Adventures around Cambridgewith PlusBus
Admire the colleges from across the River Cam and wander through the city's cobbled lanes. Escape into the countryside to encounter ancient earthworks, stroll through fens and meadows or linger over a literary pint. Explore shops in a converted farm at Burwash Manor or head out on a scenic bus ride to villages with riverside pubs and waymarked walks. You can do all this and more by bus from Cambridge railway station.
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1. Famous college views and punting
To explore Cambridge and nearby villages, PlusBus is a cheap add-on to your train ticket and gives you unlimited bus travel in and around the city.
- Getting into the city centre: bus 1, bus 3 and bus 7 all run frequently from Cambridge station straight into the centre of the world-famous colleges. Find out more from Smart Cambridge.
- The really iconic views of colleges like Kings and Trinity are across the River Cam from the series of little fields known as “The Backs”. You can catch a bus from the railway station to the nearby University Library and stroll past these photogenic scenes, camera at the ready.
- Getting to “The Backs”: The frequent bus U2 from Cambridge railway station (Stop 8) takes passengers on a magical tour of some sights, skirting round the Botanic Garden, past the Fitzwilliam Museum, and over Silver Street Bridge. Get off at the Newnham/University Library stop and stroll back up West Road. At the end of the road, you’ll see The Backs ahead of you. Turn left to find beautiful footbridges leading to cobbled lanes between colleges and into the city centre. Or turn right beside the River Cam to head back towards Silver Street.
- Refreshments: The traditional Mill pub overlooks the punts near Silver Street and attracts crowds of al fresco drinkers on summer days. Or a ten minute stroll across Sheep’s Green will bring you to the Granta pub with its riverside terrace.
- Don’t miss: Look right out of the bus window on Silver Street as you cross the River Cam for a grand view of the Mathematical Bridge. Silver Street is one good place to hire punts for short trips along the river and there are several more nearby. A short walk brings you into the city centre.
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2. Grantchester and Burwash Manor
Grantchester is a peaceful village near the River Cam. The poet Rupert Brooke used to live here among thatched cottages, a medieval church, and the shady Orchard Tea Garden with deckchairs under the apple trees. Not far away is Burwash Manor, a welcoming collection of fifteen shops and a tearoom in a converted farm.
- Get there and refreshments: Once you’re in the city centre, a ten-minute stroll through shops and colleges will bring you to Drummer Street Bus Station. Hourly bus 18 heads to Grantchester village, stopping near the Rupert Brooke pub. Stroll down the High Street to the church and Orchard tea garden and across Grantchester Meadows by footpath for a riverside picnic.
- And more: Get off at Kings Grove in the village of Barton for Burwash Manor, five minutes further on bus 18.
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3. Fields and fens
The path to Fleam Dyke, a huge earthen bank probably built in the 7th-century to defend East Anglia from the Mercians, lies through a delightful nature reserve. In Spring and Summer, there are cowslips, buttercups, yellow irises and thousands of orchids flowering in the uncultivated fields of Fulbourn Fen.
- Get to Fulbourn on bus 1 from outside Cambridge railway station. It runs frequently and takes half an hour to reach the Six Bells in Fulbourn. It’s a pretty walk to Fleam Dyke through the nature reserve, beginning along Church Lane. Cross Station Road, go through the gate with a Harcamlow Way sign and keep on along the path ahead to reach an information board with a map by the gate into Fulbourn Fen.
- Refreshments at the Six Bells in Fulbourn or choice of cafes outside Cambridge railway station.
- And more: another village adventure, just half an hour’s bus ride from the railway station is to catch bus 3 to Berghott Close and stroll ten minutes to the riverside Plough and old church in Fen Ditton village, a real escape from the city. The way-marked Harcamlow Way runs through the village, leading north into the fens.