Melton Mowbray

Melton Mowbray's hotels and inns lean into the town's food and hunting heritage, with several period coaching inns and independent hotels set around the market town centre. Staying in town puts Nottingham Street's pork pie shops, the Tuesday and Saturday markets, and St Mary's Church all within easy walking distance, along with a good choice of traditional pubs and restaurants for evening meals. It also makes a convenient base for day trips out into the Wolds, to Rutland Water, or to Belvoir Castle in the neighbouring Vale of Belvoir. Options range from budget-friendly guesthouses to smarter boutique hotels in converted Georgian townhouses, with free parking often easier to find than in larger nearby cities like Leicester or Nottingham. For a quieter stay, a handful of country house hotels and farmhouse B&Bs sit just outside town in the surrounding villages, offering more space and countryside views while keeping Melton's markets and food shops a short drive away. Booking ahead is worth doing around food festival dates and British Pie Week in March, when the town's limited number of rooms fill up quickly with visitors drawn by its culinary reputation.

Melton rewards a slow visit built around food, market days and gentle walking along the river. Highlights include:

• Dickinson & Morris, Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe — trading on Nottingham Street since 1851, this is the oldest and most famous maker of the original Melton Mowbray pork pie, with a shop and small pie-making history on site.
• Melton Mowbray Market — a street market on the historic Market Place every Tuesday and Saturday, plus a farmers' market on Scalford Road on Tuesdays and Fridays, selling local produce, meat, cheese and crafts.
• Melton Carnegie Museum — a free museum in the town's former Carnegie library, covering Melton's Roman origins, its pork pie and Stilton industries, and its hunting history.
• St Mary's Church — an impressive 13th-century parish church, one of the largest in Leicestershire, at the heart of the town centre.
• Melton Country Park — open parkland with lakes and walking trails on the edge of town, good for an easy afternoon outdoors.
• River Eye walks — footpaths follow the river through the town and out into the surrounding countryside, taking in Wilton Park and the old canal basin.
• Stilton cheese tastings — several local shops and delis sell and let you sample genuine Blue Stilton, made under Protected Designation of Origin rules within a small area around Melton.
• Rutland Water — England's largest reservoir by surface area lies a short drive south-east, with cycling, sailing, birdwatching and Normanton Church's striking lakeside setting.

Food is the reason most people visit, and Melton does not disappoint. Dickinson & Morris' Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe on Nottingham Street remains the essential stop for a genuine Melton Mowbray pork pie, baked to the original recipe. The Melton Cheeseboard and Rutland & Derbyshire's stalls at the market sell proper Blue Stilton alongside other local cheeses, and Nottingham Street's independent delis and butchers are well worth a browse. The Anne of Cleves pub, a genuinely medieval building, and a clutch of traditional coaching inns provide solid pub food and local ales, while the town's food festival and Piefest event each summer bring together the wider region's producers, brewers and bakers for tastings and demonstrations.

Camping around Melton Mowbray means gentle, well-farmed Leicestershire countryside rather than dramatic wilderness, but that is very much part of its appeal: rolling Wolds scenery, quiet lanes and villages, and easy access to a market town famous for its food. As with the rest of England, wild camping is not legal here without the landowner's permission, so it is worth sticking to licensed campsites and certified sites in the villages around Melton, many of which are run by working farms and offer a proper taste of rural Leicestershire. Sites tend to be small and peaceful rather than large holiday parks, with grass pitches for tents and tourers, and some offering electric hook-up for motorhomes and caravans passing through on the way to Rutland Water or the Vale of Belvoir.

The camping season here generally runs from Easter through to the end of September, when the weather is kindest and evenings are long enough to enjoy a campfire or a walk along the River Eye before dark. Summer weekends coincide with Melton's food festival and Piefest, so campers who time a visit well can combine a countryside stay with the town's biggest culinary events, while a farmers' market runs on Tuesdays and Fridays year-round for fresh supplies. Spring and early autumn are quieter and can be just as rewarding, with mild days good for walking and cycling around the surrounding villages and along the disused canal that once linked Melton to the River Trent.

For a more comfortable alternative, several sites around Melton and the nearby Vale of Belvoir offer glamping in shepherd's huts, safari tents or converted farm buildings, often with the option of pre-ordered local produce, including, fittingly, a genuine Melton Mowbray pork pie waiting on arrival. These make a good option for a first camping trip or a short countryside break, combining an easy stay with proximity to the town's markets, museum and food shops, as well as day trips to Rutland Water and Belvoir Castle.