Two dogs, a motorhome and a historic city. Lee Ness find the authentic Cambridge
Cambridge
Cambridge is a much-loved and visited university city in central England that is perfect for a city break. With historic buildings, chapels, courtyards and gardens spanning centuries of architecture, Cambridge is a must for a short city break. When we decided to rent a motorhome for a mini circular tour of the country, Cambridge was a perfect place to visit. But what is it like for two humans and their dogs, Tash and Tilly, our two working Cocker Spaniels of advancing years? Our two girls are relatively well trained, although not to a working dog standard and, because they are getting older (13 and 10, respectively), they are calm when we are visiting places. They are fit though and can walk for long distances without any problems, something they have done every day since they were pups. This is relevant because we had options when choosing our locations because we all love to walk. The first element of our trip of course was to find and rent a motorhome that was right for us all, including the two girls. We rented via Goboony from a lovely man and the process was seamless. Goboony is like the AirBnB of motorhomes. The motorhomes and camper vans are hired out mostly by private individuals. There are other providers o fa similar service, such as Camplify and Yescapa and there are many commercial companies that rent motorhomes. The process with Goboony was simple – select your dates, number of travellers, whether you’re taking pets and where you’d like to collect from. The range for our search was huge and we found the perfect motorhome. We are aiming to buy one in 2026 so we wanted one similar to what we were looking for and we found one less than an hour away. The handover with the owner was perfect. We collected the evening before our trip to give us time to get everything set up the way we wanted it before travelling. But, in our case, all the essentials were provided. The cutlery and crockery, chairs, table, tools, hook ups were all there ready for us. Even essentials like washing-up liquid, hand soap and condiments.
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A walk around the City
We have a car dog bed for our car rear seat and that fit perfectly on the twin travelling seat and the dogs could be secured when we were on the road. In the evening, there was plenty of room for their regular beds on the floor and they were happy with our arrangements for them. We wanted to spend a full day in Cambridge and so stayed for two nights, arriving on a Wednesday afternoon and leaving on Friday morning, leaving us all day Thursday to explore. We decided to finda location via Brit Stops, a network of places to stay free of charge. It costs £35.20 to join Brit Stops for a year, and we are planning to do this in future so this was good value for us although there are options on social media to achieve the same goal. We chose The Plough in Coton on the outskirts of Cambridge City. We called ahead and were kindly allowed to stay for two nights, free of charge, as long as we ate in the pub at least once. The parking was in the pub’s overflow car park, a grassed area that is mostly flat. There were some other vans there and a couple that parked at the far end of the main car park on the hard standing so our guess is the pub is fairly easy going. The important factor was that the pub is very dog friendly and half of the motorhomes and vans on the site had their dogs with them. The food in the pub was excellent. We enjoyed a starter each – one of squid, one padron of peppers – followed by a burger for me and fish and chips for my wife; we were in the mood for some traditional pub grub. There was a wide-ranging menu available with a particularly good range of vegetarian options, which were tempting even to a carnivore like me. With the meal, two beers and a bottle of wine, the bill was just over £100, so not cheap, but certainly worth it considering we had a free location for two nights, gratis.
The River Cam
Next morning, after a hearty full English in the van, with a sausage each for the two girls, we made our leisurely way into Cambridge. The paved, tree-lined 2.5-mile footpath (creatively named The Footpath) led directly from The Plough straight into the city centre. Tash and Tilly aren’t big fans of traffic ,but the city centre is mostly pedestrianised, elsewhere traffic is light. The narrow streets in the historical sections means cars don’t travel down them anyway. In the centre, we started at the market square to take in some lovely artisan stalls. It isn’t a big market but it’s nice to have a look around and the girls enjoyed the smells. From there, we headed up to King’s College. It is one of the few colleges that accepts visitors but it is a paid entry and there are no dogs allowed. But it is worth a visit to view from the outside as the architecture is stunning. This was a great opportunity for us to take a break in one of the many dog friendly coffee shops facing King’s College. Tash and Tilly had a drink and a treat, while we humans may have also taken the opportunity for a coffee and a cake, just to be sociable. Once we had recharged, we had a wander around the quiet streets past the beautiful colleges. There are 31 in all so we didn’t see them all and none of them allowed dogs in the grounds, even the ones that allowed visitors. The famous Trinity College does allow visitors, but sadly no dogs again although wandering along the outside was beautiful. We crossed King’s College Bridge and skirted The Backs for the beautiful views before returning back to the Quayside to book a dog friendly punt. Sharing is the best value option (around £75 for two people and the dogs, depending on timing). It’s best to book in advance so that you are the first booking for the punt.
Punting on the River Cam
It is empty then, which gives other people who come later the opportunity not to share a punt with the dogs. The delay was only 40 minutes and gave us a great opportunity to stop for another water break for the girls at The Pickerill pub across the road. We humans might have enjoyed a cider too. To be sociable. Again. Anything for our dogs. The chauffeured punt was a joy. We saw lots and learned a lot. The punt itself took 45 minutes and saw views of the Bridge of Sighs, the grounds of King’s, the Mathematical Bridge and lots of other beautiful buildings and their gardens, with lovely snippets of information from the chauffeur – like how the Bridge of Sighs got its name, where ‘daylight robbery’ comes from, that no-one knows which was Alan Turing’s room, that only graduates are allowed to get married in college chapels, the Cambridge Night Climbers – and many more. Tash and Tilly did their usual. Tash bedded down in the bottom of the punt and went to sleep, taking her breaks when they came along. Tilly sat up the whole way and enjoyed the scenery with us humans. After the punt outing, we continued our wanderings around the colleges taking in St Catherine’s and others, with a little bit of shopping along the way until we ended our wanderings at The Granta, a beautiful pub on the side of the Cam. The Granta took its name from the name locals give to the stretch of the river Cam that runs from Grantchester to Mill Race and is perched on a willow-fringed mill pond on the banks of the Cam. We had an early dinner here of one duck hash and one beef raclette pie, both of which made Tash and Tilly drool. I’m sure they would have enjoyed it as much as we did. From here, after another couple of sips of water and ciders for the humans, we took the leisurely stroll back along The Footpath to The Plough for a well-earned rest.
Looking at the River Cam
The next morning, we took a stroll around Coton Countryside Reserve to stretch all our legs before moving on to our next stop on our tour. The entry to the reserve has a handy leaflet box, which shows all the walks in the area and they are quiet, beautiful and perfect for the dogs. After the dogs had checked the area’s ‘pee-mail’ we packed up and said goodbye.
All in all, travelling to Cambridge with two dogs was a joy, made even better by the motorhome, and the stay at The Plough. The city is beautiful and we can’t help being filled with awe of the history, heritage and legacy of the college alumni that walked the streets before us. Turing, Oppenheimer, Newton and so many more. This must be a wonderful place to follow in their footsteps as a student, but it is also a wonderful place to visit. Tash and Tilly agree.
Bridge of Sighs
FACT FILE
Cambridge City
Goboony for Motorhome Hire
PRICE From around £75 per day CONTACT via the website
PLACES TO EAT
The Plough, Coton – 01954 210489
The Granta Pub Restaurant, Cambridge – 01223 505016
LOCAL INTEREST
Scudamores Punting – 01223 359750
Coton Countryside Reserve
WEBSITE goboony.co.uk
