Leicester is the most underrated city day out in the Midlands, and the reason is that most people only know it for one thing. The Richard III story is genuinely extraordinary, but it is roughly two hours of a day that can comfortably fill eight, and the rest of the city gets almost no attention.
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This guide is written for a day trip rather than a city break. It covers what is actually worth your time, what to skip, how to get there from Market Harborough, and how to build a single day that works with children or without them. If you are planning a wider trip, our guide to things to do in Market Harborough covers the other direction.
Things to Do in Leicester At A Glance
- Best single attraction: King Richard III Visitor Centre, next to the cathedral
- Best for children: The National Space Centre, north of the city
- Best free option: New Walk Museum and Art Gallery
- Best for an hour: Leicester Market and the Lanes
- From Market Harborough: Around 30 minutes by car, or roughly 20 minutes by direct train
- Time needed: A full day. Half a day if you pick two attractions
- Watch out for: Match days at the King Power and Welford Road, when parking and traffic change completely
Getting to Leicester from Market Harborough
The train is the better option and most visitors get this wrong. Market Harborough to Leicester is a direct service taking roughly twenty minutes, and it drops you at Leicester station within walking distance of the cathedral quarter, the museum and the market.
Driving takes around half an hour on a clear run but leaves you looking for city-centre parking, which is the least enjoyable part of any Leicester day. The exception is the National Space Centre, which sits north of the centre with its own car park and is genuinely easier to drive to.
Insider Tip
Do the city centre by train and the Space Centre by car, on separate days if you can. Trying to combine them in one trip means either a bus across the city or moving the car mid-afternoon, and both eat an hour you would rather spend somewhere else.
King Richard III Visitor Centre: Leicester’s Best-Known Story
In 2012 archaeologists found the remains of a king under a council car park. Richard III had been missing since 1485, and the excavation that located him took place on the site of the old Greyfriars friary, in what had become a parking space marked with a letter R.
The visitor centre is built on that site. It splits into three parts: the historical case for who Richard was and how the Tudor account of him was shaped, the forensic story of the dig and the DNA identification, and then the grave itself, which you view through a glass floor in the position it was found.
Allow around ninety minutes. The forensic section is the part that surprises people, because it is less about medieval history than about how modern archaeology actually works. Older children tend to find it more gripping than the adults expect.
Leicester Cathedral and the Tomb
Richard III was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral in 2015, directly across the square from the centre where you have just seen his grave. The two make sense together and doing one without the other leaves the story half told.
The tomb itself is deliberately plain, a block of Swaledale fossil stone cut with a deep cross. After the theatre of the visitor centre the restraint lands well. The cathedral has undergone significant works in recent years, so check what is open before you travel if the building itself is your reason for going.
For a fuller account of this part of the city, see our dedicated guide to the King Richard III Visitor Centre.
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The National Space Centre: Leicester’s Biggest Family Day Out
The Space Centre is the single biggest draw in the city for families and it is a genuine half day rather than a two-hour visit. The Rocket Tower is the centrepiece, a glazed structure tall enough to house full-size rockets standing upright, which is a considerably better way to grasp the scale of them than any diagram.
The planetarium is the other reason to go and it is worth planning around rather than fitting in. Shows run to a timetable, they sell out at weekends and in school holidays, and arriving without a slot booked is the most common way to be disappointed here.
Planning the Space Centre
- Book the planetarium slot when you book entry, not on arrival
- Allow four hours if you have children, three if you do not
- Drive rather than train. It is north of the centre with its own parking
- Best age range is roughly six to fourteen, though the tower impresses everyone
- Eat before or after, since the on-site options get very busy at midday
- Check the day’s timetable online before setting off, as show times move
Our separate National Space Centre guide goes into more detail on tickets, timings and what each gallery covers.
Leicester Market and the Lanes
Leicester Market has traded on roughly the same spot for centuries and has long been billed as one of the largest outdoor covered markets in Europe. Whether or not that title still holds, it is a proper working market rather than a heritage attraction, which is exactly what makes it worth an hour.
Around it sit the Lanes, the network of narrow streets that carry most of the city’s independent shops, coffee and record trade. This is the part of Leicester that rewards wandering with no plan at all, and it is the best answer to the question of what to do between two booked attractions.
Jewry Wall and Roman Leicester
Leicester was Ratae Corieltauvorum under the Romans, and the Jewry Wall is what survives of it: one of the largest pieces of standing Roman civil building anywhere in Britain. It is free to look at, it sits in the open, and most visitors to the city walk past without registering what it is.
The museum alongside it has been through a major refurbishment, so confirm current opening hours before you plan a visit around it. The wall itself needs no ticket and no booking.
New Walk Museum and Art Gallery
This is the best free thing to do in Leicester and it is consistently underrated. It holds an Egyptian gallery, a dinosaur collection that children reliably enjoy, and a German Expressionist art collection that is among the more significant holdings of its kind in the country.
It sits on New Walk itself, a Georgian pedestrian promenade laid out in the eighteenth century and still closed to traffic, which makes the approach unusually pleasant for a city-centre museum. An hour and a half covers it comfortably.
A Note from Susan, Your Host
Take the train for Leicester. It is about twenty minutes from Market Harborough and it puts you a short walk from the cathedral, the market and the museum, which saves you the city-centre parking entirely. The one exception is the Space Centre, which is north of the city and much easier by car. If you are here for a few days I would do those on separate days rather than trying to force both into one.
Free Things to Do in Leicester
A full day here does not have to cost much beyond travel and lunch. Several of the better options carry no admission at all.
Free Things to Do in Leicester
- New Walk Museum and Art Gallery and the Georgian promenade it stands on
- Jewry Wall, the Roman remains in the open air
- Leicester Market and the Lanes, which cost only what you choose to spend
- Abbey Park, a large Victorian park by the river with abbey ruins in the grounds
- Leicester Cathedral, though a donation is the decent thing
- The Golden Mile on Belgrave Road, worth walking even if you are not eating
Things to Do in Leicester with Kids
Leicester handles a family day better than most cities its size, but the order matters. The Space Centre is the anchor and everything else works around it.
| Attraction | Rough age range | Time needed | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Space Centre | 6 to 14 | 3 to 4 hours | Paid |
| New Walk Museum (dinosaurs) | 4 to 11 | 1 to 2 hours | Free |
| King Richard III Visitor Centre | 10 and up | 90 minutes | Paid |
| Abbey Park | Any | 1 hour plus | Free |
| Leicester Market | Any | 30 to 60 minutes | Free to browse |
With under-fives, skip Richard III entirely and build the day around the Space Centre, the museum dinosaurs and the park. The historical material needs a reading age to land and there is no point paying for it twice.
Where to Eat in Leicester: The Golden Mile
Belgrave Road, known locally as the Golden Mile, is the reason people who know Leicester get slightly evangelical about it. It is a concentrated stretch of South Asian restaurants, sweet shops and grocers, and the vegetarian cooking in particular is among the best in Britain outside London.
It is a short bus ride or a long walk north of the centre, so it works better as an early evening stop than a lunch detour. If you are heading home the same day, this is what turns a day trip into an evening rather than a rushed departure.
For eating closer to base rather than in the city, our Market Harborough restaurants shortlist covers the village pubs and town bistros within fifteen minutes of Clipston.
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A One-Day Leicester Itinerary
If you only have one day and want the city rather than the Space Centre, this order works and avoids doubling back.
| Time | Where | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | King Richard III Visitor Centre | Quietest before midday, and it sets up the cathedral |
| Late morning | Leicester Cathedral | Directly opposite, takes 30 minutes |
| Lunch | The Lanes | Independent cafes, five minutes on foot |
| Early afternoon | Leicester Market | Still trading, and it adjoins the Lanes |
| Mid afternoon | New Walk Museum | Free, indoors, and a good wet-weather fallback |
| Early evening | Golden Mile, Belgrave Road | Restaurants open properly from early evening |
Where to Stay Near Leicester
Staying in the city itself makes sense if Leicester is the whole trip. If it is one day of several, basing yourself in the countryside south of the city works better and costs less, with the train doing the work on the day you go in.
Clipston sits about half an hour south, ten minutes from Market Harborough and its direct rail link. That puts Leicester, Foxton Locks and the Northamptonshire country houses all within easy reach of one base. Our guides to cottages in Leicestershire and luxury countryside cottages set out what is available locally, and the Northamptonshire guide covers the days out in the other direction.
Stay at The Loft
Leicester is about thirty minutes away, and Market Harborough station is ten. The Loft is a lake-view stable conversion on the private 14 Acres estate at Clipston, sleeping six plus two infants. See the full list of amenities.
Check availabilityFrequently Asked Questions
What Are the Best Things to Do in Leicester?
The King Richard III Visitor Centre and Leicester Cathedral are the two that define the city, and they sit opposite each other. The National Space Centre is the biggest family attraction. New Walk Museum and Art Gallery is the best free option, and Leicester Market with the Lanes is the best way to spend a spare hour.
Is Leicester Worth Visiting for a Day?
Yes, and a day is about right. The city centre attractions are close enough together to walk between, and you can cover Richard III, the cathedral, the market and the museum comfortably between mid-morning and late afternoon. The National Space Centre needs a separate visit rather than squeezing into the same day.
What Are the Free Things to Do in Leicester?
New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, the Jewry Wall Roman remains, Abbey Park, Leicester Market and the Lanes are all free. Leicester Cathedral has no admission charge, though a donation is customary. That is enough for a full day without paying for a ticket.
How Long Do You Need at the National Space Centre?
Three to four hours with children, closer to three without. Book the planetarium slot at the same time as entry rather than on arrival, because shows sell out at weekends and in school holidays and the planetarium is a large part of what you are paying for.
How Do You Get to Leicester from Market Harborough?
There is a direct train taking roughly twenty minutes, which drops you within walking distance of the cathedral, market and museum. Driving takes about half an hour but leaves you looking for city-centre parking. The exception is the National Space Centre, which is easier by car.
Where Was Richard III Found in Leicester?
Under a council car park in 2012, on the site of the medieval Greyfriars friary. The King Richard III Visitor Centre is built over the excavation and you view the grave itself through a glass floor. He was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral, directly opposite, in 2015.
What Is the Golden Mile in Leicester?
Belgrave Road, a concentrated stretch of South Asian restaurants, sweet shops and grocers north of the city centre. The vegetarian cooking is among the best in Britain outside London. It works better as an early evening stop than a lunch detour.
What Are the Best Things to Do in Leicester with Kids?
The National Space Centre first, then the dinosaur collection at New Walk Museum and Abbey Park for running around. With under-fives, skip the King Richard III Visitor Centre, since the material needs a reading age to land.
Can You Walk Between Leicester’s Main Attractions?
Yes, for everything in the centre. The visitor centre, cathedral, market, Lanes, Jewry Wall and New Walk Museum are all within walking distance of each other and of Leicester station. The National Space Centre and the Golden Mile are both north of the centre and need transport.
When Is the Best Time to Visit Leicester?
Weekday mornings are quietest at the paid attractions. Check whether Leicester City or Leicester Tigers are at home before you travel, because match days change parking and city-centre traffic considerably. February brings the Leicester Comedy Festival, which is worth timing a visit around if that appeals.