Worth getting out of bed for
Highlights the best Bath has to offer, from art and culture to fun-packed activities; we've even found the most inspiring place to enjoy the views from.
- Viewpoint
- For the best views of the city, go hot-air ballooning. With Bailey Balloons (+44 (0)1275 375300; www.baileyballoons.co.uk), you can take off from Royal Victoria Park, cruise over Bath, and land at the Cadbury’s chocolate factory in nearby Keynsham.
- Arts and culture
- The Roman Baths (+44 (0)1225 477785; www.romanbaths.co.uk) are the city’s most famous landmark, and a World Heritage site: a beautiful Roman temple and bathhouses built around the only hot spring in Britain, still flowing with natural hot water. Jane Austen is Bath’s other great cultural icon. The Austen Centre at Queen Square (+44 (0)1225 443000; www.janeausten.co.uk) is pretty diverting and has a great shop. The best thing about it, though, is the Regency tearoom, with great rooftops views and some particularly good cakes.
- Something for nothing
- Walk west out of Bath along the Kennet and Avon Canal and enjoy the most picturesque towpaths in the country, or go and soak up the calm and grandeur of Bath’s magnificent 15th-century Abbey.
- Shopping
- There’s great shopping to be done in Bath, and the city is relatively unscarred by chain stores. Walcot Street is full of independent little shops offering clothes, books and antiques; on Saturdays, there’s a great fleamarket, too. Along Milsom Street you‘ll find Jolly’s, one of the UK’s oldest department stores, plus Jaeger, Hobbs and self-explanatory Vintage to Vogue. At the top of the street is Shires Yard, with more boutiques and the Alessi Gallery.
- Daytripper
- The Avon Valley Railway (0117 932 5538; www.avonvalleyrailway.org), with its restored 1860s station and locomotive-driving opportunities, isn't just for the enthusiast: passengers can use the six-mile return train ride as a starting point for picnics, countryside walks and boat trips, too.
- Perfect Picnic
- Head to the Parade Gardens for some river-side mooching. £1 will get you entry, a stripy deckchair and a patch of grass.
- And...
- The Thermae Bath Spa (+44 (0)1225 331234; www.thermaebathspa.com) has a natural hot spa pool on a rooftop looking over Bath and the surrounding countryside. You can get treatments here – including aromatherapy cocoons and Moroccan mud wraps as well as shiatsu and reiki – or you can just laze about enjoying the waters and the views.
Diary
March Bath Literature Festival, with recent guests including Alexander McCall Smith, Clare Short and Jacqueline Wilson (www.bathlitfest.org.uk). July/August The Roman Baths in the Abbey churchyard are open late for candlelit walks. October The Bath Film Festival offers a feast of cinema in venues around the city, with previews of new arthouse films, as well as lots of classics (www.bathfilmfestival.org.uk).
