The Place We’re at Now: Bristol, England

We're finally staying put for a while!

Nov 11, 2024

∙ Paid

This is a regular feature about where we currently are in the world: how we ended up there, what it costs, and exactly what we think.

Brent and I haven’t had great luck with our long-term stays so far this year.

Our Airbnb in Valencia, Spain, had stairs of death and black mold in one bedroom.
Our apartment in Istanbul was smaller, darker, and more rundown than we’d anticipated.
And while our apartment in Fethiye, Turkey, was fantastic, there was a very loud, not-at-all-melodic early morning call-to-prayer from the mosque next door.

Not surprisingly, we were a little apprehensive when we rented a place in Bristol, England, for almost two months.

So how has it turned out?

Before we answer that, here’s a bit about Bristol, which is located in South West England, where the Avon River meets the Atlantic. Alas, this is a tidal river so it isn’t nearly as attractive as the name “Avon” might suggest.

Map of England showing a red arrow pointing at Bristol.

Here are a few interesting Bristol facts:

Formerly the site of Iron Age hillforts and Roman villas, Bristol was officially founded in AD 1155 and soon became an important maritime port. Unfortunately, for many years, much of what they traded was enslaved peoples, and this provided much of the city’s early wealth.
Speaking of slavery, a statue once stood in central Bristol honoring one Edward Colston, a man who had grown rich from slavery in the 17th century. For decades, the memorial was very controversial, but the city council refused to remove it. In 2020, during the protests over George Floyd’s murder, locals finally pulled the statue down and dumped it in the harbor; it now resides in a museum, defaced and on its side. Weirdly, iron plaques honoring the man still exist on the plinth that remains in the park.

*The original caption reads: “Erected by the citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city.” Virtuous, huh?*

Bristol’s population is 470,000, making it the 9th largest city in the UK.
People from Bristol are called “Bristolians,” and while their accent isn’t nearly as dramatic as, say, Liverpudlians, they still have a clear one. A Bristolian accent is “rhotic,” meaning every letter “r” is pronounced quite distinctly. They also tend to drop the “g” from words that end in “ing.” So here you’ll hear “bein’” instead of “being” and “seein’” instead of seeing.
This is apple country, and Bristol is known as the Cider Capital. They’re famous for their “scrumpy,” a cider made from fallen apples with a higher alcohol content than most ciders.

May be an image of beer and ale — *Not a scrumpy cider, but the kind I liked best!*

Famous Bristolians include Cary Grant, the street artist Banksy, the pirate Blackbeard, and the explorer John Cabot, who reached the coast of North America in 1497, making him the first European to do that since, well, the Vikings did it three centuries earlier. Wallace and Gromit’s Nick Park isn’t originally from the area, but he lives here now, working at Aardman Animations to create the movies starring the cheese lover and his skeptical dog — as well as projects like Chicken Run and Creature Comforts.

A photo showing Wallace and Gromit. — *The best!*

How did we end up here?

Brent and I recently finished two months on a cruise ship that sailed around Northern Europe, and even though we mostly enjoyed it, we both had a strong desire to stay in one place on land for a while.

We were on the verge of going to Rwanda for a month with friends, but Brent had a potential professional conflict. Another friend suggested we visit them on a remote Greek Island, but we couldn’t quite make the visa situation work.

Then we realized we were both feeling the same thing: a desire to spend the holidays back in the U.S. with friends and family.

Brent spotted an amazing price on a transatlantic cruise leaving the UK at the end of November. It seemed like a cheap, painless way to return to the U.S. for the holidays, so that settled that. But where would we stay in England in the meantime?

Multiple friends recommended Bristol, and now here we are.

Where are we staying? What does it cost?

We’re staying in the Cotham Hill neighborhood, part of the Clifton area. We’re about a twenty-minute walk to the heart of the city.

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