Start from 38 curated places around Durham, GB, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Coarse
A small, warmly run room tucked in a courtyard off North Road serving a seasonal modern-British tasting menu that changes constantly. The cooking punches well above the price and the wine pairings are unusually thoughtful, which is why it tops most locals' lists for a special meal.
FIIK
A relaxed, no-dress-code take on fine dining on Elvet Bridge built around a multi-course tasting menu that does not take itself too seriously. Vegetarians are looked after as a matter of course rather than an afterthought, and the value against bigger-name tasting menus is the talking point.
Trails & outdoors
Durham Riverside Walk
The flat circular path that loops the wooded peninsula below the cathedral and castle, reached by steps down from Elvet and Framwellgate bridges. It is the easiest way to swap the busy streets for the calm of the river, with the famous Prebends Bridge view on the south bank.
Wear River and Broom Hill Circular
A well-loved circular along the River Wear at the edge of the city, threading Pelaw Woods nature reserve and out to Old Durham before crossing back along the far bank. It is mostly easy with a gentle rise, and far quieter than the central riverbanks.
Things to do
Beamish, The Living Museum of the North
A vast open-air living museum about a 20-minute drive north, where costumed staff run a recreated 1900s town, a 1940s farm, pit cottages and a 1950s street you walk through and ride trams between. It is an easy full day and one of the best family outings in the region.
Oriental Museum
The university's museum of the art and archaeology of Asia and North Africa, the only one of its kind in the UK, covering Egypt, China, Japan, the Himalayas and more. It is compact, free and rarely crowded, an ideal rainy-hour stop that is genuinely child-friendly.
Landmarks & sights
Durham Cathedral
The most complete Norman cathedral in England, raised over the shrine of St Cuthbert and the tomb of the Venerable Bede, with rib-vaulting that changed European architecture. The scale of the nave is the thing people remember, and the cloisters doubled as a film location that draws a steady stream of fans.
Durham Castle
A Norman fortress that became the palace of the prince-bishops and is now a working Durham University college, so students actually live inside it. You can only see the Great Hall, Norman chapel and black staircase on a guided tour, which is led by students who know the building inside out.