Salisbury

Salisbury is small enough that almost anywhere within the old city walls puts you within a twenty-minute walk of the cathedral, so the choice of base comes down to atmosphere and budget rather than distance. Staying inside Cathedral Close or on the streets immediately around the Market Place gives the most immersive experience, with timber-framed buildings, independent shops and the cathedral itself all on the doorstep, though rooms here tend to carry a premium and can book up well ahead of the summer arts festival and Christmas market.

A short step further out, around Fisherton Street, Milford Street and the railway station, rates ease off while the walk into the centre stays entirely manageable, and this is where most of the city's mid-range hotels and guest houses cluster. It also suits anyone arriving by train, since several properties sit within a few minutes of the station platforms. Families and anyone travelling by car often do better on the edge of the city, near Wilton or along the A36, where parking is easier and free, and a short drive covers the distance into the centre or out to Stonehenge and the surrounding countryside.

Whichever area you choose, book ahead for the Salisbury International Arts Festival in late May and early June and for the weeks around Christmas, when the cathedral's carol services and the Market Place's Christmas market bring visitors in from across the region and rooms become scarce. Outside those periods, and particularly in winter, rates in the city drop noticeably and last-minute availability is rarely a problem.

The cathedral dominates any visit, but Salisbury has plenty more to offer within walking distance of its spire.

• Salisbury Cathedral houses the best-preserved of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta and the world's oldest working mechanical clock, and visitors can climb the tower for views across the Close and out to the plain beyond.
• Old Sarum is the earthwork and ruined castle where Salisbury began, an Iron Age hillfort later fortified by the Romans, Saxons and Normans before the city moved to the valley in 1220.
• Salisbury Museum, set in a medieval house on the Close, holds finds from Stonehenge and the surrounding chalklands alongside displays on the city's history.
• Mompesson House, a National Trust property on the Close, is a Queen Anne townhouse with fine plasterwork ceilings and a walled garden, best known for its role in the film of Sense and Sensibility.
• Wilton House, on the western edge of the city, is the ancestral home of the Earls of Pembroke, with state rooms designed by Inigo Jones and parkland running down to the River Nadder.
• Stonehenge lies around nine miles north-west of the city and remains the obvious day trip, best visited early or late in the day when the coach parties have thinned out.
• Salisbury Market fills the Market Place every Tuesday and Saturday, a tradition granted by royal charter in 1227 and still the best place to pick up Wiltshire produce.
• The Water Meadows south of the Close offer a flat, easy walk beside the Avon to the spot where John Constable painted his famous view of the cathedral.

Salisbury's twice-weekly charter market remains the best introduction to local produce, with Wiltshire cheeses, home-cured meats and seasonal vegetables from the surrounding farms sold alongside the usual market stalls. The wider county is known for its chalk stream trout and watercress, both drawn from the same clear rivers that meet in the city, and for game and venison from the surrounding estates in autumn and winter.

The city has a good spread of independent places to eat. Fisherton Mill combines an art gallery and furniture workshop with a café serving all-day brunches in a converted grain store, while Charter 1227 in the Market Place takes its name from the market's royal charter and serves modern British food using produce from the surrounding countryside. The Old Mill at Harnham, a short walk from the Close along the water meadows, occupies a genuine converted watermill beside the Avon and is popular for a riverside pint or Sunday lunch.

Pubs are plentiful and several claim genuine age: the Haunch of Venison, tucked beside the Market Place, dates from the 1320s and is one of the oldest pubs in England, while the New Inn on New Street occupies a fifteenth-century timber-framed building with a walled garden. For something sweeter, the city's tea rooms and bakeries make the most of Wiltshire's dairy produce, and a slice of local cheese from the market makes an easy edible souvenir to take home.

Salisbury itself has no campsites within the old city, but the surrounding Wiltshire countryside more than makes up for it, with sites scattered across the chalk downland and river valleys within a few miles of the centre. Much of the land here is gently rolling farmland and water meadow rather than dramatic scenery, which makes for easy, sheltered pitches and straightforward walking and cycling routes rather than technical terrain, and several sites sit close enough to the city to cycle or bus in for an evening rather than driving.

The chalk soil drains well, so sites around Salisbury tend to stay usable even after heavy rain, though the open downland can be exposed to wind and there is little shelter from the prevailing south-westerlies on higher ground. Wild camping has no general legal right in England and Wiltshire is no exception, so campers should stick to the established sites in the area or seek a landowner's permission rather than pitching on the plain or near Stonehenge, which sits within a protected World Heritage Site with no informal camping tolerated.

May to September gives the most reliable weather and the longest daylight for exploring, with June's arts festival adding an extra reason to combine a stay with a night or two under canvas. Many of the smaller, family-run sites close over winter, so anyone hoping to camp outside the main season should check opening dates before setting off, while a handful of touring parks with hookups and hard standing stay open year-round for caravans and motorhomes.