Car-free adventures aroundChesterCheshire
On these car-free Chester adventures, world travel has never been so easy. Take a walk and boat trip through Chester Zoo and you can experience Madagascan forests, Indonesian islands, African grasslands and tropical jungles all in one day. There are regular buses from Chester station to the zoo and, if you arrive by public transport, you can buy discounted combi-tickets at the station or on the bus. Chester is just two hours from London Euston by train and advance tickets start from £19. There are more wildlife adventures in Delamere Forest, Cheshire’s biggest woodland area, with its prehistoric bogs and carpets of starry sphagnum moss. Explore the industrial heritage around Northwich, also a short train ride from Chester, or walk round the old city walls and cruise along the River Dee. Who needs a car?
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1. Chester Zoo
Be transported round the world in a day. Take a leisurely boat trip through the Islands, a series of South East Asian habitats, or walk through a warm, leafy tropical house, full of free-flying colourful birds. New grasslands house Asiatic lions and chimps swing through the trees. The zoo really is a global adventure with glowing plants and insects to brighten the greyest wintry day – giant blue morpho butterflies among red hibiscus or orange clownfish swimming through pink coral. There’s plenty of environmental info too – from how to avoid unsustainable palm oil to protecting endangered species. This is a zoo aiming to help save the planet and teach you about it at the same time.
- How to get to Chester Zoo: Follow Good Journey’s directions.
- Food and drink: There are lots of places to eat, generously sprinkled throughout the zoo’s 125 acres, including the new Manado Street Kitchen near the lazy river boat ride. The decor and even a recorded soundtrack conjure up the sense of being in a Sulawesi market where residents and eco tourists share spicy street food.
- Don’t miss the many talks and interactive demonstrations going on throughout the day – from a minibeast safari in the butterfly house to discovering more about rhinos, sloths, elephants or Komodo dragons. See the tropical birds being fed or take the chance to quiz the zoo rangers about your favourite animals.
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2. Walking through history
Chester’s rebuilt city walls, where Roman legionaries once guarded the fortress of Deva, now provide an hour-long, traffic-free stroll, overlooking the racecourse, the Roman amphitheatre (Britain’s largest) and the rows – medieval shops with half-timbered galleries.
- The walls are a short walk from the railway station (or there are regular shuttle buses) and take you past several of the city’s interesting landmarks, like the cheerful Eastgate clock, the red sandstone castle or the tower where Charles I stood to watch the Battle of Rowton Moor.
- Not far from Chester Castle, Grosvenor Museum explores the city’s history, with paintings of Chester through the ages and extraordinary Roman gravestones, unearthed from below the walls. The museum is free (donations welcome) and definitely worth a visit. There’s even a display (with dried leaves and stuffed weasels) about Delamere Forest (see 3 below).
- How to get to Grosvenor Museum: It’s about half way round the walls – in either direction – if you’re coming from the railway station or a twenty minute walk if you take a more direct route through the town centre (see map below). Alternatively, buses 16, 1 and 4 from the railway station all stop on Grosvenor Street, almost outside the museum door.
- Food and drink: Don’t miss Chester Market, ten minutes away on foot, with all kinds of goodies to eat, great coffee and locally baked bread.
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3. Boat trip on the Dee
Cruise up the River Dee all year round. Chester Boat leaves frequently, from the elegant suspension bridge that links Grosvenor Park with the willow-fringed meadows beyond the river. Even in winter, the covered boats sail hourly past spread-winged cormorants and handsome Victorian villas.
- You can buy just a boat ticket, or a combined ticket for the boat and the city bus tour.
- Near the landing stage, don’t miss the columns, mosaics and poplars of the Roman gardens.
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4. Delamere Forest
Beeches and oaks, scotch pine and coppery bracken line the meandering trails through Delamere Forest, the largest woodland area in Cheshire. Rare wildlife is drawn to the spongy prehistoric bogs with their carpets of starry sphagnum moss. Flooded Blakemere Moss is a magnet for ducks, geese, coots and gulls.
- What to do: As well as walking and nature spotting, Go Ape offers treetop adventure and a friendly cycle shop can rent out bikes from £20 for four hours.
- How to get to Delamere Forest: Follow Good Journey’s directions. A 15-minute train ride from Chester delivers you straight to the heart of the forest.
- Food and drink: There’s a Forestry England visitor centre nearby and the refurbed station house is now an atmospheric café. There are daily specials with lots of vegan and veggie options like mushroom stroganoff (£6.50) or butternut couscous (£6).
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5. Industrial Heritage
Catch the train to Northwich to explore Cheshire’s industrial heritage. The Anderton Boat Lift, opened in 1875, towers on cast iron pillars over the Weaver Navigation, lifting boats fifty feet to the Trent and Mersey Canal. The canal-side Lion Salt Works in Marston reopened as a visitor attraction four years ago, after a £10 million restoration. It combines hi-tech exposition with an evocative sense of past effort. Among rusting brine tanks and brick chimneys, dioramas and projections conjure up sweaty twelve-hour shifts among the boiling salt pans (£6.25/£4 for adults/kids).
- How to get to the Anderton Boat Lift: Bus N4 from Northwich bus station stops every twenty minutes at the Swing Bridge nearby, but, if the weather is fine you can also walk from Northwich along the River Weaver.
- The boat lift visitor centre, viewing point and cafe are free to enter. You can also take a boat trip, along the green-banked river to the edge of the half-timbered town, and a ride up in the lift itself, where water cascades above the boat’s glass ceiling (combined trip £12.25/£7.25 for adults/kids).
- How to get to the Lion Salt Works: It’s just over two miles beside the canal from the Anderton Boat Lift to the Lion Salt Works, and around a mile from there to Lostock Gralam station, making a lovely waterside walk. You can walk directly from Lostock Gralam, which takes about 25 minutes. See map below.
- The Salt Works costs £6.25/£4 for adult/kids and there are several parts of the site you can visit for free, including the cafe, play area and butterfly garden.
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6. Train trip to Liverpool
Liverpool is just 45 minutes away via Merseyrail and is also packed with things to do. Look out for our car-free guide to Liverpool later in the year.
- Buy a Saveaway ticket from Chester station for £5.55 and (amazingly) it will give you free return train travel on Merseyrail to Liverpool, unlimited bus travel once you get there and even direct ferry crossings over the Mersey!
- Liverpool’s historic docks continue to develop as a cultural hub with several exceptional museums and galleries. There’s the huge Tate gallery with great permanent collections, including one of Naum Gabo’s constructivist steel heads and stunning views of the city; one side overlooks the docks and cathedral, while the western rooms face across the Mersey.
- Or you can dive into the Beatles Story, on the corner of the Royal Albert dock. This engrossing museum celebrates Liverpool’s most famous sons, taking visitors in a journey from the summer of 1957 when John Lennon first met Paul McCartney at a garden fete in St Peter’s Church to the irrepressible global phenomenon they became and beyond. See Bill Harry’s messy Mersey Beat office, walk through the Cavern club and hear the screams of Beatlemania… even the loos are submarine-themed! (Thanks to The Beatles Story for the photo).
