Things to do in Bristol

Bristol sits in a gorge on the tidal Avon. Ships used to strand on the mud at low water, until William Jessop locked the harbour shut for good in 1809. Isambard Kingdom Brunel built on that a generation later, and his bridge and his ship are still the draw.

The harbour and the gorge

The Floating Harbour still shapes downtown Bristol: locked off from the tide, it never drains and it rarely floods. Brunel's SS Great Britain floats in the dry dock where she was built, the world's first iron-hulled ocean liner. Clifton Suspension Bridge spans the gorge 75 metres up.

• SS Great Britain. Launched in 1843, restored as a museum ship, engine rooms and cabins open below the waterline.
• Clifton Suspension Bridge. Brunel designed it at 24; it opened in 1864, five years after he died.
• We The Curious and M Shed. A science centre and a harbourside museum on Bristol's trade, near the water.

Georgian terraces and the old core

Clifton climbs the hill west of the gorge. Its cream-stucco terraces were built for merchants who grew rich on the port. Royal York Crescent runs along the top, one of the longest Georgian crescents in Britain.

• Georgian House Museum. A sugar merchant's eighteenth-century townhouse on Great George Street, honest about where the money came from.
• St Nicholas Market. Covered stalls trading since the 1740s, food, records and crafts under one Georgian roof.
• St Mary Redcliffe. A parish church built mostly in the fourteenth century; Elizabeth I is said to have called it the fairest in England.
• Cabot Tower. A red-sandstone lookout on Brandon Hill, built in the 1890s to mark 400 years since Cabot sailed for North America.

Stokes Croft and the street art city

Banksy grew up here. Stokes Croft still wears that inheritance on its walls, repainted almost as fast as it is made. Every summer Upfest turns a stretch of Bedminster into what organisers call Europe's largest street art festival.

Bath is a short train ride away, about fifteen minutes, and works well as an add-on day.

Practical

• Weather. Summers rarely clear 20C, rain possible any month; winters hover around 5-6C, wettest November to January.
• Getting around. The centre, Harbourside and Clifton are walkable; Temple Meads station is a fifteen-minute walk or short bus ride away.
• Tipping. Ten to twelve percent in restaurants if service isn't already on the bill; nothing expected in pubs.
• Museums. M Shed, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and the bridge visitor centre are free; the SS Great Britain charges admission.