St Albans

St Albans rewards a short stay more generously than most towns its size, so where you base yourself is worth some thought. Staying in the historic centre, around the Market Place, French Row or Chequer Street, puts the cathedral, museums and pubs within a few minutes' walk and suits anyone arriving by train who wants to leave the car at home entirely. Fishpool Street and the area around Verulamium Park offer a quieter alternative that is still walkable into the centre, with Georgian townhouses and leafy streets a short stroll from the Roman sites and the river. Visitors arriving by car, or looking for gardens, spas and more space, tend to do better on the edges of the city, where country-house hotels sit in their own grounds a five or ten minute drive from the centre. Business travellers and anyone touring further afield in Hertfordshire may prefer the hotels clustered near the M1 and M25 junctions, which trade city-centre atmosphere for guaranteed parking and quick access to the motorway network.

Prices in St Albans sit comfortably below equivalent options in London while still delivering a country-house or boutique-city feel, and the short rail journey means a stay here works just as well for exploring the capital by day as it does for a slower-paced weekend focused on the city itself. Booking a little ahead is worth doing around the Saturday market, university open days and the spring food festival, when the better central options fill up first.

The city rewards unhurried exploration, and most of its landmarks can be strung together into a single walking route from the station.

• St Albans Cathedral is the second-longest nave in England, with medieval wall paintings uncovered on its Norman piers and the shrine of St Alban at its heart.
• Verulamium Park and Museum cover the site of the old Roman city, with surviving city walls, a hypocaust and mosaic floor in situ, and a museum of everyday Roman life.
• The Roman Theatre of Verulamium is one of only a handful of Roman theatres surviving in Britain, set in open fields a short walk from the museum.
• St Albans Clock Tower, a rare surviving medieval town belfry from 1405, can be climbed for a view over the rooftops and market square.
• The market fills St Peter's Street and the Market Place every Wednesday and Saturday, much as it has done since a royal charter was granted in the tenth century.
• Verulamium's lake and parkland give the city genuine green space for a picnic or a run, with paths following the Ver out towards the water meadows.
• Kingsbury Watermill, a working mill on the river with a small museum, sits at the edge of the park close to the old fishpools.
• St Albans Museum + Gallery, housed in the old town hall, covers the city's history from Roman Verulamium through to its coaching-inn heyday, with a decent temporary exhibition programme.

St Albans has more historic pubs per head than almost anywhere else in England, a legacy of its centuries as a coaching stop on the road north from London. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, claimed by some to be one of the oldest licensed pubs in the country, sits at the edge of Verulamium Park in the shadow of the old abbey gatehouse, while a string of other timber-framed pubs line the streets around French Row and Fishpool Street. The Saturday and Wednesday market brings local produce, street food stalls and a flower market into St Peter's Street, and the surrounding lanes hold a growing run of independent cafes, delis and small-plates restaurants alongside the more familiar high-street names on St Peter's Street and in the Maltings shopping centre. St Albans also has a strong brewing tradition: several breweries operate in and around the city, and its pubs are a reliable place to find well-kept cask ale alongside the more usual choice of lagers and craft beers.

St Albans itself is built up right to its historic core, so there is no working campsite within the city boundary, and anyone looking to pitch a tent or park a caravan needs to look to the green belt that surrounds it. The countryside within a short drive is well suited to camping: rolling farmland to the north and west towards the Chilterns, and the Lee Valley regional park to the east, both hold established sites with a full range of pitch types. All three campsites below are within about fifteen miles of St Albans and reachable in twenty to thirty minutes by car, making them realistic bases for exploring the city, Hatfield House, Whipsnade or the Warner Bros Studio Tour without paying city hotel prices.

Facilities vary by site. The nearest option, on a working farm just outside Elstree, keeps things simple with basic amenities and a strong family focus, including glamping alternatives for those without their own kit. Further out, sites in the Lee Valley and near Hertford offer a fuller range of hookups, showers, playgrounds and on-site shops, making them better suited to longer stays or larger units such as touring caravans and motorhomes. Dogs are welcome at all three, and each is well placed for a day out on the river, a cycle ride, or simply a base from which to visit St Albans itself.