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Practicalities
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Great Malvern
train station
is on the eastern edge of town, half a mile or so from the centre along Avenue Road and Church Street. A range of inexpensive hiking leaflets are sold at the town's
tourist office
, right in the centre across from the priory church at 21 Church St (April-Nov daily 10am-5pm; Dec-March Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 10am-4pm; tel 01684/892289,
). They also sell the three excellent large-scale
hiking maps
, which are indispensable if you're planning on walking the length of the Malverns. This is also a rewarding, though physically demanding, area to explore by
bike
; at present no one does bike rental, but this may well change - ring the tourist office for details.
Accommodation is plentiful. Amongst the hotels , there's the Great Malvern , 7 Graham Rd (tel 01684/563411, ; A?70-90), a family-run, medium-sized hotel in a substantial old stone building right in the centre, and, just along the street, at no. 23, is the comparable Montrose (tel 01684/572335; A?40-50). The smartest hotel in town is the Foley Arms , 14 Worcester Rd (tel 01684/573397; A?70-90), which occupies a good-looking Georgian building - with oodles of wrought-iron work - again in the centre. B&Bs include the inexpensive Kylemore , 30 Avenue Rd (tel 01684/563753; no credit cards; under A?40), the Wyche Keep , an impressive Edwardian house with garden access to the hills at 22 Wyche Rd (tel 01684/567018; no credit cards; A?50-60), and Elm Bank , an elegant Regency town house with en-suite rooms at 52 Worcester Rd (tel 01684/566051; A?40-50). The homely youth hostel , serving simple meals, is a mile south of Great Malvern train station, off the main A449 at 18 Peachfield Rd, Malvern Wells (tel 01684/569131, ; closed Nov to mid-Feb). The nearest campsite is at Odd Fellows Pub , four miles southwest in Colwall (tel 01684/540084).
For
food
, Great Malvern has oodles of cafAŠs and tearooms - one of the more distinctive is the
St Anne's Well CafAŠ
, a cosy vegetarian cafAŠ serving inexpensive wholefood snacks, salads and cakes from its Victorian premises at the Well; just follow the signs up through the park from the centre. They'll also give you a glass to sample the spring water that babbles into a basin outside the door. The town's other cafAŠ with character lies downhill from the tourist office at the train station. Known as the
Lady Foley's Tea Room
during the day, and
Passionata
in the evening (tel 01684/893033; reservations recommended), it's actually on one of the station platforms and makes the most of its Victorian surroundings. Finally,
Cridlans' Restaurant
(tel 01684/562676), a French-style brasserie just outside the abbey gates, is a slightly pricier, but still good-value place to eat, serving light lunches and tasty continental dishes on check tablecloths; try their delicious home-made sausage sandwich. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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United Kingdom,
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