisine at a reasonable price and with a great old-style atmosphere. They also have lots of pictures of some very famous people that have visited them!
Four Wise Monkeys – A super Asian diner set situated in the heart of Bristol’s old city. With some fantastic pan-Asian cuisine, beers and cocktails, this funky restaurant is not to be missed!
Bravas – This is a tapas bar and restaurant situated on Cotham Hill. They serve simple, delicious and authentic Spanish dishes. A must if you love high quality Spanish food!
Danny’s burgers – If you are a lover of smash burgers then look no further – winner of UK Best Burger 2022, Danny’s burgers is a great option for someone looking for a feisty burger in Bristol.
Mrs Potts Chocolate House – if you have a sweet tooth and especially love chocolate then Mrs Potts has to be a stop on your list. Serving indulgent cakes and hot chocolates, Mrs Potts is perfect for colder days or if you just want to properly treat yourself!
Sandwich Sandwich – This place is an absolute gem of a find – fantastic sandwiches served every lunchtime (the queue is usually big for both shops in Bristol!). So big you may struggle to finish it all! Sandwich sandwich also serves massive desserts if you fancy a sweet treat after as well.
Low and Slow – Situated on Whiteladies Road, this is a perfect place for that hungover craving of dirty BBQ food. Full of flavour and great value for money, this place is a great fast-food restaurant to fill yourself up before you explore Bristol!
Taka Taka – This Greek restaurant has a few restaurants in Bristol, and you can see why. They celebrate Greek cuisine like no one else, serving delicious Gyros and Souvlaki every day.
Koocha mezze bar – Bristol’s vegan scene is fantastic, and this place is one of our favourites. Every dish on the menu is infused with big, unexpected and delicious spices and flavours from Persia and the Middle East.
This is a small roundup if you are unsure of where to eat in Bristol. There are of course more to this list, but I like the idea of going and finding places for yourself in this amazing city!
If you enjoy the theatre, Bristol Hippodrome is a large and impressive venue with nearly 2000 seats where you can enjoy a musical and Bristol Old Vic hosts cutting edge theatre. It is the oldest working theatre. A smaller venue is the Redgrave Theatre which is very intimate hosting a variety of productions.
Bristol is a booming city for business, in the centre and in the outskirts. Thousands of people visit every year to conduct business in the banking district as well as visiting some of the factories on the outskirts such as GKN and Rolls Royce. OVO is one of the top businesses in Bristol with an annual turnover of just under £1.45b and is situated just next to the Temple meads train station. College Green and Queens Square are familiar meeting points for lots of professionals and local university students. On a lovely summer’s day, these are a good place to relax but if you travel a bit further out of the city you can visit the Blaise Castle Estate with a fantastic adventure park for children or there is the Long Ashton Court Estate where you can watch the deer graze.
Bristol possesses two major universities: The University of the West of England and the University of Bristol. The University of Bristol is more situated towards the centre of the city and is an extremely popular Russell Group university. UWE is again an extremely popular university situated north-east of the city. Students from all over the world come to study at these universities- students love Bristol for the amazing culture, the diverse food and the nightlife!
As well as the iconic Clifton suspension bridge, there is Clifton Observatory with a Camera Obscura where you can see Bristol in all of its splendour and for a unique experience you can also descend into the Giant’s cave where you go down 130 steep steps leading out to the cliff face!
Bristol has numerous museums including Bristol aerospace museum, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, M shed and Brunel’s SS Great Britain. There are usually exhibitions on during the year at a few of these institutions (mainly Bristol Museum and Art Gallery) so do not hesitate to check their websites!
Other arty activities you can do include the walking Banksy tour of Bristol – with Banksy originally being from Bristol, a lot of his art is situated here, you just need to know where to look! There is also Wake the Tiger art experience which is an immersive art experience consisting of 27 different creative environments including artwork, installations, narrative, soundscape and secret passageways.
As much as there are lots of art activities to participate in, Bristol also offers sporting activities. In the centre there are a few crazy golf establishments and there are bars where you can participate in bowling and other activities whilst you can drink! Roxy’s and Lane7 are favourites of mine and The Lanes is also good fun! You can watch the Bristol Bears or Bristol City at Ashton Gate which is a stones throw from the city centre. The Bristol Flyers are also a successful basketball team who play at the SGS College Arena. Finally, the Bristol Pit-bulls are an ice hockey team who play at the new ice rink situated near Cribbs Causeway – the public can skate on this during the day/night- great fun!
There are also other walking tours to check out such as Blood, Blackbeard and Buccaneers- check these out at Visit Bristol! https://visitbristol.co.uk/
Bristol is great for shopping too! There is Cabots circus, Quaker Friars just beyond Cabot circus and the Mall just outside of town past Westbury on Trym.
All in all, there is something for everyone in Bristol!