The university city of Bristol has reinvented itself as one of England’s hippest places to live and work. It is a city with a remarkable history. You’ll be able to visit Brunel’s pioneering steamship, the SS Great Britain, and see the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge. The great railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the driving force behind the Great Western Railway which so powerfully shaped Bristol's economic success. A new museum, opened in 2018, celebrates Brunel's life and work - it is called Being Brunel and is absolutely worth a visit.

But Bristol is good for more than merely ticking off the sights. The city has a provocative arts scene, a feast of fabulous cafés and it’s a fine place just to hang out. Bristol has good green credentials and is an easy city to explore on foot.

The main railway station is Bristol Temple Meads. Don’t just dash through it. The station facade is a work of art in itself. Temple Meads is the principal rail hub of western England. You can hop on a train in Bristol to Penzance in Cornwall, to Brighton on the south coast, and even to places as far afield as Edinburgh and Glasgow. Salisbury, Cardiff and Exeter are all less than an hour away. And there are frequent trains to London which take less than two hours to reach the capital.

Bristol also has an out-of-town station close to the M4 motorway. Bristol Parkway is some way north of the city, so if you are heading for the middle of Bristol, definitely book on a train which runs to Bristol Temple Meads.