Cambridge: Culture, History and Punting

For a stay in Cambridge, historic sites, museums and activities on the River Cam offer different points of focus. The Backs, King’s College Chapel and Castle Hill each have distinct historical associations. Kettle’s Yard and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology offer other cultural highlights. Punting is possible on the river; you can also join a walking tour or explore Cambridge and its surroundings by bicycle. If you’re looking for a hotel in Cambridge, first consider whether you’d like to focus on history, art and collections, or a particular way of exploring.

Historic sites by the river and in Cambridge

The Backs is a historic Grade I park. It runs behind the colleges along the western bank of the River Cam. This site brings together parkland, the colleges and the riverbank as historical and landscape features. King’s College Chapel is the oldest surviving building on the college grounds. Services may also be a reason for visitors to include the chapel in their stay: they are free and open to visitors.

Castle Hill offers a different historical connection: it is the site of the Roman town of Duroliponte. Together with The Backs and the chapel, it gives you a choice of different historical themes—from a historic park and a building on a college campus to the site of a Roman town. When deciding what you’d like to visit, you can take these differences into account rather than grouping all the sites under a single historical theme.

Art, collections and human history

Kettle’s Yard’s collection includes modern art, such as paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics. Kettle’s Yard is a short walk from central Cambridge. The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has a different focus: it explores human history over hundreds of thousands of years. The two museums therefore differ in subject matter—modern art and a range of art forms at one, and a broad view of human history across time at the other.

There is also a specific travel detail to help you plan a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum: Cambridge railway station is about a 20-minute walk from the museum. This approximate walking time may be useful when planning if you’re considering visiting both the station and the Fitzwilliam Museum. It describes this specific route, not the walking time to the other sites mentioned.

Punting, walking tour or bicycle

Punting is possible on the River Cam in Cambridge. The city also has six licensed punting stations. If you’d rather explore Cambridge on land, you can join a walking tour. By bicycle, you can explore Cambridge and its surroundings via an excellent network of cycle paths. The activities differ in their format and scope: punting takes place on the river, the walking tour goes through Cambridge on foot, and the cycle path network is described as covering the city and its surroundings.

These differences can help you shape your stay around your interests. For example, you can consider whether a museum, a historic site, an activity on the river, or exploring on foot or by bicycle matters most to you. This range of options offers different starting points for planning your trip and deciding what to look for in hotels in Cambridge.

Discover more destinations

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For the main travel overview: Cambridgeshire.