Colchester

Colchester makes a practical and well-connected base for exploring north Essex, with a good spread of accommodation to suit most budgets. The town centre has a handful of period coaching inns with real character, alongside modern budget and mid-range chain hotels clustered near the mainline station at North Station Road, handy for arrivals by train. For something quieter, the leafy conservation area around Lexden and the university campus has smaller guesthouses and B&Bs within a short walk or bus ride of the centre.

Families visiting Colchester Zoo often look for accommodation on the western side of town, closer to the zoo itself, while those focused on the Roman walls, castle and Dutch Quarter will get more from a central location within walking distance of the High Street. Business travellers and those attending events at the University of Essex will find hotels geared towards that trade near the Wivenhoe Park campus, a couple of miles south-east of the centre.

Beyond the town itself, the surrounding villages offer an appealing alternative: Dedham Vale, the landscape immortalised by John Constable, sits just a few miles north-east and has a number of characterful country inns, while the Colne Valley towards Halstead and the coastal villages around Mersea Island and the Blackwater estuary provide a quieter, more rural stay with easy access back into Colchester for the day. Wherever you base yourself, Colchester's compact centre and reasonable public transport make it easy to combine a stay in the countryside with time spent exploring the town's Roman and Norman heritage.

Colchester's long history means there is far more to see here than its size would suggest, alongside enough green space and family attractions to fill a longer stay.

• Colchester Castle — built by the Normans between 1076 and 1100 directly on the foundations of the Roman Temple of Claudius, its keep is the largest ever built in Europe, bigger even than the White Tower at the Tower of London. The museum inside tells the story of Roman, Norman and Civil War Colchester.
• The Roman town walls — largely intact and dating from around AD 65-80, these are the oldest and most complete Roman walls in Britain, best followed from Balkerne Gate, one of the largest surviving Roman gateways in the country, through to Priory Street.
• The Dutch Quarter — a tangle of narrow streets including West Stockwell Street and Maidenburgh Street, settled by Flemish weavers in the 16th century and still lined with colourful timber-framed cottages.
• Colchester Zoo — a 60-acre zoo on the edge of town, home to around 180 species including elephants, lions, rhinos and orangutans, with regular keeper talks and feeding sessions.
• Colchester Castle Park — landscaped Victorian gardens running down to the River Colne, with a bowls green, boating lake and bandstand, and the natural setting for the castle itself.
• St Botolph's Priory — the ruined flint and brick facade of England's first Augustinian priory, founded around 1100 and left as a dramatic ruin after Civil War bombardment.
• firstsite — a striking contemporary art gallery on the edge of the town centre, with free entry to its changing exhibitions and a permanent Roman mosaic on display.

Colchester's dining scene has grown well beyond pub classics in recent years. Church Street Tavern is known for its confident modern British menu, while Mirra brings authentic Turkish and Mediterranean cooking to the town centre. Bellapais Steak House on St John's Street has served Greek and Cypriot dishes for over three decades and remains a local favourite. A short drive out to Dedham puts diners within reach of Le Talbooth on the River Stour and the Michelin-starred Stark, the first restaurant in Essex to hold that accolade. No visit is complete without trying Colchester's most famous export: native oysters, cultivated for centuries in the beds around nearby Mersea Island and still served in restaurants and seafood stalls across the town.

Essex is not typically thought of as camping country in the way that Cornwall or the Lake District are, but the county around Colchester has a scattering of well-run campsites making the most of its gentle river valleys and quiet coastline. As with the rest of England, wild camping is illegal without the landowner's express permission, so pitching up in Castle Park or along the river Colne without booking a recognised site is not an option; the good news is that permitted sites in the area are easy to find and well worth seeking out.

The countryside around Colchester is gentle and pastoral rather than dramatic: rolling arable land threaded by the Colne and Stour valleys, hedgerowed lanes, and a low-lying coastline of saltmarsh and mudflats around the Blackwater and Colne estuaries. Sites tend to fall into two types, small rural farm campsites tucked into the Colne Valley towards Halstead and Earls Colne, and coastal or estuary-side sites near Mersea Island and the Naze, which trade shelter for wide open skies and easy access to sailing, birdwatching and the region's famous oyster beds.

The camping season here runs broadly from Easter through to the end of September, in line with most UK sites, with the driest and warmest weather typically found in July and August. Essex has one of the lowest average rainfalls of any English county, which makes it a reliably good bet for a tent-based break even outside peak summer, though spring and autumn evenings can still turn cool coming off the estuaries.

For those who prefer a roof over their head without giving up the outdoor feel, glamping has taken hold across the county in recent years, with shepherd's huts, safari tents and converted horseboxes appearing on farms around Colchester and the Dedham Vale. These sites typically combine easy access to the town's Roman heritage with genuinely quiet countryside, and many back onto footpaths that lead straight out into Constable country or down towards the coast, making them a good compromise for anyone who wants nature on the doorstep and a historic town a short drive away.