Best of Bath
 

My party of 4 from Australia wish to spend a morning in Bath. We would like suggestions as to the best way to use our time.....I have already found a walking tour of the area. Also suggestions as to a gorgeous B&B nearby would be appreciated.

Not a "gorgeous B&B", but we enjoyed the SACO serviced apartments - a 2-bed apartment might be a good choice for a party of 4. Very central, very reasonable. I think website is www.saco.co.uk

jane

We enjoyed walking around Bath and stopping in at Sally Lunns.

http://www.sallylunns.co.uk/

I really enjoyed my visit to the Roman baths. sort of a museum where they are excavating the ruins underground and then you see the aboveground baths. Very interesting.

IMO the Royal Crescent is the highlight of Bath, a town that you will need more than one morning to appreciate - several separate superb structures - like the cathedral and of course the Baths - the original 'baths' (i read but not sure, named by the Romans i think). and taste the (awful tasting to me) spa water in the old main Cure House.

What is your budget? Will you have a car? Why only a morning if you are planning on staying in the area?

Bath also has the usual open-top doubledecker tour buses running between main sights - hop on hop off all day with a ticket and get commentary en route. One way to see Bath's myriad of fab sights, some of which are a mile or so out of town (like the weird Sham Castle with its intriguing history), in a morning i guess - if you don't get off.

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Sham Castle, Bath on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
As its name suggests, this is not a real castle but a folly built by Richard Jones for local entrepreneur (and sometime mayor) Ralph Allen, ...
www.flickr.com/photos/slybacon/293266901/

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Ralph Allen's Sham [email protected]
An example of a Folly located in Bath, England, Ralph Allen's Sham Castle (I've never heard anyone locally call it that - usually it's just "Sham Castle" ...
everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1444664

I am so appreciative of all the replies to my question. Thank you fellow Fodorites! Why only a morning in Bath Janisj? We wish for more but due to my work as a teacher, our English holiday is constrained by school holiday time. This trip is to get a taste of England....and we surely hope to return one day when our 3 children are launched into life - lol. We have a hire car for transport to answer your question. While I have your attention, I would like to know of any outstanding villages to drive to between Bath and Glouster. We plan to see Uley and Stoud, both being places my ancestors left from in the very early days of white NZ settlement. Cheers.

I'll be honest, having visited Bath several times, I really enjoy just sitting in the square in front of the Church. There are usually some street musicians or such. People watching is a favorite of mine. I don't know if it is still there, but there used to be an ice cream parlor in the square. Right down the street is a big supermarket that you can grab some fruit and cheese and just enjoy the peace of it all.

Last year there was a vocal group of kids from Africa putting on a show in the Church that was broadcast out into the square.

OK - my question was because -- if you are only going to be there a morning -- I'd probably skip Bath altogether. If your time is that limited, you have to make some tough decisions. But driving into Bath is a pain and a half and the best option is to use one of the park and ride lots. But parking and getting in/out of Bath will take the best part of an hour in total. Then the Roman Baths take about 2 hours, and walking around the city takes another 2 or 3 hours, the H-o-H-o bus takes a couple of hours -- so w/ just a morning (nothing opens until 9 or 10 AM) you really can't see Bath in a morning.

When they invented the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, they carefully tweaked its boundaries to exclude Stroud - and when you get there, you'll see why. It takes real talent to turn a town so well-situated into a dismal dump - but the town's post war planners showed sheer genius in the enthusiasm they brought to achieving precisely that.

The city authorities in Gloucester probably showed even greater genius, though at least some of the area round its cathedral (not to mention the cathedral itself) goes some way to compensate for the hideous junk much of the rest of the city's had foisted on it

Uley's a great deal less horrid - and is located in lovely scenery - but it's still one of the dullest-looking settlements in the Cotswolds. Once out of Bath, your route covers some of the drekkiest human interventions in the entire Cotswold area (which, IMHO, isn't that spectacularly endowed with wonderful natural scenery, but - outside this SW corner - works because it's a real model of how buildings can evolve in a way that complements the landscape rather than pollutes it)

For an antidote that's only a slight diversion, try Tetbury - an example of how Cotswold towns evolve when planners aren't allowed to ruin them. Almost as nice and almost on your route: Painswick.

Best of all, allow yourself time to walk - away from the M5/A46 corridor, which really has the only bid of consistently awful buildings in the Cotswolds. A good start point is at www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/?page=Walks

Thanks flanneruk for your words of wisdom on Stroud. Tetbury and Painswick will be on our list of 'to see' villages. Any other suggestions?

Janisj, I have read many of your comments on Fodors and I do appreciate your brutal honesty. I'm with you....a whole day in Bath would be much more civilised. We did consider skipping it. But now it's part of our lightening speed tour of England.....we have 2 weeks to see from London to Edinburgh!

I am already sooooooooooo excited about England and have learnt heaps especially from Fodors. I will definitely return to do walks....

Janisj, I have read many of your comments on Fodors and I do appreciate your brutal honesty>

i disagree with the throw the baby out with the bathwater idea - Bath to me is most spectacular when glimpsed as a whole - like when you approach the city on a train - you see this whole Georgian wonder spread out before you like an amphitheater - even just glimpsing this for a brief minute will linger in your mind - and perhaps make you come back for a longer visit some day.

Janis points out the terrible driving to be expected in trying to go into central Bath - so consider parking the nearest Parkway station where you can park at the station and hop the very frequent trains to the city center. Or do a day trip to Bath Spa from say Gloucester/Chelthenham Spa/Cotswolds, etc.

There is no Parkway station anywhere near to Bath, and the railway stations in the area are not well provided with car parking, nor are they particularly convenient for the tourist.

You have two choices. Either park in the centre of Bath, which is expensive and congested, or park on the outskirts at a Park & Ride site and take the frequent dedicated bus service. That will, however, take up quite a bit of your time.

Details of the Park & Ride sites are shown at http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/BathNES/tr...g/parkandride/.

Details of Bath attractions are at http://visitbath.co.uk, and I would say the principal attractions are the Roman Baths, the Abbey, the Assembly Rooms and the Royal Crescent. The open top buses do not actually go past the Roman Baths or Royal Crescent, but they will give you a flavour of the location and the architecture.

Chartley: The OP has since moved on to new threads and is working on a revised itinerary. (I was going to mention that when PQ posted - but didn't want to stir him up ;) and thought this would just fade away)

Your info is still helpful -- It looks like they might actually spend a whole day (!) in Bath and maybe overnight too . . . .

(I was going to mention that when PQ posted - but didn't want to stir him up>

Janis once again please try to lose the ATTITUDE - others besides you also have valid takes and opinions - once again dear please LOSE THE ATTITUDE - you are IMO the very best British travel advice source here, including Brits IMO - why do you need to make snarky posts like this?

This May I was able to spend just a morning in Bath with two of my sisters, so I sympathize with the issues. I had been to the city before; they had not. Although I love the Roman Baths and museum, they do, as people have said, take time. The weather was good (a planning/choosing factor! rain might have driven us indoors) so we walked from the Abbey up to the Circus and the Royal Crescent for a look and then back again through part of Victoria Park. This took about an hour. Then my sisters were happy to visit the Abbey and square. Not the perfect way to visit, but they wanted a taste so they could decide about returning. Not ideal, but...

I agree wtih flanneruk about Painswick! Went there for most of a day and explored. Dennis French had lovely wooden bowls in his shop. We spent the afternoon walking part of the Cotswold Way and other paths---a four-mile loop. It was lovely to enter the landscape. Walking and seeing a lovely Cotswold town: a perfect day.

Sounds good Linda.....we'll have an afternoon and the following morning in Bath so may get the walk and one tour in.....that's if we're not falling asleep! Cheers