{"id":10757,"date":"2017-08-18T15:22:33","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T14:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsdavedoing.com\/?p=10757"},"modified":"2018-12-05T16:47:48","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T16:47:48","slug":"bristol-favourite-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsdavedoing.com\/bristol-favourite-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bristol Is My New Favourite City In the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"
Whenever we visit the United Kingdom, we basically spend all our time in London. Lauren\u2019s family lives there, as do many of our friends. With so much going on, if you\u2019re going to pick one city in the UK to hang out, it\u2019s an obvious choice.<\/p>\n
This time around, though, we decided to mix things up. There\u2019s so much more to any country than its capital, and there were large chunks of Britain that neither of us had ever seen. So how to decide where to go?<\/p>\n
I started by Googling \u2018best city in the UK\u2019, and discovered that for the last few years, Bristol has been winning all kinds of dubiously-researched distinctions for its liveability. Neither of us knew anything about it, but when we discovered there was a direct two-hour bus from Heathrow Airport, our minds were made up.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d spend a few days there, before heading further north to visit friends and hike Hadrian\u2019s Wall. It was worth a look, right?<\/p>\n
Holy shit. It was worth more than a look.<\/p>\n
By the time we left, just four days after we got there, I was smitten. The city deserves every single one of those awards, its top placement in every badly-written \u201cbest of\u201d article. It\u2019s absolutely fantastic, and we both fell surprisingly hard for it.<\/p>\n
Bristol is now, officially, my favourite city in the UK. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I\u2019m all about the hiking these days<\/a>, so anywhere with good places to walk was always going to appeal. Bristol’s totally got that covered.<\/p>\n There are dozens of trails close by in the Cotswolds, including a 100 mile long-distance path that starts in nearby Bath. The whole southwest of England is teeming with National Parks and Areas of Natural Beauty, many of them with fantastic hiking, and that\u2019s before you even cross over the bridge to Wales.<\/p>\n As I discovered, though, you don\u2019t even need to leave the city to get a good stroll in. Leigh Woods, just over the other side of the Clifton suspension bridge, was a lovely place for a wander.<\/p>\n We met my brother at the central train station on a glorious sunny day, walked up to Clifton and enjoyed a leisurely coffee, before heading over the bridge and around the woods for a couple of hours. We may have then spent an equal amount of time lazing around in the huge beer garden at the White Lion<\/a>, overlooking the bridge and river gorge it crosses.<\/p>\n And yes, there was cider involved. As there should be at the end of any hike.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When reading up on Bristol beforehand, all the articles seemed to comment on its steep hills. Being based in Lisbon at the moment, I’m not so convinced by the ‘steep’ bit, but hills there definitely are.<\/p>\n With hills, come views. Great views, in fact. The most well-known are from Cabot Tower, on Brandon Hill, and of course the famous one from the Clifton suspension bridge. They were both exceptional, there\u2019s no doubt about it \u2013 but there were plenty of other vistas that just seemed to randomly creep up on me.<\/p>\n Even from somewhere as mundane as the top of the Ashley Vale allotments, where I found myself one afternoon after putting a little too much faith in Google Maps, there were sweeping views out over the city and surrounding countryside.<\/p>\n If a few hills are what it takes to get outlooks like that, I\u2019m happy to walk up them every damn day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oh man, can we just take a minute to talk about the food? As I was sitting down to write this post today, I saw a news article talking about the latest edition of the Good Food Guide in the UK. The city with the most new entries outside London? Bristol.<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t shocked.<\/p>\n We ate ridiculously well there, and that\u2019s coming from someone who\u2019s basically eaten their way around the planet for the last few years. The days of infamously-bad English food are well and truly gone, at least in the south.<\/p>\n We had such a good breakfast on the lovely outdoor terrace at The Bristolian<\/a> that we had to go back the next day, and then enjoyed brunch at Australian-themed Ceres<\/a> so much, we got up early on our last day just to make sure we could fit in another one before heading to the coach station<\/p>\n The burgers at Atomic Burger<\/a> were massive and delicious, the ever-changing menu at recently-opened The Cauldron<\/a> was exceptional, the tacos at Cargo Cantina<\/a> were remarkably legit (and I\u2019m fussy about my tacos). Hell, even the damn kebab shop a few steps from our accommodation was super-tasty.<\/p>\n There was a great little weekend selection of food trucks beside the water (momos for the win!), and the restaurants made from converted shipping containers at Wapping Wharf kept drawing us in every time we wandered past.<\/p>\n The biggest problem with our time in the city? It didn\u2019t include enough mealtimes. Especially breakfasts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nThe Great Views<\/h3>\n
The Food Scene<\/h3>\n
The Cider Scene<\/h3>\n