Drinking round the Floating Harbour, stretch by stretch

The Floating Harbour is the reason Bristol exists in its current shape — a Georgian feat of engineering that locked the tide out and kept ships afloat in the heart of the city. We've told that fuller story in our guide to the Floating Harbour; this post is the practical companion: where to drink on it, stretch by stretch, walking east from Hotwells to Finzels Reach.

Declaring our interest early, as usual: our own tour starts with a private boat across this water, tastings in hand, and we remain of the view that the harbour's best bar is one that moves. More on that at the end.

Hotwells and the western end

The quiet, handsome end of the harbour, where the water narrows towards the Avon and the colourful terraces of Cliftonwood stack up behind. The landmark is the Grain Barge — a converted barge moored off Hotwell Rd, long associated with Bristol Beer Factory, where you drink on deck with the water directly beneath you. It's also where our tour meets, 11:45am on selected Saturdays, which tells you what we think of it as a starting point. Nearby, the Pump House serves its pints inside a grand former Victorian pumping station, and the Nova Scotia, an old dockside pub by the Cumberland Basin, has been watering sailors and dockers since the harbour worked for a living.

Spike Island and Wapping Wharf

Cross to the south side and the harbour gets busier. Wapping Wharf, behind M Shed, is the modern cluster — bars and kitchens stacked into converted shipping containers at Cargo, with a rotating cast of independents that rewards a wander rather than a plan. A few minutes into Spike Island's backstreets stands The Orchard Inn, a small pub with a national reputation for cider — a Bristol institution, and a reminder that this city's drinking heritage runs on apples as well as barley.

The city-centre stretch

Around St Augustine's Reach and the amphitheatre, the harbour is at its most social — quaysides full on any warm evening. The Arnolfini, the arts centre on its own corner of water, has one of the best-positioned outdoor drinking spots in the city; the Watershed bar looks over the reach from the other side. Round on Welsh Back you'll find The Apple, a cider bar aboard a moored barge — proof the Grain Barge isn't the only floating drinking in town. And one street inland lies King Street, the Beer Quarter itself, which we've walked pub by pub here — the natural pivot from waterside afternoon to old-city evening.

Finzels Reach and the eastern end

Push on past Bristol Bridge and the harbour's newest drinking quarter appears at Finzels Reach, where the Left Handed Giant brewpub brews on the premises with the kit in view and the water outside the windows — the easiest place in central Bristol to drink beer metres from where it was made. We've written a full visitor's guide to Left Handed Giant if you're planning a stop.

The bar that moves

Here's the thing every harbourside drinker eventually notices: the best views of the harbour are from the water, and the bars are all on the land. Our solution is the obvious one. The Bristol Craft Beer Experience begins with a private boat across the Floating Harbour with craft beer tastings on board — the city sliding past, glass in hand — before going behind the scenes at Moor Brewery and finishing with a beer flight, cheese and charcuterie at The Beer Emporium on King Street around 4pm. Four hours, £69 a head, everything included, on selected Saturdays at least monthly. Over-18s, up to 30 guests, and it runs in all weather — the harbour is at its most atmospheric in the drizzle anyway, and the boat is covered.

Groups can take the whole boat as a private tour — there is no better setting in Bristol for a birthday or a work do — and the gift voucher version turns this entire article into a present.

Common questions

Harbourside venues change their hours seasonally and at short notice — please check each one directly before making a special trip. Tour details are ours and correct at the time of writing.