This 3 day Bath itinerary provides you ample time to get to know this city and experience all it has to offer. This itinerary is very detailed and follows the journey I took when I visited UK in June 2023.
The home of England’s hot springs, Jane Austen lore, and gorgeous architecture; Bath is such a dreamy travel destination.
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Where is Bath?
Bath is located in the county of Somerset, England. It is 97 miles northwest of London, close to the famous Cotswolds.
Bath is named after its famous Roman Baths that were built way back in 60 AD! The baths are over 1,900 years old and were in public use until the late 70’s. When a bather sadly died of an amoeba-borne illness, the baths were closed to the public.
Bath is UNSECO World Heritage Site and is one of the UK’s most visited destinations, with over 6 million yearly visits!
How to get to Bath
The easiest and most common way to visit Bath is by train. From London, the journey is only about an hour, and if you pre-book your train tickets during early bird sales (usually 3 months in advance) they can be quite affordable (I got mine with Great Western Railway for £14 in 2023).
I recommend pre-booking your journey, especially during summer, as seats can fill up and prices can sky-rocket.
Alternatively, National Express buses also serve Bath from London. Tickets are cheaper than the train but the journey takes 3 hours and 15 minutes.
How to get cheap train tickets in the UK
- Make use of railcards (30% discount)
- Pre-book during early-bird sales (usually 3 month in advance)
- Check prices on different platforms.
Resources
Books to read before going to Bath
- Jane Austen – Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
Both novels are partially set in Bath which reflects Austen’s fondness for the city.
- Mary Shelley – Frankenstein
Shelley wrote Frankenstein while living in Bath in 1816-17.
Where to Stay in Bath
$ Hostel $
Bath Backpackers
13 Pierrepont Street, Bath, England.
This hostel is perfectly located close to both the central sights and the train station. Set inside a Georgian building, it has classic interior features; high ceilings, big staircases, and big sash windows. It offers both gendered and mixed dorms, as well as regular social activities. Check availability or see other options.
$$ Hotel $$
The Windsor Townhouse
69 Great Pulteney Street, Bath, BA2 4DL, United Kingdom.
This gorgeous guesthouse is located on the famous Great Pulteney Street. The rooms are spacious and the furnishings ooze classic English cottage vibes. They offer a free continental breakfast and easy access to all Bath’s best sights. Check availability or see other options.
DAY 1: Arrival + Getting your bearings
- Sally Lunn’s Historic Eating House
- Parade Gardens
- Bath Guildhall Market
- Great Pulteney Street
- Henrietta Park
- Bath Lookout on Alexandra Hill
Morning
The first morning of your 3 day Bath itinerary will likely be spent travelling here, dropping off your luggage, and checking in to your accommodation.
Bath Train Station is very conveniently located close to the city. I stayed in Bath Backpackers, which was only a 5 minute walk from the station.
At this point, you’re probably feeling a little hungry. For morning tea, I’d recommend heading to Sally Lunns Historic Eating House.
This tea room is the oldest house in Bath, and serves the world-famous Sally Lunn Bun (a slightly sweet bread bun that can have either a sweet or savoury filling).
However, this tea room is pretty iconic so it definitely tends to get packed with tourists. If you’re looking for something a little more low-key, there are other cafes around such as The Courtyard Cafe, The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, or The Pulteney Bridge Cafe.
Check out the Bath Heritage House just down the road from Sally Lunn’s for details on the free walking tour they offer each morning.
Afternoon
After you’ve refuelled, it’s time to explore the beautiful city of Bath.
Bath is one of those cities that is just genuinely beautiful. Walking along the cobblestone streets and staring at the yellow sandstone buildings is a great way to spend your time.
I walked along the main road past the Parade Gardens (£2 fee to get in, but the view is just as great from above) and looked down on the little cruisers on the River Avon.
As you walk towards Pulteney Bridge, the building to the left contains the Bath Guildhall Market.
This market is weirdly cluttered and super touristy, but it was pretty fun to wind through the tiny walkways between toppling piles of stuff.
Inside is the Guildhall Market Cafe, potentially the cheapest cafe in the whole city.
Cross Pulteney Bridge, and after admiring the cute little shop fronts, continue up Great Pulteney Street.
This street is lined with traditional sandstone buildings. You’ll notice that even though the front door opens onto the street, there is another level of the building below the street. This is so that the servants could enter and exit the kitchen without disturbing the main house!
Bath Travel Essentials
SIM cards: Airalo offers eSIMS for over 200 countries which you can install BEFORE travelling, saving you the stress of running around to find a store or from being ripped off by local vendors. This is perfect for backpackers who are travelling to multiple destinations in a short period of time.
Insurance: You should NOT go overseas without getting travel insurance. Travel insurance protects you in case you get injured, your plans change, or your trip is cancelled. I always use Covermore, because they were super easy to work with when I needed to make a claim.
Banking: When travelling and saving for travel I use Up Bank, an online Australian bank, that allows fee-free overseas transactions, unlimited savings ‘pools’ and easy transfers. If you join Up with my invite code we both get $13!
At the end of Pulteney Street is Holburne Museum (pretty expensive at £12.50) and around the corner is Henrietta Park.
The Holbourne Museum is free on Wednesday’s from 3pm if you happen to be lucky enough to time it right!
From Henrietta Park, there is a great picturesque view of the Henrietta Mews, a street of Bath’s classic sandstone buildings.
Henrietta Park is so cute and underrated. In fact, it is so underrated that I honestly felt a little weird because it was SO quiet. I only saw a couple of other people around and they were definitely not tourists.
Top 5 FREE Things to do in Bath, England!
Evening
Head back to the main town, and after a snack break, make you way up to the Bath Lookout.
This is on the southern end of town which seemed to me to be a more local neighbourhood. No one else that I met at my hostel ventured up to the lookout, so it was a unique experience.
To get there, head towards the train station. To the immediate right of the station is a big stone train bridge. Make your way underneath the long bike rack. Once you reach the river, turn left and head to Halfpenny Bridge. Cross the bridge and both the main roads, and make your way up Lyncombe Hill. Turn right onto Alexandra Road and then left up the tiny staircase (there is a sign pointing to Alexandra Hill).
Bath Lookout has a pin on Google Maps, so punch it in and follow that.
At the lookout there is a great view of the city.
You can head down the same way, or down the walkway on the other side of the hill.
After that workout, you deserve a drink. The Bell Inn, The Botanist Bath, and Green Park Brasserie are some great options that offer live music!
DAY 2: Historical Bath
- Bath Guides Free Walking Tour
- Bath Abbey (£7.50)
- Roman Baths (£21.50)
- Pump Room
- Jane Austen Centre (£15.75)
- Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein (£12.50)
- The Circus
- The Royal Crescent
- The Georgian Garden
- Botanic Gardens
- Thermae Bath Spa (£41-£46)
Morning
On the second day of your 3 day Bath itinerary, join a free walking tour with Bath Honorary Guides.
The tours start and finish in the courtyard outside Bath Abbey; no booking needed, just turn up! Tours run at 10:30am every day and take about 2 hours.
The people that run these tours have so much knowledge about the city; I learnt so much about the history and culture of Bath.
It’s also nice that the tour guides DO NOT accept tips – this is one of the few ‘free’ walking tours that is actually free.
After the tour, visit Bath Abbey. Tickets cost £7.50. The stained glass windows in this church are breathtakingly huge.
This church was formerly a monastery, and was the location of the coronation of the first king of England, King Edgar, in 973. There are wall tablets and stone plaques on the floor commemorating people who lived or were buried in Bath.
Notable (as an Australian) is the plaque to Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of Australia.
Next, visit the Roman Baths. Tickets begin at £21.50. I have a confession to make: I never actually visited the Roman Baths. I meant to, but I didn’t pre-book and all the time-slots were sold out when I arrived.
So I HIGHLY recommend pre-booking your ticket, especially during the summer.
For those on a tight budget, just know that I didn’t visit the Roman Baths and I had a perfectly amazing visit to Bath, so don’t feel like you HAVE to. Don’t feel like you have to visit ANY specific tourist sight to truly experience any city.
If you are feeling peckish, now is a great time to have morning tea at the Pump Room. This is the restaurant that elites had tea at when they came to experience the healing qualities of Bath’s… baths.
Afternoon
After morning tea/lunch, head uptown to see some of Bath’s iconic buildings. On the way is The Jane Austen Centre (£15.75) and Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein (£12.50) if either of those pique your interest.
One of Bath’s defining architectural sights is The Circus: Georgian-style townhouses curving around a central grassy area.
I happened to be there when a tour group arrived, so I got to hear a little about its history (most of which I’ve forgotten by now, but it was interesting at the time).
Designed by the famous (at the time) architect John Wood, and later built by his son, also John Wood, The Circus has been home to many famous people over the centuries (including Nicholas Cage!).
Some of the houses were demolished by a bomb during WW2 raids and were rebuilt.
You can head straight across to the Royal Crescent from here, but I recommend heading back down and around to access the Royal Crescent via the Gravel Walk.
This lovely walk connects Queen Square to the Royal Crescent, and is supposedly the walk that Wentworth and Anne Elliot travel in Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Along the way, check out the Georgian Garden, a tiny walled 18th century style garden.
The Royal Crescent is a massive curved building containing 30 terraced houses that look out onto a big grassy field. It’s bigger in real life than I expected. I had a picnic lunch on the lawn and people watched, which was very entertaining.
Continue along Royal Avenue, through the Royal Victoria Park to the Botanical Gardens. Most tourists don’t make it this far so it was quite peaceful. There is a massive expanse of grass to laze around and relax on, or continue on for a stroll around the Botanic Gardens.
While I’ll admit that they are not even close to the best botanic gardens that I have seen, they are really quiet and peaceful simply because no tourist comes this far. And for that alone, I’d come here.
Evening
There is a couple of options for tonight’s activities:
- A spot of shopping through the centre of town: Bath has a lot of boutique clothing stores, but as a tourist I found joy in exploring Primark and Urban Outfitters, simply because we don’t have them at home in Australia 🙁
- Head to a pub or bar and listen to some music, always a good time.
- Try the baths yourself! (or as close as we can).
Tourists have not been able to swim in the Roman baths since the late 70’s when a person died from an amoeba-borne illness. However, the Thermae Bath Spa is as close as you can get to the real thing.
Definitely on the pricier side (£41 on weekdays and £46 on weekends for a 2 hour session) the Thermae Bath Spa features a heated rooftop pool, an Infrared Room, Celestial Relaxation Room, Ice Chamber, Aroma Rooms and more.
If you are looking to treat yourself and relax, this is the perfect activity for you.
DAY 3: Day Trip: Stonehenge and Cotswolds
On the third and final day of your 3 day Bath itinerary, you are headed into the countryside!
The Cotswolds can be difficult to explore if you don’t have a car because the public transport is a little iffy.
When I was in Bath in 2023, I did a tour with Mad Max Tours. I had a great experience with them and I would recommend them if you are looking for a small bus tour into the countryside.
Rabbie’s Small Group Tours are another highly rated group that have tours from Bath to the Cotswolds and Oxford and Stonehenge and Cotswolds.
There are tons of tours available on Get Your Guide and Viator, so just browse until you find one that matches your interests and budget.
Stonehenge
I’m going to be honest here. Stonehenge is slightly overrated. While it is an architectural and technological feat far ahead of its time, I was taken aback by how commercial it was.
As much as I love being able visit sites like this, tourism kind of takes the magic out of it.
Entry to Stonehenge (£17.60) was not included in my tour. There was a fence all the way around to keep the tourists at least 5 metres from the rocks at all times, not to mention the hordes of people streaming through every photo you try to take.
Luckily, my tour guide told us of another rock formation similar to Stonehenge that is completely accessible to the public, not to mention FREE.
They are the Avebury Stone Circles and with the Mad Max Tour, we visit them next.
Avebury Stone Circles
The outer stone circle is the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world! Each stone weighs at least 100 tonnes, and the Henge dates back 4,600 years (older than Stonehenge!)
There are three different circles of stones, one of which encircles the entire village. The best part is that you can walk among them and even touch them if you like.
The tour guide told me that touching the rock is supposed to give you good luck and that if you sit in the Devil’s Chair then it gives you fertility (oop).
Avebury Stones: The Underrated and FREE version of Stonehenge!
Not only that, the village of Avebury itself is so cute! There are so many aesthetic little cottages, a little gift shop, and a church that is free to enter. The village pub is famous because there is a water well inside which supposedly the original owners pushed their wife down!
This tour also takes you through some Cotswolds villages, including:
Castle Combe
Castle Combe was voted the prettiest in England! It has been featured in several movies including War Horse and Dr Doolittle.
The village has some of the CUTEST little cottages and is a delight to just stroll around. Of interest is the church, which contains the one of the earliest working clocks in England, installed around 1500 (and its still ticking)!
Lacock
The village of Lacock has been the filming location of several notable films such as Pride and Prejudice, Downton Abbey, and Harry Potter!
The original village was built in a square shape, which makes it easy to explore. The village church, St. Cyriac’s, was regularly visited by Queen Elizabeth II and Camilla Parker (now Queen Camilla). Camilla’s daughter was married in the church in 2006!
Cherhill White Horse and Silbury Hill
The tour also makes photo stops at Cherhill White Horse and Silbury Hill.
The Cherhill White Horse is a three hundred year old carving made into the chalk hills. And it’s not alone, this is just one of 13 carved horses!
We stopped on the side of the road so everyone could snap a pic of it, and there were some real horses in the paddock beside us.
The Silbury Hill is the largest man-made mound at 30 metres tall. Scientists have literally no idea why it was built. It is similar to Egypt’s pyramids in that it was a large-scale production possibly for religious or spiritual reasons, but unlike the pyramids it is not for burial.
The Silbury Hill is definitely odd; if it weren’t for the tour guide I don’t think I would have even noticed that it was anything of interest (it just looks like a super round hill).
There you have it, the perfect 3 day Bath and Cotswolds itinerary!
I hope you enjoy your trip and let me know below if this itinerary was helpful!
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