Top 10 Best Things To Do For Adults In Bristol in 2026

Location: Cabot Circus, Upper Ground, BS1 3BX.

Escape Hunt gives you two ways to play: locked themed rooms indoors, or outdoor city hunts that send you out into Bristol.

The indoor games are story-led, with built sets and puzzles to match, whether you are escaping the sinking ship in Blackbeard's Treasure, cracking the code in Our Finest Hour or facing down the warlord in The Fourth Samurai.

The outdoor City Hunt games turn the streets themselves into the board, and you can pick between Return to Wonderland, Time Cops and Vampire Hunters.

There is free WiFi, step-free access and wheelchair-friendly activities, and assistance dogs are welcome.

➡️ Step out of the room and you are already inside Cabot Circus, so food and drinks are a few steps away.

Booking ahead is the safest way to get the game and slot you want.

Location: Cabot Circus, Glass House Lane, Broadmead, BS1 3BX.

ODEON Luxe takes the top floor of Cabot Circus, running eight screens that take in an IMAX and the immersive iSense.

Every seat is a full recliner with a personal tray table, and a couple of screens go further with VIP beds, while the Luxe Suite has two-seater pods if you want a bit of privacy.

You can order snacks, coffee or a cocktail ahead on the ODEON app and collect them on arrival. What’s more, you can chill with a drink in Oscar’s Bar before or after the movie and talk about the experience with your buddies.

The screens fill the wall from edge to edge and floor to ceiling, which is the whole reason for paying for the comfy seats.

You’ll be able to catch movies available for as little as £7.95, such as:

• Masters of the Universe.
• Scary Movie.
• Disclosure Day.
• Toy Story 5.

Access is step-free across the building, every screen has wheelchair spaces, and there is audio description, hard-of-hearing support and CEA card acceptance, with assistance dogs welcome.

Location: Cabot Circus, Upper Ground, BS1 3BX.

King Pins is a bowling venue in Cabot Circus where the lanes are only the starting point.

Around them are Ice Free Curling, Tech Darts, karaoke, pool and a sizeable arcade, which is how a quick game tends to swallow a whole evening.

The kitchen and a long drinks list keep things going, so it leans more towards a night out than a single frame.

And the best part about it? Nobody needs any experience to participate.

This leisure activity would be ideal for both low-key catch-ups and a full-blown party, and walk-ins are fine alongside bookings.

The venue is step-free throughout, the activities are wheelchair-friendly, and assistance dogs are welcome.

The food options at Cabot Circus cover both quick stops and drawn-out lunches:

Harvey Nichols, Second Floor Restaurant and Bar

Location: Quakers Friars, BS1 3BZ.

Up above the shop floor, the Second Floor Restaurant and Bar of Harvey Nichols pairs modern cooking with floor-to-ceiling windows over Quakers Friars.

It has picked up two AA Rosettes and a Notable Wine List Award, and can be the perfect spot for brunch, bar plates, afternoon tea, and dinner.

Most dietary needs are covered, and the restaurant takes reservations, including private dining.

Six By Nico

Location: Cabot Circus, Bristol.

Six By Nico works to a single idea: a six-course tasting menu that rotates every six weeks, inspired by a unique theme, destination, or concept.

The menu changes every six weeks, providing a fresh culinary experience with each visit.

There are wine and cocktail pairings to match, and both meat-led and vegetarian routes through the courses.

Côte

Location: Cabot Circus, Bristol.

Côte is the French brasserie of the bunch.

Its breakfast and brunch lean into flaky pastries and the kind of morning coffee you want to linger over.

Later in the day, steak-frites, moules marinières, and a glass of wine make for a relaxed lunch or dinner.

There's also a lovely terrace, so alfresco dining or brunch with an Aperol in hand during the summer makes you feel like you're on holiday in France.

Wagamama

Location: Cabot Circus, Upper Ground floor, BS1 3BX.

wagamama is the place to go for fast, fresh Asian-inspired food (the sort of ramen and katsu curry you order at a long bench with sides to share across it).

Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options are all on the menu, and there are student, NHS and Blue Light discounts.

Dave's Hot Chicken

Location: Cabot Circus, BS1 3BX.

Dave's Hot Chicken landed in Cabot Circus from Los Angeles with a Nashville-style menu of hand-breaded tenders and sliders.

They come with pickles, slaw and the house sauce, and run across seven heat levels that begin at No Spice and end, for the brave, at Reaper.

Most of the big high-street names line up within a few minutes of each other here, so a full-wardrobe day takes barely any walking. You can start with these four:

Marks & Spencer

Location: Unit 1, Cabot Circus, BS1 3BD.

The Cabot Circus M&S is the brand's new Bristol flagship, an 80,000 sq. ft. store spread over three floors.

You get fashion and homeware throughout, a food hall laid out like a market, the chain's largest beauty space yet and a 200-seat coffee shop for when your legs give out.

JD Sports

Location: Cabot Circus, Ground floor, BS1 3BF.

JD Sports is the trainers-and-tracksuits stop, stacked with Nike, Adidas and New Balance plus the occasional drop you won't catch on the high street.

The store has step-free access throughout, and also offers Click and Collect.

UNIQLO

Location: Cabot Circus, Ground floor, BS1 3BX.

UNIQLO offers well-made basics, including its famously light down jackets.

There is menswear, womenswear and babywear, plus tailoring, alterations, repairs and even on-the-spot T-shirt printing.

💡 We’d recommend you keep an eye out for its Bristol-friendly collaborations too, such as Aardman.

Zara

Location: Cabot Circus, Ground floor, BS1 3BX.

Zara takes catwalk trends and makes them wearable, with womenswear, menswear and kidswear that turns over quickly through the season.

Click and Collect is available, and the store offers step-free access and accessible service counters.

Bristol has quietly become one of the South West's strongest beauty destinations, and a cluster of the names you'll actually want are minutes apart:

Sephora

Location: Concord Street, Bristol BS1 3BD.

Sephora pulls premium and high-street beauty together, with its own Sephora Collection next to the bigger skincare, makeup and fragrance names.

You can book a consultation, try the in-store makeup services or run the digital beauty scan, and there is a loyalty programme to log it all.

LOOKFANTASTIC

Location: Ground Floor, Brigstowe Street, BS1 3BH.

LOOKFANTASTIC leans into cult skincare and signature scent, carrying names like Jo Malone London, Medik8, SkinCeuticals and Laneige.

The team will happily talk you through a routine or help you settle on a fragrance, and you can book a treatment or makeup slot, or just browse with no agenda.

Boots Beauty

Location: Cabot Circus, Ground floor, BS1 3BF.

Boots Beauty is a beauty-only spin on the chain and, as it happens, only the second of its kind in the country (you’ll be surprised to find P.Louise in here as well!).

It covers cosmetics, skincare, fragrance and wellness, throws in free skincare consultations and cosmetics services, and runs the No7 3D Face Scan if you want your skin properly read.

Harvey Nichols

Location: Quakers Friars, Ground floor, BS1 3BZ.

Down at Quakers Friars, the Harvey Nichols store keeps luxury fashion and a full beauty hall together, stocking labels that rarely turn up elsewhere.

It offers personal styling and a range of skincare and makeup services, and the Second Floor Restaurant and Bar is waiting upstairs if you fancy a wine tasting or a cocktail masterclass.

Rituals

Location: Cabot Circus, Ground floor, Brigstowe Street, BS1 3BD.

Rituals turns the everyday wash-and-go into something slower, blending body care with home fragrance under a B Corp badge.

Its products lean on natural-origin ingredients, the store is built as a calm spot to test them, and there is Click and Collect, gift services and a loyalty scheme.

Location: Stokes Croft, Bristol (a short walk north of Cabot Circus).

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Stokes Croft is Bristol's cultural quarter, the road and side streets where the city's street art is at its best.

The walls change all the time, layered with murals, stencils and tags from a rolling cast of local and visiting artists.

Bristol's street art grew up around here, and so did Banksy, though his surviving pieces are better chased down on the trail below.

Nelson Street, a short walk away, rewards a detour for the towering works international artists left during the See No Evil project.

💡 Local tip: the art turns over constantly, so the walls you photograph this month may be gone the next, which is part of the fun.

Location: Starts and ends at Brunel's SS Great Britain, Great Western Dockyard, Gas Ferry Road, BS1 6TY.

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Bristol's Floating Harbour gives you one of the best traffic-free walks in the city, all of it along the water.

The SS Great Britain publishes a free self-guided Harbourside Trail you can download to your phone, looping out from Brunel's ship and back through the old docks.

The road is flat and fine for any walker, past a working marina, bobbing boats and the cranes and warehouses that give away the harbour's industrial past.

The M Shed museum is one of the landmarks you pass, with no shortage of places to stop.

It shows you a calmer, more characterful side of Bristol, well clear of the city-centre crowds.

Location: Various locations across Bristol (start in the city centre near Park Street).

Banksy is a Bristol-based artist, and a few of his original works still hold their spots out on the streets.

String them into your own walking trail, and you can take in Well Hung Lover on Park Street, The Mild Mild West over in Stokes Croft and Girl with the Pierced Eardrum tucked near the harbourside at Hanover Place.

One earlier piece, the Grim Reaper, was lifted off its original boat and moved into the M Shed museum to keep the weather off it.

The pieces carry the dry, pointed humour Banksy is known for, and rounding them up is as much a tour of Bristol's neighbourhoods as an art hunt.

💡 Local tip: a couple of free trail maps and apps track the current locations, which beats guesswork.

Location: Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RL (at the top of Park Street).

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery fills a grand old building at the top of Park Street, with collections that range across art, natural history and the wider world.

Inside there are Egyptian mummies, dinosaurs and geology, centuries of fine art, and a run of objects tracing Bristol's own story and its place in the world.

Among the better-known holdings is Banksy's Paint Pot Angel, a leftover from his 2009 takeover of the building, though it does head out on loan from time to time.

A rotating programme of temporary exhibitions runs alongside the permanent galleries through the year.

We believe that Cabot Circus is a long way past the shopping centre label.

It’s become its own slice of Bristol: somewhere to eat, watch a film, play a few rounds of something daft, shop and set off into the rest of the city.

Whatever shape your day takes, from a locked room to a long lunch or a slow wander round the beauty halls, there is enough here to keep you going for hours.

You can map out the trip on our website, which will help you plan how to reach us by car, taxi, train, bus or bike.

And if you are driving, our smart parking solution is built to take the friction out of arriving and leaving, queues included.