August 2021
I visited Bristol in July with a couple of friends, and was surprised what Bristol had to offer.
When we were planning a weekend trip away, if I’m honest Bristol wasn’t my first choice. I’m not entirely sure why, but I didn’t have good pre-conceived ideas of Bristol. On reflection, this was ludicrous as I had never visited before and I can honestly say this is one of the best weekends I have had in the UK. Bristol has ample things to offer visitors, and again as always loads to do that doesn’t cost a fortune or break the bank!
The Berkeley
We stayed at the Berkeley Square Hotel (BS8 1HB) for 2 nights, and loved the experience. It’s a really relaxed informal atmosphere. Breakfast is optional (£13.50 extra). The rooms were clean, and they even left some complimentary sherry which we thought was a lovely touch as a night time tipple. I had a single room which was £121.50 for 2 nights, and my friends payed £180 for a double room for 2 nights. We booked though booking.com. (Prices as per July 2021).
Just behind our hotel was a public park called ‘Brandon Hill’, this is an absolute must see in my opinion. We visited here before going out for dinner. Sitting in the middle of the park is ‘Cabot Tower’ which has a fantastic history, said to be a commemoration of an explorer John Cabot who travelled to Canada – created in 1898.
We went out for an evening meal on Friday night, and went out for a simple pizza dinner (always a pleaser in a group of different eaters). We went to pizza express who almost always have offers on, and I think including drinks we spent £20 per person.
We spent the evening out and would highly recommend the night life in Bristol. We started at the ‘Her Majesties Secret Service’ bar in Bristol which was brilliant. It wasn’t a cheap bar but brilliant for those who enjoy a good quality cocktail. I love tequila, and this was hands down the best margarita I’ve ever had. The service was impeccable and they had jenga blocks for us to play whilst we were there, being the children that we are this made my night! Make sure you book in advance as they are really busy, and seating is limited.
Hands down, this was one of the best nights out, I can’t remember all the bars and clubs we visited as we just went round and just enjoyed ourselves. But… what I was really impressed with was firstly how clean and nice Bristol felt on a night out, and secondly the amount of things for us to do. There was a summer themed fair and a temporary summer bar with sand and swings in the centre of Bristol. Having a cocktail whilst swinging on a swing, again was a lovely experience. We went on the fair on both nights, and had a ride on the helta-skelta, dodgems and the tall swings. It was brilliant and would thoroughly recommend. We will be visiting as a larger group next year for the Bristol Balloon Fiesta 2022.
Day 1: Banksy Tour
So… this is a free experience. Going around Bristol and finding all of the famous Banksy art exhibitions. I downloaded an app which I found really helpful and it had some good information on it about each Banksy piece. We also found it a really good way to see the city (away from the central tourist areas). If I’m honest, given that we were visiting at the height of season we were so surprised at how quiet the area’s were, we expected to see crowds gathered around the art. We were pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t the case.
We travelled via electric scooters (see above) and found this equally as thrilling, if not slightly more thrilling than the artwork itself. It was a really fun way to travel, I hadn’t used an e-scooter before and would highly recommend if you are able to use one. The brand was called ‘Voi’ (as per August 2021) and we payed £6.99 for a 24 hour pass which had unlimited rides at the time. This was brilliant, and made the tour easily do-able in a day and we weren’t exhausted afterwards as we would have been if we walked it all. I have collated some of the photographs below from the banksy artwork and will put the postcodes of all the banksy artwork below, alongside the app we used to locate them all.
The app we used was located on the play store and was called ‘Banksy’s Bristol Tour Map’ it’s a black and white logo and shows all of the 10 artworks with the city. It shows where you are on the map as well which is great.
- ‘Mild Mild West’, 80 Stokes Croft, BS1 3QY.
- ‘You don’t need planning permission to build castles in the sky’, 41 Lower Lamb Street, BS1 5QR.
- ‘Take the money and run’, St Andrews Road, BS6 5EH.
- ‘Cat and Dog’, 18 Robertson Road, BS5 6JY.
- ‘Masked Gorilla’, 139 Fishponds Road, BS5 6PR
- ‘The Grim Reaper’, M-Shed Museum, BS1 4RN.
- ‘Rose Trap’, Thomas Street North, BS2 8LX.
- ‘Well Hung Lover’, 7 Park Street, BS1 5HR.
- ‘The Girl with the pierced eardrum’, Sydney Row, BS1 6UU.
- ‘Valentines Day’,Marsh Lane Barton Hill, BS5 9SB.
- Paint Pot Angel, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Queens Road, BS8 1RL.
We saw other street art below, that isn’t Banksy’s, but is still fantastic and whilst you are travelling to the Banksy art will see. As you can see, some of the photo’s below are insta-worthy photo opportunities and are great backdrops to have some fun in front of the camera.
Day 2: Clifton Suspension Bridge
On our second day we took the e-scooters up to Clifton suspension bridge, we managed to take the scooters almost all the way there and then walked the remaining journey. The e-scooters have a limited range within the city.
The Clifton suspension bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (what a name!), work started in 1831 and the bridge still stands today. The photograph above is from the Clifton Observatory (postcode: BS8 3LT). The observatory is a great place to visit which has a glass rooftop cafe which is great to view the bridge from and it also has a really nice museum , and it also has a tunnel which takes you down to ‘giants cave’. Entry to both the museum and the cave is £5 per person (as per August 2021). We loved this, and spent ages here. We had a coffee and cake here as well which was lovely.
We visited during the hot air balloon fiesta, but unfortunately didn’t get to see any balloons. The fiesta is weather dependant and there was a lot of wind on our second day. I really wanted to get some photographs from the Clifton observatory above as this is supposed to be a brilliant place to view the balloons flying above the city. We will, therefore be visiting next year in 2022 with a larger group of friends and we hope to be able to see the balloons on this occasion.
Overall…
I would strongly recommend Bristol as a weekend get away for families, couples and larger groups of friends. Its clearly (given the good night life) a good place for stag and hen parties. But also as shown above, it has a lot to offer in the daytime for people who want full days without breaking the bank. I also do think, given the amount of museums and interesting things going on this is a great place to take children fora weekend trip away. There are further things I would’ve done over the weekend if we had more time. I will therefore be documenting this when we re-visit next year in August 2022!
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Rachel 🙂
The British Escape 