---
node: dest_bath
type: destination
slug: bath
title: "Bath"
lead: "Bath is an elegant Georgian city in the west of England, built in honey-coloured stone around Britain's only natural hot springs. Its Roman baths and sweeping crescents make the whole city a World Heritage site."
published: 2026-08-10
updated: 2026-08-10
image_file: bath.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Crescent,_Bath_2014_10.jpg"
image_author: "Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)."
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The Romans built a temple and bath complex here around the hot springs, and in the eighteenth century the city was rebuilt as a fashionable spa in golden Bath stone, laid out in crescents and squares. That Georgian townscape, little changed, is now a World Heritage site, wrapped around the Roman remains and the medieval abbey. Compact and graceful, it is a city for walking, for architecture and for a soak in the modern thermal spa, an easy trip from London.

## Highlights

The Roman Baths, fed by the hot spring, are among Britain's finest ancient sites, beside the fan-vaulted Bath Abbey. The Royal Crescent and the Circus show off the Georgian architecture at its grandest, and the whole centre invites a wander. A relax in the rooftop pool of the Thermae Bath Spa and the Jane Austen connections round out a stay.