Parking and public transport

A bit of planning will help you get the most from the trail, with minimal walking and travel cost. The trail itself is completely free. This page gives details of parking and public transport serving our trail area.

PARKING

With the large number of visitors we have, we strongly recommend using public transport (or bicycle) to visit the trail. It is easy to get various cheap unlimited travel passes on the buses to visit us. See further down under public transport.

However, this section tells you about parking in our fairly new parking scheme areas. These notes apply only to the days of our Trail (ie Saturday and Sunday)

There has been much publicity about parking in the area of our Trail, but actually there is a reasonable amount of space and MOST of the areas are FREE on Saturdays and Sundays. Even where there is meter parking on Saturdays, the first half-hour is FREE (though you do have to get a ticket from a machine). See below for details, which refer only to Saturdays and Sundays, ie the days of our trail.

See a map of all parking areas

In the links below, the code in brackets (eg CV) shows what appears on the roadside signs as there are different areas. Parking tickets are valid in any area marked with the same code. Full details of each parking section are shown on the map itself.

FREE PARKING on roads marked GREEN or MAUVE in North Clifton (CV)

FREE PARKING on roads beyond the very central Clifton Village area marked GREEN or MAUVE;
METER PARKING on SATURDAY ONLY on roads marked GREEN or MAUVE (* first half-hour FREE); FREE on SUNDAY in Clifton Village (CV)

FREE PARKING on roads marked GREEN or MAUVE in Clifton East (CE)

METER PARKING on roads marked GREEN or MAUVE?on SATURDAY ONLY (* first half-hour FREE); FREE on SUNDAY in Clifton Wood and Hotwells

FREE PARKING on roads marked GREEN or MAUVE in Spike Island/ South Hotwells

FREE PARKING on roads marked GREEN or MAUVE in Cotham South

FREE PARKING on roads marked GREEN or MAUVE in Cotham North

FREE PARKING on roads markedGREEN or MAUVE in Redland

FREE PARKING on roads markedGREEN or MAUVE in Kingsdown

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

With the large number of visitors we have, we strongly recommend using public transport to visit the trail.

Book trains online at a discount (cheapest done in advance) at The Trainline.
We strongly recommend adding Plusbus which for £3.50 per adult means you?have unlimited travel on all buses.

Bristol Temple Meads is served by the number 8  service. They run at frequent intervals and these are the best buses for much of the trail. The number 8 serves Clifton. The number 9, serving Redland, no longer runs. The number 505 links Hotwells, Clifton, Cotham and Redland with the Long Ashton Park and Ride. For convenience I have included Monday to Friday even though the trail is just on Saturday and Sunday.

Number 8 Monday – Friday
Number 8 Saturday
Number 8 Sunday
Number 505 Monday – Friday
Number 505 Saturday
Number 505 Sunday

First bus have various useful guides:

All Bristol bus routes

Bus travelcards

Bristol bus journey planner

Next bus

There is also the Ferry from the Centre to Hotwells