Day Trip to Cambridge from London: What Can You See?

Cambridge is the fastest of the classic day trips out of London, fifty minutes from King’s Cross on the quick trains, and the one where the thing you came to see is genuinely unlike anything at home. The catch is that a university is not a museum. Colleges keep their own hours, close for exams and events, and the gate that was open last week may have a sign on it today. Plan around that and the day is close to perfect.

Which train, and the walk nobody mentions

Two routes serve Cambridge from London and they are not equal. The fast Great Northern and Thameslink services from King’s Cross take about fifty minutes and run two or three times an hour. The Greater Anglia service from Liverpool Street takes about an hour and twenty because it stops more, and it is often several pounds cheaper. If your day is long, take the fast one out and the slow one back, and spend the difference on lunch.

Advance fares start around £12 each way booked a couple of weeks ahead. An Off Peak Day Return is usually in the £25 to £35 range and lets you come back whenever you like, which suits a city where the pace is set by how long you sit by the river.

Now the part the guidebooks skip. Cambridge station is a twenty minute walk from the historic centre, through an ordinary stretch of town that tells you nothing about where you are going. There is a frequent bus and a taxi rank, and both are fine, but the walk is flat and easy and the city reveals itself properly when you arrive on foot at the market end. Just do not plan as though the station is next to the colleges, because it is not.

King’s College Chapel, and why it is the one ticket

If you do one paid thing in Cambridge, do this. King’s College Chapel took almost a hundred years to build, has the largest fan vaulted ceiling in the world, and contains a Rubens over the altar that would be the main attraction anywhere else. It costs about £13 to go in, takes forty minutes, and it is the building that makes people understand what all the fuss about Cambridge is.

Evensong, on most days during term, is free to attend and is the chapel doing the thing it was built for, with the choir that made it famous. You sit in the stalls, it lasts about forty five minutes, and it is the single best value hour in the city. Check the times before you travel, because they change with the academic calendar and there is no service in parts of the summer.

Other colleges open to visitors for smaller fees, Trinity and St John’s among them, and the pattern of who is open and when is genuinely unpredictable. Treat any college you get into as a bonus rather than a plan.

Tickets and tours worth booking

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Punting, done properly

A punt is a flat bottomed boat pushed along with a pole, and the stretch of river behind the old colleges, known as the Backs, is the reason to get in one. From the water you see the colleges the way they were meant to be seen, across their own lawns, and you pass under bridges you cannot otherwise reach.

Two ways to do it. Chauffeured, at about £25 a head, where someone else poles and tells you what you are looking at, which is the right choice for a first visit and for anyone who would rather not fall in. Or self hire, at about £35 an hour for the whole boat, which is cheaper for four people and much funnier for everyone watching from the bank.

Book at the river rather than from the people selling tickets on the street, where prices are higher and the boat you end up in is not always the one you paid for. Mill Lane and the Quayside near Magdalene Bridge are the two main departure points, and either is fine.

A day that fits

Drop the punt if the weather is poor and keep the Fitzwilliam, which is free, enormous and dry. Drop the Fitzwilliam if the sun is out, because a clear day on the Backs is the thing you will remember.

The weeks to avoid

Cambridge is a working university and the calendar matters more here than anywhere else in this guide. During exam term, roughly late April to mid June, many colleges close to visitors entirely and the ones that open do so on shorter hours. Nobody advertises this in a way visitors notice, and people arrive to find the gate shut.

Graduation days scatter through the year and close individual colleges at short notice. The week before Christmas brings carol services that fill the chapel. And the last week of June brings May Week, which is in June, because Cambridge, and which means parties, closed courts and a city full of students in evening dress.

The safest windows are February to mid April, and July to September. Check the King’s College website on the morning you travel, whatever the season, because it takes thirty seconds and saves the one part of the day you cannot replace.

Cambridge or Oxford, if you only have one day

People ask this constantly, and there is an honest answer rather than a diplomatic one. Cambridge is the better day trip. It is closer, the train is faster, the colleges sit together in a compact riverside cluster, and the punting is genuinely better because the Backs give you something to look at from the water.

Oxford is the better city to spend two days in. It is bigger, busier, has more museums, a working city around the university rather than a university with a town attached, and a greater number of things to do when the colleges are closed.

For one day out of London with a train to catch home, take Cambridge. If you want both, there are tours that do the pair in a day, though you will get an hour and a half in each, which is enough to say you have been and not enough to see anything properly.

Visiting from abroad? What to know

Before you fly: the essentials

Keep planning your trip

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the train from London to Cambridge?

About 50 minutes on the fast services from King’s Cross, and about 1 hour 20 from Liverpool Street. Both are direct. The Liverpool Street route is usually cheaper, so it is worth checking both before you book.

Is one day enough for Cambridge?

Yes. The colleges, the river and the museums sit within a twenty minute walk of each other, and a day covering King’s College Chapel, a punt, lunch and the Fitzwilliam is a full and unhurried one.

Can you go inside the Cambridge colleges?

Some of them, some of the time. King’s, Trinity and St John’s charge a small entry fee and open to visitors on most days outside exam term, which runs roughly late April to mid June. Opening changes without much notice, so check on the morning you travel.

How much does punting in Cambridge cost?

About £25 a person for a chauffeured trip of forty five minutes to an hour, or around £35 an hour for the whole boat if you pole it yourself. Book at the river rather than from sellers on the street, where prices are higher.

Should I visit Cambridge or Oxford from London?

Cambridge, for a single day. It is closer, the train is faster, the colleges are clustered together by the river and the punting is better. Oxford rewards a longer visit, with more museums and more to do when the colleges are shut.

Is Cambridge walkable from the station?

It is about twenty minutes on flat ground to the market square and the main colleges. There is a frequent bus and a taxi rank if you would rather not walk, but plan for the gap rather than assuming the station sits in the centre.

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