96-hours in Bath, the loveliest city in Britain

Gulf national visitors to the UK in the summer seldom venture far beyond the cafes and shops of Knightsbridge but this is a mistake. Hop-on the high-speed train to Bath from Paddington and you also have excellent shopping and restaurants and much else besides.

How about probably the best spa in Europe and certainly the UK (click here)? Or a magnificent boutique hotel that once housed royalty (click here)? Or trying its superb restaurant (click here)?

Splendidly decadent

ArabianMoney also enjoyed a candelit dinner at Sally Lunn’s, the oldest house in Bath whose rather ordinary bread rolls have been oversold for a couple of centuries. We preferred the nearby Pump Room, a cavernous restaurant and champagne bar where you can drink the famous Bath spa water straight from the spring.

This is next door to the Roman Baths which are the most important tourist attraction. The Romans built a huge spa complex here two thousand years ago and you can still visit it and marvel at the large swimming pool still working though not available for public bathing.

But it was the Georgians three centuries ago who rediscovered Bath and turned it into a holiday destination for the then super-rich who wanted to visit the city for its medicinal spa water and amazing social life.

Their legacy is the fantastic neo-classical architecture of the downtown with its magnificent crescent terraces stacked up the hillside, and Bath is built on seven hills formed by extinct volcanoes like Rome, so the views are splendid.

Marvel at the Pulteney Bridge, the only historic bridge still to feature shops, the other is the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. And visit the Bath Abbey, one of the last great medieval cathedrals of Britain begun in 1499. Go to the Royal Theatre for performances directy from London.

Various small museums have sprung up over time. Our favorite is the American Museum just outside the city on the Skyline hop-on, hop-off bus circuit. Inside this beautiful Georgian house are finely recreated interiors from the early days of the settlers in British American to the properous days post independence. Strangely Kate Middleton’s see-through dress that caught the young Prince William’s eye is also on display.

Jane Austen’s Bath

Then again, you might like to see the Jane Austen Centre, dedicated to the author whose books feature Bath; the Fashion, Masonic or Postal Museums; or the Holbourne Museum which re-opened this May with revolving exhibitions and a permanent collection of silver, paintings and porcelain that might have been popular in Bath in the past.

The National Trust owns the gardens of Prior Park which feature a Palladian bridge but are otherwise a bit disappointing as the main house built by one of the founders of modern Bath, Richard Allen is a catholic public school. The Trust’s complete Georgian house, No1 The Royal Crescent, on the other hand is an absolute gem.

You are not going to be short of things to see and do in Bath in 96-hours, and there is a lot to do in the region after that. Go there and you will find the same welcome that attracted the super-rich 300 years ago!