I think I mostly had Bath on my to-see list because I am a sucker for thermal pools. I saw a picture of the Roman Baths (one of the few pins on my very neglected Pinterest), was initially disappointed to find out you can't actually swim in them, then found out that there is a Thermae Spa with heated pools and was sold on it again.
Since I was taking a week off to head to Scotland, I thought it'd be nice to throw in a weekend trip away somewhere new, so we booked flights from Glasgow down to Bristol and took the bus from there over to Bath.
Day 1 The Kennard & the Pulteney Bridge
Getting from the Bristol airport to Bath is very simple. We waited outside for the double decker bus that runs every half hour, paid the driver 14 pounds, and took the 40-something minute ride to the Bath train station.
Bath seemed very compact to me, at least for all of the main attractions. Everything was pretty much within a ten minute walking radius of the town center (can time be applied to geometrical terms? I don't care).
Our guesthouse, The Kennard, was on Henrietta Street, a curved road in a very central location.
I absolutely loved our stay here!! I so recommend it to anyone traveling to Bath! It's so old-fashioned and full of charm, just like the city. The staff were super kind and helpful, it had these narrow halls and staircases, a cute garden out back, a well-stocked honesty bar on the second landing, umbrellas free to borrow, and an awesome breakfast in the downstairs dining room.
There was a buffet with fruit, a wide variety of spreads, juice, etc, plus a menu to choose one hot cooked item as well as a full page each of tea and coffee varieties. I had French and Italian roast coffees, eggs florentine, and a great omelette over the two mornings, but they also had full English or vegetarian breakfasts, eggs benedict, and more.
We paid a tiny bit extra for a superior room which was located right next to reception and the front door, but it was never loud. I loved the decor with the curtain behind the bed, the armchairs, the carpeting, just everything!
We had arrived in the late afternoon/early evening, so we didn't have much time for activities that night. The city was very romantic and scenic, and we walked past both the abbey and the Pulteney Bridge.
For dinner, we stopped at an Indian just around the corner called Tulsi Indian. There's nothing better than eating a vindaloo unless you are eating it in a restaurant lit like a fancy rave.
That was it for the evening. We had the luxury of staying two nights in one place (the only time that happened all week), so we figured we could spend a night chilling out.
Day 2 Roman Baths, Bath Abbey, & Thermae Spa
We were up fairly early on the second day to have breakfast and head over to the abbey, which was only a 5 minute walk if that. It's yet another gorgeous European cathedral, but I never get tired of them (well, except maybe in Rome when you're running into two on every corner). This one is also free with the option to donate what you'd like as an entry fee.
The Roman Baths are right next door in the same square. We got a little discount with a pass on our guesthouse keys. You get an audio guide where you can punch in the numbers at different sites and hear information on the history of the baths.
While the indoor areas have old pieces of the baths, layouts, and lots of information, I preferred the outdoor sections looking at the pool surrounded by columns and statues on the upper level. Also easier to dodge the school children on field trips out there.
There is also a walkthrough of the indoor area where the changing rooms and sauna were located. While the Great Bath (above) is no longer heated, you can see Sacred Spring through windows and steam is still rolling off of it.
After the baths, we went to a tearoom for some lunch (got to drink tea if you're in England, it's the national pastime). There were quite a few to choose from, but the interior of the Bath Bun looked very tearoom-esque with many floral patterns and pantry-like decor, so we settled on that. We each got a teapot and a quick bite to eat, then we walked over to the Thermae Spa.
It was 3:00 on a Friday, and the wait to get in was about 40 minutes. They were full and operating on the nightclub rule of "one out, one in". I'd recommend a weekday if you have the choice. The other big bummer was no photography! It was a shame because the whole place was so cool. I managed to sneak a few photos on the rooftop pool (camera under my towel, scoping out the security rotation), but there were too many staff members monitoring all of the other areas.
Anyway, you get a waterproof wristband to operate your locker, and they provide you with a bathrobe, towel, and flip flops. The first floor has this great indoor heated pool with white columns, colorful lights, and a natural water flow that will float you along a bit like a lazy river.
The second floor is a wellness suite. There are these open showers with bright colored lights that shift in the fog, a cool-down room with an ice bucket, an infrared sauna, a cosmic star lounge with pinprick starlights in all-black walls and curved marble loungers with a TV screen playing planetary images, and two steam rooms. One is a Grecian steam room with what looked like stained glass windows and a fountain, and the other is a Roman steam room with lionheads along the walls. I don't know what the point of decorating was though since the steam was so thick that you could only see a foot in front of you. I can barely handle steam rooms as it is so I was only in there for a minute each cupping my face the whole time until I had to get out. Not sure what the appeal is of suffocating in scented fog.
The rooftop has another heated pool which was so nice in the very chilly air. Generally admission (which is 36 pounds) will get you two hours in the spa, but our pass from the guesthouse got us three. It was a good way to unwind at the end of the day.
We headed out for dinner right after and checked out this great Nepalese restaurant called Yak Yeti Yak. It was something neither of us had tried before and the food was fantastic! We had these nimki biscuits with achar sauce, I ordered cheese balls and some sort of stir-fried mushrooms with rice, and Lewis got a meat dish. They also had lassis with rum. A+.
We'd fit a lot into the day, so we headed back to the Kennard afterwards to sleep.
Day 3 The Assembly Rooms, Royal Parade, & Stonehenge
We had our last breakfast at the Kennard and left our luggage there after we checked out. We'd booked a rental car with Hertz to pick up at 12:30, so we wanted to fit a few things into the morning. It wasn't a long walk to reach the Assembly Rooms, which are free to go into. They were a few large, bare rooms (the ballroom, tearoom, and octagon room if I remember correctly) with giant chandeliers. They can be rented out for conventions and whatnot. They also worked very well for our GoPro compilation of awkward dance moves we put together for the trip (my one regret is not grinding up on that cut-out of Prince Harry in the markets).
We walked on to the Circus, a circular street with townhouses around the perimeter and a group of trees on a landing in the middle. I'm not sure why they give these exciting names to what are essentially just nice streets, but I certainly didn't see any lions or acrobats so it seems like they're setting expectations too high.
The Royal Parade was just after, another housing area totally lacking in marching bands or members of the monarchy, then we walked down to the botanic gardens from there.
My Hertz confirmation had said "Bath Railway", so without double checking the address, I assumed that it would be, you know, at the railway station. A silly assumption, apparently! It's usually ok if you're not perfectly on time to pick up a rental car, so we made our way back along the river in no real rush (having no idea we were absolutely screwing ourselves over for the next few hours).
When we reached the railway station around 1, we realized there was no Hertz there at all. We finally looked up the address and it was actually a 25 minute walk across town. I tried calling them, but there wasn't an answer, so I just ordered us an uber to try and hurry over there (fun side note, ubers in the UK apparently put taxi toppers on their car).
Well, we got there and it was totally empty. They had closed at 1:00. What the hell?! Our number was on the reservation, you would think they could have called when we didn't get there at 12:30? And maybe not list the railway station as their location?!
I had no idea what to do so I decided to helpfully shut down and give up for the next 20+ minutes. Most rental places in Bath were closed already for the weekend, and Enterprise quoted us 137 pounds and only had an 8-seater van. We ended up calling another uber to pick us up, get our luggage from the Kennard, and drive us all the way back to the Bristol airport (40 minutes in the opposite direction we needed to head) to pick up a Hertz rental there. Bad times.
So now we were running extremely late, and the last tickets to Stonehenge were sold at 3:30. We wouldn't get there until 5. Luckily I found a really helpful blog saying that you could still see the site for free by taking a dirt road next to it instead of going to the visitor center. They even provided GPS coordinates!
We managed to find the track and were far from the only ones parked there. The gate to get up close (for ticket holders) was obviously closed, but we went through the gate next to it and up the dirt track and got this still pretty decent view of Stonehenge.
As it weirdly seems to go with such well-known sites, it was honestly not how I pictured it. I guess I always imagined the visitor center right next to the rocks, but it's not even visible from the site. Stonehenge is just alone in a vast field, but also close enough to the main road that you can see it while driving by. It was way less crowded than I imagined too.
Luckily, since it was so late in the evening, we had gorgeous lighting from the sun setting, and I was happy we got there at all. It's always a bit surreal to see these iconic locations in real life.
We continued on to London for the last night of the trip and had a very late night out in Chiswick with an old friend from New Zealand hitting a super cool speakeasy and continuing on drinking at her Irish pub and house until 5:30 AM. Overall, it was a great few days, and if you like charming little English cities, it probably doesn't get much better than Bath.
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