Things to Do in Cambridge: A Complete Guide

Cambridge has a rhythm all its own, set by bicycle bells, college bells and the gentle splash of punt poles hitting the riverbed. It’s a small city that punches enormously above its weight in history and architecture, and anyone researching things to do in Cambridge will quickly find that the university itself is the main event, wrapped around a genuinely lovely market town. It makes an easy add-on to a longer UK trip too, especially if you are already planning a visit and want ideas for things to do in London to bookend the journey.

Punting on the Cam and King’s College Chapel

Punting is the quintessential Cambridge activity and it lives up to the reputation. Flat bottomed boats propelled by a pole are for hire along the river, either self driven if you fancy the challenge, or with a chauffeur who’ll usually throw in some local trivia and gossip about which college produced which prime minister. The best stretch runs along the Backs, the string of college gardens and bridges that back onto the river, including the Bridge of Sighs at St John’s and the Mathematical Bridge at Queens’. Go in late afternoon when the light is softer and the water traffic has usually thinned out.

King’s College Chapel is the building most people picture when they think of Cambridge, and rightly so. Its fan vaulted ceiling is one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture anywhere in the world, and the chapel is still used for services, including the famous Christmas Eve carol service broadcast every year. Entry is ticketed for visitors outside of service times, and it’s worth timing a visit around choral evensong if you want to hear the chapel choir in the space it was built for.

College life and the university’s living history

Cambridge University isn’t a single campus but a federation of over thirty colleges, each with its own courtyards, chapels and dining halls, and many are open to visitors for a fee during the day. Trinity College has the Great Court, the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe, and Trinity’s Wren Library holds original manuscripts by Isaac Newton and A.A. Milne. St John’s and Clare College are also popular for their gardens and riverside settings.

Beyond the colleges, the Fitzwilliam Museum is Cambridge’s answer to a small British Museum, free to enter and stuffed with an impressive collection ranging from Egyptian antiquities to paintings by Titian and Monet. It’s part of the university but feels like a proper city museum, and it’s a good option on a rainy afternoon when punting loses some of its appeal.

A compact centre built for bikes and wandering

Cambridge is famously a cycling city, with more bikes per resident than almost anywhere else in the UK, and hiring one for a few hours is a genuinely good way to see more of it than you would on foot. The compact centre means you can cover the main colleges, the market square and the river in half a day, but slowing down is really the point here. Wander into the covered market for a coffee or a falafel wrap between sights, or duck down side streets like Trinity Lane where the old stone buildings press close together.

For a day trip, Ely is only about fifteen minutes away by train and has a magnificent cathedral known as the Ship of the Fens, visible for miles across the flat surrounding countryside. Grantchester, the village immortalised by Rupert Brooke’s poetry, is a pleasant walk or punt along the river from the city centre and has a couple of good pubs and tea gardens for a lazy afternoon.

Other things to do in Cambridge

Beyond the colleges and the river, the Cambridge University Botanic Garden is a peaceful escape a short walk south of the centre, with glasshouses and a winter garden that make it worth visiting whatever the season. History fans might also enjoy the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology or the smaller Whipple Museum of the History of Science, both free and both quieter than the big name attractions.

The city’s market square, held daily rather than just on weekends, is a good spot for cheap lunch options, second hand books and local produce. In the evening, the Cambridge Union and various college bars sometimes host talks and events open to the public, and a handful of traditional pubs like the Eagle, where Watson and Crick reportedly announced their discovery of DNA’s structure, add another layer of history to a simple pint.

Getting around Cambridge

The city centre is largely pedestrianised and easy to navigate on foot, though renting a bike from one of the many hire shops near the station is popular with visitors who want to cover more ground. Cambridge station is about a twenty five minute walk or a short bus ride from the centre, so factor that in if you’re arriving by train from London King’s Cross or Liverpool Street, both around an hour away.

Term time, roughly October to June with breaks over Christmas and Easter, brings a different energy to the city with students everywhere and some colleges restricting visitor hours. Late spring is particularly attractive, when the gardens along the Backs are in full bloom and the May Balls, despite the name, actually happen in June. Summer is busiest with tourists, so early mornings are your best bet for photos of the colleges without crowds. If you fancy comparing notes with a trip closer to home, our guide to UK staycation ideas is worth a look too.