Bristol hotels: eight of the best places to stay

The rumours are true – Bristol is banging. Brunel’s staggering suspension bridge, Banksy scrawled walls, sweeping Georgian crescents and a pulsing centre heaving with arts, food revolutionaries and people with passion make the city a special place to be right now. Visit the thriving docks, now home to Wapping Wharf, with its cluster of lively restaurants made from old shipping containers, sample Michelin-starred delights at Casamia or grab a latte at the Clifton Observatory’s brand new cafe with 360 degree views of the city.

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Best for views: Avon Gorge by Hotel du Vin

Neighbourhood: Clifton

The terrace of the Avon Gorge Hotel has always drawn a crowd. But, until very recently, the place was down at heel. Built in 1898, the glamour of the building, originally known as the Grand Clifton Spa and Hydropathic Institution, had faded and 60 per cent of it was left derelict. Enter now, and the extent of Hotel Du Vin’s £16.5m renovation, completed this month, is clear: think midnight blues, sumptuous velvets and sparkling chandeliers. Book the Laurent Perrier Executive suite for a bath with a view and sample the wood-smoked delights of the new Goram & Vincent restaurant. The once shabby White Lion pub scrubs up well and the original spa (buried for decades under the floorboards) is a fancy events space. Look out for the wine cellar in the old Turkish bath.

Doubles from £110, room only
theavongorgehotel.com

Best for country luxury: Berwick Lodge

Neighbourhood: Henbury

The option to arrive by helicopter speaks volumes, not to mention the fact that Berwick Lodge’s gardener was once gardener to the Queen. Owners Sarah Arikan (a born and bred Bristolian) and her husband Fevzi pull out all the stops to give their customers the royal treatment. The couple bought the 19th century property, located on the northern outskirts of the city and surrounded by 18 acres of stunning parkland, in 2004. “We spent five and a half years working on it and putting it back to how we thought it would have been originally,” Sarah says. Each of the 14 rooms is impeccably designed and one, Troya, features a bed made from the pulpit of a church, which Fevsi picked up at Wells reclamation centre. Peckish? The resplendent 2AA Rosette Hattusa restaurant is a great choice for hungry guests.

Doubles from £135, B&B
berwicklodge.co.uk

Best for creatives: Paintworks Apartments

Neighbourhood: Totterdown

To the east, in what has been dubbed Bristol’s Creative Quarter, Paintworks Apartments – once, you guessed it, a paint works – are perfect for anyone who originally intended to visit Brooklyn, but ended up in Bristol by mistake. Here, five New York-style warehouse apartments offer open-plan accommodation, very cool art (including an enormous Beastie Boys mural) and the sort of furniture you wish you owned. Running alongside the River Avon, the Paintworks “community” is home to a host of live/work studios, film companies, artists’ and musicians’ studios. Get your coffee fix from Convoy Espresso, a smart cafe in an airstream set up earlier this year.

From £120 for an apartment sleeping two, B&B
paintworksapartments.co.uk

Best for romance: Number 38 Clifton

Neighbourhood: Clifton

Fans of traditional hotels would do well to consider the renovated double-fronted Georgian townhouse that is Number 38 Clifton. Following a huge extension this year, the property is now twice its original size. Brand new rooms 11 and 12 boast dual aspect views of Bristol’s expanse of green, the Downs, and feature interiors inspired by Brunel, plus deep bronze and chrome baths. In a nod to the “real” Bristol, walls are adorned with work by Stokes Croft artists and there’s a cheeky David Hockney in the downstairs loo. Need a shoulder rub? Number 38 also does spa breaks in conjunction with one of Bristol’s real gems, The Lido, one of the oldest open air pools in the UK, dating back to 1849.

Doubles from £130, B&B
number38clifton.com

Best for wine: Hotel du Vin

Neighbourhood: Central Bristol

When each of the 40 rooms is named after a wine or a vineyard, it’s a safe bet you’ll get to drink a nice drop. Indeed, “The wine book”, features hundreds of wines from the hotel’s cellar. That the tagline calls the food here “not revolutionary, just fresh and delicious” is telling: this is an excellent bistro. Once an 18th century sugar warehouse, this super chic hotel is now made up of 40 rooms, centred around a secluded courtyard, along with four dining rooms. Check into the Veuve Clicquot room for Egyptian cotton bedding, monsoon power showers and roll-top baths.

Doubles from £110, room only
hotelduvin.com

Best for those on a budget: Brooks Guesthouse

Neighbourhood: Old Town

You could sleep in a classic, smartly decorated bedroom – but why would you do that, when you can sleep in an airstream on the roof? Plumb in the middle of Bristol, you’ll find this cute and good value guesthouse is an ideal base for exploring the city centre. The great gleaming trailers, which range from 16ft to 20ft (the largest of which can be converted to fit a family of four) are kitted out with everything you need for a cosy night: fluffy towels, flat screen TVs, Hans Grohe eco showers and even a mirror complete with de-mister so it won’t get steamed up when you have a shower.

Doubles from £80, B&B
brooksguesthousebristol.com

Best for hedonists: Bristol Harbour Hotel & Spa

Neighbourhood: Old Town

It’s apt that the Bristol Harbour Hotel was once a Lloyds and Midlands bank headquarters; stay here and you’ll almost certainly part with some hard-earned cash. The hotel itself is home to the outrageously blingy Gold Bar, where cocktails flow and DJs spin until the early hours. But it’s also perfected located for Bristol’s famously lively night life (don’t leave without checking out the legendary live jazz at The Old Duke). With 42 luxurious bedrooms and an award-winning restaurant, the hotel still retains flourishes of a grand former bank. Morning after the night before? Head into the former basement vaults, now cleverly transformed into a spa with treatment rooms.

Doubles from £145, B&B
harbourhotels.co.uk

Best for a wild night: Camp Baboon

Neighbourhood: Cribbs Causeway

For anyone wanting to swap their natural habitat with that of an okapi, Camp Baboon is for you. Part of Bristol’s Wild Place Project, a side arm of the city’s famous zoo (and supporting conservation projects around the world), Camp Baboon, which opened in 2017, offers wild weekenders in 10 luxury wooden pods. The experience includes twilight bushcraft activities, BBQs and torchlit tours around the Wild Place, along with the chance to see wolves, giraffes, cheetahs and many other beasts without the crowds.

From £74.50pp including animal experience, access to the park, dinner and breakfast and free entry to Bristol Zoo the next day
campbaboon.co.uk/the-experience