One of my missions this year is to explore more of the UK, by taking micro gapsto explore more of the beautiful place I live! One of the first micro gaps I took this year was a day trip to Plymouth, I live in North Devon so it only took around an hour and a half of the train.
When visiting new places I like to get an authentic taste of what the place has to offer and therefore did a lot of research beforehand. One thing I struggled with was finding information, there was not a lot of info out there about the best places to visit, so I hope if you’re planning a day or weekend in Plymouth, this blog will help you!
Getting There
As I mentioned, I already live in Devon, therefore, travelling to Plymouth wasn’t too long. My sister and I both wanted to have a few drinks, therefore, opted to get the train. Booking in advance and having a 16-25 railcard helped bring the cost down, for a £6.95 (a bargain if you ask me!) and my sisters only cost £10.55 without a railcard. We arrived in Plymouth at 08.30 and our train to depart left at 19:40, giving us around 11 hours to explore.
Morning
Starting off our day we knew we wanted to have some American pancakes, and came across The Dock when looking online. After a very early start on a Saturday, I paired my maple syrup pancakes with a latte. There’s plenty of choice on the menu from cooked breakfasts to pastries and milkshakes, so it’s a place I’d highly recommend heading to.
When in Plymouth, head to the Plymouth Gin Distillery for a tour. The distillery has been crafting gin since 1793, there are a few different tour options to choose from; Gin Distillery tour (£10 – 40 minutes), Gin Connoisseur’s tour (£25 – 1 hour 30 mins) and Master Distiller’s tour (£45 – 2 hours 30 mins).
We opted for the tour which lasted 40 minutes, giving you an overview of the history of the distillery, how gin is distilled and of course, allowing you to taste it! I would recommend this tour if you like gin, I’d also suggest trying the sloe gin which is incredible!
Afternoon
Is a weekend away, a weekend away without some shopping?! Drakes circus is full of great shops for a browse! And you have to head to Primark too!
We were still feeling quite full from breakfast and just fancied a cake from a cute little café, and we could not find any! We walked around for around an hour, researched online and found it very odd that we couldn’t find somewhere independent. It was getting late on in the day and needed something small before ice skating, so ended up at Wetherspoons for some chips (not very authentic!).
Anyone else a fan of Dancing On Ice?! I’ve been obsessed with ice skating from a young age and this is the closest proper ice rink in the southwest. The ice skating rink in Plymouth is at Plymouth Pavilions, you can also go swimming there and catch a gig! We opted for the cheap sk8 which takes place from 16:00 – 17:30 every Saturday and only costs £6. It does get quite busy but within around half an hour I wasn’t clinging on the side and had a blast, I also didn’t fall over – bonus!
Evening
After using all our energy on ice skating we needed to refill! Between Drakes Circus and Plymouth Pavilions, there’s a street called Union Street which has bundles of places to eat. We booked a table on route to the rink at Wildwood, an Italian. It’s a chain so it’s not unique to Plymouth, but we’d both not been before. It was 241 as we arrived, so both got Passion Fruit Collins! We then decided to share some four cheese arancini balls and I opted for the chicken and meatball calzone for main. It was a tasty meal, so I’d highly recommend visiting a Wildwood wherever you are in the UK!
To end what had been a great day, we headed for cocktails at Vodka Revolution (also on Union Street). Being at uni in BristolI’d been to vodka revs a lot but unfortunately, where I live in Devon, we don’t have one close. There are many great places to grab a cocktail in Plymouth, from Tigermilk to The Dairy, be sure to check a few out!
At this point it was time for us to get our train home, however, if I was to spend a night out in Plymouth I’d suggest heading to Walkabout, Slug & Lettuce and then finding a club that suits your music taste; Pryzm, OMG, Factory, Cuba, or Popworld.
I hope that this blog has helped inspire you to take a day trip to Plymouth, or even prolong it to a weekend in Plymouth! Do you have any places you’d recommend to visit? Let me know in the comments!
