My first visit to Cambridge

I have wanted to visit Cambridge for years, I have always admired the architecture and wanted to go punting on the river Cam. After visiting, it exceeded my expectations and I think it is one of my favourite cities to visit in the UK!

I booked the trip around Christmas time, found a great place on Airbnb and started planning all of the places that I wanted to visit. I couldn't decide on whether to book this trip in the Summer when it would be warm enough to do the outdoor activities or to visit in the Autumn when the city is golden.

I decided on Summer as our year is getting very booked up with trips but I would love to go back again to see the leaves turning colour and see it in all its Autumnal glory.

After a 2 hour drive, our first stop was Fitzbillies. I had heard that their famous buns were wonderful so we felt it was only right to make it our first stop of the day for a coffee and a pastry.

We had no real agenda, other than a pre-booked punting tour ,which is quite unusual for us. Normally we have our trips well planned out but it was actually so nice not having to worry about timings and lunch bookings etc. We loved having a slow wander around the gorgeous city and everything we wanted to see was close together but we still managed to clock up quite a few thousand steps that day!

We went to The Varsity Hotel & Spa for drinks on their rooftop terrace but it was massively underwhelming. The price of the drinks sadly didn't match the service or ambience so after having a quick cocktail we left.

After a bit more mooching about and buying too many chocolate's from Wilfred's sweet shop we made our way over to the riverside to begin our private punting tour. 

I will write a separate post about the tour as I was offered a PR discount with The Traditional Punting Company which was part of the deal.

I love the buildings in Cambridge, they really are beautiful. It reminded me of a cross between Bath and Oxford but out of the three, I think Cambridge is the nicest.

Also everyone we spoke to seemed really friendly; we popped into a camera shop, as I want to buy a new lens, and we ended up chatting to the man who worked there for around 30 mins. He gave me some excellent advice about how to use my camera, which has made me think that I should take a course in photography, as I had no idea of this particular camera functionality!

Around 5pm we left the city and drove to our Airbnb, stopping off for a quick drink at a pub along the way. The Airbnb was around 15 mins drive from the city which was what we wanted. We were staying in an old dairy barn which had been done up to a very high spec and surrounded by the peace and quiet of the countryside (minus the bleating sheep!).

The link to this airbnb is here. 

It was so nice and relaxing, we bought some food to cook for supper, enjoyed a g&t from the mini bar, sat in our fluffy robes watching the sheep, took a long bath, watched Love Island and scoffed choccies in bed. Absolute perfection!