City Guide | Bath, UK

24 Hours In Bath

Recently I spent a day in Bath with Family and thought I'd share my experiences with you. If I could give you one tip about visiting Bath in February, it would be to make sure you see everything early as last entry to most places is around 4pm. We wanted to visit the costume museum, but only arrived at 4.15pm after seeing the crescent. One of life's tragedies.

Arriving By Train

We caught the train from Paddington with no problems. It was one train the whole way and took about two hours. We had booked earlier with Trainline so we had reserved seats.

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Staying in an airB&B

Although I am highly sceptical of airb&b (strange hosts, last minute cancellations, website hacks and scams, rooms that don't look like the advertised photos) I have to say the town house we stayed in for the night was very cute. It was in a residential area of Bath on the other side of the river to the south west of town. If you don't mind catching taxis, the bus or walking down the hill into town it was lovely. The house itself had a nice kitchen and bathroom, and was furnished just the right amount so as to feel it had some homely character, but not enough that it was annoying or in the way. Price-wise I don't think it was cheaper than a hotel, but you get a whole house for about the same price, can't complain!

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The Roman Baths

Perhaps the most cliché attraction at Bath, the Roman baths were on my must see list. Although the entry hall reminded me a little of the Vatican Museum ticketing area (i.e. history Disneyland, yuck)I really enjoyed my visit to the baths. They have the option of a free audio guide (rather good, one of the better ones) as well as costumed characters in the area with the baths themselves, to explain to children what they are looking at. Something I didn't know before coming is that the ancient spring that heats the water has been active so long and goes down so deep, that the water appearing in the baths today is far older than anything else surviving around it. There was a lot more information and artifacts to see in the attached museum, and the place was busy but didn't feel too crowded. One highlight was seeing the gold head of a statue that would have only been accessible to priests and royalty in its time of use. Another was the skeletal remains of a Roman man found at the site. Definitely worth a visit for any lover of history. 

>>  https://www.romanbaths.co.uk/tickets-prices <<

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Bath Abbey

A beautiful Abbey with flying buttresses and a fan-vaulted ceiling. I like visiting churches for their architecture and I wasn't disappointed with the Abbey! There was an option of a donation on entry, but it was effectively free to enter.

>> http://www.bathabbey.org/visiting-abbey <<

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Lunch | Chapel Arts cafe

This cafe seemed to be one of Bath's best little secrets. Tucked away down some steps behind St James Memorial Hall, the Chapel Arts Cafe had a warm atmosphere, friendly staff, and a wide rage of delicious food. Vegetarians and Vegans well catered for. In fact, I believe the cafe is exclusively Vegetarian, but as with most good menus, they used ingredients of high quality and avoided any sort of meat substitutes (i.e. vege sausages) so the meals didn't feel as if they were trying to be something they weren't. Just delicious. I didn't take any photos while we were eating here, I was too busy stuffing my face...

>> https://chapelarts.org/cafe/ <<

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The Circus, Brock Street 

& the Royal Crescent 

The Georgian architecture in Bath is beautiful. You can see the best examples of this with the Circus and Crescent. The circus is a circular street of private houses at the top of the hill behind the town centre. Brock street leads west from the circus and opens up to become the crescent. These are one of Bath's most famous landmarks, the design of the facade was completed first and then a different builder/owner designed the house behind it, so each house is different inside. These days the middle two houses are a hotel, while No.1 is being used as a Georgian House Museum.

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House Museum | No.1 Royal Crescent

Number 1 The Crescent is a fantastically preserved house Museum. The volunteers were all very knowledgable about the house and it was easy to tell that they had a genuine interest in the history of the place. They stay in different rooms and explain the story behind each, while you are free to wonder through the house at your own pace. I found the division of private space between servant and owner ver interesting in such a wealthy household, and being able to view these two extreme lifestyles in one house, preserved as it would have been, was worth the ticket price.

>> http://no1royalcrescent.org.uk/planning-your-visit/ <<

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Dinner | Sotto Sotto

Dinner was a bit of a disappointment if I'm honest, as I had heard so many good things about it before we went. The atmosphere was good and the waiters were all attractive, over-confident Italian men, so there was no complaints there, but the food itself wasn't as nice as they played it up to be. If you go, the best bet would be to get the pasta or some big reliable hunk of meat (my lamb was delicious).

>> http://sottosotto.co.uk/menu.html <<

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Breakfast | The Green Rocket

We called into this Cafe on the way to the train station. Very much as advertised, it was a vegan and vegetarian haven. I got the fruit & vege juice (i went for the one with flax seeds) and the full breakfast, which included two vegetarian sausages. I would have preferred the regular cheap-meat-porky-goodness of a normal sausage, but I like the ethos and the dietary benefits of a vegan meal a few times a week. The staff were also friendly, they are also open in the evenings, and they have wifi. Again, no photos as I was pre-occupied with eating as much as possible before the train arrived, and trying to buy my tickets for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (September 30th at the O2, London - can't wait!).

>> http://www.thegreenrocket.co.uk/menu/ <<


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Until next time, Bath. There is still so much I want to explore!

Thanks for reading,

x G x



This article is in no way sponsored or endorsed by any of the aforementioned brands or businesses. All opinions are my own.