Day trips from Cambridge

You could, if you’re pressed for time, visit Cambridge on a day trip from London. However, it’s best to spend at least a night or two taking in the city’s copious charms. And if there’s room in your UK schedule, it’s a good idea to extend your stay and use the city as a springboard to the diverse attractions nearby. Here are five possible outings.

IWM DUXFORD

Aviation buffs are enthralled by this preserved wartime airfield 15km south of Cambridge, part of the collection of the London-based Imperial War Museum. One of the earliest Royal Air Force stations, it opened in World War I and many of its buildings have changed little since the 1940s. Some shelter vintage aircraft that you can peruse and climb into. Sit in the cockpit of a Spitfire, roam the fuselage of an Avro Lancaster, and learn more about the men and women who served here through the exhibits and interactive new family-friendly displays.

Some of Duxford’s pilots were sent on D-Day missions and awe-inspiring wartime aircraft fly through the Cambridgeshire skies during the annual themed air festivals (a big one is the Battle of Britain Air Show scheduled for September 12 and 13, 2026). Duxford is open daily and if you don’t have a hire car, you can travel here on public transport — either on a bus or with a train-bus combination.

iwm.org.uk

NEWMARKET

Whether you fancy placing a few bets or going face-to-nose with a thoroughbred stallion, the so-called home of British horseracing is only a 20-minute train ride east of Cambridge. Race days pull in the crowds at Newmarket’s two courses between April and November, with calendar highlights including the 1000 and 2000 Guineas (May 2-3, 2026) — two of the five British Classic races.

Another buzzing event in this Suffolk town is the annual July festival, which sees fashionable attendees enjoying flutters on the races and flutes of champagne. Year-round, Newmarket offers guided tours of its equine-related draws, including the gallops, trainers’ yard and National Stud, while the National Horseracing Museum is set on the site of a 17th-century palace and stables built for King Charles II. Open-air summer concerts are also staged in Newmarket, with Craig David, Madness and Basement Jaxx among the 2026 headliners.

nhrm.co.uk

ANGLESEY ABBEY

If you have your own wheels, you could call in at this National Trust-run affair on your way to (or from) Newmarket. Otherwise, the Tiger 5 bus links Cambridge with this 47ha estate in the village of Lode. Formerly the site of a medieval monastic priory, the Anglesey Abbey grounds were dramatically transformed in the first half of the 20th century by Lord Fairhaven, a wealthy American-born, English-educated racehorse breeder and art collector. He lavishly furnished the Jacobean-style country house and gardens, where classical-style sculptures, roses and dahlias vie for your admiration.

Adding to Anglesey Abbey’s allure is an 18th-century watermill with traditional machinery, and you’ll also find woodlands, a play area, bookshop, cafe and restaurant on the estate.

nationaltrust.org.uk

GRANTCHESTER

You may have seen Grantchester on TV. Located 4km south of Cambridge, by the bucolic meadows hugging the River Cam, it’s the idyllic setting of the long-running drama about a vicar with a talent for sleuthing. The show is filmed locally and you may recognise Grantchester’s village church, thatched cottages and the old vicarage (which politician-turned-novelist Jeffrey Archer bought in 1979).

It’s possible to reach Grantchester on a boat from Cambridge, with punts, canoes and kayaks for hire, and you could also walk here via the meadows. Whichever way you arrive, be sure to call in for refreshments — say, tea and home-made scones — at the Orchard Tea Garden, which has a long list of storied former patrons, including literary icons Rupert Brooke and Virginia Woolf, and dons of maths, philosophy and economics like Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. theorchardteagarden.co.uk

ELY

Another on-screen wonder, Ely is a 15-minute rail trip north of Cambridge. Its magnificent medieval cathedral is a favourite with production crews, often doubling as London’s Westminster Abbey, as it did when it hosted the wedding of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in the first season of The Crown.

Movies like The King’s Speech, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and The Other Boleyn Girl were also shot at this octagonal-towered landmark, whose earliest parts date from the 11th century. Labelled the “Ship of the Fens”, it rises prominently above the flat, flood-prone, ditch-carved plains sprawling across this pocket of eastern England.

The cathedral is close to Oliver Cromwell’s House, a museum, tourist information hub and gift store set in the half-timbered former abode of the English Civil War victor. Ely has quaint pubs and tearooms, including a few scattered by the banks of the River Ouse, which snakes by this small but delightfully formed city.

See visitely.org.uk.

fact file

+ To help plan a trip to Cambridgeshire and other parts of the east of England, see visiteastofengland.com.

+ For more information on visiting Britain, see visitbritain.com.