Bath: what to do

 

Bath.

I can officially announce that Bath has my heart. Whilst international travel was a far fetched dream this year, we opted to head a few hours down the road to Bath, somewhere I'd had on my list for a while, and a place I'll now never fully tick off of it.

So, the original plan was to stay at the Francis Hotel Tuesday- Thursday, and then swapping over to The Abbey Hotel on Thursday for one night. I however, made a slight error in the dates and booked both hotels for the same night. Whilst the Francis were unable to change the date, The Abbey were more than happy to accommodate, and we stayed there from the Tuesday-Wednesday night instead. Click here for my Bath hotel reviews.

What we did

Activities

Museum of Bath at work

For £8 per adult, the museum is a sweet shop for those who love all things mechanical and engineering. My partner is an engineer, so this was very much his type of thing. The museum is run by volunteers and gives customers free entry for a year if you gift aid your ticket purchase. Any little donation made to this museum make a huge difference, so we left a little one on our way out. Theres a coffee and cold drink station upstairs with an honesty box, and you can clearly see how much work has gone into it.

If you're ever in need of something a little different to the usual Bath activities, then I'd definitely recommend this for sure.

The Roman Baths

A tourist staple. It's around £25 per adult depending on the day etc, and is definitely somewhere to tick off your list. I didn't realise how much more there was to see than just the outside bath. It's full of history, something I've grown to appreciate more recently than before.

Boating

Something I wanted to do for a while. The Bath Boats are situated just down the road from the main city centre. You can book a row boat, or punting boat for one or multiple hours and it's definitely something I'd do again next summer. We stayed on the water for around half hour/40 minutes and headed back to the boat house to decide on lunch.

Food and drink

The Old Green Tree Pub

If you want old English, traditional, real Pubs, then this is for you. Tim, the landlord was a star telling us about the history of the pub (1710!) and couldn't have been nicer to chat to. You can tell by the locals that everyone was a fan of the place and after a couple of hours, we felt like one too. We stayed for a few drinks, headed back to the hotel for dinner and decided to come back again for a few evening drinks afterwards. The Old Green Tree needs its customers, and I'm only more than happy to tell you about them.

Pizza Express

I've been to Pizza Expresses in London and I've always had good service. The bath restaurant however is a big no. We booked in advance, got there and was told they didn't actually have a table for us. Eventually they put us in the small room at the back, where the sun was roasting us as we sat there. We were continuously ignored by the waitress, even asking one if we could order. Eventually she came over, took our order and then disappeared. We weren't given any drinks until our food came and we asked the manager (?) if we could have some. He reminded the waitress that we didn't have any and she couldn't have looked like she cared less if she tried. She brought over part of the drinks order and finished the order once we had almost finished our meal itself. Luckily I had a student discount code to use, and I'd have been very annoyed had I had to pay full price for what we received. Food wise, my partner couldn't eat much of his as it wasn't fresh at all. Avoid at all costs, there are far nicer Italians or Pizza houses in the city to spend your money at. 

The Canon & Slug and Lettuce

Simple, easy and good food from both restaurants. Good places for a quick lunch or weekend brunch dates.

Bills

On our final night we headed down to Bills.  A staple of decent grub and a nice atmosphere. Great service, I can't complain!

Bath has captured my heart and I'm already planning my next trip. Have you visited Bath?