Start from 40 curated places around Cambridge, GB, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Midsummer House
Cambridge's pinnacle of fine dining, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in a Victorian villa on Midsummer Common serving an ambitious modern-British tasting menu. It's a destination meal for a special occasion. Best for a long, celebratory tasting dinner overlooking the common.
Fancett's
A small French-inspired bistro on Mill Road recommended by both the Michelin and Good Food guides, serving precise seasonal cooking at unusually fair prices. It's the neighbourhood's quietly excellent fine-ish dinner. Best for a considered dinner that punches well above its price.
Trails & outdoors
Grantchester Meadows
A classic riverside walk southwest from the city through open water-meadows to the village of Grantchester, ending at the famous Orchard Tea Garden where generations of poets and scientists have lounged. The flat path along the Cam is pure pastoral England. Best for an easy walk to a village tea garden and a riverside picnic.
The Backs
The stretch of college lawns and gardens running along the Cam behind the grandest colleges, crossed by historic bridges and best seen from the riverside paths and Queen's Road. It's the most beautiful walk in the city. Best for a slow stroll past the college backs, ideally at golden hour.
Things to do
Fitzwilliam Museum
The university's grand free museum, with everything from Egyptian antiquities and Greek vases to Turners and Impressionists in opulent galleries. It rivals national museums and rarely feels crowded. Best for a half-day of art and antiquities, or a focused hour on the highlights.
Kettle's Yard
A unique house-museum and modern-art gallery where a former curator's home is preserved exactly as he arranged it, with art, pebbles, and light in quiet harmony, alongside a contemporary exhibition space. It's a serene, idiosyncratic counterpoint to the grand museums. Best for an unhurried, contemplative hour with modern art.
Landmarks & sights
King's College Chapel
The soaring late-Gothic chapel that is Cambridge's defining landmark, with the largest fan-vaulted ceiling in the world and Rubens' Adoration of the Magi behind the altar. Hearing the famous choir at evensong is the way locals experience it. Best for the architecture by day or, even better, choral evensong by candlelight.
Bridge of Sighs
St John's College's enclosed neo-Gothic bridge over the Cam, built in 1831 and reputedly Queen Victoria's favourite Cambridge sight. It's best seen from a punt gliding underneath or from the neighbouring Kitchen Bridge. Best photographed from the river or the public bridge just downstream.