Over

Over is a small village, so formal hotel accommodation within the parish itself is limited, and most visitors looking for a hotel base will look to nearby Cambridge, St Ives or Huntingdon, all within a short drive. Cambridge offers everything from budget chains to boutique and historic hotels close to the colleges and river, ideal for combining a stay with sightseeing in the city as well as day trips out to Ouse Fen and the surrounding Fenland villages.

St Ives, a handsome Georgian market town on the Great Ouse around five miles from Over, has a smaller but characterful range of inns and guesthouses, several with riverside settings that suit a relaxed few days exploring the water meadows and market squares of Huntingdonshire. Huntingdon itself, a little further north, adds further choice along the A14 corridor with easy access to the wider Fens.

Wherever you base yourself, the flat terrain around Over makes for easy onward trips by bike or car to the RSPB reserve, the river, and the villages of Willingham, Swavesey and Earith, so a hotel in one of the nearby towns need not mean missing out on the quieter charms of the village itself.

Over is a good base for slow, outdoor days rather than a destination packed with visitor attractions in its own right — its appeal lies in the surrounding waterways, reserves and quiet lanes.

• RSPB Ouse Fen — a joint RSPB and Hanson UK project reclaiming a former quarry beside the Great Ouse, on its way to becoming the largest reedbed in the UK. Accessed via a track from Fen End in the village, it's already known for bitterns, marsh harriers and, in season, huge starling murmurations.
• St Mary's Church — a striking medieval parish church on Station Road, built under the patronage of Ramsey Abbey. Its early 14th-century spire rises around 156 feet, one of the tallest in Cambridgeshire, and the west door carries a rare surviving carving of the Virgin Mary that escaped Reformation-era destruction.
• The Great Ouse riverbank — footpaths and cycle routes follow the river between Over, Earith and Holywell, giving easy, flat walking and birdwatching along one of East Anglia's great waterways.
• Fenland farmland walks — the flat, drained landscape around Over, criss-crossed with droves and dykes, is ideal for gentle cycling and walking, with wide views across market gardens and arable fields to the low rise of the Cambridgeshire uplands.
• St Ives — a handsome Georgian market town on the Great Ouse around five miles away, with its unusual medieval bridge chapel, riverside walks and a busy Monday market.
• Cambridge — the university city is around nine miles south-east, an easy drive or cycle for a day exploring the colleges, the Backs and the punts on the River Cam.

The village's main pub, The Admiral (formerly The Admiral Vernon) on Long Stanton Road, is a traditional free house serving locally brewed real ales alongside home-cooked pub food made largely with produce from a local butcher, including Sunday roasts. For a wider choice of cafes, restaurants and pubs, the market towns of St Ives and Cambridge are both a short drive away, offering everything from riverside tearooms to the full range of Cambridge's student-city dining scene.

Camping around Over means making the most of classic Cambridgeshire Fenland: dead-flat, big-skied countryside laced with rivers, drains and droves, very different from the hills and coastline of the West Country but with its own quiet appeal for walkers, cyclists and birdwatchers. The flat terrain makes for easy pitching and easy cycling between sites, and the proximity of RSPB Ouse Fen means a tent or campervan here puts you within a short walk or ride of one of the region's best wildlife reserves, with reedbeds, bitterns, marsh harriers and, in autumn, spectacular starling murmurations right on the doorstep.

As with anywhere in England, wild camping is not permitted without the explicit permission of the landowner — the flat, well-farmed Fenland around Over is almost entirely private agricultural land, so pitching up in a field or beside the river without asking first is not an option. Instead, look to the small number of certified sites and farm campsites dotted around the surrounding villages, several of which welcome tents, campervans and caravans and offer a simple, low-key base for exploring the reserve and the river.

Spring through to autumn is the best window for camping here: the ground is drier, the reedbeds and orchards are at their most alive, and long summer evenings suit the flat, open landscape well. The Fens can feel exposed and windswept, so a sturdy tent and warm layers are worth packing even in summer, and winter camping is a much harder prospect given the lack of natural shelter. For those who'd rather skip the groundsheet altogether, a growing number of glamping options in the wider Cambridgeshire countryside — shepherd's huts, safari tents and static options on working farms — offer a comfortable way to experience the same reedbeds and river views without compromising on comfort.