I lived in Tub for 4 years, and one of many unwanted effects of residing in Tub is that everybody you recognize comes to go to. Over these years I settled into a reasonably well-worn model of the town tour: the sights that stay as much as the hype, the timings that dodge the worst of the crowds, and the free viewpoint I’d march everybody as much as on the finish whether or not they appreciated it or not.
This information is that tour, written down. I moved away in late 2023, so the judgment calls right here come from years of really residing within the metropolis, and I’ve checked each value, opening time and closure observe towards the official sources for 2026. The place one thing has modified since my time there, I’ve mentioned so.
Tub deserves the eye, by the best way. It’s the one metropolis within the UK designated a UNESCO World Heritage Website in its entirety, the entire metropolis somewhat than only a historic core. Since 2021 it additionally carries a second inscription as one of many Nice Spa Cities of Europe, which places it in a really small membership of double-listed locations worldwide.
One factor this text isn’t: an itinerary. If you would like a day-by-day plan, I’ve written a separate 2 day Tub itinerary that places these sights into a wise order, and in the event you’re coming down for the day, my information to taking a day journey to Tub from London covers the trains and logistics. This one is about what’s price your time, and what isn’t.
Tub Fast Take
Quick on time? Do the Roman Baths at opening, stroll up via the Circus to the Royal Crescent, and end with the town view from Alexandra Park. That’s the guts of Tub in half a day, and the Roman Baths ticket is the one one you strictly want to purchase.
Tub wants one full day for the headline sights, and two days to see it comfortably. Right here’s how I’d rank the large hitters:
Sight
2026 Worth
My Verdict
Roman Baths
£29 to £33 in summer time, booked on-line
The one unmissable ticket. Go at 9am.
Tub Abbey
£6.50 (Tower Tour £18)
Price it, and the tower is the most effective paid view in Tub
Thermae Tub Spa
£44 weekdays, £49 weekends
The rooftop pool justifies the value. E book forward.
Royal Crescent and the Circus
Free (No.1 museum £16)
Tub’s greatest structure prices nothing to see
Alexandra Park viewpoint
Free
The view I took each single customer to
Mayor’s Guides strolling tour
Free
The very best free exercise within the metropolis, no reserving wanted
The whole lot beneath will get the complete therapy: what it’s, what it prices in 2026, and the sensible tip that 4 years of residing there taught me. After all, you may choose and select to swimsuit nonetheless a lot time you’ve.
1. The Roman Baths
The rationale the town exists, and the one paid attraction I’d inform each first-time customer to e-book. You stroll on 2,000-year-old pavements across the steaming, inexperienced Nice Tub, fed by pure sizzling springs, with an unexpectedly good museum wrapped round it. Even after years of taking friends right here, the second you step out beside the water nonetheless lands.
My timing recommendation is easy: e-book the 9am slot. The tour teams arrive mid-morning and the walkways across the Nice Tub get packed by 11. In summer time (20 July to 31 August in 2026) the location additionally stays open into the night, which is the opposite trick, because it’s far quieter after darkish and feels fairly totally different.
A summer time 2026 grownup ticket is £29 on weekdays and £33 at weekends in the event you e-book on-line, and shopping for on the day provides £2. Costs drop within the off season, from about £26. Opening hours are 9am to 6pm day by day, final entry 5pm. E book a timed slot on the official Roman Baths website, or you may e-book a Roman Baths entry ticket on GetYourGuide.
One factor to know: you may’t get within the water right here. That’s what Thermae Tub Spa is for, a couple of doorways down. Extra on that shortly.
2. Tub Abbey and the Tower Tour
Proper subsequent to the Roman Baths, and the 2 pair naturally. The Abbey’s fan-vaulted ceiling is the factor everybody pictures, and the partitions are coated in centuries of memorial tablets that reward a gradual wander.
The large change to learn about: entry is now a set £6.50 admission cost somewhat than the urged donation it was. It’s nonetheless free in the event you’re attending a service or coming in to hope, and free for BA1 and BA2 residents with proof of deal with.
The Tower Tour is what I’d really push you in the direction of. It runs Monday to Saturday, prices £18, and takes you up previous the bells to a rooftop view over the entire metropolis, together with a glance straight down into the Nice Tub subsequent door. When you’re solely paying for one view in Tub, that is the one. Particulars on the Tub Abbey web site.
3. The Royal Crescent and No.1 Royal Crescent
Thirty Grade I listed homes in a single sweeping Georgian arc, dealing with a garden the place half of Tub sits with a picnic on the primary sunny day of the 12 months. It’s free to see, and it’s the picture most individuals carry away from the town.
Go within the morning if you need pictures with out crowds. And spot 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 good at having issues each methods.
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 entry is £16 (£14.50 concession), and kids go free with a paying grownup, which makes it one of many better-value household stops within the metropolis. Price an hour if Georgian life pursuits you in any respect.
4. The Circus
A five-minute stroll from the Royal Crescent alongside Brock Avenue, and to my eye the finer piece of structure, three curved terraces closing an ideal circle round a stand of huge airplane bushes. John Wooden the Elder designed it; his son completed it. Search for and also you’ll spot carved acorns alongside the parapets and a band of symbols over the bottom ground, no two the identical!
It’s free, it takes ten minutes, and it’s on the best way to every part. The Crescent will get the postcards, however the Circus is the one I saved detouring via lengthy after I’d stopped noticing the remainder of my commute.
5. Thermae Tub Spa
That is the place you really get within the water. Thermae is a contemporary spa working on the town’s pure thermal springs, and the open-air rooftop pool, with the Abbey and the hills behind it, is the only expertise I’d rank above every part else in Tub besides the Roman Baths themselves. Late afternoon into nightfall is the time to go, as the town lights come on whilst you float.
The usual two-hour Thermae Welcome session is £44 on weekdays and £49 at weekends, and contains 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 household days out.
You’ll be able to stroll in and queue, however classes do fill, so I’d e-book forward on the Thermae Tub Spa web site, particularly for a weekend.
6. Pulteney Bridge and the Weir
One of many only a few bridges anyplace with outlets constructed throughout its full span, which suggests you may stroll over it with out realising it’s a bridge in any respect. You need to see it from the surface: the traditional angle is from Grand Parade, trying throughout the horseshoe weir with the bridge behind. 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 every week from spring to autumn, river ranges allowing. It’s round £8 for adults, paid on board, and it’s a pleasantly lazy strategy to see a aspect of the town you may’t get on foot. If the river’s up after heavy rain they don’t sail, so deal with it as a bonus somewhat than a plan.
7. Alexandra Park
Right here’s the native’s choose. Alexandra Park sits on the hill instantly south of the town, and the point of view on the high provides you the entire of Tub laid out without delay: the Abbey, the Crescent, the terraces climbing the far hillside. It’s free, it’s by no means busy, and most guests don’t know it exists.
The climb is the value. From Widcombe, simply over the river from the station, it’s a brief however fairly steep pull up (the steps generally known as Jacob’s Ladder are the direct route), possibly fifteen minutes of sincere effort. I took each single visitor we ever had up there, often 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 Belief loop of about six miles via the meadows and woods on the hills east of the town, and it’s the most effective free half-day in Tub. You get lengthy views over the town from Bathwick fields, actual countryside quiet, and cows. Particulars and a route map are on the Nationwide Belief Skyline web page.
If six miles is extra dedication than you fancy, stroll as much as Sham Citadel from the college aspect as an alternative. It’s known as Sham Citadel as a result of that’s precisely what it’s: a castle-shaped wall, one room deep in locations and no rooms deep in most, inbuilt 1762 so a rich resident had one thing higher to have a look at from his window. The view again over the town from its base is the actual motive to go.
9. Prior Park Panorama Backyard
An eighteenth-century panorama backyard spilling down a steep valley south of the town, with its Palladian bridge sitting over the lakes on the backside, one in all Tub’s most photographed spots when you’re inside. It’s a Nationwide Belief property, round £8 for adults in 2026 and free for NT members.
The sensible bit issues right here: there isn’t a customer parking in any respect. Take the quantity 2 bus from Dorchester Avenue within the metropolis centre, which stops proper outdoors in about ten minutes, or stroll up from Widcombe in twenty pretty steep minutes. Verify the Nationwide Belief Prior Park web page earlier than you go, as sections of path sometimes shut after unhealthy climate.
10. A Free Strolling Tour With the Mayor’s Guides
The Mayor of Tub’s Corps of Honorary Guides have been displaying individuals across the metropolis for many years, and their strolling tour is the most effective free exercise in Tub, full cease. The guides are volunteers, the tour actually is free, and so they gained’t settle for ideas, which makes for a refreshing change from the “free” excursions of most European cities.
Excursions final roughly two hours and there’s no reserving for people: you simply flip up on the Guides’ discover board in Abbey Churchyard, subsequent to the Roman Baths entrance, about ten minutes earlier than the beginning. Instances and the seasonal further walks are on the Mayor’s Guides web site. When 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 seen, and the place now you can come for one of many higher afternoon teas within the metropolis. You don’t have to be a Baths ticket holder to eat right here.
The opposite motive to go to is to drink a glass of the nice and cozy spa water, drawn from the identical spring that feeds the Baths. It tastes prefer it’s good for you, which is to say, not very good. I’d nonetheless do it as soon as. Some experiences are concerning the story somewhat than the flavour.
12. Sally Lunn’s
Sally Lunn’s is a Tub establishment: a tea and consuming home in a constructing its house owners date to round 1482, which they declare because the oldest home in Tub. The factor to order is the Sally Lunn bunn, a big, gentle brioche-style bun served candy or as a trencher underneath one thing savoury. Is it price queueing for? At peak occasions, a little bit of a wait is probably going, however sure, as soon as.
Don’t miss the free Kitchen Museum within the cellar, open roughly 11am to 4pm, with the unique kitchen and traces of Roman Tub underneath the ground. Particulars at sallylunns.co.uk.
Tub’s meals scene goes a good distance past historic 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 rely as sights in their very own proper.
13. The Holburne Museum and Sydney Gardens
Stand on Pulteney Bridge and look down Nice Pulteney Avenue: the constructing closing the view on the far finish is the Holburne Museum, a effective small assortment of artwork and Georgian treasures. Bridgerton followers will recognise the outside as Girl Danbury’s home.
Entry is charged, however there are two free home windows price figuring out about: the everlasting assortment is free on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm, and the entire museum is free from 5pm to 9pm on the final Friday of every month. Below-18s at all times go free. Hours and costs are on the Holburne web site.
Behind the museum, Sydney Gardens is Tub’s oldest pleasure backyard, free to wander, with the canal and railway chopping via it. Jane Austen lived simply throughout the street at 4 Sydney Place for a spell, and this was her native park.
14. The Victoria Artwork Gallery
A small gallery proper by Pulteney Bridge with a strong assortment of work, and the everlasting assortment upstairs is free to go to. Momentary exhibitions within the decrease galleries are ticketed, so don’t be stunned by a until on the best way in. Verify what’s on on the Victoria Artwork Gallery website.
It’s a half-hour go to somewhat than a half-day one, which is precisely what makes it helpful. Preserve it in your again pocket for a rain bathe.
15. Royal Victoria Park and the Botanical Gardens
The large inexperienced area beneath the Royal Crescent, and the place the town really goes on a pleasant day. The journey playground is without doubt one of the greatest free ones I’ve come throughout anyplace, which oldsters of babies ought to file away, and the Botanical Gardens throughout the park are free and quietly pretty.
The park can be the traditional foreground for photographing the Crescent: the broad shot from the park garden, with the entire arc in body, is the one you’ve seen on each 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 costumed guides, and it’s £17 for adults in 2026. When you’re an Austen fan, it’s a pilgrimage cease and also you’ll get pleasure from it. When you’re not, I’d spend the cash on the Abbey Tower Tour and get my Austen content material from the free strolling tour as an alternative, which covers her Tub years properly.
The element I get pleasure from most: Austen lived in Tub for round 5 years, a 12 months longer than me, and by her letters she wasn’t at all times thrilled about it both. Town forgives her. There’s a pageant in her honour each September.
When you do need to go to, you may e-book a Jane Austen Centre ticket on GetYourGuide.
17. Beckford’s Tower
A 154-foot neo-classical tower on Lansdown hill, inbuilt 1827 for William Beckford, a person with extra money than anybody wise is aware of what to do with, and just lately restored. Climb it for lengthy views over the hills, and keep for the story of Beckford himself, which the small museum tells properly.
The catch is the schedule: it’s open weekends solely (plus financial institution vacation Mondays in the primary season), from mid-February to mid-December, 10am to 5pm in summer time and 10am to 4pm within the late autumn. Grownup entry is £10, and the ticket works as an annual move. Don’t flip up on a Wednesday; verify the Beckford’s Tower website first.
18. The American Museum and Gardens
An surprising one to complete: a museum of American ornamental arts and folks artwork in a manor home on the jap fringe of the town, with gardens which can be well worth the journey by themselves on a effective day. That is the place Tub residents take visiting relations when the relations have already achieved the Baths twice.
Grownup entry is £17. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday (plus financial institution vacation Mondays and Mondays in native faculty holidays), and closes for deep winter, reopening annually in mid-February. Verify dates on the American Museum web site earlier than planning round it.
Tub at Christmas
When you can time a visit for it, the Tub Christmas Market runs from 26 November to 13 December in 2026, with chalets filling the streets across the Abbey and up Milsom Avenue. Entry is free and there’s no reserving. It’s one of many higher Christmas markets within the UK, and the Georgian backdrop does quite a lot of the work.
My recommendation from residing via a number of of them: go midweek in the event you probably can. On market weekends the town centre is shoulder-to-shoulder, and the identical stalls are an amazing deal extra gratifying on a Tuesday night.
Free Issues to Do in Tub
Tub may be an costly metropolis, however a shocking quantity of the most effective of it prices nothing:
The Mayor’s Guides strolling tour (the most effective free factor within the metropolis)
The Royal Crescent and the Circus, open streets you may stroll alongside any time
Alexandra Park viewpoint
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 (short-term exhibitions are ticketed)
The Holburne Museum in its free home windows: Wednesdays from 3pm and the final Friday night of the month
The Christmas Market, in the event you’re there in season
A totally free Tub day of strolling tour, Crescent, Circus and Alexandra Park is a extremely good day trip by any normal.
Wet Day Tub
It rains in Tub. It rained on a outstanding variety of my guests, in truth, so this listing obtained properly examined. The Roman Baths are principally underneath cowl and lose nothing 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 very best wet-weather name of all is Thermae Tub Spa, which solves the rain downside by getting you moist by yourself phrases, in heat water, on a rooftop. A wet nightfall session up there’s higher than a sunny one, and I’ll defend that opinion.
Tub With Children
Tub is extra child-friendly than its genteel repute suggests. The Roman Baths do household tickets and children have a tendency to love the costumed characters and the sheer strangeness of the steaming water. The boat journey from Pulteney Bridge is a dependable hit, and brief sufficient to not push your luck.
Royal Victoria Park’s journey playground is the native mother and father’ secret weapon, and it’s free! No.1 Royal Crescent lets kids in free with a paying grownup, and the American Museum’s gardens give everybody room to run. The one to skip with under-16s is Thermae, which doesn’t admit them.
The Greatest Viewpoints in Tub
Tub is a metropolis in a bowl, so the views are all about getting up the perimeters. As a photographer, these are the 4 I charge:
Alexandra Park, for the most effective general panorama, free, and at its greatest at golden hour
The Tub Abbey Tower, for the closest rooftop view, and the one one that appears down into the Roman Baths (£18, Monday to Saturday)
Bathwick fields on the Skyline stroll, for the traditional broad angle throughout the town, free
Grand Parade, for the Pulteney Bridge and weir shot, free and within the metropolis centre
When you solely climb one hill, make it Alexandra Park.
What You Can Safely Skip
A few belongings you would possibly arrive anticipating to see. The Style Museum closed in 2022 and gained’t reopen till 2030, in a brand new dwelling within the previous Publish Workplace constructing. The Meeting Rooms, its former dwelling, are closed too, present process Nationwide Belief restoration till 2027. Loads of older guides nonetheless listing each, so think about this your up to date observe: neither may be visited proper now.
Past the closures, my most important skip is paying for a view when Alexandra Park is free, until the view comes with one thing further, because the Abbey tower’s does. And as coated above, the Jane Austen Centre is a fan’s cease somewhat than an everybody cease. Tub rewards strolling and searching greater than it rewards ticket-buying.
Incessantly Requested Questions About Visiting Tub
Is Tub price visiting?
Sure, and I say that as somebody who lived there for 4 years somewhat than somebody promoting you a tour. It’s the one metropolis within the UK that’s a UNESCO World Heritage Website in its entirety, the Roman Baths are a world-class sight, and the entire centre is walkable in a day.
It’s at its greatest in the event you get pleasure from structure, historical past and strolling. In case your ultimate metropolis break is big-name museums and nightlife, London or Bristol will swimsuit you higher, and Tub works properly as a day journey from both.
What number of days do you want in Tub?
One full day covers the headline sights: the Roman Baths, the Abbey, the Royal Crescent and the Circus, plus a viewpoint. Two days allows you to add Thermae Tub Spa, a strolling tour and a museum or two with out speeding, and that’s the size I’d suggest.
If that’s your plan, my 2 day Tub itinerary places all of it so as.
Is the Roman Baths price it?
Sure. It’s the one ticket in Tub I’d name important, even on the summer time weekend value of £33. The positioning is way larger than it seems from outdoors and the museum is much better than it must be.
The caveat is timing: e-book the 9am slot on-line, or go within the night through the summer time late openings. Noon in August is similar website with 4 occasions the elbows.
What are you able to do in Tub free of charge?
Rather a lot. The Mayor’s Guides run free two-hour strolling excursions with no reserving wanted, the Royal Crescent and Circus are free to admire, and the most effective viewpoint within the metropolis, Alexandra Park, prices nothing however the climb.
Add the Tub Skyline stroll, Sally Lunn’s Kitchen Museum, the Victoria Artwork Gallery’s everlasting assortment and the parks, and you’ll fill a full day in Tub with out spending a pound.
Is Tub good for youths?
Higher than its repute suggests. The Roman Baths, the Pulteney Bridge boat journey, the journey playground in Royal Victoria Park and the American Museum’s gardens all work properly with kids, and No.1 Royal Crescent lets youngsters in free with a paying grownup.
The principle exception is Thermae Tub Spa, which has a minimal age of 16.
What do you have to do in Tub when it rains?
The Roman Baths are principally underneath cowl, and No.1 Royal Crescent, the Holburne Museum, the Victoria Artwork Gallery and the Jane Austen Centre are all strong indoor stops. Afternoon tea on the Pump Room is the standard wet-weather refuge.
My high choose is a session at Thermae Tub Spa: heat water and a rooftop pool make the climate another person’s downside.
Planning Your Journey to Tub
A number of assets to take this from a listing to a plan. For the sensible aspect of a go to, my information to a Tub day journey from London covers trains, timings and the way a lot you may realistically slot in, and my 2 day Tub itinerary sequences every part on this article right into a weekend. If you wish to mix Tub with Stonehenge and the Cotswolds in someday from London, I’ve written about that journey too.
For a guidebook that covers Tub alongside the remainder of the nation, we journey with Rick Steves England, which is the one I’d choose for a primary UK journey.
And that’s my Tub. 4 years of residing there, condensed into the model of the tour my family and friends obtained, minus the bit the place I make you climb Alexandra Park earlier than you’ve had a espresso. Any questions on visiting, ask away within the feedback, as I’m at all times blissful to speak about this metropolis.
