How To Spend A Day In Bath

How To Get There & Where To Stay

We drove to Bath (see below about driving and parking in Bath), but I’ve done the train journey from London before and it’s an easy one from Paddington – a direct route in just under an hour and a half.

There are some fantastic looking hotels in Bath, as well as around it (for example Babington House and The Pig) but to be honest when we were booking the trip (we only spent a day exploring Bath, but we were there for four nights) they made London look cheap so we opted for a holiday cottage – I can really recommend Cider Press Cottage in Priston which sleeps four and is super cosy and comfortable. We were greeted by the owner with fresh cut flowers from her garden and a freshly baked cake, and aside from the food in the village pub not being worth the walk down it was otherwise perfect and just a 15-20 minute drive into the middle of Bath.

Driving & Parking In Bath

Before we arrived in Bath we were told that parking was impossible, you could not really drive around the city centre, and that you’d be best off taking the Park & Ride. But in reality, we found that driving and parking in Bath is not difficult, it’s just expensive and as most hotels in the city centre don’t have their own parking, if you’re not coming by train it’s something you need to have a plan for – and if you’re staying outside of Bath and don’t want the cost of the taxi – as far as we could tell the last bus back to the Park & Rides dotted around the city are around 8pm, no good if you want to go out for dinner!

Driving in Bath, be sure to leave plenty of time as things like stopping school buses in the morning in areas where there is no passing can really hold you up. Also check that your car is compliant with Bath’s Clean Air Zoning as you might have to pay a fee for that, for Londoner’s it’s similar to ULEZ – you can do that here.

Then, there are quite a few car parks dotted around the edge of the historic centre that are well signposted / easy to find using Google Maps, but I’d recommend Charlotte Street Car Park (there are literally no free to park spaces in the entire city unless you have a Blue Badge!) which has over 1,000 spaces and is an easy walking distance to everything good. You can pay via app, pay for up to a week at a time if you’re staying in a nearby hotel, but it’s worth noting it’s not cheap, and the amount you pay is on a sliding scale based on the emissions of your car. For a Range Rover that was compliant with the Bath Clean Air Zone we paid £19.60 for 24 hours parking, which was about midway on the scale (the diesel engine let it down!) – with three of us in the car that was exactly £10 more than if we’d used the Park & Ride, but we did not have to wait for buses in the rain, could keep to our own schedule, return shopping to the car and stay out for dinner. Don’t be frightened of driving and parking in Bath!

Bath Abbey

Regular readers of my travel guides will know I love a beautiful church, but Bath Abbey is more than that. Yes, it’s got beautiful, intricate ceilings that are well worth the £7.50 ticket, but the main attraction is the hundreds of plaques and memorials that line almost the entirely of the walls and cover all the floors which form a fascinating memorial to the lives of the people of Bath from the 1600’s to the 1800’s.

You’ll only want an hour to visit so it’s a good one to do in the hours between breakfast and lunch, and don’t forget to go down to the museum off the shop at the end which gives a fascinating history of both the monastery that used to surround the building, and the people who paid the the abbey’s splendour.

Exploring The Circus & The Royal Crescent

Another good morning activity is to see some of the architectural sights of the city. Easily found on the map do visit The Circus, an amazing circle of curved 18th century town houses fashioned around a central park, and the famous Royal Crescent. There is a museum at the Crescent which houses an exact replica of the interior of a house from that era, but as you have to buy a year pass to it to gain entry (£15.50) we thought the price was a little steep compared to everywhere else we visited on our trip.

Where To Have Lunch

Have lunch in the fantastic restaurant above Landrace bakery. All their plates (small and larger) are designed for sharing so it’s a great spot to stop off at whilst touristing as you can have as little or as much as you’d like, with a good selection of wines by the glass and some lovely non-alcoholic options too. I’d book ahead though – for more on what we ate, you can find my full restaurant review here.

Visiting the Roman Baths

Honestly, the famous Roman Baths have to be one of the best historical visitor experiences I’ve had in ages, and it takes a good couple of hours which is why I recommend setting aside the afternoon. We just walked in to buy our tickets, but that was mid-week in September so if I were you I’d book ahead online.

Tickets are £24.50 on a weekday or £27.00 on a weekend or Bank Holiday, and whilst that does seem a lot once we’d had the experience we did not feel short changed at all with the excellent audio guide, sight of the famous baths, visual walk-throughs and museum exhibits, all so well done that if you already knew a fair bit about Roman life in Britain you learnt a lot, but in a way where the people without prior knowledge don’t feel left behind.

At the end you’ll get the opportunity to ‘take the waters’ like a Regency debutant with a nervous complaint, and tasting the famous geothermal waters is something I’ll never forget: warm, minerally, and very, very unique. Honestly, if you only do one ‘thing’ on your visit to Bath, make it a trip to the eponymous baths.

Where To Have Dinner

Another small plates with an excellent wine list spot, for dinner in Bath you can’t miss out on Corkage. A wine bar turned restaurant they did some fantastic plates and wine (even if the crockery was hideous) with something for everyone, highlights including the roasted courgette with cashew miso cream and coriander pesto, rolled braised beef rib with carrot puree and braised baby gem lettuce, and the luxurious pappardelle with chalk stream trout, mussels, crab and jut the slightest hint of truffle.

Other Activities You May Enjoy

As I mentioned at the top of this guide, we actually spent 3 days in Somerset, so if you like some but not all of our picks above, we’ve got a few more options for you!

In Bath itself my mother and I were actually there to attend an all day Patisserie Masterclass at Bertinet Kitchen, which was my gift to her for us to do together for her big birthday this year. The class was small, fantastic and we learnt a lot from the brilliant staff in a laid back atmosphere – cooking is my job and I did not even feel like I was at work! They do so many great classes from pastry and bread to Japanese food and French sauces so if you have a spare day in Bath (or you want to plan a trip around it like we did) I would really, really recommend visiting the school.

Whilst we were at the course my father took a leisurely visit to The Museum of Bath at Work which details the city’s industrial history – he’s really interested by craftsmanship (because he is one!) and tools etc. and he said it was fascinating, so not one for the main guide but one to bookmark if you share his interests!

Moving out of Bath, check back here for my guide I’m working on from the day we spent exploring a few National Trust properties (and Harry Potter filming locations!) and enjoying an excellent meal in Wiltshire – Bath is just on the county line, so if you came by car and do plan to visit for a few days we can really recommend taking a day or so out of the city to head out into the countryside!

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