DURHAM, UK | Best Things To Do On Your City Break - A Suggested Itinerary

In this travel guide we'll be spending two days in the small city of Durham. Our itinerary offers a combination of history, nature, impressive architecture, beautiful streets and of course delicious food and drink. I'll share practical information along the way and add extra details you may also need for planning your trip at the end of the video. After arriving in Durham we headed to the first attraction of the day, Durham Cathedral. Once described by Bill Bryson as the best cathedral on planet earth, Durham Cathedral was jointly designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Durham Castle, which we will be visiting a little later. The cathedral and castle are both set on Palace Green, a peaceful grassy square surrounded by beautiful stone buildings such as the library, the almshouses and the Pemberton building. Construction of the cathedral began in 1093 to house the Shrine of St Guthbert and after only 40 years most of the building work had been completed. Take your time exploring the cathedral, you will find there's a lot to see in this magnificent building but I will highlight just a couple of things for you to look out for. Once you enter the cathedral take a moment to look down and you'll see a black line on the floor. Women used to be barred from heading into the nave and were not allowed to cross this line. As you continue through the stunning cathedral you'll come to the Bishop's Throne. Allegedly Bishop Hatsfield ordered his monks to go all the way to the Vatican to measure the height of the Pope's throne because he wanted his throne to be the tallest and it now sits at one whole inch higher than the Pope's. To visit the cathedral you don't need to book your ticket in advance. It's free to enter with a suggested donation of £5 although there are a couple of additional ticketed activities available. We paid £12.50 per person for the 90 minutes museum tour where our guide told us stories of the cathedral and really brought the displays to life. At the time of our visit access to the museum and the treasures of St Cuthbert's were only available by guided tour although the staff said this may change in the near future. As part of the museum tour we also visited the chapter house a former meeting room of the monks where the first Norman bishops are now buried right there underneath your feet. You might recognize the chapter house if you're a Harry Potter fan as this was the setting for McGonagall's classroom. The chapter house isn't the only part of the cathedral to feature in the films. The cloister which would act as a covered walkway for the monks was used several times in the Harry Potter films as the Hogwarts quadrangle. I've got one more for you. While you're in the nave if you look up you'll see the forbidden corridor where a trap door was guarded by Fluffy the three-headed dog. During your visit you could also purchase the ticket for the cathedral tower. Climb the narrow 325 steps up to the very top where you'll be rewarded with far-reaching views over the city and the surrounding countryside. Definitely worth it if you're okay with heights. For lunch we walked around 10 minutes from the cathedral to Bean Social a small friendly cafe and coffee shop with mainly vegetarian and vegan offerings. As we still had a bit of time before our next scheduled activity we went for a stroll around the pretty streets. Walking up silver streets with the bridge behind us over to our right was the which marked the original pilgrims route to the cathedral shrine. We decided to follow the passageway although to be honest it wasn't really that exciting. Next was Market Square where open-air markets are held on Saturdays. In this square you'll see three statues. The well-known horseback statue of the third Marquess of Londonderry who was a former army general and coal mine owner. The Durham light infantry statue and the statue of the god of the sea Neptune. The streets near the cathedral were so picturesque one of the street names Duncow Lane has a story behind it. Legend has it that the monks were attempting to carry the body of Saint Cuthbert to a place called Dunhome but they didn't know where it was. On their journey they came across a milkmaid looking for her lost cow. She was directed by a passerby to Dunhome which the monks overheard and took And that's the story of the Duncow. By late afternoon it was time for our pre-booked guided tour of the 11th century castle. While the castle was originally built under the order of William the Conqueror to defend the area from invasions, today the castle functions as home to Durham University's oldest college. Students study, eat and even sleep here which is why the castle is currently open to tour groups only. For £5 we were given a 45 minute tour by an enthusiastic guide who took us around parts of the castle showing us details we may have missed if we were visiting on our own. As we were taken around we were told more about the castle's history, the architecture and the prince bishops who lived there over the years. A particular highlight of the tour is visiting the Norman Chapel. This is the oldest building still standing in Durham and if you look around at the stone pillars you'll see numerous unique carvings. Before dinner we stopped by the Duncow. This supposedly haunted traditional pub is housed in a beautiful grade 2 Lister building and is perhaps the oldest pub in the city. Head into the snug bar and enjoy a beer in this cosy pint-sized room complete with a crackling fire. Perfect for a winter pub trip. After reading some really good reviews we headed to a car-suit for dinner. This Turkish restaurant had a large menu from dishes stewed in a clay pot to meats cooked over a charcoal grill. There was a lot of variety. We started by sharing the spicy sausage and the phyllo pastry filled with feta, spinach and dill. For mains we had the chicken and lamb cooked over the barbecue grill and the lamb and vegetables stewed in a clay pot. While the grilled dish was delicious, for us it was the stew that stole the show. Our next morning started with breakfast at Flatwhite's kitchen. The airy cafe had a rustic feel with wooden tables, exposed beams and plants hanging everywhere. I had avocado, poached egg, feta, pickled chilli and coriander on toast and Erin had the house fry. If you do want to visit Flatwhite kitchen do know that it is very popular and often has a queue. We followed breakfast with a walk along the River Weir. On our stroll around the pretty streets yesterday we had dropped down to the river briefly to see the mighty castle from another perspective but we had saved a longer riverside walk for this morning. There are several access points to the riverside so we started our walk at Elbit Bridge. We walked along the tranquil wooded riverbanks, watching the rowers go by. We walked a little bit past Farnwell Gate Bridge before turning round and heading back the way we came. While we did a fairly short riverside walk there are longer routes you can do so I'll link a couple of suggested routes in the description below this video. On our way back we followed the routes that peeled away from the river and exited at St Oswald's Church. From here we walked around 20 minutes to Durham University's Botanic Garden. For £4 per adult you can explore the 10 hectares of beautifully maintained gardens and admire plant species from around the world. You don't need to book a ticket in advance, just show up. As our visit was in early March this video definitely won't show you the gardens at their best, however we enjoyed our visit and there were still some things to see even in winter. Stop by the bird hide for a bit of bird watching. Spot sculptures hidden around the gardens, some much easier to find than others. Our favourite part of any botanic garden can be enjoyed all year round and that is the glass houses. Walk through the cactus house filled with desert plants from different parts of the world. You will then experience the complete opposite at the tropical house where you can make it rain at the press of a button. The glass house is also contained a pond with bags of food available for you to feed the koi. Speaking of food, seamless segue there, there's a simple cafe at the garden serving soup, sandwiches and cake. There are also tables and benches available if you would rather take a picnic. If you're visiting with children then before you go check the Botanic Garden website for suggested trails that you might want to download in advance. After the Botanic Garden we walked just a short distance to the Oriental Museum. This well-organised art and archaeology museum has four floors dedicated to Ancient Egypt, Japan, Korea, China, the Himalayas, South Asia and Southeast Asia and the Silk Roads. The exhibits showcase a wide variety of objects and cover many different topics so there's more than enough here to hold your interest for a couple of hours. Although entry to this museum is free they do ask that you book a time slot in advance of your visit with bookings opening every Monday for the week ahead. After all of that walking we decided it was time for a couple of pre-dinner drinks. First up was the weird and wonderful Old Tom's Gin Bar which offers over 350 types of gin. You have to love the bizarre decor and our drinks were really good but it was pretty expensive so we only stayed for one. After leaving Old Tom's we grabbed our coconuts and clopped two minutes up the road to the Holy Grail. This bar has a good selection of craft beer and you can enjoy a pint or two while sat on a throne. Dinner was at Shaheen's, a family-run Indian restaurant that was rated as the number one restaurant in Durham on TripAdvisor. We both went for the Shaheen's special Balti dishes, one prawn, one vegetable and were not disappointed. Both Shaheen's and Akasu were popular restaurants so I would suggest booking in advance. Our day ended with a stroll around Durham which I'm sure you will agree looks absolutely beautiful in the dark. We didn't quite fit everything into two days so on your visit you could also consider the Museum of Archaeology, Durham Museum and Heritage Centre and a river cruise but I don't think they were running on our trip. If you've already been to Durham and I've missed one of your favourite attractions then do let us know in the comments. Now for a little extra practical information for planning your trip. Firstly, where exactly is Durham? Durham sits in the northeast of England and is part of County Durham. I want to mention that because when you search for things to do in Durham on your city break you'll want to check whether those attractions you're getting excited about are actually in the city of Durham. If you won't be driving then there is a train station right here around 15 minute walk from the castle. If you're travelling by train then Durham is around 10 minutes from Newcastle, 45 minutes from York, two and a half hours from Manchester and three and a half hours from London. We drove so we picked a hotel that offered parking. There are several car parks around Durham and a park and ride is also available which I will link in the description below although we don't have experience of using them ourselves. As for getting around then Durham is a compact walkable city so you can explore on foot. While we walked to the Botanic Gardens and the Oriental Museum, if you would prefer to take public transport then there are regular buses from the city centre. They also both have a car park if you would prefer to drive. If like us then you want to stick to walking I would recommend wearing comfortable shoes as even though Durham is small it is pretty hilly and according to my Fitbit we still managed to rack up around 20,000 steps a day. If you have an extra day in Durham and are looking for trips outside of the city then you might like our upcoming video on Beamish, the living museum of the north. Beamish is an absolutely huge interactive open-air museum where you explore what life in the northeast was like during different periods of time going as far back as the 1820s. I will be creating a separate video dedicated to Beamish which I will link at the end of this video once it's ready so if you are interested in finding out why this is one of the top rated attractions in County Durham then be sure to watch that next. I hope you found this helpful. Thanks for watching.