SouthGate is the main shopping centre in Bath where you’ll find household brands such as Apple, Boots and Fat Face. There’s also a fine selection of restaurants and bars including Caffè Nero, Comptoir Libanais for Lebanese home cooking, and BrewDog with a great selection of ales.
Bath is famous for its independent shops dotted around the little streets by Bath Abbey and Pulteney Bridge. Just wander the streets and browse. Bath Aqua Glass has a great selection of hand-blown glassware and jewellery for souvenirs of Bath. Milsom Place courtyards house boutiques and restaurants while New Bond Street is where you’ll find one-off brands and designer stores.
Make time for Bath Guildhall Market, the city’s oldest indoor market, The building is divine and there are around 20 stallholders offering a range of products with a friendly service.
Bath Farmers’ Market – which was the first farmers’ market in the UK – is held in Green Park Station. Great chance to stock up on local cheeses, artisanal breads, fresh fish, fruit and vegetables..
You can get a real feel of life during Jane Austen’s times by having afternoon tea, dinner or lunch at the Georgian Pump Room. Both Jane Austen and Charles Dickens were visitors here, so you’re in the very best literary company.
It’s almost compulsory to have a Bath Bunn from Sally Lunn’s while you’re in the city. It’s one of the most famous eating houses you’ll find and it’s in one of Bath’s oldest houses. This is where Sally Lunn created the first Bath Bunn still baked today to her secret recipe. As well as buns and afternoon tea, you can sample fine regional English food.
Town+house By Always Sunday has a fine reputation for its locally-sourced, seasonal food. It’s well-known locally for serving the best Sunday roasts.
Bath has a superb selection of gastropubs and one of the finest is the Marlborough Tavern. We love the choice of food from pub classics like burgers and fish and chips to curries and vegetable arancini.
The Theatre Royal dates back 200 years and is now a prime venue for major shows including theatre, comedy, opera, dance and pantomime – oh yes, it is!
For fine ales from its very own microbrewery along with live music on Thursdays and Sundays, hop along to the Bath Brew House. It does great pub grub and a mean Sunday roast.
Green Park Brasserie inside the historic Green Park station’s old booking hall is a buzzing venue with live music such as jazz, soul and swing four nights a week plus great food. Happy hour – which lasts from midday to 5pm seven days a week – is a chance to enjoy great prices such as two cocktails for £12 or £18 for a bottle of Prosecco.
If you fancy a laugh, head to Komedia Bath for the best comedy acts, music, cabaret, open mic nights, and the immensely-popular Krater Comedy Club on Saturdays.
Bath Abbey is a magnificent Medieval church looming over the city centre. Head for the west end of the building to see angels climbing up and down stone ladders – it’s stunning.
Even by today’s standards these are pretty opulent baths, so we can only imagine how luxurious they must have felt to the Romans. The Roman Baths were built above hot springs and are now one of the best preserved ancient Roman spas in the world.
Bath is famous for its impressive Georgian architecture and it doesn’t get any finer than the sweeping semi-circular terrace of 18th century townhouses at Royal Crescent. You can go inside No 1 Royal Crescent to have a peek around these grand buildings. The Circus is nearby which is a ring of houses built in three semicircular terraces. See the plaques on the houses to find out which famous faces have lived there such as David Livingstone and Thomas Gainsborough.
The Bath Assembly Rooms gives another fascinating insight into how the fashionable set lived in Regency times. This is where Bath socialites would dance, play cards and listen to music. In the basement is the Fashion Museum with glorious costumes from the 17th to 20th centuries.
You’ll probably recognise the iconic 18th century Pulteney Bridge over the River Avon as it’s been photographed countless times. You get super views of the Grand Parade while strolling over the bridge.
Head back to more genteel times at the Jane Austen Centre, where guides dressed in Regency costumes fill you with stories of Austen as you tour memorabilia about her life in Bath.
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