Bristol is the working city Bath’s visitors usually skip. The harbour was the point of the place, including a slave-trading past the city now says out loud. The suspension bridge at Clifton is the view. The streets between the docks, Stokes Croft and the Christmas Steps are where a weekend actually happens.
Two nights is the right length: one for the gorge and the docks, one for walking without a plan. It pairs with Bath on a short train, and the contrast is the lesson.
See
Clifton Suspension Bridge
Walk across it, then down to the Cumberland Basin if your knees agree. The view back up is the photograph.
The harbour
SS Great Britain if ships interest you. The waterside walk if they do not. Both are legitimate.
A hill
Brandon Hill or the Cabot Tower. Bristol is only understood from above, because the centre hides in cuts and slopes.
Street art, without a tour
Stokes Croft and Nelson Street. Look, and do not treat people’s walls as a theme park.