Little Staughton

Little Staughton is a tiny village without hotels of its own, so anyone wanting a proper bed for the night will need to look to the surrounding towns and villages. St Neots, a short drive away on the River Great Ouse, has the widest range of options, from budget chain hotels to smaller guesthouses, and its riverside setting and historic market make it a pleasant base in its own right. Bedford, the county town around ten miles off, offers a similar spread of hotels along with more choice of restaurants and evening entertainment for those who want a bit more going on after dark.

For a quieter stay closer to the actual countryside around Little Staughton, smaller villages nearby — including Kimbolton, with its handsome high street and castle, and the settlements around Grafham Water — have a scattering of bed and breakfasts and country inns with rooms, better suited to those prioritising peace and views over choice of amenities. Given how rural this stretch of the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire border is, it's worth booking ahead rather than turning up on spec, particularly in summer when Grafham Water and St Neots both draw more visitors for their outdoor activities.

Whichever base you choose, nowhere in this area is more than a twenty-minute drive from Little Staughton itself, making it easy to combine a comfortable night's stay with days spent exploring the old airfield site, the reservoir, or the market towns nearby.

This is a rural corner of Bedfordshire rather than a tourist hotspot, and that's much of its appeal — but there's a genuine spread of history, water and countryside within a short drive.

• RAF Little Staughton airfield history — the wartime bomber station was built in 1941–42 as a heavy bomber base, used first by the USAAF as a B-17 maintenance depot before transferring to the RAF in March 1944. It then became home to No. 582 Squadron's Lancasters and No. 109 Squadron's Pathfinder Mosquitoes, flying missions until the war's end. Little of the airfield survives today, but its layout and story are documented in detail by local historians and aviation archives, and traces of the perimeter track and dispersals can still be picked out in the fields around the village.
• Grafham Water — a few miles over the Cambridgeshire border, this is England's third-largest reservoir, set in around 1,500 acres of countryside with nine miles of way-marked tracks for walking and cycling. Its western end is a nature reserve with ancient woodland, reedbeds and bird hides, while the water itself hosts a sailing and windsurfing club, an aqua park, and lakeside cafes.
• Kimbolton Castle — a striking Vanbrugh-remodelled stately home in the pretty small town of Kimbolton, a short drive away. Originally a medieval castle, it's where Catherine of Aragon spent her final years after her marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and it now forms the main building of Kimbolton School, with limited public open days.
• St Neots — the nearest market town, built along the River Great Ouse, with a Monday market recorded since the 12th century, a riverside park good for walking and picnics, boat trips and paddleboard hire, and St Neots Museum housed in a former Victorian police station.
• St Margaret's Church, Little Staughton — the parish church dates to the 13th century and stands apart from the modern village, on the site of the original settlement. Built in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, it's a quiet, atmospheric spot with centuries of local history behind it.
• Bedford — the county town is around ten miles away, with riverside gardens along the Great Ouse Embankment, independent shops, and museums including the Higgins Bedford, covering the town's history and art collections.

The village pub, the Crown Inn at Green End, is the most local option, serving the small community and passing visitors. For more choice, Kimbolton's high street has independent cafes, tearooms and pubs including the New Sun Inn, while St Neots offers a wider range of restaurants, cafes and riverside pubs around its historic market square. Further afield, villages around Grafham Water such as Hail Weston have well-regarded traditional pubs, including thatched, centuries-old buildings serving classic pub food.

Camping around Little Staughton means quiet, flat Bedfordshire farmland rather than dramatic scenery — think hedge-lined fields, big skies and the kind of stillness that's hard to find closer to London. It's worth being clear from the outset that wild camping is not legal in England without the landowner's explicit permission, so pitching up in a field or beside the river without asking first isn't an option here; the good news is that the surrounding area has a decent spread of proper campsites and certified sites happy to take tents, campervans and caravans.

The terrain is gentle and largely level, which makes it easy going for cycling between pitches and nearby villages, and there's no shortage of nearby water: Grafham Water, a short drive over the Cambridgeshire border, is a magnet for campers who want lakeside walks, cycling trails and watersports on their doorstep, while the River Great Ouse threading through St Neots gives a softer, slower alternative for a riverside stroll or paddle. Closer to home, the fields around the old RAF Little Staughton airfield are a reminder that this quiet corner of Bedfordshire had a very different, noisier chapter not so long ago, and several sites in the area lean into that history for anyone interested in wartime aviation.

Late spring to early autumn is the best window for camping here — the ground is at its driest, days are long, and the surrounding countryside is at its most inviting for walking and cycling. Bedfordshire's inland, farmland setting means it doesn't get the coastal breezes of camping further afield, so summer evenings can be genuinely warm, while spring and autumn bring cooler nights that suit those with good kit. For anyone who'd rather skip the tent-pitching altogether, glamping options in the wider area — from pods to safari tents — offer a more comfortable way to enjoy the same countryside, usually with proper beds and heating thrown in, which can make a real difference on a changeable British weekend.