Sunny Weekend in Stunning English Roman City - Bath

Working full-time, we like to make use of our weekends, and as it was my birthday recently we decided to travel to the West country with our friends, stay in a lovely plush hotel, and meet up with our friends from Exeter in beautiful Bath – arguably England’s most stunning historic Roman city.

Doubletree by Hilton & Marco Pierre White - Bristol

Hotels in Bath are expensive, and we had our car so it seemed silly to waste the money on staying directly in the city. We stayed about 45 minutes away, in the South of Bristol.

The hotel was gorgeous and what really made it for me was the complimentary warm chocolate cookie on arrival! The rural grounds were stunning, with panoramic English countryside views and beautiful a sunset. There was a wedding being prepared for the next day – what a great place to get married. We dumped our things in our rooms, freshened up, and made our way down to the Marco Pierre-White Steakhouse Bar & Grill, which was conveniently located inside the hotel (despite our leisurely stroll up the road to go and find it, my hunger reaching a particularly grumpy level by this point).

At the restaurant I had a glass of delicious Prosecco and a fantastic home-made chicken kiev with the most amazing hand-cut beef-fried chips. The food really did deserve its high reputation. 

The breakfast buffet in the morning was fantastic, especially considering Richard and I are breakfast buffet enthusiasts so to speak! I filled up on my coco pops as standard, and of course we all made the most of the excellent full-English breakfast buffet, going back for more many times between us! 

English Roman City - Bath

As it was such a lovely sunny day, we didn’t actually visit the Roman Baths. It just seemed so silly to waste a sunny day when we can easily go back and do this another weekend. Instead, we poked about in the shops, had a good ol’ west country cider at ‘All Bar One,’ and sat in the lovely Parade Gardens by the river (around £1.50 to get in, but it keeps the riff-raff out, as I so gracefully put it).

We ate in the afternoon at The Slug and Lettuce, my souvlaki was delicious. As the afternoon went on, more and more hen and stag parties made themselves known as Bath's lively young scene unfolded, and sadly we had to say goodbye at this point to drive home, but I'm definitely going back. 

High on my list for my next visit is the historic and yet contemporary Thermae Bath Spa - the only naturally warm spring waters in Britain. The open air rooftop pool looks amazing, and there are many spa packages (e.g. various treatments & lunch options). Also at the moment there is an offer which includes the Roman Baths tour and a 3 course lunch in the pump room - bring on indulgence!