I lived in Tub for 4 years, and probably the most unwanted effects of dwelling in Tub is that everybody you recognize involves discuss with. Over the ones years I settled right into a slightly well-worn model of town excursion: the points of interest that are living as much as the hype, the timings that dodge the worst of the crowds, and the unfastened perspective I’d march everybody as much as on the finish whether or not they preferred it or now not.
This information is that excursion, written down. I moved away in overdue 2023, so the judgment calls right here come from years of in reality dwelling within the town, and I’ve checked each and every value, opening time and closure observe towards the respectable assets for 2026. The place one thing has modified since my time there, I’ve stated so.
Tub merits the eye, by way of the best way. It’s the one town in the United Kingdom designated a UNESCO International Heritage Website online in its entirety, the entire town reasonably than only a ancient core. Since 2021 it additionally carries a 2nd inscription as probably the most Nice Spa Cities of Europe, which places it in an overly small membership of double-listed puts international.
Something this newsletter isn’t: an itinerary. If you need a day-by-day plan, I’ve written a separate 2 day Tub itinerary that places those points of interest into a wise order, and when you’re coming down for the day, my information to taking an afternoon shuttle to Tub from London covers the trains and logistics. This one is ready what’s value your time, and what isn’t.
Tub Fast Take
Quick on time? Do the Roman Baths at opening, stroll up during the Circus to the Royal Crescent, and end with town view from Alexandra Park. That’s the center of Tub in half of an afternoon, and the Roman Baths price ticket is the one one you strictly wish to purchase.
Tub wishes one complete day for the headline points of interest, and two days to look it conveniently. Right here’s how I’d rank the massive hitters:
| Sight | 2026 Worth | My Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Roman Baths | £29 to £33 in summer season, booked on-line | The only unmissable price ticket. Move at 9am. |
| Tub Abbey | £6.50 (Tower Excursion £18) | Value it, and the tower is the most efficient paid view in Tub |
| Thermae Tub Spa | £44 weekdays, £49 weekends | The rooftop pool justifies the cost. E-book forward. |
| Royal Crescent and the Circus | Unfastened (No.1 museum £16) | Tub’s perfect structure prices not anything to look |
| Alexandra Park perspective | Unfastened | The view I took each and every unmarried customer to |
| Mayor’s Guides strolling excursion | Unfastened | The most productive unfastened task within the town, no reserving wanted |
The whole thing beneath will get the overall remedy: what it’s, what it prices in 2026, and the sensible tip that 4 years of dwelling there taught me. After all, you’ll pick out and make a choice to fit on the other hand a lot time you’ve.
1. The Roman Baths
The rationale town exists, and the only paid enchantment I’d inform each and every first-time customer to guide. You stroll on 2,000-year-old pavements across the steaming, inexperienced Nice Tub, fed by way of herbal sizzling springs, with an rapidly just right museum wrapped round it. Even after years of taking visitors right here, the instant you step out beside the water nonetheless lands.
My timing recommendation is discreet: guide the 9am slot. The excursion teams arrive mid-morning and the walkways across the Nice Tub get packed by way of 11. In summer season (20 July to 31 August in 2026) the web site additionally remains open into the night time, which is the opposite trick, because it’s some distance quieter after darkish and feels fairly other.
A summer season 2026 grownup price ticket is £29 on weekdays and £33 at weekends when you guide on-line, and purchasing at the day provides £2. Costs drop within the off season, from about £26. Opening hours are 9am to 6pm day-to-day, ultimate access 5pm. E-book a timed slot at the respectable Roman Baths web site, or you’ll guide a Roman Baths access price ticket on GetYourGuide.
Something to grasp: you’ll’t get within the water right here. That’s what Thermae Tub Spa is for, a couple of doorways down. Extra on that in a while.
2. Tub Abbey and the Tower Excursion
Proper subsequent to the Roman Baths, and the 2 pair naturally. The Abbey’s fan-vaulted ceiling is the object everybody pictures, and the partitions are lined in centuries of memorial pills that praise a sluggish wander.
The massive alternate to learn about: access is now a set £6.50 admission rate reasonably than the steered donation it was. It’s nonetheless unfastened when you’re attending a provider or coming in to hope, and unfastened for BA1 and BA2 citizens with evidence of cope with.
The Tower Excursion is what I’d in reality push you against. It runs Monday to Saturday, prices £18, and takes you up previous the bells to a rooftop view over the entire town, together with a glance directly down into the Nice Tub subsequent door. In case you’re handiest paying for one view in Tub, that is the only. Main points at the Tub Abbey web page.
3. The Royal Crescent and No.1 Royal Crescent
Thirty Grade I indexed homes in a single sweeping Georgian arc, dealing with a garden the place half of of Tub sits with a picnic at the first sunny day of the 12 months. It’s unfastened to look, and it’s the picture the general public lift clear of town.
Move within the morning if you need pictures with out crowds. And see the ha-ha, the sunken wall that separates the non-public higher garden from the general public park beneath with out breaking the view. The Georgians had been fairly just right at having issues each tactics.
On the jap finish, No.1 Royal Crescent is a townhouse restored to how it could have regarded within the 1770s, upstairs grandeur and downstairs servants’ quarters each. Grownup access is £16 (£14.50 concession), and youngsters move unfastened with a paying grownup, which makes it probably the most better-value circle of relatives stops within the town. Value an hour if Georgian lifestyles pursuits you in any respect.
4. The Circus
A five-minute stroll from the Royal Crescent alongside Brock Boulevard, and to my eye the finer piece of structure, 3 curved terraces remaining an ideal circle round a stand of large aircraft bushes. John Wooden the Elder designed it; his son completed it. Glance up and also you’ll spot carved acorns alongside the parapets and a band of symbols over the bottom flooring, no two the similar!
It’s unfastened, it takes ten mins, and it’s on the best way to the whole lot. The Crescent will get the postcards, however the Circus is the only I stored detouring via lengthy once I’d stopped noticing the remainder of my shuttle.
5. Thermae Tub Spa
That is the place you in reality get within the water. Thermae is a contemporary spa working at the town’s herbal thermal springs, and the open-air rooftop pool, with the Abbey and the hills at the back of it, is the only revel in I’d rank above the whole lot else in Tub apart from the Roman Baths themselves. Past due afternoon into nightfall is the time to head, as town lighting come on when you go with the flow.
The usual two-hour Thermae Welcome consultation is £44 on weekdays and £49 at weekends, and comprises the rooftop pool, the Minerva Tub and the Wellness Suite with its steam rooms and ice chamber. A gown and towel are supplied. Word the minimal age is 16, so this one isn’t for circle of relatives days out.
You’ll stroll in and queue, however classes do fill, so I’d guide forward at the Thermae Tub Spa web page, particularly for a weekend.
6. Pulteney Bridge and the Weir
One of the crucial only a few bridges anyplace with retail outlets constructed throughout its complete span, which means that you’ll stroll over it with out realising it’s a bridge in any respect. You need to look it from the outdoor: the vintage perspective is from Grand Parade, taking a look around the horseshoe weir with the bridge at the back of. After the Royal Crescent, it’s probably the most photographed spot in Tub.
From beneath the bridge, Pulteney Cruisers run hour-long boat journeys up the Avon, seven days per week from spring to autumn, river ranges allowing. It’s round £8 for adults, paid on board, and it’s a pleasantly lazy technique to see an aspect of town you’ll’t get on foot. If the river’s up after heavy rain they don’t sail, so deal with it as an advantage reasonably than a plan.
7. Alexandra Park
Right here’s the native’s pick out. Alexandra Park sits at the hill immediately south of town, and the perspective on the best will provide you with the entire of Tub laid out directly: the Abbey, the Crescent, the terraces mountain climbing the some distance hillside. It’s unfastened, it’s by no means busy, and maximum guests do not know it exists.
The climb is the cost. From Widcombe, simply over the river from the station, it’s a brief however beautiful steep pull up (the stairs referred to as Jacob’s Ladder are the direct course), possibly fifteen mins of fair effort. I took each and every unmarried visitor we ever had up there, generally at golden hour, and no person ever complained concerning the view. One or two complained concerning the steps.
8. The Tub Skyline Stroll and Sham Citadel
The Skyline is a waymarked Nationwide Accept as true with loop of about six miles during the meadows and woods at the hills east of town, and it’s the most efficient unfastened half-day in Tub. You get lengthy perspectives over town from Bathwick fields, actual nation-state quiet, and cows. Main points and a course map are at the Nationwide Accept as true with Skyline web page.
If six miles is extra dedication than you fancy, stroll as much as Sham Citadel from the college facet as an alternative. It’s referred to as Sham Citadel as a result of that’s precisely what it’s: a castle-shaped wall, one room deep in puts and no rooms deep in maximum, in-built 1762 so a rich resident had one thing greater to have a look at from his window. The view again over town from its base is the true explanation why to head.
9. Prior Park Panorama Lawn
An eighteenth-century panorama lawn spilling down a steep valley south of town, with its Palladian bridge sitting over the lakes on the backside, one in all Tub’s maximum photographed spots whenever you’re inside of. It’s a Nationwide Accept as true with belongings, round £8 for adults in 2026 and unfastened for NT participants.
The sensible bit issues right here: there’s no customer parking in any respect. Take the quantity 2 bus from Dorchester Boulevard within the town centre, which stops proper outdoor in about ten mins, or stroll up from Widcombe in twenty slightly steep mins. Test the Nationwide Accept as true with Prior Park web page sooner than you move, as sections of trail once in a while shut after unhealthy climate.
10. A Unfastened Strolling Excursion With the Mayor’s Guides
The Mayor of Tub’s Corps of Honorary Guides had been appearing folks across the town for many years, and their strolling excursion is the most efficient unfastened task in Tub, complete forestall. The guides are volunteers, the excursion in point of fact is unfastened, they usually gained’t settle for guidelines, which makes for a refreshing alternate from the “unfastened” excursions of maximum Eu towns.
Excursions ultimate more or less two hours and there’s no reserving for people: you simply flip up on the Guides’ realize board in Abbey Churchyard, subsequent to the Roman Baths front, about ten mins sooner than the beginning. Occasions and the seasonal additional walks are at the Mayor’s Guides web page. In case you do one organised factor in Tub, I’d make it this.
11. The Pump Room
The grand Georgian salon subsequent to the Roman Baths the place well mannered society as soon as got here to be noticed, and the place you’ll now come for probably the most greater afternoon teas within the town. You don’t wish to be a Baths price ticket holder to devour right here.
The opposite explanation why to discuss with is to drink a tumbler of the nice and cozy spa water, drawn from the similar spring that feeds the Baths. It tastes find it irresistible’s just right for you, which is to mention, now not really nice. I’d nonetheless do it as soon as. Some stories are concerning the tale reasonably than the flavor.
12. Sally Lunn’s
Sally Lunn’s is a Tub establishment: a tea and consuming area in a development its homeowners date to round 1482, which they declare because the oldest area in Tub. The object to reserve is the Sally Lunn bunn, a big, gentle brioche-style bun served candy or as a trencher below one thing savoury. Is it value queueing for? At height occasions, slightly of a wait is most likely, however sure, as soon as.
Don’t omit the unfastened Kitchen Museum within the cellar, open more or less 11am to 4pm, with the unique kitchen and strains of Roman Tub below the ground. Main points at sallylunns.co.united kingdom.
Tub’s meals scene is going a ways past ancient buns, however that’s a topic for its personal article. For this listing, Sally Lunn’s and the Pump Room are the 2 meals stops that depend as points of interest in their very own proper.
13. The Holburne Museum and Sydney Gardens
Stand on Pulteney Bridge and glance down Nice Pulteney Boulevard: the development remaining the view on the some distance finish is the Holburne Museum, a fantastic small selection of artwork and Georgian treasures. Bridgerton enthusiasts will recognise the outside as Woman Danbury’s area.
Access is charged, however there are two unfastened home windows value realizing about: the everlasting assortment is unfastened on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm, and the entire museum is unfastened from 5pm to 9pm at the ultimate Friday of every month. Beneath-18s all the time move unfastened. Hours and costs are at the Holburne web page.
In the back of the museum, Sydney Gardens is Tub’s oldest excitement lawn, unfastened to wander, with the canal and railway chopping via it. Jane Austen lived simply around the highway at 4 Sydney Position for a spell, and this used to be her native park.
14. The Victoria Artwork Gallery
A small gallery proper by way of Pulteney Bridge with a cast selection of art work, and the everlasting assortment upstairs is unfastened to discuss with. Transient exhibitions within the decrease galleries are ticketed, so don’t be shocked by way of a until at the manner in. Test what’s on on the Victoria Artwork Gallery web site.
It’s a 30 minutes discuss with reasonably than a half-day one, which is strictly what makes it helpful. Stay it for your again pocket for a rain bathe.
15. Royal Victoria Park and the Botanical Gardens
The massive inexperienced house beneath the Royal Crescent, and the place town in reality is going on a pleasing day. The journey playground is among the perfect unfastened ones I’ve come throughout anyplace, which folks of young children must document away, and the Botanical Gardens throughout the park are unfastened and quietly beautiful.
The park could also be the vintage foreground for photographing the Crescent: the broad shot from the park garden, with the entire arc in body, is the only you’ve noticed on each and every Tub postcard.
16. The Jane Austen Centre
Time for a former native’s verdict. The Jane Austen Centre is a small exhibition about Austen’s years in Tub, fronted by way of costumed guides, and it’s £17 for adults in 2026. In case you’re an Austen fan, it’s a pilgrimage forestall and also you’ll revel in it. In case you’re now not, I’d spend the cash at the Abbey Tower Excursion and get my Austen content material from the unfastened strolling excursion as an alternative, which covers her Tub years properly.
The element I revel in maximum: Austen lived in Tub for round 5 years, a 12 months longer than me, and by way of her letters she wasn’t all the time delighted about it both. Town forgives her. There’s a competition in her honour each and every September.
In case you do wish to discuss with, you’ll guide a Jane Austen Centre price ticket on GetYourGuide.
17. Beckford’s Tower
A 154-foot neo-classical tower on Lansdown hill, in-built 1827 for William Beckford, a person with more cash than somebody good is aware of what to do with, and just lately restored. Climb it for lengthy perspectives over the hills, and keep for the tale of Beckford himself, which the small museum tells properly.
The catch is the time table: it’s open weekends handiest (plus financial institution vacation Mondays in the principle season), from mid-February to mid-December, 10am to 5pm in summer season and 10am to 4pm within the overdue autumn. Grownup access is £10, and the price ticket works as an annual cross. Don’t flip up on a Wednesday; take a look at the Beckford’s Tower web site first.
18. The American Museum and Gardens
An surprising one to complete: a museum of American ornamental arts and people artwork in a manor area at the jap fringe of town, with gardens which can be well worth the shuttle by way of themselves on a fantastic day. That is the place Tub citizens take visiting kinfolk when the kinfolk have already executed the Baths two times.
Grownup access is £17. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday (plus financial institution vacation Mondays and Mondays in native faculty vacations), and closes for deep iciness, reopening every 12 months in mid-February. Test dates at the American Museum web page sooner than making plans round it.
Tub at Christmas
If you’ll time a shuttle for it, the Tub Christmas Marketplace runs from 26 November to 13 December in 2026, with chalets filling the streets across the Abbey and up Milsom Boulevard. Access is unfastened and there’s no reserving. It’s probably the most greater Christmas markets in the United Kingdom, and the Georgian backdrop does a large number of the paintings.
My recommendation from dwelling via a number of of them: move midweek when you in all probability can. On marketplace weekends town centre is shoulder-to-shoulder, and the similar stalls are a really perfect deal extra stress-free on a Tuesday night time.
Unfastened Issues to Do in Tub
Tub may also be a pricey town, however a shocking quantity of the most efficient of it prices not anything:
- The Mayor’s Guides strolling excursion (the most efficient unfastened factor within the town)
- The Royal Crescent and the Circus, open streets you’ll stroll alongside any time
- Alexandra Park perspective
- The Tub Skyline stroll and Sham Citadel
- Sally Lunn’s Kitchen Museum
- Sydney Gardens and Royal Victoria Park
- The Victoria Artwork Gallery’s everlasting assortment (brief exhibitions are ticketed)
- The Holburne Museum in its unfastened home windows: Wednesdays from 3pm and the ultimate Friday night time of the month
- The Christmas Marketplace, when you’re there in season
A fully unfastened Tub day of strolling excursion, Crescent, Circus and Alexandra Park is a in point of fact just right time out by way of any usual.
Wet Day Tub
It rains in Tub. It rained on a outstanding choice of my guests, in truth, so this listing were given properly examined. The Roman Baths are most commonly below quilt and lose not anything in unhealthy climate. No.1 Royal Crescent, the Holburne, the Victoria Artwork Gallery and the Jane Austen Centre are all indoor stops, and the Pump Room will stretch afternoon tea out for so long as the rain lasts.
The most productive wet-weather name of all is Thermae Tub Spa, which solves the rain drawback by way of getting you moist by yourself phrases, in heat water, on a rooftop. A wet nightfall consultation up there’s greater than a sunny one, and I’ll protect that opinion.
Tub With Children
Tub is extra child-friendly than its genteel recognition suggests. The Roman Baths do circle of relatives tickets and youngsters generally tend to love the costumed characters and the sheer strangeness of the steaming water. The boat shuttle from Pulteney Bridge is a competent hit, and quick sufficient to not push your good fortune.
Royal Victoria Park’s journey playground is the native oldsters’ secret weapon, and it’s unfastened! No.1 Royal Crescent we could youngsters in unfastened with a paying grownup, and the American Museum’s gardens give everybody room to run. The only to skip with under-16s is Thermae, which doesn’t admit them.
The Highest Viewpoints in Tub
Tub is a town in a bowl, so the perspectives are all about getting up the perimeters. As a photographer, those are the 4 I charge:
- Alexandra Park, for the most efficient total landscape, unfastened, and at its perfect at golden hour
- The Tub Abbey Tower, for the nearest rooftop view, and the one one that appears down into the Roman Baths (£18, Monday to Saturday)
- Bathwick fields at the Skyline stroll, for the vintage broad perspective around the town, unfastened
- Grand Parade, for the Pulteney Bridge and weir shot, unfastened and within the town centre
In case you handiest climb one hill, make it Alexandra Park.
What You Can Safely Skip
A few issues you may arrive anticipating to look. The Type Museum closed in 2022 and gained’t reopen till 2030, in a brand new house within the outdated Put up Place of business development. The Meeting Rooms, its former house, are closed too, present process Nationwide Accept as true with recovery till 2027. A number of older guides nonetheless listing each, so imagine this your up to date observe: neither may also be visited at the moment.
Past the closures, my major skip is paying for a view when Alexandra Park is unfastened, until the view comes with one thing additional, because the Abbey tower’s does. And as lined above, the Jane Austen Centre is a fan’s forestall reasonably than an everybody forestall. Tub rewards strolling and taking a look greater than it rewards ticket-buying.
Ceaselessly Requested Questions About Visiting Tub
Is Tub value visiting?
Sure, and I say that as anyone who lived there for 4 years reasonably than anyone promoting you a excursion. It’s the one town in the United Kingdom that’s a UNESCO International Heritage Website online in its entirety, the Roman Baths are a world-class sight, and the entire centre is walkable in an afternoon.
It’s at its perfect when you revel in structure, historical past and strolling. In case your perfect town smash is big-name museums and nightlife, London or Bristol will fit you greater, and Tub works properly as an afternoon shuttle from both.
What number of days do you wish to have in Tub?
One complete day covers the headline points of interest: the Roman Baths, the Abbey, the Royal Crescent and the Circus, plus a perspective. Two days allows you to upload Thermae Tub Spa, a strolling excursion and a museum or two with out dashing, and that’s the period I’d suggest.
If that’s your plan, my 2 day Tub itinerary places all of it so as.
Is the Roman Baths value it?
Sure. It’s the only price ticket in Tub I’d name crucial, even on the summer season weekend value of £33. The web site is some distance larger than it seems to be from outdoor and the museum is much better than it must be.
The caveat is timing: guide the 9am slot on-line, or move within the night time all the way through the summer season overdue openings. Noon in August is identical web site with 4 occasions the elbows.
What are you able to do in Tub at no cost?
Relatively so much. The Mayor’s Guides run unfastened two-hour strolling excursions without a reserving wanted, the Royal Crescent and Circus are unfastened to respect, and the most efficient perspective within the town, Alexandra Park, prices not anything however the climb.
Upload the Tub Skyline stroll, Sally Lunn’s Kitchen Museum, the Victoria Artwork Gallery’s everlasting assortment and the parks, and you’ll fill a complete day in Tub with out spending a pound.
Is Tub just right for children?
Higher than its recognition suggests. The Roman Baths, the Pulteney Bridge boat shuttle, the journey playground in Royal Victoria Park and the American Museum’s gardens all paintings properly with youngsters, and No.1 Royal Crescent we could youngsters in unfastened with a paying grownup.
The principle exception is Thermae Tub Spa, which has a minimal age of 16.
What must you do in Tub when it rains?
The Roman Baths are most commonly below quilt, and No.1 Royal Crescent, the Holburne Museum, the Victoria Artwork Gallery and the Jane Austen Centre are all cast indoor stops. Afternoon tea on the Pump Room is the normal wet-weather shelter.
My best pick out is a consultation at Thermae Tub Spa: heat water and a rooftop pool make the elements anyone else’s drawback.
Making plans Your Shuttle to Tub
A couple of sources to take this from a listing to a plan. For the sensible facet of a discuss with, my information to a Tub day shuttle from London covers trains, timings and what kind of you’ll realistically are compatible in, and my 2 day Tub itinerary sequences the whole lot on this article right into a weekend. If you wish to mix Tub with Stonehenge and the Cotswolds in in the future from London, I’ve written about that shuttle too.
For a guidebook that covers Tub along the remainder of the rustic, we shuttle with Rick Steves England, which is the only I’d pick out for a primary UK shuttle.
And that’s my Tub. 5 years of dwelling there, condensed into the model of the excursion my family and friends were given, minus the bit the place I make you climb Alexandra Park sooner than you’ve had a espresso. Any questions on visiting, ask away within the feedback, as I’m all the time satisfied to discuss this town.
