Bath
Roman baths from 43 AD, an abbey of honey-gold stone, a Georgian crescent on the hill, and two three-Key country houses within reach, nineteen miles from the runway at Bristol.
- Arrival
- Bristol Airport · BRS
- To the city
- 19 miles from Bristol Airport
- Private jets
- FBO at Bristol, open 24 hours; Heathrow 100 miles
- Best time
- June to September
The city
Warm water under a Georgian city.
Bath was a spa long before it was a resort. The Roman Baths go back to 43 AD and remain among the best-preserved Roman sites anywhere; the Abbey beside them lifts fan vaulting over honey-gold columns. Up the hill, No. 1 Royal Crescent is kept as it was 250 years ago, a Georgian townhouse open to visitors. Bath is the only city in the United Kingdom inscribed whole as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The spring still runs. Thermae Bath Spa opens a rooftop pool to the public, and the Gainsborough is the one hotel with the spring piped into its own pools. Two country houses within reach hold three MICHELIN Keys each, Lucknam Park at Colerne and The Newt in the Somerset farmland. Summer is the season: highs of 18 to 21 °C from June to September, and long evenings on the terraces.
Arriving
Bristol for the jet, the M4 for London.
Bristol Airport, nineteen miles from Bath, is the city's closest. Its single runway is 2,011 metres long and the airport is open twenty-four hours. Heathrow is a hundred miles east along the M4, and trains reach London Paddington in eighty minutes.
- Brussels 1 h 00
- Geneva 1 h 25
- Istanbul 3 h 45
- Abu Dhabi 7 h 35 long-range jet
- Miami 9 h 20 long-range jet
When to go
June to September.
Soft English weather, damp in every season but never extreme. June to September brings the warmest days, at 18 to 21 °C, and the driest stretch runs from April to July. Winters are damp and cool, with highs of 7 or 8 °C, which is when the hot spring earns its keep.
- 7° J 88
- 7° F 64
- 10° M 73
- 12° A 57
- 16° M 68
- 19° J 66
- 21° J 62
- 20° A 74
- 18° S 80
- 14° O 78
- 10° N 84
- 8° D 96
What to see and do
Days in and around Bath.
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Landmark
The Roman Baths
The bathing complex of Roman Bath, begun in 43 AD and among the best preserved anywhere.
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Landmark
Bath Abbey
Honey-gold columns and fan vaulting at the centre of the city, beside the Baths.
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Landmark
Thermae Bath Spa
The public spa on Hot Bath Street, with a rooftop pool and the whole city round it.
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Culture
The Holburne Museum
Sir William Holburne's collection, bequeathed to Bath in 1882, hangs Gainsborough, Stubbs and Zoffany in the former Sydney Hotel at the end of Great Pulteney Street.
Official site -
Culture
No. 1 Royal Crescent
Built between 1767 and 1774 to John Wood the Younger's design, this townhouse is furnished to show fashionable life in Georgian Bath, down to its kitchen.
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Culture
Theatre Royal Bath
Opened on Sawclose in 1805, the theatre stages touring and transferred plays in its Main House and new work in the Ustinov Studio.
Official site -
Nature
Prior Park Landscape Garden
Ralph Allen laid out this eighteenth century garden above the city with advice from Alexander Pope, and its Palladian bridge is one of four of the design left.
Official site -
Nature
Bath Skyline
From the Abbey, a National Trust trail of about three miles crosses Sydney Gardens and the canal towpath to the meadows of Bathwick Hill above the city.
Official site -
Racing & sport
Bath Racecourse
At 780 feet on Lansdown, England's highest racecourse has held flat racing on this site since 1831.
Official site -
Nature
Stourhead
Henry Hoare II and Henry Flitcroft composed this landscape garden around a lake in the eighteenth century, with the Pantheon of 1753 and a Temple of Apollo on its banks.
Official site
Where to stay
Crescents in town, estates in the country.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Lucknam Park A country house in some 500 acres of park, with a spa, riding and Hywel Jones's starred restaurant; three MICHELIN Keys.
- The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa Two MICHELIN Keys and 45 rooms on the Crescent, with an acre of secluded garden behind and a spa in a Georgian bath house.
- The Gainsborough Bath Spa The only hotel in Bath drawing on the thermal spring, which fills the pools of its Spa Village; one MICHELIN Key.
- The Newt in Somerset Three MICHELIN Keys: a seventeenth-century mansion among gardens, orchards, lakes and working farmland.
- Whatley Manor Hotel and Spa Two MICHELIN Keys, and home to The Dining Room with its MICHELIN star.
- The Bath Priory Two joined Georgian houses with 33 bedrooms, formal gardens, an outdoor pool and a L'Occitane spa; one MICHELIN Key.
- The Queensberry Hotel Four Georgian townhouses with the starred Olive Tree in the basement; one MICHELIN Key.
- Homewood A Georgian country house with an indoor-outdoor spa and the restaurant Olio; one MICHELIN Key.
- The Yard, Bath An eighteenth-century coaching inn dressed in fabrics by local designers; one MICHELIN Key.
Where to dine
One star in town, four in the country around it.
From the MICHELIN Guide 2026, shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these restaurants.
- Olive Tree One Michelin star Modern ££££ The Queensberry Hotel, Russel Street
- Restaurant Hywel Jones by Lucknam Park One Michelin star Modern British ££££ Lucknam Park, Colerne
- Bybrook One Michelin star Modern British ££££ West Street, Castle Combe
- The Dining Room One Michelin star Creative ££££ Whatley Manor, Malmesbury
- Osip One Michelin star Modern British ££££ Bruton, Somerset
Elsewhere in United Kingdom
More reasons to come.
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London
Mayfair, the West End, and Farnborough or Biggin Hill for the jets.
- Edinburgh The Royal Mile, the Georgian New Town, and the festival in August.
- Oxford The colleges and the Cotswolds beyond, with a business airport at Kidlington.
- Ascot Royal Ascot in June, forty minutes west of London.
- St Andrews The home of golf, on the coast of Fife.
- St Ives Harbour, galleries and the beaches of Cornwall.
Flying to Bath?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.