Bath: Day Trip From London, Jane Austen, Romans and Buns!

Bath is about two hours east of London by car, a little longer by bus and about 90 minutes by train. A train ticket to Bath runs around 45 dollars if you come here on your own, but there are lots of great day trip and half day trip packages that can bring you out here in a group.

No matter how you get here, Bath is worth the trip. It was named for the large Roman bath that was built here, which is still remarkably intact and which, for me, is a can't-miss.

https://youtu.be/XmYlofZBq-s

That's the first attraction here we're going to talk about: the Roman bath that gave Bath its name.

When in Bath, Do as the Romans Do

Tickets are expensive. You will pay about 40 bucks a head to get inside and get a look around but I have to tell you, it is worth it. There's an entire underground exhibit here full of Roman artifacts that were found at the site, which is really cool. And when you go out to the bath area, it's very beautiful and impressive.

There are also paid actors wearing Roman clothes doing little interactions and a full bar just right there inside the monument. You cam even taste the water from the natural spring that feeds the site, which is interesting. 

The water is naturally warm and it does have its own taste. You're not going to want to fill up your travel bottle of water with it, or anything, but it's fun to think that you're tasting the same water that ancient Romans once swam around in. 

You know what I mean. 

It's a beautiful place, even though the water in the actual bath area of the Roman bath is now contaminated. Like for real, do not touch that water.

And there are lots of other cool things to see in Bath, too!

Not So Plain, Jane

Jane Austen also lived here for a few years in the early 1800s, and she wrote about Bath in two of her books. So, you can also come here to visit the Jane Austen center, where her world truly comes alive. There are people wearing period costumes and lots of different stuff to see that relates to Jane Austen here.

For those of y'all who don't know, Jane Austen wrote six books in the 1800s and England just can't get over it. British people adore her and still make references to her books to this day, particularly Pride and Prejudice. That's the one that has Mr. Darcy in it and if you've ever seen the movie Bridget Jones’s Diary, you're familiar with the plot.

But if you're a lover of her books or that period of history, the Jane Austen Center is a good stop for you. Admission is around 20 dollars per person. 

Just a quick note here, the reason I'm giving approximate prices rather than specific amounts is because England uses the British pound. If you're a visitor here, then you probably don't regularly pay with pounds. The conversion rate between U.S. dollars and British pounds always fluctuates a little, so prices will vary slightly based on the conversion rate of the day.

The Bun That Bath Loves

Another big attraction in Bath is Sally Lund’s. This business has been operating in Bath since 1680, which is incredibly impressive. If you can keep a business rolling for six months, you're doing pretty good and this place has been making money since Charles II, so that's pretty wild.

Let's put it this way: Sally Lunn’s was doing it's thing in Bath since before my country was a country. 

You can get tea here or eat a meal any time of day. They also have a little historic room set up that looks really cool, but what everyone talks about here is the famous Bath bun.

People who do travel content go off about this bun, okay? So, I went into this shop fully expecting to eat this bun and get transported to some other dimension of flavor.

Y'all, it's just a big bun. It's soft and it's large, but it's just a piece of bread. No offense to the people of Bath or their buns but this is not worth freaking out about the way some people do.

What I learned is that this bun is a bit more of a DIY experience. What you're meant to do is take the bun with you and add something to it, like fruits or nuts, and re-bake it on your own.

So, if you have access to an oven and ingredients, you can dress this bun up and I guess have this amazing experience that YouTubers seem to have with it, but if you're a visitor to Bath and you don't have those things, don't get too excited about this bun.

Because it's really just a soft piece of bread.

Glory Be!

Something in Bath that is undisputedly amazing is the enormous Bath Abbey. 

This thing is impressive. It's utterly gorgeous on the outside alone. It will literally stop you in your tracks when you see it. And it's extremely lovely inside, too. You can even get up on the roof and see a nice view of Bath. From here, you can see down into the Roman baths if you stand in the right spot. 

Admission is about 12 dollars per person. It's really beautiful inside and if you like churchy type places, you'll love it.

But even if you do nothing in Bath but walk around, it's worth the trip. This is a really beautiful little town and even though it is touristy, it's touristy in a low-key way. It's extremely charming. There are lots of winding streets to explore with little shops and cafes, you'll see street performers, the scenery is amazing and you can even go look at the ducks on the river. 

So, get a look at Bath if you want to get out of London and see more of England itself. 

Now, Voyager, sail forth to seek and find.