Bath & Cotswolds

Roman baths and Georgian architecture in Bath, plus honey-stone villages scattered across the Cotswolds: the most quintessentially English countryside escape from London.

Bath and the Cotswolds lie in southwest England and make the most popular day-trip and short-break pairing west of London. Bath sits in the Avon valley and is the only city in the UK designated a World Heritage Site in its entirety. Two thousand years ago the Romans built baths and a temple over its hot springs; in the 18th century Georgian high society turned it into a fashionable spa resort. The whole city is built of pale golden Bath stone, and the Royal Crescent, the Circus and Pulteney Bridge are masterpieces of that era. Jane Austen also lived here and wrote the city into her novels. The Cotswolds are a range of rolling hills stretching about 145 km north of Bath, designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1966. Enriched by the wool trade in the Middle Ages, the villages are built entirely of local honey-coloured limestone, and their thatched or stone-tiled roofs, streams with stone bridges and old pubs make up the classic image of the English countryside. Representative villages include Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water, Upper and Lower Slaughter, Castle Combe and Chipping Campden, while the market town of Cirencester is the transport and supply hub of the south. Gloucester Cathedral and Tewkesbury Abbey on the western edge make an easy detour. South of Bath lie Wells Cathedral, Cheddar Gorge and Glastonbury, and to the southeast Stonehenge, Avebury and Salisbury Cathedral are often added to the same itinerary (Oxford and Blenheim Palace are covered under the Oxford destination). The best season is May–Sep, when gardens are in bloom and days are long; Sep–Oct brings pleasant autumn colour. Getting there: GWR trains from London Paddington reach Bath in about 1 hour 20 minutes. Buses between Cotswolds villages are infrequent, so driving or joining a day tour from London or Bath is strongly recommended. Allow 3–4 days: 1–2 days in Bath, 1–2 days driving the Cotswolds, plus a half day for Stonehenge if you like. Most villages are residential, so please do not enter private gardens.

Top sights

• Roman Baths – The best-preserved ancient Roman bath complex in Britain, where the 46°C natural hot spring still gushes out over a million liters of hot w…
• Royal Crescent – A grand curved terrace of 30 connected houses, the pinnacle of Georgian architecture in England.
• Bath Abbey – A late Gothic church whose west façade carves angels climbing ladders to heaven. Its fan vaulting and large stained-glass windows have earn…
• Bibury – Called “the most beautiful village in England” by William Morris, Arlington Row is the image printed on the inside pages of British passpor…
• Bourton-on-the-Water – The River Windrush flows through the village, linked by five low stone bridges, earning it the nickname “the Venice of the Cotswolds.”
• Castle Combe – A valley village where time seems to have stopped in the Middle Ages. Almost no new houses have been built since 1600, and it is often name…
• Stonehenge – A prehistoric stone circle begun about 5,000 years ago, one of the world's most famous Neolithic monuments.
• Pulteney Bridge – A Georgian stone bridge lined with shops on both sides. Together with the weirs below, it forms Bath's most classic postcard view.
• Thermae Bath Spa – The only place in Britain where you can bathe in natural thermal water. A rooftop open-air pool lets you soak while looking out over Bath A…
• The Circus – A Georgian masterpiece of three curved terraces of houses, just one street away from the Royal Crescent.
• Jane Austen Centre – A small museum about Jane Austen's connection to Bath, with guides in Regency costume and a tea room upstairs.
• Holburne Museum – A Georgian-style art museum at the eastern end of Great Pulteney Street. It also served as a filming location for Bridgerton.
• Prior Park Landscape Garden – An 18th-century landscape garden on the southern hillside of Bath, with a Palladian bridge and views over the city.
• Sally Lunn's Historic Eating House – One of Bath's oldest houses, famous for the Sally Lunn bun, a recipe that has been passed down since the 17th century.
• Lacock and Lacock Abbey – A village almost entirely owned by the National Trust. The abbey is the birthplace of photography and a filming location for Harry Potter.
• Stow-on-the-Wold – The highest market town in the Cotswolds, full of antique shops. The two ancient yew trees beside the north door of the church have a fairy…
• Upper and Lower Slaughter – A tranquil pair of villages with a stream, stone bridges and an old watermill. Often called the most beautiful twin villages in the Cotswol…
• Chipping Campden – The best-preserved wool town in the Cotswolds, with a 1627 market hall and a curved high street. It is the starting point of the Cotswold W…
• Broadway Tower – An 18th-century castle-style folly on the Cotswolds' second-highest point. On a clear day, you can see more than a dozen counties from the…
• Burford – The eastern gateway to the Cotswolds. A steep high street runs down to the River Windrush, lined with old inns and antique shops.
• Sudeley Castle – The final resting place of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's last queen. The castle is still lived in today and is famous for its rose gardens.
• Wells Cathedral – The first fully Gothic cathedral in England, located in England's smallest city. Its scissor arches and medieval astronomical clock are uni…
• Cheddar Gorge – Britain's largest limestone gorge, with a clifftop loop trail and caves. Cheddar cheese is matured inside the caves.
• Glastonbury Tor – A solitary sacred hill rising from the plain, crowned only by the tower of St Michael's Church and traditionally identified with King Arthu…
• Stourhead – The finest example of 18th-century English landscape gardening, with a lakeside Pantheon, a Temple of Apollo and a stone bridge reflected i…
• Avebury – The world's largest prehistoric stone circle, which shares World Heritage status with Stonehenge. A village sits inside the circle, and vis…
• Salisbury Cathedral – A Gothic cathedral with England's tallest spire, home to the best-preserved surviving original copy of the Magna Carta
• Clifton Suspension Bridge – A 19th-century suspension bridge designed by Brunel that spans the Avon Gorge and is the symbol of Bristol
• SS Great Britain – A 1843 iron-hulled, screw-propelled ocean liner designed by Brunel, which visitors can board while it rests in a dry dock
• Gloucester Cathedral – A masterpiece of Norman and early Perpendicular Gothic architecture. Its fan-vaulted cloister served as the Hogwarts corridors in the Harry…

Where to eat

• Sally Lunn's Historic Eating House – A historic eating house in the old town of Bath, famous for the Sally Lunn bun, which legend says dates back to 1680.
• The Olive Tree – The only Michelin-starred restaurant in Bath, located in the basement of The Queensberry Hotel.
• The Scallop Shell – A family-run seafood restaurant opened in 2015, specializing in freshly fried fish and chips and seasonal British seafo…
• Beckford Bottle Shop – A Bib Gourmand-awarded restaurant combining a wine shop and a bistro, specializing in small plates and wines by the gla…
• The Old Butchers – A family-run restaurant in Stow-on-the-Wold, converted from an old butcher's shop and renowned for charcoal-grilled dis…
• 5 North Street – A small, husband-and-wife-run restaurant in Winchcombe, featured in the Michelin Guide and known for its hearty British…
• The Castle Inn – A country pub in Castle Combe, a historic village in the southern Cotswolds, serving Sunday roasts and seasonal British…

Itineraries

• Classic England Rail Tour – A classic rail journey linking London, Bath, Oxford, and York—ideal for first-time visitors to England.
• Great Britain Classic Loop: England & Scotland – A classic British road trip from London, looping through Bath, the Lake District, Edinburgh, and York.
• London, Windsor, Stonehenge and Cambridge in – Four days in central London, plus two day trips to Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath and Cambridge, staying in the city through…
• Oxford, Shakespeare Country and the Cotswolds in – A short trip from London: Blenheim Palace, Shakespeare's hometown, Warwick Castle and honey-coloured villages.