Cambridge

 

Why? "It's smaller, prettier and gentler than Oxford, but Cambridge's honey-stone colleges are just as beautiful, many set against a backdrop of the River Cam, where hapless tourists and inebriated students clash punts during the summer.
"You can see great art at the Fitzwilliam Museum and Kettle's Yard, hear the Kings College Choir sing at a chapel service or walk through the meadows to tea in the lovely village of Grantchester, home of Rupert Brooke and Jeffrey Archer - now finding new fame as the setting for ITV's eponymous drama."