Give Salisbury two days. Spend the first in the Close: the cathedral and its 1215 Magna Carta in the Chapter House, a tower tour if you can book one, then Mompesson House and the Salisbury Museum. End with the Town Path across the water meadows to Harnham. Take the Stonehenge Tour bus early on day two, stop at Old Sarum on the way back, and finish with a pint at the Haunch of Venison.
Updated · Wimup Editorial
Salisbury is a medieval new town. The bishops left the windy hill of Old Sarum in 1220, laid out a grid by the Avon and built a cathedral in one go. Its spire still sets the skyline, Stonehenge is 9 miles north, and most visitors give it an afternoon when it deserves two days.
Built almost entirely between 1220 and 1258, so the Early English Gothic reads as one design, under the tallest church spire in Britain. Find the 1386 clock in the nave, one of the oldest working mechanical clocks anywhere.
The best preserved of the four surviving 1215 originals, shown in the octagonal Chapter House off the cloisters. Entry comes with the cathedral ticket; the Chapter House keeps shorter hours, so check the day before you plan around it.
A guided climb through the medieval roof timbers to the base of the 123-metre spire, with views over the Close and the water meadows. Tours run to a fixed timetable, last about an hour and a half and sell out on popular days.
The stone circle stands about 9 miles north of the city, with the visitor centre a shuttle ride from the stones. Book a timed slot online, and take the Stonehenge Tour bus from Salisbury station if you have no car.
An Iron Age hillfort 2 miles north that held a Norman castle and the first cathedral, whose outline is marked in the grass. Walk the ramparts for the view of the spire that replaced it; the Stonehenge Tour bus stops here.
The Wessex Gallery is the reason to come: Stonehenge finds and the Amesbury Archer, buried near the stones about 4,300 years ago in the richest early Bronze Age burial found in Britain. Go before Stonehenge and the stones make more sense.
A Queen Anne town house of 1701 on Choristers' Green, with fine plasterwork, a walled garden and a role in the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility. The National Trust dresses it in Regency style for Christmas.
Stalls have filled the Market Place every Tuesday and Saturday since the 1227 charter. Walk on to the Poultry Cross, the last of the city's four medieval market crosses, and the lanes named for what was once sold there.
A flat, paved path from Queen Elizabeth Gardens across the Harnham water meadows, with the spire over the grass much as Constable painted it. It ends at the Old Mill, a riverside pub; loop back through the Close.
Small panelled rooms on CAMRA's National Inventory of historic pub interiors, in a building said to date from about 1320. The mummified hand behind glass is a replica; the original was stolen in 2004.
The great henge beside Woodhenge, thought to have housed the builders of Stonehenge.
Galleries, artists' studios and a café in a restored grain mill on Fisherton Street.
Modern British cooking above the Market Place, the city's long-standing special-occasion room.
The pub where Hop Back Brewery began, a Good Beer Guide regular just north of the centre.
A listed coaching inn on Winchester Street, reopened in 2023 and in the 2026 Good Beer Guide.
A riverside pub at the end of the Town Path, with a garden facing the spire across the meadows.
A riverside park west of the Close where the Town Path begins; known locally as Lizzie Gardens.
Eighty acres round the cathedral, the largest close in Britain, made for a picnic.
Walled lawns and Georgian houses round the cathedral; quiet once the gates close at night.
The 13th-century street grid round the market, with the pubs, shops and restaurants.
The road from the station into town, lined with independent restaurants and Fisherton Mill.
Theatre, music and outdoor shows across the city from late May to late June, run by Wiltshire Creative.
Free managed access to the stones at sunrise around 21 June; buses run from the city centre.
A week of history talks in a field at Broad Chalke, west of the city, in late June.
A funfair in the Market Place and Guildhall Square for four days in October, under a medieval charter.
The Market Place event that opens the city's Christmas programme on 20 November.
The National Trust dresses the house for a Regency Christmas from late November to 22 December.
Stalls in the city centre on the Sundays before Christmas, 10am to 4pm.
English Heritage opens the stones at sunrise for the winter solstice, on 22 December in 2026.
A ten-minute walk west of the Market Place. South Western Railway runs direct to London Waterloo in about 1 hour 20 to 1 hour 30, and GWR to Bath in about an hour.
Runs from the station and the city centre to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, stopping at Old Sarum. Bus-only and bus-and-entry tickets; concessionary passes are not accepted.
Five sites on the edge of the city (Wilton, Britford, London Road, Beehive and Petersfinger) with free parking and buses into the centre, Monday to Saturday.
Cheese, ham, pickle, apple and crusty bread, the classic pub lunch.
Roast meat, Yorkshire pudding and gravy, served in most pubs on Sundays.
Scones with clotted cream and jam, best in a Close tea room.
Battered cod or haddock and chips, the takeaway to eat on a bench.
Ham cured the Wiltshire way, sliced thick for sandwiches or a ploughman's.
The county's mild brine cure, the back bacon of a full English breakfast.
A sticky, layered bread of lard, sugar and dried fruit, sold by Wiltshire bakers.
Hop Back Brewery's pale golden ale, first brewed at the Wyndham Arms.
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