Bed Before Bath
 

We are looking for two rooms at a B&B outside of Bath for a few nights in late July. We are waiting for a reply from Pickwick Farm B&B,outside of Corsham, but would appreciate all suggestions.

Can't help you with your bed but I love your title.

Typically, I do bath before bed.

LOL schuler - the same thought made me click on the title.

It is funny, but we won't be laughing if we have to encamp along the roadside. Anyone have any suggestions for a B&B?

It's a busy time of year.
If I were you, I'd get onto the Bath Tourist Information Bureau
accommodation service
http://visitbath.co.uk/site/where-to-stay

You can search for accommodation and book on-line.
It allows you to say what type of place you want to stay in and you can narrow it down by price.

It's been a while since I travelled Britain, but in those times we just went to the local tourist office upon arrival and asked them to find us a nice place to stay. We always found them extremely helpful, no matter where, and since they knew everyone, they always had some special recommendations.

Hi Specs - Why Corsham ??

Did you contact the places I gave you n Bath?

Steve

Just don't ask about the Beyond...

Hi, Specs.

Have you tried looking at Smoothhound's website?

A few listings for "near Bath", but at least it gives you a start:

http://www.smoothhound.co.uk/bath.html

Don't have any personal recommendations, though. Have fun.

Steve, We decided to stay outside of Bath as Stourhead and Abbey House gardens in Malmesbury were on our must see list, and the Costume Museum was the only site we were at all interested in for Bath.

We are also hoping to see Lacock, and
Corsham Court or Wilton. We thought
a B&B outside of Bath would be less expensive, more atmospheric, and within driving distance of our must sees.

We are going to check the Farm, Country and Rural Holiday site, and the Wiltshire website, and the Bath site. Any recommendations or suggestions for a specific B&B would be appreciated.

Thanks to all.

The one we loved is called Rosewyn, but it's very close to Bath and might even be in it.

We had found it recommended in the Let's Go guide, which isn't our style of travel usually, but I have found great B&B recs in there in the past.

It might be a little too far afield but the Compasses Inn in Lower Chicksgrove near Salisbury gets good reviews. We have stayed there but it has since changed hands so our personal recommendation would be meaningless.

I suggest you check the AA site also.

http://www.theaa.com/travel/index.jsp

BTW, we used Compasses for travel to Stourhead, Bath, Winchester, The New Forest, Bournemouth/Poole, Portsmouth.

We just returned from our trip and were delighted with the lovely B&B we stayed in located in the Bath area.

The B&B is The Eagle House (http://eaglehouse.info/) located in Bathford, just five minutes outside of the heart of Bath. We had a car so, this was quite convenient and allowed us to avoid the city traffic on the days we toured outside of Bath (Cotswolds, Warwick Castle, Stonehenge, and Tinturn Abbey in Wales). Although I don't know the exact schedule, I do know that there are buses that depart nearby that run 2 or 3 times per hour into Bath proper. You can look at their reviews on tripadvisor.com.

The rooms were nicely appointed, the "continental" breakfast was very satisfying with freshly squeezed OJ and freshly baked croissants, in addition to toasts, yogurt, fruit, and many cereals. They also offer cooked breakfasts for an additional fee.

A real highlight for my teenaged sons was the lawn tennis court that they had. They played several hours each evening since it wasn't dark until 10:00pm.

We also found one of our favorite restaurants from this trip while staying at the Eagle House. They recommended The Longs Arms in nearby South Wraxall and everyone in our party of 6 was so delighted with the food that we visited this lovely pub 3 times. They specialize in all local farms to supply meats, produce, etc. and the chef does a wonderful job with these freshest of ingredients.

We would definitely go back to both.

PS - I have previewed my reply several times and tried to edit, however the two links that I have included keep appearing 2 times despite the fact that I only typed the link in once. I'm not sure why, but sorry for the repeat.

"PS - I have previewed my reply several times and tried to edit, however the two links that I have included keep appearing 2 times despite the fact that I only typed the link in once. I'm not sure why, but sorry for the repeat."

Apparently what I was seeing in "preview" mode is not what actually appeared once posted.

Thank you all for your suggestions. We will follow up on them. So many of the b&bs we have found are already booked. I know we'll find something soon, just a bit nerve wracking and time consuming in the meantime.

The Bath Tourist Information Bureau
only lists places with vacancies.
I really think that they are your best bet.
They have a telephone number for people calling from abroad.
NB that if a British telephone number has (0) in brackets, you ignore the 0 when phoning from overseas.

Specs - Are you still planning on using public transport? Stourhead and Wilton would be problematic from Corsham ...

Have you considered Bradford-on-Avon? It would make a nice base.

An alternative might be Frome. I can recommend Abergele guest house there:

http://www.abergele-guesthouse.co.uk/

Steve

P.S Abbey House Gardens? Hmmm - beware the naked gardener ;)

You'd be amazed what they get up to in the shrubbery.

Steve