Malvern

Malvern's hotels trade on the town's Victorian spa heritage, with many occupying the grand stuccoed villas built during the nineteenth century for visitors taking the water cure. A number of these sit on the lower slopes of the hills themselves, meaning guests can step almost straight from a hotel doorway onto the network of paths leading up toward Worcestershire Beacon and the rest of the ridge. Expect traditional, comfortable rooms, often with views across either the hills to the west or the flat expanse of the Severn Vale to the east, along with restaurants and bars that make the most of the town's reputation for good food.

Beyond the grand villas, Malvern also has smaller boutique hotels and family-run guest houses, many within easy walking distance of Great Malvern station, the Priory and the shops and cafes along Church Street. This makes the town a good base for visitors who want a mix of gentle sightseeing and countryside walking without needing a car for every excursion. For those looking further afield, the surrounding villages of the Malvern Hills, including West Malvern, Colwall and the Wyche, offer quieter, more rural options, generally within a short drive or a bracing walk of the ridge itself. Booking ahead is worth doing around the Spring Gardening Show in May and during the main Malvern Theatres season, when demand for rooms in the town rises noticeably.

Malvern rewards both a lazy afternoon in town and a proper day on the hills. Highlights include:

• Worcestershire Beacon — at 425 metres this is the highest point in the Malvern Hills, reached by a steady climb from Great Malvern with panoramic views said to stretch as far as Wales on a clear day.
• Great Malvern Priory — a former Benedictine priory church dating back to the eleventh century, renowned for its exceptional medieval stained glass and one of the finest collections of fifteenth-century floor tiles in the country.
• Malvern Theatres — based in the town's Winter Gardens complex, this has been a centre for the performing arts since 1885 and today stages touring West End productions, music and comedy.
• St Ann's Well — a spring-fed well house above the town reached by a short, steep walk, still dispensing the famously pure Malvern water and now home to a small café.
• The Elgar Route and Elgar's Birthplace — composer Edward Elgar lived much of his life in and around Malvern, and the town and surrounding hills are threaded with places connected to him, from his statue on Church Street to the Firs, his birthplace cottage at nearby Lower Broadheath.
• Malvern Museum — housed in the Priory Gatehouse, telling the story of the town's transformation from village to Victorian water-cure resort.
• Morgan Motor Company — the famous sports car maker has built cars by hand in Malvern Link since 1913, and offers factory tours for visitors keen to see traditional coachbuilding in action.

The town has a good spread of independent places to eat and drink. The Nags Head on Bank Street is a long-standing, multi-roomed pub known for its range of real ales and unpretentious pub food. The Wyche Inn, up near the Wyche Cutting on the hills themselves, is popular with walkers for its beer garden and views. In town, Croque Monsieur and the Lady Foley's Tea Room at the station serve reliable cafe fare, while the Malvern Farmers' Market, held monthly, is a good spot to pick up local produce, including cheese, meat and the odd bottle of the town's famous water.

Camping in and around Malvern means pitching up beneath one of the most striking hill ranges in the Midlands, with the Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty rising steeply just beyond the edge of town. As with anywhere in England, wild camping on the hills themselves is not permitted without the landowner's express permission, and the Malvern Hills are managed conservation land crossed by public rights of way rather than open access land for camping, so pitching a tent on the open hillside is not allowed. The good news is that the surrounding villages, Colwall, Little Malvern, Welland and the wider Herefordshire and Worcestershire countryside, hold a healthy scattering of proper campsites and caravan parks, many run by small independent farms that welcome tents, campervans and touring caravans alike.

Terrain here is a mix of gentle valley pasture and the much steeper, close-cropped grass of the hills proper, so most established sites sit on the flatter ground at the foot of the ridge, leaving the climb up onto the Beacon and its neighbouring peaks as a day walk rather than a place to camp. This makes for an easy rhythm: a comfortable, level pitch at night and some genuinely strenuous hill walking by day, with the option to detour into Malvern itself for a proper meal or a pint. Facilities vary from simple, low-key fields with basic amenities to larger parks with showers, laundry and on-site shops, so it is worth checking what is on offer before booking, particularly for family trips.

Late spring to early autumn is the most comfortable season, when the ground is drier underfoot and the long evenings make the most of the views west toward Wales, though the hills can turn cold and blustery at altitude even in summer, so it pays to pack layers regardless of the forecast. For those who like the idea of being close to the hills without the full rigours of a tent, glamping options in the area, including shepherd's huts, pods and yurts, have grown in number in recent years and offer a comfortable middle ground, combining proper beds and heating with the same uninterrupted access to the Malvern countryside.