As I live in Yorkshire, and I tend to prefer European City breaks, I’ve never spent a lot of time in South West England. But recently I went to pick my friend and her belongings up from Salisbury as she’s moved back to Yorkshire, and decided to spend a day in Salisbury whilst I was there.
Salisbury is probably best known for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March 2018, but there’s so much more to Sailsbury and the surrounding area than that.
My first stop was Salisbury Cathedral, which has Britain’s tallest spire and the best preserved Magna Carta. It’s built almost entirely in Early English Gothic style and it’s a stunningly beautiful building. Due to COVID, we couldn’t go inside when I was there, but it’s now reopened for visitors. Pre booking is recommended and whilst it’s free, there’s a recommended donation of £7.50 per adult, to help with the running costs of the building. It’s always worth a look inside and I’m reliably informed the inside is as beautiful as the outside.
Market Square was full of outside tables from the various bars and restaurants there, and we spent a warm evening enjoying tea and a drink whilst we soaked up the atmosphere. In the sunshine, I could have been in any European City and I loved it. During the day, there’s a large market there on Saturdays and it will be nice to sit and watch the world go by with a coffee.
Walking around the shops in Salisbury means you get to see loads of beautiful buildings, water flowing under certain parts of the city and have a generally lovely walk. The shops themselves aren’t anything special-like any city there are some cute little one off shops, and your general city chains, but it’s worth a walk and a look in the smaller shops-just don’t forget your mask!
If you fancy a longer walk, you can go behind the Cathedral, through a pretty little park and out along the River. We didn’t walk too far (Fibromyalgia problems) but we passed beautiful houses, a couple of pretty bridges, and got some gorgeous views of the Cathedral over the fields. We walked for about an hour in total and you could go much further if you chose to.
With a lot of things being closed due to COVID, I felt I’d seen the majority of Salisbury with an afternoon and evening there, so we decided to spend the next day going around some local to Salisbury places. I think if you spent time in the Cathedral, more time eating out and went for more walks you could spend longer in Salisbury but for me, I wanted to explore further afield.
Stonehenge is only 8 miles away (I didn’t go on this occasion, because the walk from the carpark to the stones is quite a long one and I can find that difficult with my Fibromyalgia) but if you’re healthier than I am, I’d say it’s a must see. Tickets start from £9.48, at the moment you need to prebook, and as it’s such a famous landmark and a World Heritage Site, it’s one to cross of your must see list.
Salisbury is also fairly near Winchester (25 miles, about 45 minutes) but I’ve previously spent a day in Winchester before when visiting a friend who lived there so that wasn’t an option for this weekend. Bristol is only 50 miles away, but it’s a much bigger city and although on my must see list, feels like it needs more of a plan, so that was out. Claire suggested Bath as somewhere pretty for me to wander around and see a lot of in a short time, and also Glastonbury, as a town with lots of street art (I love street art). If you were spending more than a couple of days in the area, Cardiff is just over two hours away, which opens up all of South Wales as places to visit too.
Have you ever spent a day in Salisbury? What else should I have seen?
Like you, we’ve taken many city breaks in Europe, but not quite as many in the UK. We do try and explore our UK cities too though! Salisbury is a lovely place to spend a day, not only for the Cathedral but the pretty architecture and lovely shops and cafes.