Bath has been a wellspring of thermal-spa soothing, genteel socialising and erudite architecture since the Celts started enjoying long sulphuric soaks here. It’s well earnt its dual Unesco World Heritage inscriptions – one for its baths, Roman and Palladian architecture, and Somerset greenery; another as one of Europe’s Great Spa Towns.
It deals in antiquities, but it’s not bound by velvet ropes and has notched up its cursive-letter-writing pace with whip-smart culinary talents, art-bedazzled hotels and a social scene more fervent than the Assembly Rooms’ Georgian betrothal balls. Discover Bath past and very present with our weekend guide to the city.
FRIDAY: EVENING
In dashing Mr Darcy-esque style, No 15. By Guesthouse Hotel will pick up your luggage from the station. Tomorrow morning, Bath’s healing waters can chase off any hangovers, so hit wine-and-dine spot Corkage. Owned by a wine savant and former circus acrobat, it has hyper-seasonal small plates, and a secret suntrap garden beyond its creaky-in-a-cool-way dining room. It’s open till midnight, or pub crawl around Queen Square at ye olde the Raven, a haunt more cheery than its Poe-esque name; the roof terrace at former auction house Hall & Woodhouse; and less traditional Fidel Rum Bar.
Dip into Bath’s underbelly at the Dark Horse, which is small enough for making friends, dimly lit enough to keep a low-profile. It riffs on its Victorian Gothic drama with cocktails named Mr Hyde and Moriarty. The Hideout on narrow Tudor North Parade Passage actually did host highwaymen and other reprobates; its more than 300 whiskies will keep you off the straight and narrow too.
Komedia has gigs and club nights ranging from double billings of LGBTQ+ horror films to Edinburgh Fringe previews – Fridays are disco- and DJ-led. Before bedtime, stop by Mr D’s Burger Van (open till 2am), or raid Guesthouse hotel’s free pantry for a post-midnight feast of sweet treats. Clock the hotel decor too: chandeliers made of trombones, a replica of Big Ben and colourful paintings throughout (we had knitted bosoms in our room…).
SATURDAY: MORNING
The Holburne Museum
Still with us? We’re just getting started – and how, with Guesthouse’s breakfast menu of loaded muffins and waffles and even a slab of tiramisu. You’re handily placed on Pulteney Street – one of Bath’s most popular for promenading in Georgian times – sandwiched between two major art galleries. Cross Pulteney Bridge (its resemblance to the Ponte Vecchio is just one instance of cultural copy-pasting here) to the Victoria Gallery. Its permanent collection upstairs has works by one-time Bath resident Thomas Gainsborough, and downstairs are revolving exhibitions.
Then visit the Holburne Museum at the eastern tip of Pulteney Street, with yet more Gainsboroughs, paintings by Peter Brueghel the Younger and Lucas Cranach the Elder, and some modern irreverence: Mr Doodle’s pastiches popped up throughout during our visit. Stop in at nearby Sugarcane Studio for boxes of matcha and yuzu gateaux or miso-caramel tarts to enjoy in Sydney Gardens behind the Holburne, where Jane Austen would picnic.
Or take a reviving dip in the Cleveland Pools, a renovated lido at Bath’s leafy north edge, set by the Avon River, so you could kayak up there if you have the stamina. Or clear your head on the three-to-four-hour Bath Skyline Walk.
SATURDAY: AFTERNOON
The Roman Baths
Lunch at chic French spot Chez Dominique. Or queue for Sally Lunn’s, a legendary spot, supposedly named for a Huguenot baker famed for her ‘buns’, hun. You’ll be showered with carbs, whether a namesake treat or laden ‘trencher’. In the museum downstairs you can see a mannequin of Sally baking too.
Saturday is Bath’s busiest day, when most attractions are open, so be prepared to brave the crowds. Continue your cultural meanderings: caffeinate at Colonna + Smalls, where the brewing gear looks like avant-garde sculptures, then ponder works at 44AD and Beaux Arts; pick up a prints of monuments at architectural studio Pitch 26 and niche design reading at Magalleria.
Find soothing minimalism at Francis Gallery then explore ‘artisan quarter’ Walcot Street. Here, alfresco works are painted on walls, with QR codes for more info; community gardens add colour; a flea market runs till 5pm; and you could try bauble-blowing with Bath Aqua Glass. Refuel with hefty sandwiches and cinnamon buns from loved-by-locals bakery Landrace, or the Fine Cheese Co whose sandwich game is as strong as its pungence.
Bath has important historic monuments like most cities have Starbucks. For time-poor history lovers, Bath’s free walking tours are a godsend. Turn up at the sign outside the Roman Baths at 10.30am or 2pm for millennia condensed into two hours. The niche intel alone is worth your time: why angels climb ladders up Bath Abbey’s façade; Beau Nash’s ingenious ways to keep gambling legal; how Marlborough Buildings acted as a windbreaker for nobles whose wigs were blown off; and actor Nicholas Cage’s ruse to keep fans away from his townhouse in the Circus by removing the number from his door.
Hop off at the Circus. Part Celtic with acorn motifs and a diameter matching Stonehenge; part Roman-Palladian, with Colosseum-esque columns, it’s the sun to the Royal Crescent’s moon. Both make photogenic backdrops, and you’ll arrive at afternoon tea o’clock; ideal because the Royal Crescent Hotel (at number 16, where the regent would stay during Bath’s season) is said to serve one of the best. Or follow the walking tour to its end down Gravel Walk – where Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot from Austen’s Persuasion professed their love – to quintessential afternoon-tea stop the Pump Room.
SATURDAY: EVENING
Beckford Bottle Shop and Oak Restaurant
Beckford Bottle Shop is Bacchanalian by both wine and food, with Bath chaps soaked in cider, red-wine-infused charcuterie and caramelised-whey ice-cream doused in Pedro Ximénez. Small plates also pile up at Beckford Canteen, and even die-hard carnivores will fall for vegetarian restaurant Oak’s imaginative five-course tasting menu for under £50.
At the Roman Baths’ summer lates (from 6pm to 10pm throughout July and August), crowds thin out, torches are lit and a bar pops up for toasting either Celtic goddess Sulis or Roman Minerva. See what’s showing at the Theatre Royal, watch indie darlings at Little Theatre Cinema, or catch live music at the Chapel Arts Centre.
At the Bath Cider House, try unique fruity blends (sour yuzu, blueberry, sweet mango) on the roof deck, or visit Bath’s oldest pub the Saracen’s Head, which dates back to 1713 and got a shout-out in Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers. If you’re staying at the Bird, Bath on Pulteney Road, make the most of its terrace, hung with colourful crochet works.
SUNDAY: MORNING
The Bird, Bath
The Bird, Bath’s art and objets (light-strung bushels, cat tapestries, bird figurines, optical-illusion sculptures) are so plentiful, it feels like waking up in the Holburne Museum. Take it all in as you grab a free flapjack from reception and head out the door, or sit down to kedgeree and breakfast pastries in Plate restaurant.
Window shop along Margaret’s Buildings lane, stopping for Japanese tea or kombucha from Komerobi or a refresher at micropub Grog. Scope out coffee shop Jaq’s summer market or prep a picnic at Chandos Deli. For idle-afternoon reading, ride Topping & Company bookshop’s shelf ladders like you’re Beauty and the Beast’s Belle mid-warble, and furrow into maze-like Mr B’s Emporium.
The Jane Austen Centre pays homage to the writer’s time in the city (she set Persuasion and Northanger Abbey here), with Georgian dress-up and other interactive fun. You could pick up an Austen-themed Guess Who game in the shop, or play the classics at Thirsty Meeples board-game café next door. For more fan fluttering, Bridgerton Walking Tours run today too.
SUNDAY: AFTERNOON
Spa at No.15 by Guesthouse, Bath
Comptoir + Cuisine has beautiful wines and champagnes to pair with its savoury délices (Comté gougères, mushroom–filled choux with sundried-tomato craquelin, duck-rillette Paris-brest…). Then wallow in Bath’s raison d’etre: wellness. The Thermae Bath Spa updates the Roman baths, with a rooftop pool and signature treatments. The Cross Bath, on the site of the first Celtic hot spring can be booked privately. It was for aristocrats originally, but luckily Queen Anne-era modesty laws requiring women to bathe in weighted chemises (britches and hats for men) have been lifted, so a swimsuit will now suffice.
Guesthouse Hotel’s spa has a room with a giant copper tub where two can soak together. And the Royal Crescent’s Bath House has bubbling pools and massage jets for those hard-to-reach knots. The Soul Spa digs deeper with tarot, astrology, hypnotherapy, emotional guidance and more, and the Splasherist offers catharsis at its rage-painting sessions. Or opt for meditative candle-making at Designworks Collective.
SUNDAY: EVENING
The Queensberry
Clayton’s Kitchen offers bites out of the region: chicken with paillettes of Wiltshire truffle, Wyfe of Bath cheese risotto. The Bird, Bath has unseemly portion sizes of cheddar beignets and enormous Sunday roasts, and the Olive Tree at the Queensberry Hotel is the city’s only Michelin-star-holder, where chef Chris Cleghorn has composed four-, six- and nine-course tasting menus. Take a digestif at St James Wine Vaults, where there may be subterranean music sessions, or the Bell Inn, a bohemian hangout with frequent gigs.
GOOD TO KNOW
Transport Bristol Airport is the closest, under an hour’s drive away, and Heathrow is the nearest London hub, about a two-hour drive. From Paddington Station, Bath Spa is just over an hour away, and it has good links throughout the south-west. And go by foot in the city (watching out for uneven flagstones). Bikes, scooters and Uber taxis are easily available too.
When to go Since Georgian times, visitors to Bath have used any excuse to get out into the city’s manicured green spaces. Follow suit in late spring or early autumn when the crowds may thin out.
What to buy Vintage clothing at Alfred’s, the Yellow Shop, Sobeys and Firefly; ethical indie labels at Bibico; Dangleberg’s ferments; vinyl and a plant pot at Chapter 22; artisan tableware from Berdoulat (or just to admire its historic features); and chocolates from Charlotte Brunswick. Museums and galleries also sell cut-above souvenirs too.
Insider tip Bath packs a lot into a relatively small city, and it’s immensely popular, so book ahead wherever possible. The Heritage Centre gives you a good grounding in where to go and what to do, and should you plan to visit the Jane Austen Festival in September, bring your A-game vintage – attendees take the Regency dress code very seriously.
See more of our 48 hour city guides
Beckford Bottle Shop image by Ed Schofield.