Bath: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Bath exists because of the only hot springs in Britain: water that fell as rain thousands of years ago rises here at about forty-six degrees. The Celts held it sacred, the Romans built a temple and baths around it, and in the eighteenth century the fashionable world came to drink it. Ninety minutes; the whole city is a world heritage site.
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A short history of Bath
Bath's hot springs are the only ones of their kind in Britain, and in the 1st century AD the Romans built a complex of baths and a temple around them and called the place Aquae Sulis. In 973 King Edgar was crowned in the town's abbey, and this ceremony set the pattern for the coronation of English monarchs. In the 18th century Bath became the resort town of high society, and its streets and squares were built of pale honey-coloured stone, among them the Royal Crescent, between 1767 and 1774. Jane Austen lived in the city from 1801 to 1806. In 1942 it was bombed by the Germans, and in 1987 the whole city was declared a World Heritage Site.
The ten best sights in Bath
1Roman BathsHot water still flows into the Roman bath; go early or late
2Bath AbbeyAngels climbing ladders on the front
3Pump RoomTaste the spa water over tea
4Thermae Bath SpaBathe in the hot spring on a rooftop pool
5The CircusA ring of Georgian houses
6Royal CrescentThirty houses in one great curve
7No. 1 Royal CrescentA Georgian house furnished as it was
8Assembly RoomsThe ballrooms of Georgian society
9Jane Austen CentreAusten’s years in Bath, and a tea room
10Herschel MuseumThe garden where Uranus was discovered
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Bath →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Bath:
Free walking tours in Bath
The hot spring
Bath exists because of the only hot springs in Britain: water that fell as rain thousands of years ago rises here at about forty-six degrees. The Celts held it sacred, the Romans built a temple and baths around it, and in the eighteenth century the fashionable world came to drink it. Ninety minutes; the whole city is a world heritage site.
- Roman Baths · The Romans called the town Aquae Sulis and built a temple here to Sulis Minerva. Bathers who were robbed scratched curses on small sheets of lead and threw them into the sacred spring, asking the goddess to punish the thief; about a hundred and thirty of these curse tablets have been found.
- Pump Room · In the eighteenth century this was the heart of fashionable Bath, where the gentry came each morning to drink the water and be seen, under the rule of Beau Nash, the master of ceremonies who set the dress and manners of the town. A fountain still serves the warm, mineral-tasting water.
- Bath Abbey · The abbey was rebuilt from 1499 after Bishop Oliver King dreamed of angels going up and down a ladder to heaven. On its west front stone angels climb ladders on either side of the door — some of them carved climbing down.
- Sally Lunn’s · One of the oldest houses in Bath, of about 1482, which has sold the Sally Lunn bun for centuries — a big soft brioche-like bun said to have been brought by a young Huguenot refugee in the late 1600s. In the cellar are the remains of the old kitchen.
- Thermae Bath Spa · For centuries people bathed in Bath’s water, but in 1978 the baths were closed after a dangerous amoeba was found in the water. Thermae opened in 2006, and its open-air rooftop pool, fed by the hot spring, looks over the roofs to the abbey.
- Parade Gardens · Gardens on the riverbank below the old town, with deckchairs and a bandstand, looking along the River Avon to the bridge and the curved weir.
Georgian Bath
In the eighteenth century Bath was rebuilt in honey-coloured local stone as a resort for the rich, by architects who laid out squares, circles and crescents. This is the Bath of Jane Austen, who set two novels here. Two hours, uphill.
- Jane Austen Centre · Jane Austen lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806 and was not happy here; her father died in the city in 1805. Yet she set much of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in its streets and assembly rooms.
- The Circus · A full circle of grand houses designed by John Wood the Elder, begun in 1754 and finished by his son. Wood was fascinated by the ancient Britons and the stone circles, and the Circus is said to echo Stonehenge; the painter Thomas Gainsborough lived at number seventeen.
- Royal Crescent · Thirty houses built in one curve of about a hundred and fifty metres by John Wood the Younger, finished in 1774. Buyers bought only the grand façade and then built whatever they liked behind it, so the back is a jumble of mismatched walls — the locals call it Queen Anne in front and Mary Ann behind.
- No. 1 Royal Crescent · The first house of the Crescent is furnished as it was in the late eighteenth century, from the drawing room upstairs to the kitchen below, where a dog-wheel once turned the roasting spit.
- Assembly Rooms · Opened in 1771 for balls, card games and tea, with crystal chandeliers that still hang in the ballroom. Austen’s characters dance and gossip here, and the rooms were the social centre of the town.
- Herschel Museum · William Herschel came to Bath as a church organist and made telescopes in his spare time. In March 1781, from the garden of this house, he discovered Uranus — the first planet found since ancient times — with a telescope he had built himself.
Across the river and into the hills
Across Pulteney Bridge the grandest Georgian street leads to the pleasure gardens, and the hills around the city hold a landscape garden and a famous view. Beyond, the countryside of Wiltshire and Somerset is full of stone circles, abbeys and villages. A full day; a car for the last stops.
- Pulteney Bridge · Designed by Robert Adam and finished in 1774, it is one of the very few bridges in the world lined with shops along its whole length on both sides. Below it the river falls over a weir in three curved steps.
- Holburne Museum · At the end of Great Pulteney Street, the widest street of Georgian Bath, a former hotel holds a collection of art and silver. The street and the museum were used as the London of the television series Bridgerton.
- Sydney Gardens · The last surviving Georgian pleasure garden in Britain, where Bath came for concerts, fireworks and lantern-lit walks; Jane Austen lived across the road and walked here. A canal and a railway were later run through it, crossed by little iron bridges.
- Prior Park · Ralph Allen made a fortune reforming the postal service and quarrying the stone from which Bath was built. He laid out this garden on the hill with a view down to the city, and in it a Palladian bridge, one of only a handful in the world.
- Lacock Abbey · In 1835 William Henry Fox Talbot, who lived in this former abbey, photographed one of its windows and made the oldest surviving photographic negative, the beginning of photography on paper. The village around it has been used in many films, Harry Potter among them.
- Stonehenge · Built in stages from about five thousand years ago. The great sarsen stones came from about twenty-five kilometres north, but the smaller bluestones were brought about two hundred and twenty-five kilometres from the Preseli hills in Wales. The axis is aligned on the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset.
Getting to Bath and getting around
- Bristol Airport · The nearest airport; about an hour by bus
- Bath Spa Station · About an hour and a half from London Paddington
Cheap eats in Bath
Bath has given its name to three things to eat: the Sally Lunn bun, the sugar-topped Bath bun and the Bath Oliver biscuit, invented by a doctor of the spa. Add a West Country pasty from a bakery, a cream tea with scones, clotted cream and jam, and cider from the Somerset orchards.
- Sally Lunn’s · The Sally Lunn bun, sweet or savoury
- Guildhall Market · Market stalls and a café
- Pump Room · Cream tea and a glass of spa water
- Pulteney Bridge · Small cafés on the bridge
- Castle Combe · A village pub lunch
Museums in Bath
Bath’s museums tell of the Romans, Georgian society, Jane Austen and the discovery of a planet.
- Roman Baths · The baths and the curse tablets
- No. 1 Royal Crescent · A Georgian house
- Herschel Museum · The discovery of Uranus
- Holburne Museum · Art and silver
- Lacock Abbey · The birth of photography
Nature and day trips near Bath
Bath sits in a bowl of green hills on the River Avon, with a canal towpath leading out into the countryside.
- Prior Park · The Palladian bridge
- Alexandra Park · The view over the city
- Royal Victoria Park · Lawns and a botanical garden
- Bradford on Avon · Along the canal by bike
Things to do in Bath with kids
With children: Roman baths with costumed characters, a big playground, and the stones of Stonehenge.
- Royal Victoria Park · A big playground
- Roman Baths · Romans in costume
- Stonehenge · Neolithic houses to step into
- Avebury · Stones you can touch
Holy places in Bath
From a Roman temple to Gothic cathedrals and the stone circles older than both.
- Bath Abbey · Angels on ladders
- Wells Cathedral · Scissor arches and the clock
- Avebury · The largest stone circle in Britain
Nightlife in Bath
Bath’s evenings are pubs, the Theatre Royal and an open-air soak in the hot spring after dark.
- Thermae Bath Spa · The rooftop pool at night
- Roman Baths · By torchlight on summer evenings
- Pulteney Bridge · Riverside pubs
Frequently asked questions about Bath
What is there to see in Bath?
The top sights in Bath are Roman Baths, Bath Abbey and Pump Room. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Bath?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Bath without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Bath?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Bath, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The hot spring.
How do you get to Bath and get around?
The main ways are Bristol Airport and Bath Spa Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Bath, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Bath that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Bath for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.