If you want a peaceful romantic holiday, one city that springs to mind is beautiful Venice. The stuning city is famous for its canals, architecture and charm – but it has a serious downside.
Venice is vastly popular and also charges a tourist tax, called the Access Fee, for day-trippers of €5 if paid online in advance, and €10 if paid last minute or on arrival. Alongside price hikes to combat tourists, a Venice holiday could be ruined by swarms of people everywhere. If you want all the charm of the Italian city but without the price tag or the people, there’s a perfect alternative right here in the UK. Cambridge has its own canals, as well as the famous River Cam. It also has its own ornate buildings and even a bridge named after its Venetian cousin – the Bridge of Sighs.
Despite the name being the same, these two bridges look nothing like each other. However, that doesn’t mean the bridge in Cambridge is any less beautiful.
Originally when it was built in 1831 it was called ‘New Bridge’ but when Queen Victoria saw it for the first time she decided it looked like the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, so the name was born.
You can only really see the Bridge’s beauty from the water, so what better way to see it than by experiencing one of Cambridge’s most famous traditions?
One of the things Venice is famous for are its canals and the romantic gondolas punted down them, but you can experience this in Cambridge too, with punting being an age-old tradition along the city’s canals.
In Cambridge, punting involves one person standing at the end of a flat bottomed boat, pushing or along with a long pole called a ‘punt’.
In Venice, gondolas are similar but these use oars rather than poles.
Visiting in the summer is the perfect time to explore Cambridge’s gorgeous botanical gardens which house thousands of plants from all over the world.
You can wander the paths by yourself, or if you want to learn from an expert you can join a guided tour. These tours go every Wednesday at 11:30am or every Sunday at either 11:30am or 2pm.
Experts lead you through the garden and tell you all about the seasonal highlights – perfect for the green fingered among us.