The best things to do in Bath
More insider guides for planning a trip to Bath
48 hours 48 hours
Hotels Hotels
Attractions Attractions
Restaurants Restaurants
Bars Bars
Pubs Pubs
You can have a pleasant time in Bath just wandering the streets, admiring the peerless Georgian architecture and reliving history through the words of Austen. Pick from the dozen or so museums or, for something different, cycle along the Kennet and Avon canal. You can even take a gin-making class. The city is in easy reach of gently undulating countryside, so be sure to plan a walk between golden-stone villages tucked into green valleys, too. Telegraph Travel experts Fred Mawer and Natalie Paris lead the way.
Centre
Tour a public bath from Roman times
The Roman Baths are fascinating for visitors of all ages, with not only the Great Bath to take in (the surrounding statues are Victorian additions), but also the remains of the Temple to Sulis Minerva, hypocaust (underfloor heating) systems, and more hot and cold baths. The audio guides are excellent – particularly the commentary for children. Screens show bathers going about their business, and live actors play out the lives of merchants and stonemasons.
Insider's tip: Set aside two hours for the visit. This is one of Britain's most popular historical attractions, so go early or late to avoid the queues. This also applies to weekdays when there are lots of school groups.
Contact:01225 477785; romanbaths.co.uk
Opening times: See website
Price: ££
• The best restaurants in Bath
Make your own mother's ruin
The Georgian period was when gin fever gripped the country. Make time to visit the cellar beneath Canary Gin Bar to see the copper still and cabinets of botanicals used to make Bath Gin. Afterwards take part in a two-hour gin-making class in the Distiller’s Bar (two floors above the cellar) that involves sampling and experimenting with different flavours. You will leave with a bespoke bottle of the liquor.
Insider's tip: Bath Gin is made distinctive with the addition of kaffir lime leaves and wormwood. It goes perfectly with hibiscus and a classic Indian tonic – the hibiscus leaves also add a delightful pink tinge to your drink.
Contact: 01225 462457; thebathgincompany.co.uk
Opening times: See website
Price: ££
Reservations: Essential
Climb to the top of an abbey for impressive views
Bath Abbey is the city's heart, a golden beauty surrounded by clusters of shops and historic streets. A much larger Norman cathedral first stood here in 1090, while building of the present day Abbey started in 1499, with decorative, somewhat controversial, pinnacles added around 1833. The interior is famous for its Gothic fan vaulted ceiling. Tower tours (50 minutes) offer great views and take you up past the bell and behind the clock face.
Insider's tip: Look out for the angels climbing ladders to heaven on the west front (the most popular side) of the Abbey. Legend has it they came to the Bishop of Bath, Oliver King, in a dream before being incorporated into the Abbey’s design.
Contact: bathabbey.org; 01225 422462
Opening times: See website
Price: £
Soak in Britain’s only natural thermal waters
A session at the Thermae Bath Spa's New Royal Bath grants you access to the 33 degree Celsius waters of an open-air rooftop pool and the larger indoor Minerva Bath. It also gives you use of steam rooms, an infrared sauna and an ice chamber. Spa treatments are available too. On Saturday afternoons and evenings, the main bath can be very busy, with queues to get in.
Insider's tip: If you want a more intimate or private experience, try the spa’s historic, open-air Cross Bath (10am-8pm), which can accommodate just 12 people. Booking is possible for groups of six or more or for exclusive use.
Contact: 01225 331234; thermaebathspa.com
Opening times: Daily, 9am-9.30pm
Price: ££
• Telegraph Travel's expert guide to Bath
Learn how Bath was built
The Museum of Bath Architecture is the best place to learn about the city's distinctive Georgian structures. Models and maps provide a revealing introduction to the transformation of the city in the 18th century and the design of its honey-stone buildings. Look out for the displays that highlight details easily missed when you're out walking the streets, such as how doorways can vary on otherwise uniform terraces, and how the backs of houses are often a visual mishmash – the ostentatious Georgians only cared how the front facades appeared.
Insider's tip: Children will love playing architect with the museum's building-block Lego pieces. Their creamy colour resembles Bath stone and together with glass blocks, they can be used to create unique buildings. There is also a Georgian dolls' house.
Contact: 01225 333895; museumofbatharchitecture.org.uk
Price: £
Opening times: See website
Imagine living in the Royal Crescent
While the Royal Crescent is Bath’s most singularly impressive piece of architecture, it is, in fact, a half-ellipse, not a crescent. When it was built by John Wood the Younger between 1767 and 1775 it overlooked fields. Its 30 houses are now mostly divided up into apartments. No 1 Royal Crescent is a museum maintained by the Bath Preservation Trust and furnished in period style, so that visitors can see what life was like for residents in the 18th century.
Insider's tip: Get another view of the crescent and its gardens by booking an afternoon tea at The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa. The Royal Crescent Tea (£37.50 or £50 with a glass of champagne) includes speciality Bath Buns that are encrusted with sugar and a Bath Gin gel.
Contact: 01225 428126; no1royalcrescent.org.uk
Opening times: Daily, 10am-5pm
Prices: £
Follow in the footsteps of Austen
While taking in the city’s Georgian masterpieces, be sure not to miss the impressive Circus with a group of vast plane trees at its centre. Note the carved motifs on the houses’ facades. Some are Masonic, others depict acorns, serpents and nautical symbols. Just a few steps away lie the Assembly Rooms, a focal point of Bath society in Georgian times. Restored to their former glory in the 1950s and 1960s, the beautifully proportioned Ballroom, Tea Room and Octagon card room evoke Jane Austen’s Bath better than anywhere else in the city.
Insider's tip: Downstairs houses Bath’s Fashion Museum, with a small collection that charts changing styles of dress from the time of Shakespeare until today.
Contact: 01225 477173; nationaltrust.org.uk/bath-assembly-rooms
Opening times: See website
Price: £
• The best things to do in York
Watch hot air balloons float over the park
Spreading over 57 acres westwards from below the Royal Crescent, the vast and beautiful Royal Victoria Park offers something for everyone and is the city’s main green lung. Its highlights include a pretty, nine-acre botanic garden dating from 1887 and one of the biggest and best children’s playgrounds you’ll find anywhere.
Insider's tips: It’s fun to watch hot air balloons launch from the park on a fine summer’s evening; they take off daily between March and October. Take a flight yourself with Bath Balloons to gain a bird’s-eye view of the city’s architecture and its seven hills.
Contact: visitbath.co.uk
Scope out fine and decorative art
Set on the edge of Sydney Gardens, The Holburne Museum also houses an attractive, but often busy, café in a glass atrium at the back. Its compact size makes it easy to combine a stroll around the gardens (which overlook a canal) with a good hour or so spent admiring the exhibits inside. The permanent collection features works from Gainsborough, as well as examples of fine and decorative art, including pottery and textiles. Temporary exhibitions are also shown.
Insider's tip: Jane Austen once lived in a house opposite the car park here. Cross the road to see the plaque detailing this outside number 4, Sydney Place. She also stayed with her aunt and uncle at 1 The Paragon.
Contact: holburne.org; 01225 388569
Opening times: See website
Price: Donation only
South
Picnic in a Palladian park
Laid out below Prior Park mansion (now a Catholic school) are the National Trust grounds of Prior Park Landscape Garden, in part designed by Capability Brown and Alexander Pope. It takes about 30 minutes to walk around the woodland-flanked valley that sweeps down to the delicate Palladian bridge and lake. You may well spot deer on the way, and the views across Bath are sensational. Note that parking near the garden is tricky – the No. 2 bus takes you to the entrance from stop BK on Dorchester Street.
Insider's tip: Stock up on picnic goodies from Bath’s superior bakery and cooking school, Bertinet. The city’s two bakeries have counters laden with moorish sourdough sandwiches and arrays of delectable pastries.
Contact: 01225 833422; nationaltrust.org.uk/prior-park
Opening times: See website
Price: £
• The best things to do in Edinburgh
See Bath from the countryside
One of the joys of Bath is that it is flanked by hills, meadows and woodland. The Bath Skyline is a well-signposted, enjoyable six-mile circular trail that starts on the south-eastern fringes above Bathwick and Widcombe – the most scenic section of the walk – with fantastic views. The circuit then skirts Prior Park, the university and a golf club.
Insider's tip: If you only have 90 minutes to spare, try the shorter, three-mile Walk to the View route from the city centre. It passes first from Great Pulteney Street to Sydney Gardens, so you could make this shorter still and head straight for the views, starting on Bathwick Hill, then walking up onto Bathwick Fields. Gaze out at the city’s many splendid and neatly arranged buildings before coming down again in a loop via Sydney Buildings.
Contact: nationaltrust.org.uk/bath-skyline
South and East
Cycle through former train tunnels
The Bath Two Tunnels Circuit is a satisfying and immensely varied 13-mile loop that leaves the city via two dramatically lit former train tunnels that were opened in 2013. The Combe Down Tunnel is Britain's longest cycle tunnel. The circuit then passes through the village of Monkton Combe, before returning to Bath along the towpath of a scenic section of the Kennet and Avon Canal.
Insider's tip: Stop for fortification at one of the pubs along the way, such as canalside The George Inn at Bathampton or the Hope and Anchor, just off the trail in Midford. If you don't have your own wheels, you can hire bikes from Bath Narrowboats.
Contact:sustrans.org.uk, which has a downloadable map of the route; visitbath.co.uk
Price: ££
