Places to Stay With a Bar in Cambridge

What a bar actually gets you in this set

There are 14 places to stay with a bar published on BritStays in the Cambridge region, and the mix is heavily weighted towards hotels: 12 hotels and two campsites. A bar is the one thing they all share, but it means different things depending on the stay. Eight of the 14 also list a restaurant, so if you want dinner without going back out, check that before you book rather than assuming the bar does food. Ten list WiFi, nine have parking and eight list disabled access.

City, market town or open countryside

This is an inland region, so there is no coastal option here — the choice is really city versus countryside. Eleven of the 14 stays are in Cambridge itself, which makes it the obvious base if you want to walk between your room, your dinner and your evening drink. Graduate by Hilton Cambridge, Turing Locke, Hyatt Centric Cambridge and The Fellows House Cambridge, Curio Collection by Hilton all sit in that city group and all list WiFi, which matters if you are mixing a few days off with a bit of work.

The other three are spread across market towns: Bedford Lodge Hotel in Newmarket, The Bull Inn in Bury St Edmunds and The Chalk Hare in Royston. These suit a slower trip — a drive out, a long lunch, a walk — and they tend to come with parking as standard rather than as a hopeful extra.

Couples, families and dog owners

Only three of the 14 list a spa, so if that is the point of the trip your shortlist is short: Bedford Lodge Hotel, Varsity Hotel and Gonville Hotel. Bedford Lodge Hotel and Varsity Hotel also list a gym. Gonville Hotel pairs its spa with a restaurant, which is a sensible combination for a two-night break where you would rather not plan much.

Families have fewer dedicated options, but they do exist. Highfield Farm Touring Park is one of the two campsites in this set and lists a bar alongside toilets and a gift shop — useful if you are touring with a caravan or motorhome and want somewhere to sit in the evening. Travelodge Cambridge Newmarket Road lists a bar, restaurant and takeaway food, which is a practical setup when you have tired children and no appetite for a sit-down meal. Steeplechase LRP Centre lists a bar, restaurant and cafe.

Four of the 14 are pet friendly, which is roughly one in three. The Yew Tree Inn is the named example, combining pet friendly with a bar and WiFi. Because the pool is small, dog owners should treat these as the properties to book first and plan the rest of the trip around them.

Getting there, and getting around

Nine of the 14 list parking and three are near a train station. If you are arriving by train and want to leave the car at home, that third figure is worth taking seriously — it is a small group, so check the facility list on each stay rather than assuming. If you are driving, the countryside stays in Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds and Royston make more sense as a base than parking in the middle of a city.

What to do once you are there

Two National Trust properties anchor the outdoor side of a trip here: Wicken Fen for flat, watery walking and birdlife, and the Wimpole Estate, with Wimpole Hall at its centre, for a day that works in most weather. For heritage with a ruin to climb around, there is Stansted Mountfitchet Castle and the remains of Waytemore Castle.

Rainy days are well covered by museums. The Centre for Computing History is in Cambridge itself and is unusually hands-on; further afield you will find Whittlesey Museum, Moot Hall, Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens, The Ancient House Museum and the Flitch Way Railway Carriage Museum. For older children in summer, H2O Rampage Aqua Park and Aqua Splash Redricks Lakes are both inflatable-style water parks and both need booking rather than turning up.

When to book

With only 14 bar-equipped stays in the region, the margins are tight. A few honest pointers:

• Book pet friendly stays such as The Yew Tree Inn as early as you can — there are only four in this set.
• The same goes for spa stays: Bedford Lodge Hotel, Varsity Hotel and Gonville Hotel are the only three.
• Summer weekends and bank holidays go first in Cambridge, where 11 of the 14 sit.
• Camping at somewhere like Highfield Farm Touring Park is seasonal — confirm opening dates before you plan around it.
• If step-free access matters, start with the eight that list it, including Arundel House Hotel, The Bull Inn, Hyatt Centric Cambridge and The Fellows House Cambridge, Curio Collection by Hilton, then ring ahead to confirm the specifics of your room.

Before you confirm anything, write down your three non-negotiables — parking, a dog, an accessible room — and filter on those first. The bar is the easy part here; it is the other facilities that narrow the list.