Again, just as with the Tower of London, I visited Bath on a school trip with a language school so had a little less freedom than I would have liked to explore Bath with its Georgian architecture and famous Roman baths. 

The Circus and The Royal Crescent are the best examples of the architecture Bath has to offer, all built in the local Bath stone which is a beautiful sandy colour and makes the city very distinctive. I was surprised to learn that The Royal Crescent is actually just a facade and that the houses behind are of varying heights and sizes. There’s a popular green area in front of the crescent that’s very popular for picnics and photos. 

The main draw for visitors to Bath is of course the Roman baths.  However, in fact not much about the Roman baths as we see it today is Roman. The baths were seemingly destroyed in the 6th century by Anglo-Saxons and subsequent renovations have given us the ‘Roman’ baths that we see today. Only the rough parts of the lower walls, some steps, and the bath itself remain from Roman days. The Romans used this place as a religious shrine dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva and as a spa complex, however it was Bladud, a legendary king of the Britons, who is supposed to have discovered the curing properties of Bath’s waters as a result of his leprosy disappearing while in the area. The water itself comes from rain in the nearby Mendip Hills where it descends thousands of metres below the earth and is warmed to temperatures pushing 100 degrees celsius by geothermal energy before rising through fissures and faults in the limestone to the surface where it emerges at a rate of over a million gallons a day at a temperature of 46 degrees. Nowadays of course, bathing isn’t permitted (I had brought my swimming shorts and everything…) but visitors are curious to touch the water with their hands just to check that, yes, it is indeed water. 

There are audio guides included in the £20 weekday admission price (£22 on weekends - 10% discount if booked online) and these were excellently done, with options to select a normal tour, a child-friendly tour, and thirdly the option to listen to Bill Bryson’s perspective on various parts of the baths. I’m a huge admirer of Bryson’s writing and so to have him accompany me as it were around the baths added an extra special element to the experience. I would even go as far as encouraging every heritage site in the UK to hire Bill Bryson to provide an audio tour. These audio guides do have their drawbacks though; they can often be heard as you pass other people and they force everyone to walk around as if they’re on the phone, but generally they’re great and a fountain of information if the site hasn’t chosen the lazy option of just recording an actor reading the information boards. The ones at the Roman baths are superb. 

There’s plenty to see around the central bath with loads of museum rooms exhibiting Roman artefacts and everything you need to know about the history of the site. I went in August at a weekend so it was heaving with other tourists, but I imagine it’s probably always pretty busy so get used to passing by dawdling groups to read the information boards. 

Overall, Bath is a very good day trip or could offer a relaxing weekend stay. The city is very pleasant, one of the nicest to walk around in the UK and is well connected by train as it’s just a stone’s throw from Bristol.